non DCL Alaska with older kids/teens-please post experience

[ldo]

There have been a couple of posts about options to Alaska other than DCL, given the escalating pricing. If you have cruised another CL to Alaska with older kids/teens, please post your experience (good or bad), esp. the "vibe" of the ship, ages of cruisers (DD wonders if other CL, esp. HA and Princess, will be mostly elderly and not have many teen/family events), and activities. My teens do not use the clubs anymore, so I am wondering about non-club activities/movies/enrichment during the day, and how the PM entertainment was.
We love DCL, but the other CL would be $4K less. I have read posts of some saying the other CL was fine and some saying they wished they had paid extra and chosen DCL. also, di you cruise from Vancouver or Seattle, RT or one way. thanks for your insight. Elaine

 

[Dug720]

I can say that HAL definitely skews older. It does have Glacier Bay, but I saw very few teens and children compared to Disney. And no, it wasn't that they were in their kids' area because that seemed to never be open whenever I walked by the door - and when it was, at least the kids I overheard whining to their parents did NOT want to go.

RCCL seemed to be more of a mix - I was on a Southbound on the Radiance. Definitely more kids and teens than I saw on HAL.

In terms of classes and stuff, I can't say as I was onboard with a group (Great Alaskan Running Cruise) so we had our own seminars and stuff going on.

 

[ldo]

thanks for 1st hand info on HA. If we want V RT, we are likely limited to HA, Celeb, DCL. I thought HA might not be a good fit for 3 teens, and Celeb. doesn't do Skagway, where we really wanted to do the white train ride.

 

[The Grays]

We were on the May 30 to Alaska and have a 16 DD. She refused to consider any other CL. She had a blast. The vibe was awesome for her.

She was never board on board. And they even had an option on one of the ports to do an excursion as a teen group.

Glad we did it, it was worth the cost.

 

[cmph]

I cruised on Princess to Alaska as a teenager. Granted, this was 20 years ago! I can imagine they have only gotten better with kids/family programming since then, but possibly Princess hasn't changed all that much, so maybe my experience is a bit helpful. We weren't bored at all. The teen club was pretty much just a hang-out space to go; there must have been an employee stationed there, but they did nothing in terms of organizing activities back then. There were only a dozen or so of us young teens who went there, some of them much more frequently than my sister and me. We found plenty of other things to do - movie theater, bingo, newlywed type game show things to watch, afternoon tea (white glove service, we LOVED this and went every day it was offered), laying out on loungers when it was chilly and watching the ice roll by (staff brought us blankets), golf putting and chipping contests, shuffleboard. We used the pool at times, and had it to ourselves for the most part. Since there were so few of us, I suspect we got some special attention. For example, I got to pour the champagne for the champagne waterfall. We went to every evening show, but I don't remember much about them, so I doubt they were that exciting... except for the one comedian who did a fabulous Swedish Chef impression that apparently went over the heads of every person there other than my sister and me, since we were the only ones who cracked up!! In retrospect, I think we were pretty laid-back for teenagers, but we most definitely were never bored. True we had each other to hang with, but the core group of kids our age who used the club seemed to spend most of every day together all over the ship.

 

[tinktwice]

We've done HAL but to the Caribbean. Very few kids and that was during Thanksgiving break. I wouldn't recommend it, especially for Alaska, with kids. Older cruisers for sure on HAL. We did a Celebrity cruise a couple of years ago to Alaska. Good mixture of ages. You will never have as many kids as DCL but our kids were happy as were we. Something to do for everyone. We have also done Princess (to Alaska years ago without kids, but more recently to the Caribbean with kids). We enjoy Princess as well. Probably more couples on Princess but cruisers not as old on average as HAL. Princess gets high ratings for its Alaska cruises. I would choose between those two, personally, Princess or Celebrity for Alaska. I would compare itinerary, price, and ship. We went out of Seattle on Celebrity, RT, in July. Smooth seas, smoother than some Caribbean cruises we've been on. The Princess we went on years ago was out of Vancouver, NB, in May. Rough seas until we were in inside passage. Unless you are planning to spend some time in Alaska before or after your cruise, I don't think there is a reason to do a one way. If you have the time to do that, I would recommend it. As far as going out of Vancouver or Seattle, I don't see a difference other than ease of travel or cost.