Has anyone gone on the Alaskan cruise?

[MollysNeeNee]

Has anyone used points to take the Alaskan Cruise? We are planning to do this next August and are looking for feedback from others as to : Is this a good time to go? Which cruise is better? We are torn between the Inner Passage Cruise out of Vancouver or the Explorer Cruise out of Seattle. Can anyone share their experiences? THANKS!!

 

[margaretCT]

I'm interested in this, too. I sent MS an e-mail last week asking what type cabin/room you would typically get on points, but I haven't heard back yet. Anyone know?

Thanks,

Margaret in CT

 

[tbickford]

Originally posted by chrisd
Has anyone used points to take the Alaskan Cruise? We are planning to do this next August and are looking for feedback from others as to : Is this a good time to go? Which cruise is better? We are torn between the Inner Passage Cruise out of Vancouver or the Explorer Cruise out of Seattle. Can anyone share their experiences? THANKS!!

I am a new DVC member, so I have not used points for any cruises yet. We are hoping to plan an Alaskan Cruise for 2004. Before we became DVC members, we did take an Alaskan Cruise thru Carnival in August 2001 and the weather was great. My family and I flew from New Orleans into Anchorage and took the inside passage southbound to Vancouver. Our accommodations were category nine because we were a party of four (we brought our 3 year old twins). We had the most fantastic time.

I would recommend taking the helicopter ride in Juneau with a company called Coastal. It was awesome! This was an independent tour not available from the ship. The ship does offer helicopter rides that sell out fast. Coastal was less crowded and my husband and I had the helicopter to ourselves. We will definitely do that again. I can remember it was pretty expensive.

Also, I would recommend taking the glacier tour out of Seward. It was magnificant!

I do not recommend taking an independent whale watching tour. If this is a tour you're interested in, then take the tour from the ship.

August was great time. As a matter of fact, our cruise plans for 2004 will again be for the month of August.

Enjoy!
Tammy

 

[donald@home]

I asked this very question a few weeks ago. I cut and pasted the URL below.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=254253&highlight=alaskan+cruise

Donald

 

[Andrea T]

We just returned from an Alaska cruise...inside passage from Vancouver. We rented our points this year then booked Royal Caribbean instead of using points on HAL. We did this because it was a better use of points and being an avid cruiser, I prefer Royal Caribbean to Hal. As a matter of fact, DCL is our favorite with RCCL a very close second. I agree with the previous poster regarding Coastal...they were great. I disagree re: whale watching. We independently booked Orca Enterprise and my pictures of breaching and diving of whales are unbelievable!!!!

 

[RLevy29]

We did the Alaskan cruise from August 18-25th. We also did a land tour from the 15th to the 18th. It rained every day but the last day. It did get very depressing especially since you couldn't see the scenery. I don't know if the time of year matters. We spoke to locals and they said that it is always raining or snowing.

 

[wdw1972]

We did the Alaska Discovery cruise from Seattle this past June, paying cash rather than use points. Unless you can't use your points otherwise, it makes better sense to use cash for these cruises. I also wanted a veranda mini-suite, which is not available for points. Points gets you an outside stateroom - the lowest category is what you get for the points listed in the member guidebook, but you can move up for more points (but can't get to the mini suites or suites). One advantage to this cruise is HAL's newer flagship is the ship - the Amsterdam. I thought it would be fun to cruise on the top of the line ship, and wasn't disappointed. I'm a long-time HAL fan, who occasionally "settles" for a DCL cruise - HAL is superior in every way that's important to me, and that's where we prefer to cruise.

Whichever HAL Alaska cruise you pick, you can't go wrong. You might consider renting your dvc points and using the cash to book the cruise though - it'll be cheaper! Using points you have to pay the port charges, which are close to $200/person, plus you tie up over 400 points for 2 people. Renting those would get you $4000 - more than enough to get a really nice cabin!

 

[MollysNeeNee]

Well, I did it....tonight I booked the Alaskan cruise...Inside Passage...Vancouver to Vancouver for the first week of August next year!!! We used points.....I know we wouldn't be doing this if we had to put up all the cash, and we've never been involved in renting points..and wouldn't know how to begin! But having access to wonderful things outside of Disney is one of the reasons we bought DVC!!! You can upgrade to a mini-suite with veranda...but you use cash to do this.(this is new). My husband decided this may be a once in a life time trip for us..so we splurged!!!Using points gets you a category D room (deluxe outside)...for $40 pp you can upgrade to category C, and for $320 pp upgrade to category B (mini suite with veranda). My husband felt it was worth the extra, and I'm excited!!! I have problems with motion sickness...I was told that the mid section was the best area, and the young lady booking us called HAL and booked us what she thought was the best spot. She was most helpful....I had to laugh at some of the decisions I had to make..not only time to dine, but size of table and age of people I want to sit with!!!!! Have never even cruised before...so this should be a wonderful experience. Any more suggestions will be appreciated.........Any suggestions of what to see or where to go before or after around Vancouver?

 

[Mary Ellen]

Congratulations!

We just returned Labor Day weekend from our 3rd Alaskan cruise on Holland America (HAL). I hope you'll love your mini-suite as much as we did. This was a 'family' cruise for us. My parents are NOT 'travel' people (we referred to this trip as Ma & Pa Kettle leave the farm); this was expected to be a one-time trip for them. They fell in LOVE with HAL so much that as soon as the TA opened after Labor Day, we booked us all again for next May.

For more help with your HAL cruise planning try the Cruise Critic - HAL board.