Need help with Alaskan cruise!

[GEM]

Well, DH and I are pretty sure this is what we want our big vacation to be next year. We want to do a 7 night cruise. It will be just the two of us as Paul will be spending quality time with his Nana!



But, I feel totally overwhelmed and terrified at the planning!

What cruise line/ship should we go with?

Where can we get the best deal?

To get the best price, should we book our air as part of the package, or just handle the air ourselves?

What is the best time of year for an Alaskan cruise?

How do I figure out what is included in the cost and what isn't?

How much money should I plan on having for extras, shore excursions, gratuities, etc?

How far in advance should we book?

Can you tell I'm starting to panic??? Are there any sights like this for cruises???



Help!

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I can't answer many of your questions because ours was a trip sponsored by my husband's company. We went on RC in the first week of August back in 2001 and I don't remember any of the costs, but the weather was not too bad. Chilly enough for a coat and hot cocoa watching the whales in the morning. Clear skies though.

 

[Michigan]

We went on Princess in July 2003. The prices are higher in July but the sun is out most of the time and the waters are calmer.

 

[plutolovr]

I'm a TA so maybe I can help a bit.

Alaskan cruises sell out quickly, so the quicker you make a decision the better off you'll be.
Go in the months of July or August. If you go later, (which may be cheaper), the weather won't be as nice and you may not see much wildlife.
The cruiseline you choose depends on the experience you want. Smaller cruise ships can get into places the larger ones can't. I suggest looking at each line's websites to see their itineraries.
Larger lines are: Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity, Holland America (I wouldn't recommend Carnival or NCL).
Smaller lines are: Cruise West, Crystal, Windstar, etc.
There's a site called Cruise Critic, you can do research here also and they have a forum set up where you can ask questions.

As far as what's included, most cruise packages include most meals (some have special restaurant experiences that require an extra $20 or so.) entertainment, room, some include non-alcoholic beverages, room service. Alcohol is extra, excursions are extra, gambling and such.

I usually find air cheaper if done on your own, however, if you book air with the cruiseline, and for some reason your flight is delayed and you miss the ship, they will get you there. If you book your own, you will have to find your own way. You can also purchase airport transfers through the cruiseline. We always suggest that you plan to arrive at the embarkation city the night before so you won't miss the ship.

As far as getting a "deal". Early booking savings are usually your best bet. Like I said Alaska sells out quickly, so don't expect to wait until last minute and get a deal. Cruiselines have also made it hard for deep discounting by travel agencies. Everyone is on a level playing ground. So usually the pricing won't be too different from agency to agency, online or not.
Hope some of this helps.

 

[binny]

I used to for Holland America in Alaska for 2 years.


maybe I can help you with a few things.


What cruise line/ship should we go with? That depends on what youre looking for. If you want a quieter experience, stay with Celebrity or Holland America ( both also have some of the best food out there!)
If you want a younger crowd go with Princess generally and maybe RCCL


Where can we get the best deal? Well as a TA I am biased. You can get a deal anywhere, but with a TA you have some assurance of knowledge and dependability.

To get the best price, should we book our air as part of the package, or just handle the air ourselves? Air will likely be more ( unless you can get a deal with the cruiselines, they have a few out there) but keep in mind that if you book through the cruiselines and your flight has problems, you have a backup if you buy the insurance.


What is the best time of year for an Alaskan cruise? I personally prefer Late May or Late August. Both give you a great experience ( granted a little chillier) but the animals are out without the Mosquitoes ( if you do a land portion as well),


How do I figure out what is included in the cost and what isn't? A good TA will guide through that! Keep in mind that one the cruise ship your food is going to be covered ( with the exception of the speciality restaurants) but NOT your alchohol, soda or a few other things.

How much money should I plan on having for extras, shore excursions, gratuities, etc? Gratuties are usually mandatory, generally around $10 per person per day. As far as extras that is so personal. It truly depends on what you want to do, look into shore excursions, get an idea of the kind of thing you want to do and then go from there. Keep in mind that Alaska can be very expensive! If youre eating off the ship, count on spending more than youre used to.

How far in advance should we book? ASAP they sell out quickly

Can you tell I'm starting to panic??? Are there any sights like this for cruises??? try http://www.cruiselineforums.com/forum/
They are a huge help! And please dont panic, Alaska is one of the most beautiful places on earth! No matter what you do you will have a great time!

 

[Ava83]

Hi I am in the middle of figuring out a cruise for my parents and inlaws for July!

