Princess vs. Celebrity for glaciers?

[mechaiah]

I'm trying to decide between Celebrity (Solstice) and Princess (Ruby) for an Alaskan cruise. We need to depart from Seattle (and end up back there too) and we have a fairly tight time frame for when we can do this, so there aren't a ton of options (which is better for me b/c I can't make decisions!).

 

Celebrity is actually less expensive but the ship does not go to Glacier Bay (it goes instead to the Tracy Arm Fjord). The Princess option goes to Glacier Bay. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've heard great things about Celebrity but seeing glaciers is the most important thing to me and I keep hearing that Glacier Bay is better than Tracy Arm Fjord which can get iced in.

 

Any help would be appreciated because I need to make my decision in the next 24 hours. Thank you!

[Jeter02]

I'm booked on the Ruby for 2 weeks for the Alaska sailings. Glacier Bay Hands down!!!! Glaciers won't be around forever, so you might as well get it in ow. Plus its a National Park.

[cat-tav]

I've only been to Alaska once and it was on Princess. It was our first cruise and the TA that I talked to said that the absolute best lines for Alaska are Princess and Holland America, primarily because they are the only ones with access to Glacier Bay. We chose Princess because it seemed a better fit for us than Holland America. We LOVED it! Glacier Bay was absolutely amazing. The captain rotated the ship 360 degrees so wherever you were standing, you got a spectacular view. They set up a buffet on the deck that included lots of assorted seafood and a tasty reindeer chili, among other things. I've sailed on both Princess and Celebrity and did not find a lot of difference between the two, but for Alaska, I'd choose Princess in order to get to see Glacier Bay.

[Pam in CA]

Celebrity, due to previous environmental violations, does not have permission to sail to the better glaciers and National Park areas. Celebrity also does not have the same infrastructure in Alaska as Princess or HAL. If you cruise for the ship, by all means sail on Celebrity but if you want to see Alaska, Princess and HAL are the better choices.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I've done Solstice and I've done Star most recently in Alaska. First let me say that I used to love Celebrity but I don't anymore. They have dropped their fares but they have also stopped entertaining passengers unless you want to pay for said entertainment. It seemed like everything in the daily newsletter had a charge or you knew you were going to get suckered into something- champagne art shows, wine tastings, spa demonstrations, etc. A lot of pestering to try the specialty restaurants. Lots of sales around the pool. It's gotten tacky, and I was bored. This from a diehard Celebrity fan at one time.

 

I love Princess- the ships, the activities, the entertainment, the food. Has been consistently good.

 

Hands down Glacier Bay is better than Tracy's Arm. You spend hours sailing down the arm to get a glimpse of a glacier far off in the distance. Totally anti-climactic.

 

You want to do roundtrip Seattle, but my favorite glacier experience is College Fjords. That's really the most spectacular IMO, Glacier Bay is second.

[towhee]

We've been to Alaska multiple times. We rank the glacier experience - Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier, College Fjord, Tracy Arm.

We've been in Tracy Arm six times and have managed to see Sawyer Glacier exactly once! In fact last year they took us to Endicott Glacier in place of Sawyer Glacier because of ice conditions.

[OCruisers]

Don't miss the opportunity to see Glacier Bay!!!! :D

[ccruzer123]

Glacier Bay is a most see place. Tracy Arm was really disappointing.

[Charles4515]

Celebrity, due to previous environmental violations, does not have permission to sail to the better glaciers and National Park areas. Celebrity also does not have the same infrastructure in Alaska as Princess or HAL. If you cruise for the ship, by all means sail on Celebrity but if you want to see Alaska, Princess and HAL are the better choices.

 

It was actually Royal Caribbean that had environmental violations. Because they bought Celebrity that affected Celebrity. But that was long ago. In the last century. That penalty has expired. Neither goes to Glacier Bay now because they have choose not to apply for permits.

 

Now that Princess has had a huge environmental violation one wonders what will happen when the permits come up again.

 

In any case in my opinion one should only consider Celebrity for Alaska iif they have already done Glacier Bay.

[4cats4me]

I love both cruiselines and have taken them both to Alaska. Go on the Princess cruise. In the past we've gone to Hubbard Glacier on Celebrity, and THAT was the best of all of them. Huge, expansive

Glaciers. college fjord was amazing but only because we were SO close. Glacier Bay twice has been wonderful, but not nearly as impressive as Hubbard, and Tracy Arm doesn't even rate, in my humble opinion. Also, we were fogged out last time anyway.

 

 

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[Coral]

It was actually Royal Caribbean that had environmental violations. Because they bought Celebrity that affected Celebrity. But that was long ago. In the last century. That penalty has expired. Neither goes to Glacier Bay now because they have choose not to apply for permits.

 

Now that Princess has had a huge environmental violation one wonders what will happen when the permits come up again.

 

In any case in my opinion one should only consider Celebrity for Alaska iif they have already done Glacier Bay.

 

RCCL and Celebrity choose not to apply as they most likely will not be granted as a few lines (Princess and HAL) are granted due to being historical rights/operators (or something like that) and take the majority of permits. RCCL knows they probably won't be granted, thus they don't apply due to possible denial. Some other lines do have permits for some of their ships (NCL, etc..).

 

Who knows if Princess's recent incident will affect Alaska cruises in the future.