Popsy_cruises

Thank you! We don’t know which ship we’ll be on yet as we haven’t chosen our sailing, just trying to plan our budget and decide if this add on is something we want to do.

Sorry to jump on this post, but does anyone know if you can book access to the Sanctuary for the duration of your cruise? If so, roughly how much is it? We’d be looking at a 7-9 night cruise but wouldn’t have the Sanctuary class of cabin as we’re never in our cabins when cruising and tend to go for an inside for that reason.

Thanks Don. I’ve only ever cruised round the Mediterranean and I’m referring to the main cruise lines as those are the ones I’m familiar with. We’ve been told by one person it’s better to cruise on ships with a capacity of around 2000 and another said the bigger ships are much better, hence my post. But previous comments have established, the person who’s been adamant that the small ships are better has also got a lot of their information incorrect. It’s all personal preference but I’m interested to learn about other people’s experiences.

This is really interesting, I love learning all about this stuff so thank you so much for sharing. Also I’d say your assessment of my colleague is a very kind but accurate statement.

Thanks!

Thank you! I’d heard there were a lot of vendors at the port and guessed at least some of them wouldn’t be good. We usually try to book as much as possible in advance so will definitely skip them.

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for your tips 😊

Thanks! HAL is on our list to look into along with Princess so I’ll definitely have a look at the Koningsdam. I have some NCL credits so they’re also on the list although from what I’ve read so far I’m not sure they’re the best for Alaska. We’re also looking at Celebrity as we’ve always fancied trying them and never have.

Thank you! We had thought sailing out of Vancouver would be best mainly because of our flight options but it sounds like it’s best all round from what you’ve said. I mentioned this in the post above but the person who told me this is a very poor know it all so it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve got things wrong. Good job I asked!

Well, putting this as politely as possible, the person in question is someone I work with and they’re a bit of a know it all who doesn’t always know that much! Hence me asking on here. I figured CC people would have a lot more info than this person. If you were to ask them they would likely tell you they invented Alaska cruising 😂 Thanks for all your tips!

This is really useful information so thank you for sharing! I’m not fussed about what’s on board really as long as there’s food and drink but I like the idea of something similar to an observation lounge where we can be inside but still see the great scenery. Like you, I believe you go to Alaska for Alaska and not the ship. But since it’s likely we’ll only get to do it once I want to make sure we book the best options for us. That’s really good to know about Glacier Bay too as not all routes include it. I’d rather book one that does to almost guarantee seeing a glacier and not risk missing them due to bad weather or something.

Thank you! I haven’t heard of these lines so I’ll definitely look into them.

The person we spoke to said the smaller ships often sail in the inside passage and larger ones don’t. They also said sometimes smaller ships are allowed to sail when larger ships are turned away if there’s limits on the number of ships in glacier bay for an example. This person has cruiser Alaska 3 times and this is the advice they gave us but this is why I’ve asked for other people’s opinions as they may not have been accurate in the advice they gave.

We’re currently in the early stages of researching a once in a lifetime (for us) trip to Alaska. We’ve not yet picked a cruise line for the cruise portion but I’m intrigued to hear others thoughts on whether you prefer cruising on larger or smaller ships in Alaska? What are the pros and cons of each? We’ve been recommended both. Large: we’ve been told as you’re higher up you’ll see more and they often have the best observation lounge areas. Also there’s the obvious, there’s more choice of what to do. Small: we’ve been told you’ll get closer to glaciers and will have more luck sailing in certain areas than the larger ships. Thanks in advance!

We had to miss Saint Tropez because the weather was too bad to launch tender boats. We’d guessed the night before that this would happen because the weather got worse as the night went on and the ship was really rocking overnight. We were disappointed but didn’t mind too much, it’s one of the risks with any cruise because the weather can be unpredictable.