I am sure there is a lot of CCers have taken Alaska Cruise. We are planning for a class reunion next year on an Alaska Cruise. Most of the class mates are either already retired or close to retirement. Because the class has different levels of personal income, cost will be a concern so, ship companies like Regent cannot be considered.
In general, we would like to get your recommendations and experiences in the following areas:
Route: I think the 7 days Vancouver to Seward route or the other way around is going to have the best experience. How do you feel about it. I have done the Seattle to Seattle route and did not find that is the best experience.
On the "low cost" side of the cruises, which company do you find the best, if you had a choice, would you rather to be on a 2200+ guests boat or a smaller boat? I have a choice of Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Holland America. The other companies have boats that are not updated recently.
What is the best time to take that cruise. I was thinking of July or August, June, if it is a better month. I know, for this year around this time (mid August) Anchorage is going to rain for a week.
I have been reading reviews on Cruise Critics. Is that the best site to get reviews, where else you find good reviews on Cruises?
A few classmates have expressed interest to have a land/train tour of Denali National Park, would it better to buy a "Cruise & Land" Tour package? or buy a separate land package in Anchorage?
If you are going to include a land package, you should go with Holland America. They, along with the other Carnival Corporation cruiselines, have the best hotels and trains locked up with their bookings. I tried at one time, to make my own bookings for a landtour. It was pretty much impossible. I would strike Royal Caribbean from the list in any case. They’re more oriented to families than Celebrity or HAL.
CruiseCritic is the best place to get reviews and advice.
Generally, the smaller the boat, the better. The huge ships can be a pain to get to and from the ends. A newer ship doesn’t necessarily mean better.
I like August for Alaska. The salmon are running so the bears are out.
The best cabins and land tours book early for Alaska.
Six years ago, my family (2 adults and 2 teens) took a cruise on Holland America from Vancouver to Seward on one of their smaller (and older) ships at the time, the Statendam (which has since been sold to another cruise line). We absolutely loved it! We went at the beginning of July and spent a few days in Vancouver before we got on the ship. The trip was timed to coincide with DH’s 50th birthday. On the cruise, it rained in Ketchikan and Juneau, but was decent weather everywhere else. After disembarking at Seward, we took the train to Anchorage, rented a car and drove to Denali NP on our own, where we spent a few days before driving back to Anchorage and then flying home. Unfortunately, while the weather was decent there, Denali itself was obscured by clouds the entire time. Nevertheless, the park was spectacular and we had a fabulous time. I would love to go back again some day!
I have heard that HAL was very good until Carnival tookover, it has been down hill ever since, is that true?
Also, I noted that all ships on my route are built between 2000 to 2005, some had been refit in 2016 and 2017, some had been refit in 2013 and earlier. Dose that make a difference?
We just returned from an Alaskan cruise on Princess. Had a great time. Princess, Holland and Carnival are all part of the HAL family. Some say that HAL has the best coverage/relationship with resources and excursions in Alaska, but that came from a friend’s daughter who worked for HAL in Denali, so who knows. I’d avoid Carnival as its reputation is that its a partier crowd and less nice. We were going to take the Celebrity Solstice based on some of the Cruise Critic reviews, but the itinerary didn’t work as well for us. If I were you, I’d read the forums on cruise critic and ask our questions there. Pick the itinerary and packages that work the best for you. Many offer sales or deals when you book in advance (we had $150 each in onboard credit and a free upgrade to a specialty dining room and an extra $100 fir military ; if we’d known you get an extra $100 credit for having a certain amount of stock in Princess, we might have purchased it). Holland may be an “older” crowd, so it depends who is cruising with you. We had 12 people (ages 26-67) so Princess was a good option with resources for both, and not a lot of little kids running around.
If we had gone without the big crowd we’d have done a one way and land portion, but that wasn’t doable with our big group. Do you want to leave from SF, Seattle, Vancouver or where? You can cruise north or south, depending on whether yo want to do the land portion first or last. Research all this and then decide.
@jym626
Which princess you were on? I notice all Princess ships have not been refitted in recent years, does it show ages?
Our classmates are from all over the world, so where to start and end really does not matter. We are looking for the best experiences.
Not exactly. Actually, Princess and Holland America are part of the Carnival family. Carnival Corporation also owns Seabourn, Cunard, AIDA, Costa, P & O and Fathom.
Whatever itinerary you select I would recommend that it include Glacier Bay. I went on Princess several years ago and at that time only Princess and Holland America were licensed for Glacier Bay. Our itinerary was Vancouver departure and arrival in Whittier which is 2 hours south of Anchorage. We flew home from Anchorage but many were continuing on for land excursion or doing round trip back to back cruise.
HAL was purchased by Carnival Corporation in 1989 which is a long time ago in cruise terms. A lot has changed since then. Ships were much smaller then and much more exclusive. Pricing in the 1980s was very expensive compared to today’s prices. I wouldn’t put any stock in the “HAL was great before Carnival bought it” line. I’ve cruised HAL, Princess, Carnival, Disney and Royal Caribbean. My favorite line is HAL.