I am having a heck of a time figuring it out also.

But this is what I have learned.

1. Inside Passage..your cruise must have that
2. If you want to cruise from Vancouver, but do not want to pay the plane fare, you can fly into seattle and then take a train (amtrak) for 66.00 round trip to Vancouver.

Okay this is all I have learned..but I did find another website called www.cruisemates.com that may give some insight.

I have to admit I am leaning toward the Celebrity ship now..but which one?

Are you going to do one of the cruise tours? Those sound amazing.

 

[sleepy1]

Hi,

We went on the Diamond Princess for our Alaskan cruise last July. We loved the ship and the cruise. We went the end of July and it rained everyday. The weather can be different each day so pack for everything. Enjoy!

 

[castleview]

DH and I honeymooned on an inside passage tour. What I definitely would have done differently was go from Vancouver to Anchorage...and port as much as possible. If you can get two weeks in, take the train to Denali. We don't know if we'll ever get to do that.

 

[GEM]

Wow! Thanks for all the great information. You've given me some great things to start thinking about! I appreciate it.

 

[m&m's mom]

We are doing the same thing.
The below are all thing you can do in INCREASE the cost of an Alaskan cruise.
First mention to 30 of your family members and all say "That sounds like fun" Imagine my surprise when they all actually book.
Then let your Sister who is a very specialized Dr and her DH who is the same make the rest of the decisions.
We are going on RCI Radiance of the Seas leaving from Vancouver and flying back from Anchorage. (going to and from same place is cheaper. Also probably Seattle cheaper than Vancouver).
Then choose that we all our cabins need to be together and we need suites. (I "lucked" out and got Jr. Suite).
Then pick almost the most expensive part of the year (July).
Then say "wouldn't it be fun to go dog mushing together - in front my DD's (6 and 9 YO". That is setting us back $500.00 PER PERSON!
Now to top it off,"wouldn't it be fun for us all to take our in-laws". Add MiL and we are paying her her too.

I am SO looking forward to this cruise but a little taken back that for the 5 of us (w/ MiL) it is going to be between $15,000.00 and 20,000.00 Definitely no Disney this year.
Anyway good suggestions on this thread to do the opposite of me.
If you end up going let me know as I have been doing a lot of research already. But then again, my sister may hire us a private guide.

 

[barkley]

we did inside passage in 8/04 loved it (but hated hal, since they instituted mandatory tipping their service has tanked, food quality was not good either).

depending on where you live, if you depart from vancouver it may be cheaper to book to seattle then book air from seattle to vancouver (we saved over 100 per person doing it this way-did'nt want to hassle with getting to the amtrack station, and i think their departures were at like 7am and 3 pm neither which would have timed out well for us, plus by flying you don't have to stop at the border and wait for them to clear everyone).

we stayed at the vancouver airport fairmont hotel-BEAUTIFUL, and they offered some good rates for cruisers who only needed a night before or after.

allot of the lines use the same outside vendor for their excursions "temesco air". you can order a dvd from them that shows their glacier helicopter and guided walk, dog sledding adventure, and some others (it ran about 19.99) and is a good way to see what they are like (we did helicopter to mendenhall glacier with guided walk-AWSOME). BOOK EXCURSIONS AS SOON AS YOU ARE ABLE-THE BEST ONES FILL UP IMMEDIATLY.

just as a side note-if ketchican is your last stop, there is a mail box express (or ups hub) store right accross from the dock. we went in and mailed our coats back to ourselves at home to have less to bring back (the rest of the trip is strictly on the ship and we found we were fine with hooded sweatshirts).

take good broken in walking shoes, don't expect any great shopping opportunites (unless you like to cook, in which case buy and have shipped home a good quality ulu and ulu board -fantastic for fileting or chopping in general, salmonberry jam is good item to grab too, and fantastic wild flower seed packets-these were stunning when we were there).

 

[Ava83]

I am SO looking forward to this cruise but a little taken back that for the 5 of us (w/ MiL) it is going to be between $15,000.00 and 20,000.00 Definitely no Disney this year.

I stopped breathing when I read that...

But I do understand how it can all add up..it can get crazy but its a once in a life trip!

RCI Radiance of the Seas

Your boat was on the travel channel! I think they even showed your room type! It looks like an amazing cruise! (they even did the Dog Mushing!)

 

[barkley]

I stopped breathing when I read that...

But I do understand how it can all add up..it can get crazy but its a once in a life trip!



