Alaska with kids - a few questions

[Paleochick]

We're thinking about going on a cruise with our kids (6 and 8) this summer (June-Aug). We've cruised with them before, when they were smaller, and we really hated it (Royal Caribbean and Carnival). Now that they're bigger, we're going to try it again. The only thing my dh requires is that we get connecting cabins, or a family cabin where we can close a curtain or a door between us and the kids at night. But, we don't want one of those mega cabins you can invite the whole family reunion in to. We don't have the budget for that.

 

I've been reading old threads. It seems Celebrity has a Verandah Family cabin that would work for us. Norwegian has a Family Balcony cabin. We can't afford Disney. I'm quite sure we want a balcony for Alaska, right? Which other ships/cabins would have a reasonably priced Family balcony cabin with a curtain or door between the kid areas and the adult areas? My kids are light sleepers and we spent many nights on previous ships hiding in the bathroom so they could sleep. Not fun. We have to have that separation.

 

Is it cheaper to sail out of Seattle? How does it work if you sail out of one city, and return to another? Doesn't that make airfare skyrocket?

 

Thanks for getting me started this time around.

 

ETA: I think we want an itinerary that takes us to glaciers, and maybe Icy Strait...anything else you'd recommend we MUST see with kids?

 

Are there any perks to booking on Carnival or RCCL again?

[parrotthead]

Id say "Must do excursions" would be Panning for Gold, either in the River or at one of the 'staged" sights. (they will find gold at either excursion) the River one you actually go to a river where the gold rushers used to pan. (thats what we did) but you do stand at the edge of the water or in the shallow...we went at the end of July and it was cool (40s)and rainy a bit (its Alaska, we expected that)

We also did a Salmon bake where they had a FirePit and Marshmellows for Roasting...also a stream you could walk along and see the Salmon running.

(Both Carnival and Royal have Great Kids programs)

[TheCalicoCat]

We're thinking about going on a cruise with our kids (6 and 8) this summer (June-Aug). We've cruised with them before, when they were smaller, and we really hated it (Royal Caribbean and Carnival). Now that they're bigger, we're going to try it again. The only thing my dh requires is that we get connecting cabins, or a family cabin where we can close a curtain or a door between us and the kids at night. But, we don't want one of those mega cabins you can invite the whole family reunion in to. We don't have the budget for that.

 

I've been reading old threads. It seems Celebrity has a Verandah Family cabin that would work for us. Norwegian has a Family Balcony cabin. We can't afford Disney. I'm quite sure we want a balcony for Alaska, right? Which other ships/cabins would have a reasonably priced Family balcony cabin with a curtain or door between the kid areas and the adult areas? My kids are light sleepers and we spent many nights on previous ships hiding in the bathroom so they could sleep. Not fun. We have to have that separation.

 

Is it cheaper to sail out of Seattle? How does it work if you sail out of one city, and return to another? Doesn't that make airfare skyrocket?

 

Thanks for getting me started this time around.

 

ETA: I think we want an itinerary that takes us to glaciers, and maybe Icy Strait...anything else you'd recommend we MUST see with kids?

 

Are there any perks to booking on Carnival or RCCL again?

 

1. We chose inside - it will be light out when it is time for us to sleep...

2. If you can't afford Disney, connecting interior may be your only option - for the actual separation. (My assumption being that the family cabin would be as expensive - if not moreso - assuming that they are even available.) Those connecting rooms sell out fast too.

3. Have you verified that the cabin types that you are interested in are even available? You might need to wait until the 2013 itineraries are available to get what you need.

4. For us, Glacier Bay was a must, it is a National Park for a reason.

5. We are sailing out of Vancouver (flying into Seattle, taking Amtrak to Vancouver) round trip - I want to sail to the east of Vancouver Island. (Not as "big" as Glacier Bay, but it was on my list of priorities.)

6. Carnival & RCL were not on my list of lines to look at because they do not go into Glacier Bay.

[parrotthead]

Carnival goes to Glacier Bay...

7nt Alaskan from VanCouver May1st

and Sept11 from Seattle, Wa

7 Day Alaska from Vancouver, BC, Canada

 

Departs from:Vancouver, BC, CanadaAboard the:Carnival SpiritPorts of Call:Vancouver, BC, CanadaCruise Inside PassageJuneau, AKSkagway, AKCruise Glacier BayKetchikan, AK

Spirit

7 Day Alaska from Vancouver, BC, Canada

 

 

 

 

7 Day Glacier Bay from Seattle, WA

 

 

 

Departs from:

 

Seattle, WA

 

 

 

Aboard the:

 

Carnival Spirit

 

 

 

Ports of Call:

 

Seattle, WAJuneau, AKCruise Glacier BaySkagway, AKKetchikan, AKCruise Inside Passage

[Paleochick]

Thanks.

