Alaska recommendations

[Coral]

On 1/8/2020 at 7:11 AM, GypsieMom said:

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments. A 7-night, southbound is what looks best for us at this time on Princess, either Coral on 5/27 or Grand on 5/16.  Does it make a difference?  I’m a bit confused about getting from the airport to the ship for embarkation. Also wondering, is a port-side cabin better for a southbound trip?  

I would go with the Coral Princess. Like the size.

 

Technically port but I don't think it matters. You want to be on deck as much as possible.

[crystalspin]

On 1/8/2020 at 5:11 AM, GypsieMom said:

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments. A 7-night, southbound is what looks best for us at this time on Princess, either Coral on 5/27 or Grand on 5/16.  Does it make a difference?  I’m a bit confused about getting from the airport to the ship for embarkation. Also wondering, is a port-side cabin better for a southbound trip?  

GM:

Have to speak up on @Tx-Bev remarks about dining on HAL -- it is no longer necessary to take any particular level of "dress-up clothes" to sail on Holland America (I'm counting on this being true for Princess as well). On HAL, there are no Formal Nights, they are called Gala Evenings and they exist to let people who *want* to dress up and sit for photos do so. There is a bit more special menu. That's all. The suggested dress code reads just like Smart Casual nights: a collared shirt for men, no jeans or at least no ragged, weathered, etc dungarees. One Gala night in Alaska, our guys (DH, DB, BIL) wore Hawaiian shirts! Sometimes DH wears a guayabera (Mexican wedding shirt), sometimes just a white oxford and a "grandpa" cardigan.

 

Additionally, HAL and Princess do not make you sit at the same table with the same people if you don't want to, just opt for Anytime Dining when you make your booking, then it works just like the NCL Freestyle described above. NCL fans can say the other mainstream lines stole their idea, but I believe it was market driven. 

 

Also, if you don't even want to pack a collared shirt, the Lido is not bad for dinner -- my mom prefers it and DH & I even ate there on our last cruise ON GALA NIGHT! We had eaten too much on the previous Gala night and wanted to avoid that.