First cruise to Alaska…which one?

[rmzlvacationers]

My husband and I are planning a cruise to Alaska next August. We are more interested in the itinerary than the ship. Which is better and why…..

 

Brilliance  round trip from Vancouver 

Quantum  round trip from Seattle

Ovation    round trip from Seattle

Radiance  northbound Vancouver to Seward

Radiance  southbound Seward to Vancouver 

[OCSC Mike]

Radiance so you can spend as much time on land before or after the cruise as your wallet and schedule can afford (I prefer before).

 

I've only been there once in 2018 but we spent 10 days on land before sailing Radiance southbound and I wouldn't go back without a substantial land portion. Very long trip report in my signature if you're interested.

[Ourusualbeach]

28 minutes ago, rmzlvacationers said:

My husband and I are planning a cruise to Alaska next August. We are more interested in the itinerary than the ship. Which is better and why…..

 

Brilliance  round trip from Vancouver 

Quantum  round trip from Seattle

Ovation    round trip from Seattle

Radiance  northbound Vancouver to Seward

Radiance  southbound Seward to Vancouver 

If your only concern is the itinerary then it's definitely Radiance if you want to stick with Royal.  Princess and Holland have better itineraries if you are open to other cruise lines.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Ourusualbeach

[time4u2go]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

If your only concern is the itinerary then it's definitely Radiance if you want to stick with Royal.  Princess and Holland have better itineraries if you are open to other cruise lines.

I agree. I would definitely choose Princess. Royal doesn't go to Glacier Bay National Park. 

[surgie]

We did Celebrity southbound in 2015 (loved it) and are doing Radiance with the adult kids and grandkids in July 2024. It is important to note itineraries, as others have mentioned. We saw Hubbard Glacier in 2015 and it was stunning. 

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

As others have said, Royal isn't necessarily the best option for Alaska. We did Royal this year for reasons related to the ship, and it was nice, but I was reminded how much I like Princess and Celebrity for Alaska itineraries.

[deliver42]

We've done the Ovation, and the main reason is that it stays in Victoria for a long time. To the best of my knowledge it's the only ship that does. Most only stay about 4 hours, either afternoon or evening. The Ovation stayed there from 1 to 11:59, which leaves a lot of time to see Bouchard Gardens.

[Tree_skier]

49 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

We've done the Ovation, and the main reason is that it stays in Victoria for a long time. To the best of my knowledge it's the only ship that does. Most only stay about 4 hours, either afternoon or evening. The Ovation stayed there from 1 to 11:59, which leaves a lot of time to see Bouchard Gardens.

I don't think Ovation always stays longer... At least it didn't when we were on her in 2022.  We had an evening arrival that last about four hours right over dinner time.

 

We have been to Victoria so many times we didn't get off the ship.

 

 

[RSLeesburg]

We did Radiance southbound with only three day land tour, and it was fantastic.  If we did again, we would do longer land tour up front.  
 

In terms of ships and/or itineraries, my advice is to find the best price for cruise as the more money you can spend on excursions is the way to go.  You will have amazing cruise no matter which line you take, but if you can put more money towards excursions with one cruise line over another, I would do it.  So much to see and do, you really want to get in as much as you can on one trip!  

[roupa]

Southbound to Vancouver!

 

If your budget allows, do some sort of land tour first…. either thru the cruiseline or on your own.  
We did a cruisetour several years ago that included Denali before a cruise with Princess … wonderful and well organized !  We also rented a car first and explored Anchorage to Seward to Anchorage.

Recently we cruised to Vancouver on the Radiance after self driving for a few days Anchorage to Homer to Seward.

Both trips were great...although the recent one was hampered by bad weather ( the luck of the draw on any trip).

It can be an expensive trip, so budget carefully and get the most you can…cruise/land or cruise only… if a trip to Alaska is a once in a lifetime adventure.

[volk904]

I would say do the Radiance trip so you can land tour inland before or after the cruise plus you hit more ports.  That was our plan but we took the Brilliance trip on the Serenade last June when asked to go with my brother and sister.  . It was a great trip but down we want to go back to do the one way trip.   

[neverbeenhere]

As stated, if you are going to cruise to Alaska, you want Glacier Bay included. Also, ships out of Vancouver are better than out of Seattle. 
 

We’ve been many, many times on various lines. But for one timers, the above advice is mandatory. 
 

Also, I would want the big three on the cruise… Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway.    

[Ourusualbeach]

8 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I don't think Ovation always stays longer... At least it didn't when we were on her in 2022.  We had an evening arrival that last about four hours right over dinner time.

Correct.  Both Quantum and Ovation only have a couple itineraries that have the longer stay in Victoria.  Most of the stops are 5pm to 10pm.

[island lady]

We adore Radiance Seward B2B (which was cancelled during Covid in 2020)...but have done that route 4 times previous.  Each time we do a pre-cruise tour on our own, renting a car from Anchorage.  

 

Will be doing that again in 2025, booking on upcoming Wonder the end of this month.  

[cruiseguy1016]

Take a one-way cruise and spend some time on land before or after the ctuise. We spent a week on land before our southbound cruise on Radiance. We thought the trip would be a once in a lifetime trip for us. It wasn't. After spending "only" one week on land we knew we had to go back. Alaska has so much more to offer tha what you will be able to see while on a cruise. The cruise portion of our trip was nice but we didn't get to see enough of the interior. We went back and spent two weeks on land.

[OCSC Mike]

6 minutes ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

Take a one-way cruise and spend some time on land before or after the ctuise. We spent a week on land before our southbound cruise on Radiance. We thought the trip would be a once in a lifetime trip for us. It wasn't. After spending "only" one week on land we knew we had to go back. Alaska has so much more to offer tha what you will be able to see while on a cruise. The cruise portion of our trip was nice but we didn't get to see enough of the interior. We went back and spent two weeks on land.

