Best Alaskan cruise with kids (10/12)

[mumofsons]

Hi we are planning this for June or July of 2006 - leaning toward the late part of June. We have two boys and we will be taking them. Anyone have an advice on who to book with. We would like to take the cruisetour type so that we have a few more days in Alaska. Any help with this would be great thanks.

[CaribbeanBound]

We cruised Alaska in an inside cabin on the Star Princess with two kids aged 9 and 13. Here are the complete details...

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/alaska.html

[mumofsons]

thanks for the info

[ssbeard]

We are going on Coral princess. It has a basketball court (i'm sure others have one too) Have found as long as there is a basketball court they will stay happy and that is a great place to meet and mingle for kids. They also have a kids and teen program.

[Budget Queen]

Hi we are planning this for June or July of 2006 - leaning toward the late part of June. We have two boys and we will be taking them. Anyone have an advice on who to book with. We would like to take the cruisetour type so that we have a few more days in Alaska. Any help with this would be great thanks.

 

 

 

ANY cruise is great for kids. And more important I think is to book for the adult preferences. :) Look at ports, time in ports, glacier, route, PRICE. I do NOT recommend a cruisetour for interior Alaska travel, extremely few if any kids go on these. They also are EXTREMELY costly for 4, and being on a fixed group point to point tour is far from ideal with kids. If you do go this way- I strongly recommend you only consider 7 or more days for the add on. Any shorter will have all day on buses/trains and little time at destinations. Far superior for family interior Alaska travel is with a rental car or RV. At least look into this option. Very simple to do on your own. A highlight is Seward for me with just excellent touring opportunities, kids love it here. So you may want to also look at one way Seward ships to make the better use of time and no backtracking.

[TITISSA]

ANY cruise is great for kids. And more important I think is to book for the adult preferences. :) Look at ports, time in ports, glacier, route, PRICE. I do NOT recommend a cruisetour for interior Alaska travel, extremely few if any kids go on these. They also are EXTREMELY costly for 4, and being on a fixed group point to point tour is far from ideal with kids. If you do go this way- I strongly recommend you only consider 7 or more days for the add on. Any shorter will have all day on buses/trains and little time at destinations. Far superior for family interior Alaska travel is with a rental car or RV. At least look into this option. Very simple to do on your own. A highlight is Seward for me with just excellent touring opportunities, kids love it here. So you may want to also look at one way Seward ships to make the better use of time and no backtracking.

 

I'm planing on going to Alaska next year in the begining of August. Myself, my husband and our 2 teenager daughters (14 & 12). I'm looking into either Sapphire Princess or the Oosterdam. Since this is our first cruise to Alaska we'll do just the round trip cruise from Seattle. Princess does Tracy Arm and Hal does Hubbard Glacier. Any info on these two ships would be greatly appreciated.

[Time2sail]

On the Holland America Line Board here on CC, there are lots of threads that have comments, pictures and reviews. You'll get lots of information there.

[mumofsons]

Thanks - from the pricing I have seen (using this year's pricing to kind of gauge) Just for an inside cabin and tour it would cost over 12grand for the four of us. That is a whole bunch of overtime!. I think we will probably go with the cruise only to start with and add a couple of days either in Seattle or Vancouver. I cringed at the price of airfare when you are coming/leaving from two different places. Talk about stickershock!

[okfarmerswife]

You didn't say how old your kids were but we had a 6 & 14 y.o. on NCL Star to Alaska last year. It is round trip out of Seattle with one day in Glacier Bay. It was our first cruise so we don't have anything to compare it with but I will say that my kids (and us as well) are still talking about it frequently. It was an awesome family trip and we loved sailing with NCL. I posted a review on the ship here http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=198

and you should be able to find out lots of info on this Alaska board. Also, you can find out more about the Star by going to the NCL board here.

Both of my kids participated in the Kids Club but the teens are not as structured and supervised and are free to do what they want. My 14 yr.old loved meeting others her age and having some freedom on the ship. The 6 yr. old was in a very structured program and absolutely loved it. Our favorite excursions were Mendendhall glacier in Juneau, Mt. Roberts Tram, LOVED whalewatching with Captain Larry...he really pays attention to the kids, drive along the Klondike highway in Scagway to Carcross. We also saw the lumberjack show in Ketchikan and while I thought it was a silly production, the guys sure are good at what they do and the Kids loved it. Have fun planning your trip...it's sure to be a great one!

[okfarmerswife]

I see that you did post ages....sorry. Also, I wanted to add that yes, it's expensive but there are many good deals out there! I spent lots of time planning and 8 of us went for much less than your figures. We had one balcony stateroom and two inside cabins. Your boys at that age, will just love this trip!

[KFH]

We are going to Alaska in August with our two sons, 14 and 11. We chose a north bound trip. Our airfare is 408 per person from Chicago to Seattle and then from Anchorage to Chicago. Round trip to Seattle would have been 283 and round trip to Vancouver would have been 445. The airfare isn't that scary compared to the rest of the trip.

[sisocialworker]

been reading the boards, the more I read the more confused. we have a7yo. some say if you cannot spend at least another 7 days on tour don't go. all we think we can do is a rt from vancover...and some say a rt, is worthless. should we wait until DS is a teen to do this trip so he can enjoy the "full"value?

 

it is expensive. and we hope to return again sometime.

[KFH]

I don't think that a round trip is worthless. It may be some peoples opinion that you need to do a land tour for the full experience, but do what is best for you. We would love to do a seven day land tour, but don't have the vacation or money to that along with the cruise. As far as your 7 year old is concerned, by Brother in law and Sister in law took there 7 year old neice last year on a southbound cruise and she loved it, but a lot depends on your child.

[Budget Queen]

For clarification- I am a STRONG advocate of 7 day round trip cruises, and no ever consider them the sloppy second. The cruise lines do just an excellent job of packing plenty of excellent touring into 7 days with usually 3 worthwhile and VARIED ports, and a glacier viewing day. I am one however, and ONLY MY OPINION, that ALWAYS adds at least a week to any one way cruise- this year will be 2 added weeks AND it's still limiting on what I could do. :) I am a strong advocate of taking advantage of being all the way there, especially with a Seward sailing- just consistant EXCELLENT touring opportunities. I find it a real shame so many people miss out and just pass through. No intention to offend anyone for their choices, just the wish to give ideas for MORE to consider. Alaska still isn't a frequent trip for most, make the most of it.

[stan1]

Can okfarmerswife or anyone else tell me how close you were able to get to glaciers in Glacier Bay on NCL STAR? We have sailed there on Dawn Princess in past and got quite close. I have read Diamond Princess can't get very close in Tracy Arm, aas the ship is so large. Will appreciate the info as we hope to sail early June 2005. Thanks

[Budget Queen]

You can't compare sailing in Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. I have sailed Glacier Bay on MANY different size ships and always had nice close views. I'll be on the Star's first sailing and will report back for you.

[wolfie11]

How close you get to the glaciers in Glacier Bay is totally dependent on the captain. Some captains will get as close as possible and sit there for more than an hour. Others will hang a mile off the glacier. Most captains get up to 1/4 mile off (the minimum mandated by the park service). Time spent at the glaciers is somewhat dependent on where the ship is going next. Ships going to Ketchikan seem to spend less time in the bay and at the glaciers.