Your boat was on the travel channel! I think they even showed your room type! It looks like an amazing cruise! (they even did the Dog Mushing!)

my girlfriend did inside passage on this ship with multi-generational family, and everyone adored it. no complaints from the tweens, the teens, the parents or the grandparents. it apparantly offers something for everyone. if we went again i would def. look into it.

 

[NCRedding]

We did Alaska in 2003 on the RCCL Radiance of the Seas, with a stay in Vancouver for three days prior. We stayed at the Fairmont downtown, which overlooks the Canada Place Pier.

If I were going back, I would look into a one way cruise, rather than round trip cruise, so that I could see more of Alaska. If I did that, I would definitely book the air thru the cruise line.

I thought the trip was beautiful. We sailed in late July, and early August--I thought the weather was great, and we were able to get closer to the Hubbard Glacier than earlier sailings were. We had no problems with mosquitos.

 

[Ava83]

my girlfriend did inside passage on this ship with multi-generational family, and everyone adored it. no complaints from the tweens, the teens, the parents or the grandparents. it apparantly offers something for everyone. if we went again i would def. look into it.

I know exactly what you are saying..We cannot financially (by choice) do any trips until we pay off our lot loan...but DD3 was watching the show on the cruise with me and she kept telling me how she wanted to that!

It is one thing that I would take everyone on...I totally agree!

 

[Syrreal]

We were on the Celebrity Summit this past July from Seward to Vancouver. I have nothing but wondeerful things to say about this ship. That was one of the best trips of my life! You know those celebrity commercials that end with the guy in the office saying "I think of this as a temporary exile"-- I know EXACTLY what he's talking about
We were in a concierge level room with a balcony where every morning we would go outside and whale watch. (any time that you look out into the water there, the possibilty of seeing a whale spout or fluke is pretty high). The meals in the main restaurant were spectacular (and they are more than willing to accept special requests) and the buffets were great too (but we mainly ate in the main restaurant).
I am not sure what the price for a non consierge room is but I think that our room came out to about 4K per room for the week. This does not include the gratuities that you give to everyone at the end of the trip.
We also got the soda package where you can get unlimited soda throughout the cruise.
The excursions can add up. But if you are good at researching you can sometimes find companies in the different port cities that will do things for cheaper. If you go on a whale watching cruise expect it to be crowded (but worth the money) we did one in..juneau I think.... that we saw 8 humpbacks...and then had lunch at this place called the orca point lodge...best salmon I have EVER eaten! The cheapest excursion we did was snorkeling which was just under $100 per person (everything you need is included- wetsuit, hood, mask, find, snorkle, and weightbelt)
You can shop in the towns too and look around for side things to do. We found this little show in (I think it was skagway) that was adorable and only $14 per person where they tol a story of a con artist that made his way to skagway selling soap and ended up hooking up with this lady who ran a brothel and they sing and pull people out of the audience to can can (it's a rated pg show...and pg is pushing it- there were some kids there that day) soooo cute! That day we also saw two eagles just on a tree by the ship.
You can see what other itineraries they have on celebrity.com
You can sometimes find discounts on the web.

Oh.. about the before and after the cruise... we were there for a total about 2 weeks. We flew into anchorage, stayed there for a few days (we stayed the dimond center hotel which is nice but if you are not renting a car do not stay there.. it is out of the way and about 15 mins from town) and then took the train down to Seward and stayed there a few days before catching the ship. We were able to do a kayaking/wildlife tour through Liquid Adventures and it was WONDERFUL. It was $350 per person for an all day thing and included transportation to a remote part about 50 miles away, kayaking up to this beautiful glacier that was almost abot 800ft high, lunch, and transportation back- which includes going around whale watching and seeing all kind of wildlife). We stayed at the breeze inn which is nice and clean and has free shuttle service from the train depot and to the dock. There is a really good fish and chips place right down the street. When we arrived in Vancouver we stayed at the Le Soleil hotel (gorgeous all suite place) that is 2 blocks from Robson St (the center of the shopping district with lots of shops and restaurants of all kinds). There is lots to do in Vancouver so if you can give yourself a few days there you wont regret it. There is the Storyum (like a historical museum mixed with a show), the aquarium, robson park, all kinds of stuff. The days we were there they were in the middle of their festival of lights which is where different countries sponsor HUGE firework shows that are free to the public. BEAUTIFUL!!!)
We got our flights separate from the cruise because of all the extra time we were staying at each place. And just looked for the best deal we could find online.
I highly recommend the celebrity cruise. It really was a trip of a lifetime!!
Hope this helped