Alaska on Royal Princess

[Rockamillion01]

Looking for information on Alaska cruise leaving from Vancouver and ending in Whittier.  Which side would you recommend?  It's our 1st time to Alaska and want to make the right choice...hopefully you can help!!  I believe one side is water only and the other has land and water, not sure how far away land is?   Thanks in advance

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

The standard reply is that it doesn't really matter all that much.  Because so much of this cruise is on the inside passage, you will get great views from either side.

 

Once you're in open ocean heading into Whittier, I remember being far enough away from land that you could barely see it, and not really appreciate it.

 

I do have a slight preference for the right side - just because we've had such great whale watching experience heading into Juneau on this itinerary.  Logic would tell you that you would get similar viewing from the left side, but I'm not a fan of logic, so I stick with the right side.

 

As a counter point to this, the land-side of the trip into/out of Skagway is one of my favorite (and probably the most underrated parts) of the cruise.  Because you will be there so early, being on the left side would mean that you get some great views coming out of Skagway in the evening.

[Whitetrike]

Just finished that cruise on June 1st...was very happy to have been in a starboard balcony stateroom.  The scenery is spectacular!  So much so we didn't turn the television on the entire cruise!  Enjoy your cruise!!

 

Whitetrike

[Glaciers]

Hopefully you’ll be spending time on the decks since your view from the balcony will limit what you can see.  As mentioned, you’ll have land on both sides much of the trip since you’ll be in the inside passage.

 

The ships transit the right side of Glacier Bay so if you have a starboard cabin you will have a wonderful view of the shore including Gloomy Knob where there are frequently goats. There are also bears along the shore occasionally. The ships travel along the opposite shore heading out so, again, your starboard cabin would be closest to shore. They did begin sailing closer to South Marble Island while heading out of the bay which will be on the port side. You’ll pass a couple of sea lion haul outs there.

 

Since we spend quite a bit of time on deck we’re not really concerned with which side of the ship although it can be very nice to have a port side balcony in the evenings to watch, what can be, some spectacular sunsets.

 

 

[dcrow72]

Definitely starboard/right side.  We did southbound on the port side and saw beautiful scenery almost the entire trip.  So glad we did it.  Had a friend on starboard who didn't get all the scenery.  We did however switch from cabin to cabin while spinning in glacier bay!  We had great views of everything from our balcony and listened to the narration of the park rangers on the TV.   It was an amazing trip!

[Coral]

57 minutes ago, dcrow72 said:

Definitely starboard/right side.  We did southbound on the port side and saw beautiful scenery almost the entire trip.  So glad we did it.  Had a friend on starboard who didn't get all the scenery.  We did however switch from cabin to cabin while spinning in glacier bay!  We had great views of everything from our balcony and listened to the narration of the park rangers on the TV.   It was an amazing trip!

I have done B2B in the same cabin and honestly don't think one side is better than the other.

[patrickmoran]

Are there any particularly good viewing spots on the decks? With no wrap around promenade deck and no gym in the front, where's the best viewing?

Thanks

[dcrow72]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:50 PM, patrickmoran said:

Are there any particularly good viewing spots on the decks? With no wrap around promenade deck and no gym in the front, where's the best viewing?

Thanks

anywhere up on 16 or 17 on the open decks.  People hogged the window seas in the buffet for hours.  We just used our balconies; one port and one starboard.  

[geoherb]

There are still the outside decks on the Promenade Deck. Our favorite cabin on an Alaskan cruise was a forward-facing cabin with balcony on the Sapphire Princess. There are just a few on the Royal on the Marina and Lido Decks.