 

Agree 100%. We did 10 days on land then Radiance southbound and felt the same way, although we crammed enough into those 10 days plus the cruise ports that we were pretty satisfied with what we got to do and see. We'd still never go back without a significant land portion.

Edited October 20, 2023 by OCSC Mike

[GimmeOcean]

If I were to go back to Alaska, I would definitely spend some time on land and sail southbound from Seward.

[jean87510]

We did the Seward to Vancouver run in May 2022.  Loved it so much we are going back to do the 6B September 2024 land cruise tour.  Picked September because it's my 60th.  We will save Glacier Bay for another time as we wanted a more active sightseeing trip.

[rmzlvacationers]

thanks everyone for the info!   Thinking we are going to go for Radiance and add in a pre-cruise land tour.  Is it better to do northbound or southbound?

[OCSC Mike]

8 minutes ago, rmzlvacationers said:

Is it better to do northbound or southbound?

 

Likely personal preference but, as I posted earlier, I prefer to the land portion first and then southbound. We were doing stuff nonstop on land and happy to have a bit of rest on the cruise afterwards (not that we weren't busy in those ports too but you get sea days, no train to take to the next destination, etc.). You also get a shorter flight home that way which was also our preference.

[island lady]

3 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Likely personal preference but, as I posted earlier, I prefer to the land portion first and then southbound. We were doing stuff nonstop on land and happy to have a bit of rest on the cruise afterwards (not that we weren't busy in those ports too but you get sea days, no train to take to the next destination, etc.). You also get a shorter flight home that way which was also our preference.

 

Very true...in fact each time we do a Seward to Seward B2B...it's like the crew does not know what to do with us on turn around day...since most do one way Seward to Vancouver....or Vancouver to Vancouver on a B2B.  😉 

[OCSC Mike]

31 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Very true...in fact each time we do a Seward to Seward B2B...it's like the crew does not know what to do with us on turn around day...since most do one way Seward to Vancouver....or Vancouver to Vancouver on a B2B.  😉 

 

I can see that being rare.

 

Boarding in Seward was very odd for us. We spent 2 days and nights in Seward so we had already done an all day Kenai fjord tour, we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center where we fed the penguins and puffins (OK, not exactly why one should go to Alaska but my wife loves them and it was fun), and I forget what else. So we checked out of our hotel in the early morning and took a shuttle to the port. We boarded very early and no one else was there. We wandered through Radiance and the crew was standing around, some were watching the world cup (it was in Russia in 2018 so games were live at that time), the ones who try to sell you dining and beverage packages politely descended upon us... it took quite a while for a reasonable crowd to board b/c a lot of cruisers were either making their way from Anchorage or wherever and/or doing something in Seward that day and boarding later. We just wanted to chill and take a break after 10 days of non-stop planes, trains, and automobiles traveling from Fairbanks to Seward so we had zero problem being on an empty ship for a bit.

[Heidi13]

16 hours ago, rmzlvacationers said:

My husband and I are planning a cruise to Alaska next August. We are more interested in the itinerary than the ship. Which is better and why…..

 

Brilliance  round trip from Vancouver 

Quantum  round trip from Seattle

Ovation    round trip from Seattle

Radiance  northbound Vancouver to Seward

Radiance  southbound Seward to Vancouver 

 

If itinerary is your primary driver then any RCI ship is a poor choice, as they declined to accept permits for Glacier Bay during the last round of negotiations.

 

Princess & HAL would be better choices.

[island lady]

3 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

I can see that being rare.

 

Boarding in Seward was very odd for us. We spent 2 days and nights in Seward so we had already done an all day Kenai fjord tour, we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center where we fed the penguins and puffins (OK, not exactly why one should go to Alaska but my wife loves them and it was fun), and I forget what else. So we checked out of our hotel in the early morning and took a shuttle to the port. We boarded very early and no one else was there. We wandered through Radiance and the crew was standing around, some were watching the world cup (it was in Russia in 2018 so games were live at that time), the ones who try to sell you dining and beverage packages politely descended upon us... it took quite a while for a reasonable crowd to board b/c a lot of cruisers were either making their way from Anchorage or wherever and/or doing something in Seward that day and boarding later. We just wanted to chill and take a break after 10 days of non-stop planes, trains, and automobiles traveling from Fairbanks to Seward so we had zero problem being on an empty ship for a bit.

 

Ahh..yes.  So much looking forward to it...again. 🥰

 

Going to spend 3-4 weeks post cruise on our own doing the Copper river area of Kenai, (already did a wonderful 2 weeks in Homer last time) and a few days in Anchorage on the return.  We did drive up to Fairbanks the last time, then hired a bush pilot to take us north of the Artic circle for Bucky's 70th birthday wish!  

 

 

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, island lady said:

hired a bush pilot to take us north of the Artic circle for Bucky's 70th birthday wish!

 

That was actually close to the very 1st thing we did in Alaska. We flew into Fairbanks fairly late in the evening, had dinner, and went to sleep after what was obviously a long day... so we could get up at like 5am to drive north along the pipeline across the arctic circle. We stopped just across the line though, took some similar pictures, had cake with "permafrosting" to celebrate with our tour guide, then thankfully flew back. Ironically, that was one of our warmest days out of the 18, crossing the arctic circle.

 

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

the Copper river area of Kenai

 

I have an online acquaintance who is a hunting/fishing guide somewhere near the Kenai peninsula. Could be around there but I'm not sure. I have a standing offer to go see him... but I made sure that he knew that we would love to go around to see the animals, we just have no interesting in killing them, lol. He was of course fine with that.