2021 advance planning QE Alaska vs QM2 Grand Norwegian

[TheOldBear]

I'm starting advance planning for our next cruise - likely for summer 2021 🙂

 

So far it looks like a choice between Alaska [likely on QE; possibly on a HAL ship] and another round trip crossing on QM2

 

Alaska would be [on the surface] shorter & cheaper, but would involve flying 😞  plus the recommended hotel stays before and after the cruise [allowing for connection problems & jet lag]. Norway is much simpler logistically - less than two hours drive to Brooklyn, plus we can take our over abundance of luggage.

 

Asking folks who have done both Alaska and Norway cruises, which did you enjoy more? 

[Underwatr]

HAL's 14-day Seattle round trip to Alaska is hard to beat. Smaller ship, large number of ports (including Anchorage proper, only Skagway and Glacier Bay were "missing" on our 2017 cruise, but we did see Endicott Arm -- as a substitute for the adjacent Tracy Arm due to ice conditions -- and Hubbard Glacier ). 

 

We had 2/3 of the July 2020 Grand Norway cruise booked (Southampton to Norway to Southampton to NYC) but life (and death) interceded. I'd say it depends on your preference for port visits vs. QM2 transatlantics.

[Colin_Cameron]

We’ve been to Norway numerous times, both cruises and land holidays. And we cruised in Alaska 20+ years ago with Cunard (hard to believe now that they had three ships in Alaska at the same time!).

 

In my opinion Norway wins by a nose. The fjords in Alaska are much bigger and that scale somehow makes them less impressive. The Norwegian ones being narrower and tighter on both sides of the ship.

 

I think it would come down to the individual ports and whether they took our fancy.