Apologies for not knowing who bought who, or which was the parent company, but do recall seeing that if you own, I thought, a certain amount of Princess stock, you get an on board discount. Now I am wondering if it is carnival stock??
There’s a recent thread on Alaska cruises in the Parent Cafe.
Pay attention to weather- too soon and not yet warmed up, rainier end August-September.
Just did Holland America via Seattle (had people to visit there and have been to Vancouver, BC). It had all ages but seemed less party and suited us. We got to Sitka, most ships do not go there. You need to figure out which from-the ship place to visit- Glacier Bay, or two other spots.
Be sure to remind people that balconies are great to have (Per friends, us and websites).
Read a lot on Cruise Critic. Look at ship/room pictures, itineraries…
I think one week on a ship is enough. People can take a two week vacation and do Vancouver sites as well Or drive to Seattle (have done the drive to Vancouver).
Check with cruise lines about special event rooms- ours had a daily meeting of so and so. There were daily computer Widows 10 tip sessions my computer geek H liked- I did some test kitchen food demos.
Look at side trips and the costs.
We looked at both Norwegian and Holland America. Do comparisons to see what all have or just some.
With a large group, with different budgets and coming from all over, its best, IMO, not to make it too complicated. If you pick a one way trip, you’ll have to decide where to start/leave from (Cruise north? Cruise south?) the possible cost of flights in/out of different cities if you don’t do a round trip or back-to-back cruises, which is also expensive, to get home from a one way cruise/land trip. You said you have done the round trip from Seattle, but have others? Do they prefer to cruise out of the US or Canada? Does it matter? Has anyone had a DUI within the past 10 years? That could affect their ability to be allowed into Canada (read about it elsewhere, but its real)
We chose round trip out of Seattle for a variety of reasons. Convenience of flights, cost, and dates of itineraries were the primary reasons. I liked the Celebrity Solstice (cost was actually a little less than our cruise; sale/perks were about equal) but the dates didnt work for us, as it left on a Friday which meant getting to Seattle on Thursday and interrupted 2 work weeks, which was a problem for some. I got everyone a balcony room. Its well worth it with the scenery, but not everyone can afford it, and the weather can be iffy. Some might pick rooms with partially obstructed views, or rooms wth a window but not a balcony. To me, the balcony was well worth it.
We went in mid July and really lucked out with the weather, but the salmon were just starting to come in and weren’t in the famous place to see them. That said, as I said, we were VERY lucky with the weather. It is usually much cloudier and rainier than what we had. We chose not to go in June as sometimes the big ships cannot get into the fjords or glacier areas due to the ice.
Last time, five years ago, we did a Mexican cruise from LA, I was stupid enough to act as the Group Leader, BIG MISTAKE, I had to shell out $100/head on deposit, which became a disaster afterwards, considering those flights, local transport and tours before and after, It was further complicated with foreign exchange. Not this time, I will let them buy their own tickets from wherever they see fit, I am just going to publish a date and ship info.
So far I can see HAL is the best candidate, to get the best experience, Vancouver to Seward(three hours to Anchorage) seemed the best. Choices are Noordam or Westerdam whereas Noordam was updated in 2016 and Westerdam was updated in 2017, A few of them will continue to Denali and that is fine. We have classmates live in Vancouver, they automatically become the receptionist and will take those who arrived early on a Vancouver tour. Its too early for skiing, otherwise I may link a Whistler trip for myself.
@jym626
Last time, when I took the Seattle to Seattle cruise, the ship stopped by Port Edwards, BC, on the way back. I heard some ships even stop at Victoria. So, you have to touch Canada either way.
Our ship did not go to the Tracy Arm so cannot really say. Glacier Bay is i believe a national park and we had the park rangers come aboard and do several presentations plus College Fjord is part of Glacier Bay, a range of awesome glaciers named for various colleges. Also the ship heads from Glacier Bay out to open sea travelling over the Prince William Sound as it docks in Whittier, south of Anchorage. The 2 hour drive to Anchorage was very scenic and the bus driver on the Princess bus was quite good at pointing out wildlife and providing information. We did see a fair amount of wildlife both on water and on land. The naturalist aboard Princess was very good pointing out… dolphins at 10:00, that sort of thing but I think all the ships provide that. I would do some research on Alaska itself, more than just on the cruise website. I like to use Fodors.com for travel research or an actual Fodors guidebook that you can easily get from the library.
From what I read, it can vary significantly as to whether there might be any issue with being allowed into Canada, whether at the airport or at embarkation or at a port stop. I didn’t want to ask relatives if it was ever an issue and figured if it was, for anyone, worst that might happen was they couldn’t get off in Victoria (per cruise critic, if there was an issue, there might be a note on the persons door to see security/ or passport clearance, but for us, no one even asked to see passports in Victoria.
Tracy Arms is a narrow strait ended with a Glacier. Its just wide enough for a large ship to get by, We saw whales swimming next to the ship for about an hour. They offer two excursions, one is to take helicopters to the top of the Glacier, the other is to take a small boat to get close to the Glacier.
