I think your friend wants a Caribbean vacation on a big ship with lots of activities. Lol which I have done and loved.
Alaska, you are there for Alaska. Lots of people pick for the ship. That’s fine. Do that if you want.
But I wanted to do Alaska for Alaska, I picked by, does it do all the inside passage, does it do Glacier bay, do you have a decent time in port, how many ports does it get in, etc. For those my choices were HAL or Princess, making sure I wasn’t on a big princess ship that only does part of the inside passage. I chose Princess. I’m also glad we are going out of Vancouver because I’ve always wanted to go there so we are flying in 2 days early.