I am having the hardest time picking for our family of 4. I am 41, Dh42, DS9 and Dd7. Dh and I have only been on Disney and Royal Caribbean Bahamas/ Caribbean cruise with our oldest DD18. (She is not coming. She thinks taking a cold cruise is lame) The little kids haven’t been on a cruise yet(DS did go on Royal as a baby but he was a nightmare and doesn’t remember so that doesn’t count) but we do have a Disney cruise to Bahamas about 5 months later so they will get the fun ship part then. This will be June 2024. I am kind of locked to cruises that leave on weekends due to my work schedule so that knocked out lots of options.
I originally booked NCL encore as it seems like the freestyle will be awesome for our family. We are pretty casual. The activities seem great for the kids. However, the port times seem sooo short. Especially Ketchikan, where NCL docks far away. It almost seems like we will barely have time to do anything. Also stopping at Victoria seems like a waste for us with kids since we would remain onboard due to the late hours. We booked using the military discount around $6200.
Discovery Princess has pretty much the same itinerary but it seems like Princess will at least have priority dock spots, which might help our Ketchikan day a bit.
I’ve watched multiple videos on all 3 options and Princess does seem a bit more kid friendly than HAL. The people sailing seem a bit younger and it looks like we would fit it a bit better than HAL. Dd would be thrilled with the puppies coming on board and the kids club looks ok. $7200
HAL Koningsdam- based on itinerary alone this looks great. If it was DH and I this would be our pick. However, while watching videos I haven’t seen one kid. We are planning on really taking in as much of Alaska as we can and will be doing excursions whenever at port. I’m thinking we will be ok not having many activities. The kids will be happy with the retractable roof/pool. We don’t really care about dining and could eat at the buffet or quick service option if the kids would be too loud in the main dining area. $6500
We plan on doing a helicopter/sled dog excursion and a summer musher camp excursion in either Skagway or Juneau. Not sure which one where yet. Would like to do the deadliest catch boat in Ketchikan. I’m hoping this isn’t our only Alaskan cruise and hopefully can expand our options as kids get older and work gets more flexible but for now these are our choices. We will fly out of New York to Seattle or BC. I don’t recall ever flying out of US so don’t know if it adds extra hassle to get to BC. Thank you for any tips.
3 options
NCL Encore
Sunday- Seattle Depart 5pm
Monday- day at sea
Tues- Juneau 2:30-11pm
Wed- Skagway 7am-8:15p
Thurs- Glacier Bay cruising
Friday- Ketchikan 7am-1:15pm
Sat- Victoria 8pm- 11:59pm
Discovery Princess
Sat- Seattle depart 3pm
Sun- at sea
Monday- Juneau 1pm-10pm
Tues- Skagway 7am- 830pm
Wed- Glacier Bay
Thursday- Ketchikan 7am-1pm
Friday- Victoria 7pm-11:59pm
HAL koningsdam
Sat- Vancouver depart 4pm
Sunday- Cruising inside passage
Monday- Tracey arm inlet 9-930am
Juneau 1-10pm
Tues- Skagway 7am-8pm
Wed- Glacier Bay
Thur- Ketchikan 11am- 7pm
Fri- inside passage cruising