First Alaska Cruise June 2018 - question on cabin selection

[sst267]

We are family of 4 adults (age 50+ & 20+) from Singapore planning for an Alaska Cruise this early June 2018. This will be our first cruise. I have shortlisted 3 cruises

1. Star princess northbound 9 June departure from Vancouver

2. Nieuw Amsterdam 9 June Vancouver round trip.

3. NCL Jewel northbound depart 11 june Vancouver.(will consider this if above 2 are not available)

 

We are on budget, will look at inside cabin, preferably mid ship to minimize seasick.

Went through the deck layout of both, Princess have good choices of midship inside cabin but not so for Nieuw Amsterdam.

 

Would like to check:

1. for Star princess, which deck should we avoid for cabin selection. ( I understand it is better not to stay below LIDO deck)

2. for Nieuw Amsterdam, is the 'J' room on main deck midship area okay , will it be noisy?

3. As I'm worry about seasick, for Nieuw Amsterdam, the higher deck inside cabin are mostly Aft ship, are they okay?

 

Thank you

Cheers, SST

[Keith1010]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

For your first two questions they are really not Alaska specific but are cruise ship specific so I would post these on the Cruise Line Boards.

 

For Star Princess post your question about Cabin Selection on the Princess Cruise Line Board at:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=197

 

For the Nieuw Amsterdam, post this question about the deck on the Holland Cruise Line Board at:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=171

 

As to your last question you can also ask this on the Holland America Board.

 

In general you will feel more motion in a room close to the aft of the ship compared to being mid deck but far less then you will by being very far forward.

 

If you think you are prone to very little movement then I would just stay with mid ship rooms but if you can tolerate some motion then I would consider this one along with those you are looking at mid ship.

 

Keith

[kawagama]

If you think you will be seasick, bring something for that, as you won't be in your cabin the whole time. Depending on the weather you encounter, you may be up for some large waves and tide swells north of Vancouver Island in the open waters. We did, on our cruise, and did get seasick--rather unexpectedly as we are seasoned boaters. The tidal swells up north are big and if there are waves, then the boat will move in two different directions.

[nukesubsailor]

We are family of 4 adults (age 50+ & 20+) from Singapore planning for an Alaska Cruise this early June 2018. This will be our first cruise. I have shortlisted 3 cruises

1. Star princess northbound 9 June departure from Vancouver

2. Nieuw Amsterdam 9 June Vancouver round trip.

3. NCL Jewel northbound depart 11 june Vancouver.(will consider this if above 2 are not available)

 

We are on budget, will look at inside cabin, preferably mid ship to minimize seasick.

Went through the deck layout of both, Princess have good choices of midship inside cabin but not so for Nieuw Amsterdam.

 

Would like to check:

1. for Star princess, which deck should we avoid for cabin selection. ( I understand it is better not to stay below LIDO deck)

2. for Nieuw Amsterdam, is the 'J' room on main deck midship area okay , will it be noisy?

3. As I'm worry about seasick, for Nieuw Amsterdam, the higher deck inside cabin are mostly Aft ship, are they okay?

 

Thank you

Cheers, SST

 

Sail on the Star Princess. Book a cabin on deck 9 close to the center of the length of the ship for a smooth ride. It will be quiet with cabins below and above it rather than public areas.

[new_cruiser]

Lower decks usually have less sway so tend to be better.

Most of the cruise is in fairly sheltered waters (inside passage with islands between the ship and the sea) so should be relatively calm.

You are in more open water for part of the first day (and last day on a round trip) going between the Canadian Inside Passage and Alaskan Inside Passage and, for a Northbound, for the last full day crossing the Gulf of Alaska. Therefore, we didn't worry much about cabin position on our Alaska Northbound cruise. If a cruise goes to Sitka, there can be some rougher water getting to and from it.

 

I'm going on a Pacific Crossing in May and was more careful to get a midship cabin for that.

 

Any particular cabins being noisy or not is going to depend on the particular ship layout and is best asked on the cruise line boards.

 

The North bound cruises have the advantage of making it easy to add some extra time on land in Alaska. The boat trip we took out of Seward to the Kenai Fjords was one of the highlights of our cruise. We saw a lot of sea life and birds and got a closer look at some glaciers. If you do Princess, there are similar boat trips out of Whittier.