I have seen some family balcony rooms available for the summer, so if I book, I need to do it soon.

 

Thanks, everyone.

[SadieN]

The Carnival Spirit has balcony cabins that connect to insides all the way forward.

 

Our kids also enjoyed sailing on HAL.

 

In Sitka we took a wildlife boat tour.

Icy Straight has an extremely long zipline, has seats and only one stop. The bear walk was also enjoyable. In 2007 Icy Straight had the best prices of any port.

Ketchikan DH took the DDs snorkeling.

 

The first time we did Alaska (HAL) we had an OV and spent our time on deck. The second cruise, also on HAL, had a balcony and missed the excitement of the deck. Also felt 'contained' by the balcony, enjoyed the sky above me on deck. Also on the balcony we couldn't hear the naturalist. HAL opens up the bow for pax at the glaciers and serves hot pea soup.

[lmg1230]

When we cruised to Alaska our girls were 10 and 4 and we had a mini-suite on Princess. Our bed and theirs were on opposite ends of the cabin so we were able to have dark on the balcony end while our younger daughter went to sleep and still have a lamp on in the other end of the cabin. This past summer we cruised in the Mediterranean on Celebrity and had interconnecting cabins which were great. There are certain side-by-side veranda cabins that can be made connecting by enclosing them with a second set of doors. The advantage for us was two separate rooms, two bathrooms (girls 15 and 8 now so more important) and an extra-large balcony. The cost for two balcony rooms actually worked out to be less than having four of us in a suite on Princess.

 

Lisa

[TheCalicoCat]

Carnival goes to Glacier Bay...

7nt Alaskan from VanCouver May1st

and Sept11 from Seattle, Wa

 

 

My mistake - I also did not want to travel in the very begining or very end of the season. So I did not look at any May or September itineraries.

[deb63]

I bought the book Alaska by Cruise Ship by Anne Vipond, after reading it and pricing flights/cabins, etc. we went with the NCL Pearl. I knew I wanted to go out of Seattle (round trip) to save on airfare, and I wanted to go to Glacier Bay. The Pearl rated high in the cruise ship book, and they were affordable. We had a great cruise. The entertainment was incredible, the food fine, the crew was amazing. We are going back this summer on the NCL Jewel - which skips Glacier Bay, but offers more time in Victoria so we thought it would change up our trip some.

 

I'm with the previous poster about the panning for gold. I was surprised how in awe our DDs were about finding gold. We did the combo of gold panning w/ the whitepass railroad in Skagway - one of my DDs liked the train portion, but it was too long for the other one and she fell asleep. The highlight for all 4 of us, was probably whale-watching in Juneau. Seeing Orcas and Humpbacks. ..just very surreal.

 

As for balcony vs no balcony. . .there are public viewing areas available so if it is a budget breaker, it makes more sense to use the $ on excursions in port. We booked an aft facing mini suite for our trip, as I read it cut down on wind while you were on the balcony (not sure if that is true, just what I read on the Alaska board). For us it was perfect. The views were incredible. . .often my DH and I would just sit out there and watch the scenery go by. . .was just breathtaking. . .and it was incredible watching whales go by one evening. Anyhow, it was roomy enough for the 4 of us. . and there is a curtain that divided the couch-converted to bed area from the bed.

 

Have fun planning, I can't imagine you could go wrong with any of these choices (HAL, RCCL, Carnival).

[lman2b]

I don't have any advice on the Alaska questions, but we recently had a family room on Disney with a verandah and my son fell out of bed 3 times during that trip! After the first night, we put whatever we could up against his bed, he fell out the other way on a tiny section between the bed and the sliding glass door. After the second night and 2nd fall (and a bed railing installed along with everything against the bed that could hold him in) we switched him with our other child to the bottom bunk bed and he even managed to toss out of that one once as well?!?! It also had everything we could find to hold him in.

 

It wasn't a rocky boat ride, he must just be a super restless sleeper. His bed at home won't allow him to fall out, and now I realize how lucky we are for that!

 

Anyway, we have pictures with him having a large bruise on his forehead :( We did everything we could to keep it from happening, and he was in the lower beds so the falls weren't bad other than the bump to the forehead.

 

But had he been in a separate room, we might not have ever heard it! He seemed to continue sleeping after he fell and I would have felt horrible waking up and finding him on the floor!

