comparing RCCL cruise tour/lodges in Alaska vs. Princess; anyone done both?

[Kellie in Texas]

I asked this on the Alaska forum and didn't get a response. Doing my early research for summer 2020. Has anyone been on both Princess and RCCL cruise tours and stayed at their lodges? I think I understand that Princess owns their own lodges and RCCL has contracts with independent lodges. I'm not interested in any other cruiselines, just these two.

 

We'd probably be looking at a 10-11 day cruise tour package. We've cruised Alaska on Princess back in June 2011, on a 7-day round trip from Seattle, so this cruise will be to revisit and add on the land portion, which we did not do last time. We've also cruised elsewhere on RCCL and like their ships too. The cruise tour part of the trip may be the deciding factor.

 

Thanks for any insight.

[BopRN]

We are also planning an Alaska trip and deciding between the 2 cruise lines. I don't have info on lodges, but I will tell you that I found in my research that RCCL does not have a license to go to Glacier National Park which is apparently breath-taking and a "must-do" on a trip to Alaska. Only Princess & HAL have a license to go there. For that reason alone, we will probably do Princess, even though we are Loyal to Royal cruisers.

[Clarea]

We are also planning an Alaska trip and deciding between the 2 cruise lines. I don't have info on lodges, but I will tell you that I found in my research that RCCL does not have a license to go to Glacier National Park which is apparently breath-taking and a "must-do" on a trip to Alaska. Only Princess & HAL have a license to go there. For that reason alone, we will probably do Princess, even though we are Loyal to Royal cruisers.

Nitpicking, but to avoid confusion, the area in Alaska is called Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve. Glacier National Park is in Montana.

[Kellie in Texas]

I should have also said in my original post that we did go to Glacier Bay NP in 2011, so it being on the itinerary in 2020 isn't necessarily going to be a deciding factor. Although it was spectacular!

[mafig]

I have always heard that for Alaska it's Princess or Holland America.;)

[Clarea]

I have always heard that for Alaska it's Princess or Holland America.;)

I've read the same. Supposedly, they have been going there the longest and have access to the prime areas.

[soleil1995]

Hi Kellie;

We did a 7 Day Alaskan cruise in July/August 2013 - Coral Princess from Whittier AK to Vancouver. Glacier Bay National Park was one of the highlights of the cruise! We really enjoyed cruising, since there are a number of places in Alaska that you can only get to by ship/boat or plane.

 

Prior to the cruise, we did a 9-Day DIY Land Tour....we wanted to customize our trip and the Princess Cruisetours just didn't offer us enough flexibility. I found that if you didn't book an organized Cruisetour, it was very difficult to arrange for accommodations (for the dates we needed) at the Princess Lodges. We rented an SUV at the Anchorage airport and directly booked our own "hotels' - mainly local Alaskan lodges/inns. The staff at each of the places we stayed helped advise us and book our day trips/activities (salmon fishing, whitewater rafting, Kenai Fjords cruising). We also found that everything books up quickly- we ended up making our car and hotel reservations almost a year in advance.

 

Also, I would definitely recommend doing the land tour prior to the cruise - more relaxing that way. Finally, if possible, you should try to stay at each location at least 2 days. You don't want to spend the majority of your vacation days driving from place to place.

[olemissreb]

We did our own land tour back in 2013. I looked at cruise tours, but with a 13yo & 17yo, I really wanted the flexibility to go and see the things that truly interested us. My oldest wouldn't have gotten to fly a plane in all likelihood if we had gone with a cruise tour. It's really easy to do it yourself if you want. Yes, you do have to book a year in advance to get of the things you want, but if you write yourself a note, it's not too bad plus an added bonus is that if there is anything that requires pre-payment, you have a year to pay it all off!!

 

While staying in a Princess Lodge might have been nice, where we stayed wasn't bad and I don't feel like we missed out on anything. We were part way up a mountain and the views were spectacular. I don't know if you can say the same staying at a Princess Lodge.

 

Plus - check out the Northern Lights and Alaska TourSaver books online and see if there are any coupons you can use. I found several for our trip. Between using coupons, an Avis Wizard #, hotel points we saved a ton over doing a cruise tour and we were able to go at our own pace and stop to see things along the way that interested us.

[soleil1995]

We did our own land tour back in 2013. I looked at cruise tours, but with a 13yo & 17yo, I really wanted the flexibility to go and see the things that truly interested us. My oldest wouldn't have gotten to fly a plane in all likelihood if we had gone with a cruise tour. It's really easy to do it yourself if you want. Yes, you do have to book a year in advance to get of the things you want, but if you write yourself a note, it's not too bad plus an added bonus is that if there is anything that requires pre-payment, you have a year to pay it all off!!

 

While staying in a Princess Lodge might have been nice, where we stayed wasn't bad and I don't feel like we missed out on anything. We were part way up a mountain and the views were spectacular. I don't know if you can say the same staying at a Princess Lodge.

 

Plus - check out the Northern Lights and Alaska TourSaver books online and see if there are any coupons you can use. I found several for our trip. Between using coupons, an Avis Wizard #, hotel points we saved a ton over doing a cruise tour and we were able to go at our own pace and stop to see things along the way that interested us.

 

I agree with olemissreb.....it was very easy to plan the land tour arrangements, we stayed in some lovely accommodations and met some wonderful local residents. For the SUV rental, we traveled with another couple and rented a Yukon....we got a great deal, since we are Costco members.

[billsgal]

We have done cruise tours on both Princess (1) and Royal (2), the last one being in June 2017. Frankly, I don't see much difference in the accommodations.......these are lodges,not 5 star hotels. They both have nice rooms, clean and a restaurant attached or close by.

Princess does have their own lodges, but they were no different than the ones used by Royal. Only one that was "primitive" IMHO, was the Seward Winding Lodge, and it was clean and had a restaurant, the staff was very nice, but it was nestled among the pine trees and not as new as any others used by the lines. The lodge in Talkeetna used by Royal is gorgeous and has great views. We have stayed in a couple of different ones in Fairbanks, and they were both equally fine.

 

The train cars use by both lines are very similar....only difference I noticed was we sat in groups of 4 on the Princess cars (so 2 people sat facing forward and 2 sat facing backwards) and the seats on Royal and Celebrity trains were all in groups of 2 and forward

facing.

 

I don't think you can go wrong going with either line, but we did two on Royal after we did Princess, so I perfer Royal.

 

We went into Hubbard Glacier both times with Royal and the views were spectacular.

 

Holland and Princess have been doing the cruise tours longer than Royal, but it should depend on itinerary, timing and price. Whichever you choose, have a great time!