Alaska - Hump Or Aft

[over the edge]

For an Alaskan cruise, would you do a hump cabin with large balcony or an aft balcony on the Serenade?? I hear the sights are spectacular, but I have no idea what location on the ship would be best. :confused:

 

Also, I have two itineraries to choose from. The only difference is one has Icy Strait Point and the other has Sitka.

 

I know nothing about Alaska, although I plan to spend several months doing lots of research. I would appreciate any comments, suggestions and reasons for your choices.

 

Tks!!:)

[Sue L]

We took a hump on the Serenade because we love the convience and since it is a roundtrip we figured we can't go wrong. Plus we wanted our kids nearby and I felt they were too far away if we were on the aft.

 

I do have the aft for the Brilliance, for the Panama so we love both. I think this one is a matter of personal preference though if I kids weren't coming we probably would have tried for the aft.

 

 

Sue

[Puffinater]

Had cabin 8588 (hump) northbound on the Radiance. Perfect for viewing. Great location. Across the hall from the elevators and never a traffic issue. Would recommend it 100%.

[fla-red]

We had 9586 (middle of hump) on Radiance and loved it. Very convenient to everything and can also see the front to the back of the ship. We have the hump next week on Serenade for southern, but picked aft for our Panama Canal trip. Wanted to see the locks close behind us.

[Sue L]

Had cabin 8588 (hump) northbound on the Radiance. Perfect for viewing. Great location. Across the hall from the elevators and never a traffic issue. Would recommend it 100%.

 

 

I have 8586 booked right next door to where you were!!! They balconies look really big from the diagrams, are they in reality? Thanks for any info, if you have any pictures I would love to see them.

 

Sue

[Barbee524]

We have a hump cabin booked. We had this same cabin on the Radiance in May and loved the location and the large balcony. We booked the Sitka itinerary as we have already been to Icy Strait.

[over the edge]

Hi Barbee524,

 

Please, could you tell me what the difference is between Sitka and Icy Strait Point?? Is there one nicer than the other or are we winners regardless of which itinerary we pick??

[Barbee524]

Icy Strait is very small and a good port for excursions. There is some shopping right on shore and a very small Native American village. The village however, is a modern village it has one street and 2 stores. This is a very rustic port and will give you a taste of what it is like further inland in Alaska. This is also a tender port.

 

Unfortunatly I can't tell you about Sitka as I have never been there. I have been told that it is smaller than Juneau and Skagway and you can pretty much see the entire town on foot. You can still see the Russian influence as it was originally a Russian settlement.

[Sue L]

As I was doing my research I kept finding comments that Sitka was better overall port. Not that Icy strait is bad or anything but Sitka offers a little bit more. We chose the Sitka itinerary. We are going August 4th , come and join us!!!

 

Sue

[Puffinater]

I have 8586 booked right next door to where you were!!! They balconies look really big from the diagrams, are they in reality? Thanks for any info, if you have any pictures I would love to see them.

 

Sue

 

Yes balconies are bigger. You will love the one you have... plenty of room!! Do not have any pictures of just the balcony. If you search some of the photo sites I am sure you will turn some up. Our initial thought was that we would be bothered by foot traffic because of where the cabin is...but it was never an issue. Enjoy!

[over the edge]

Thanks for the invite Sue L :)

 

As mentioned, I know nothing about Alaska cruises, yet!! What is a good time to book a flight out of Vancouver postcruise?? Boy, are those flights expensive from Canada! :eek:

[over the edge]

Here is another question. The price for a D1 right now is $1599pp before taxes and port charges. Is this reasonable or were the prices quite a bit lower when they were first offered??

 

Prices on another Alaskan cruise I was checking went up since last night! :eek:

[beebes]

I have two comments. One is that we just saw a tv show stating that Sitka is the best whale watching in all of Alaska. Secondly, we have been on an Alaskan cruise, not to Sitka, and not on RCL, but we had a cabin in the front of the boat. So we could see were we were going and it wasn't too windy, as the ships go at a slower pace because they aren't in open water, like the Caribbean. I don't know if RCL has this type of cabin, but we loved it on our Alaskan cruise. The other thing I would suggest, and I believed it was as we left Juneau, there was a special up close tour to the Glacier that we went on. We left ahead of the ship on a small boat and got up really close to the glacier, and watched the calving (sp) (the ice breaking off and falling into the water) It was great! Then we met back up with the ship as it came in for it's view of the glaciers. It's a very limited tour and books up really fast!

[Sue L]

Thanks for the invite Sue L :)

 

As mentioned, I know nothing about Alaska cruises, yet!! What is a good time to book a flight out of Vancouver postcruise?? Boy, are those flights expensive from Canada! :eek:

 

 

This is why we are flying in and out of Seattle, we are saving about 700$ even with either renting a car or Amtrak.

[over the edge]

Wow, I'll have to look into that. You are definitely experienced in this.

 

How long does it take to drive to the port from your airport?

[Sue L]

Wow, I'll have to look into that. You are definitely experienced in this.

 

How long does it take to drive to the port from your airport?

 

 

From everything I can find it is about a 4 hour Amtrak or about 3 hour drive plus customs to get from Seattle to Vancouver. I live in NY so we have quite a few options for flights. I am trying to get Southwest which the airport would be 7 minutes, but will probably end up out of JFK which is an hour drive. We are going into Seattle the day before and seeing where my daughter has been living for the last two summers. She is a Microsoft intern and most likely will get a job offer from them at the end of next summer since she will be a senior in college. That is the other reason we are flying into Seattle because I want to see where she might end up moving to. She loves the area and we will spend the time touring around.

 

Sue

[OyVey]

We cruised to Alaska June '05 on the Serenade and had a hump balcony. We really enjoyed the extra space on the balcony. From now on while cruising RCL We will always go for a "hump". I have heard that aft can be quite noisy.

[sailor moon]

We did Alaska in 2005 and were just off the hump going forward (Radiance 1550) we are going again in June 2007 and opted for a hump (Serenade 1554) so we could see forward and aft from the balcony. We like aft but we also get tired of hiking from the aft to where ever we are going!