 

My kids are also light sleepers early in the morning, but being in another room wouldn't have changed that. They were fine at night, too tired to be awakened from us. Its just (as usual for them) the early morning that they are easily awakened.

 

Are your children light sleepers at night, or just in the morning? If they are like mine, you will find that they will wake up early no matter what, just like normal.

 

Also, we had a curtain, but found it inconvenient. My daughter climbed in and out of the upper bunk bed where the curtain would close, so that portion couldn't be closed. And if we closed the curtain, we were not able to see the tv from our bed. So unless I wanted to watch tv, then get up and turn it off and close the curtain before going to sleep, it was useless to us.

 

I don't know if any of this helped.

 

Good luck!!

[TheCalicoCat]

He seemed to continue sleeping after he fell and I would have felt horrible waking up and finding him on the floor!

 

For the past several months, my son has chosen to sleep on the floor.;)

[Onessa]

We did several AK cruises when our DD was younger (when she was 6YO, 8YO and 9YO) - her cousin and cousin's husband were living in Juneau running one of the dog sled camps.

 

We did 2RCCI and 1Princess cruises. DH and I had taken two AK cruises b/f DD was born. I can say that we've done cruises past Glacier Bay and Hubbard, and while both were pretty incredible, in our experience Hubbard was a bit more "active" calving and the RCCI ships both got in really close. I concur that the glacier viewing is better on deck than on your balconey.

 

DD most enjoyed the dog sled stuff, a visit to a totem pole museum, and some wildlife viewing excursions. The Whitepass train ride was too long for her as well and she zonked out on the way back.

 

DD has always slept in the upper berth - she sleeps like a rock and we've never had an issue with her falling or thrashing about. But there are only three of us, I can see with four people and one bathroom that there may be some issues.

[cantw8togo]

Id say "Must do excursions" would be Panning for Gold, either in the River or at one of the 'staged" sights. (they will find gold at either excursion) the River one you actually go to a river where the gold rushers used to pan. (thats what we did) but you do stand at the edge of the water or in the shallow...we went at the end of July and it was cool (40s)and rainy a bit (its Alaska, we expected that)

We also did a Salmon bake where they had a FirePit and Marshmellows for Roasting...also a stream you could walk along and see the Salmon running.

 

(Both Carnival and Royal have Great Kids programs)

 

You would need to go in August or later to see the salmon spawning. We went in June and the salmon were still out to sea at that point.

 

I wish that we had taken our boys panning for gold when we were there. We went on the White Pass train in Skagway, and whale watching and to the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. In Ketchikan we took the city bus to Totem Bight and then walked around town for a bit. We stopped for lunch at the Fish House (I think that is what is called) and had the best halibut fish and chips ever; they still talk about it three years later. It was cold and rainy that day and they just wanted to go back to the ship which worked out well because the captain offered the kid's club a spontaneous tour of the bridge.

 

The kids weren't that interested in Glacier Bay, although the adults all loved it. To them, when you've seen one glacier, you've seen them all. No explanations of global warming, the fact that the glaciers may not be here the next time to come, if they ever to get back there at all didn't do much to pique their interest, although HAL had a great naturalist program for the kids in the club while in Glacier Bay. That trip was the only Kids Club of the six cruises that we have now been on that they went to regularily.

[Splash85]

The NCL mini-suites have a curtain that closes between the queen bed and the sofa bed. Both the curtains between the beds and the one in front of the sliding glass door are heavy and it gets extremely dark even during the day. The Pearl goes to Glacier Bay.

[Paumavista]

We cruised 2 years ago with 3 kids.....we flew to Alaska (stayed a couple days using a VRBO rental, checking out the Kenai area and sailed down to Vancouver including Glacier Bay).

We figured it might be a once in a life time trip and wanted to make the most of it.

We'd booked an inside cabin for the kids and a balcony for us...immediately across from them....the day before sailing Princess called my cell and told me they had upgraded us to the family suite:D - a super upgrade for the kids from inside to balcony suite!!!!

We went the last week of May and had sunny weather in the 60's for most of the trip. We rented cars and did our own tours at every stop because it was cheaper and my kids (and us) prefer to keep to our own schedule....I highly recommend this anytime you travel with children. The kids also loved the big indoor pool on princess and the beautiful kids area with a giant wall of windows - they also liked that there weren't crowds of kids like in the summer - instead they had a nice sized group that they really got to know.

Have a great trip....I believe it is still my favorite trip ever.

Judy