Nicki828

"If" you decide to go with Princess, you might want to look at the Coral rather than the Island. Both do the same itinerary, but the Coral has the aft viewing decks that were removed on the Island. The areas are covered and also protected from the wind.

 

Another plus for the Coral is that it has the International Cafe that the Island does not.

 

A balcony on the port side of the Coral makes for great viewing at Glacier Bay. Eventually the ship will rotate, but the naturalist narration will match what you are seeing from the port side as you sail into the bay.

 

Just my 2 cents...

Thank you! Excellent suggestions. I will check the sailing dates and prices for th Coral. And thanks for the tip about the port side. I will d finitely make sure to book that.

DH and I are doing an Alaska cruise next year so I've been devouring threads on here for months. ;) Distilled recommendations:

 

- Glacier Bay is a must-see, if you can get 2 glaciers in one trip that's a big plus

 

- A balcony isn't essential because there are so many viewing locations around the ships, but if you do get one where doesn't matter because you will see awesome scenery in all directions. (I will add that if either of you have mobility issues, a private balcony can make it a lot easier. Both SIL and I use wheelchairs so I did book an aft balcony mini-suite on Norwegial Pearl. The more mobile members of our group can travel around the ship as they choose.)

 

- NCL has a new rule that you cannot bring your own beverages onboard, other than bottles of wine for which you will be charged "corkage fee" per bottle. (Can't find where I wrote down how much the fee was but I believe it was either $15 or $25 per bottle.) Also they only serve Pepsi products so if you are a Diet Coke addict you are out of luck.

Because this is a special trip, we are fine with the extra expense of the balcony. We will definitely go to other viewing locations on the ship too.

I was trying to figure out where the best place to be on the ship is. I was thinking aft for views, but then I'm wondering motion-wise if it will be a little rougher. The only time I've experienced motion sickness on a cruise was a few years back when we were trying to beat out hurricane Sandy. The 25 foot swells didn't agree with me 😀

Others will have better advice but I will repeat some of the advice I was given when I was looking.

 

Most would say include Glacier Bay which would eliminate Celebrity.

 

NCL has Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier which I believe alot of people really like. Plus you know you like NCL and it's the best price.

 

You should also look at what excursions you want to do in each port and then make sure the dates and times match up with what you want to do. For instance, I really wanted to do the Tracy Arm Fjord excursion in Juneau but we don't get into Juneau in time to make the schedule.

 

We are essentially doing your first itinerary on Coral Princess although we end in Whittier instead of Seward. This cruise coincided with the exact dates we wanted so along with the itinerary, that made our decision. Good luck, others will have better advice.

Great points about not missing out on Glacier Bay. That brings my choice down to 2. I've heard really good things about the newer Princess ships, but not much about the older ones.

We are looking to book a cruise to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We need to take the trip sometime between July 3rd and July 22nd. We have cruised many times, but all to the Caribbean and once in Europe. We have cruised with the following cruise lines: Celebrity, Royal, Carnival, Disney, and Norwegian.

Musts for this cruise is a balcony. Should we be looking for a specific area of the boat when choosing our cabin?

Our top picks are as follows:

Princess - Island Princess - Voyage of the glaciers northbound

Balcony or mini suite fit in our budget

Itinerary:

Vancouver

At sea

Ketchikan

Juneau

Skagway

Glacier Bay National Park (Scenic cruising)

College Fjord (Scenic cruising)

Seward

Celebrity - Millenium - Alaska Northern Glacier cruise

Concierage class stateroom

Itinerary:

Vancouver

At sea

Icy Straight Point

Juneau

Skagway

Hubbard Glacier

Seward

Norwegian - Sun - 7 day glacier bay

Balcony

Itinerary:

Vancouver

At sea

Ketchikan

Juneau

Skagway

Cruise Glacier Bay

Cruise Hubbard Glacier

Seward

Norwegian is the least expensive option, and Princess the most expensive, but all fall within our budget. Would really love to hear pros and cons from anyone who has sailed on any of these ships. We are most experienced with NCL as we sailed with them in 2015. Last time we sailed with Celebrity was on our honeymoon. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

We picked up some murano glass Jewellery, scarves, leather bracelets, but my favorite were bracelets we picked up at Mount Vesuvius with beads made from lava.

Can anyone share their experience using a private company for tours of Florence and Rome. I will be traveling on my own and find the ship's tours too much like a cattle drive. Will be visiting on the Serenity in October 2015

We emailed back and forth with a bunch of different companies. All were very professional and quick with replies (Joe Bananas was one of them), but we ended up going with Italytours.eu. We were very happy with them. Would highly recommend them.

We used booking.com for our recent stay in Rome. We had an amazing room. Exactly as described on the website.

My mother is going on this cruise in October (her first cruise). How did you get from Rome to Citavecchia? Was it by train? Stupid question, but if it was by train, did they have escalators/elevators available?

We took the train. We had to go down stairs and back up, lugging our luggage. We also found in confusing getting to the port. We walked from the train station and found the port area. Recognized people who were on the train with us. They figured out that we had to wait for a bus. Bus shows up, we load on our luggage and we were driven to another area where we had to grab our luggage and then put it on another bus that took us to the security area. Getting off was much easier, as we had a hire a transfer to the airport.

We were on the cruise with you. We spent a couple of nights in Rome at the start also. I will be posting a brief review in another thread once welcome up for air :). Looking forward to reading your review.

When we used the HOHO we were surprised that the bus didn't arrive to our stop until much later then their 9am start time if you intend to use the hoho to get you there watch the timing.

Yeah. That's why we aren't sure what time to book. We don't want to book too early or too late. We figure it will be one of our earlier stops.

We will visiting Barcelona on our upcoming cruise and have purchased Hop on Hop off tickets through Barcelona City Tour. The one place we have decided to pre purchase tickets to is Sagrada Familia, but we are uncertain on what time we should book tickets for. Would appreciate any advice.