Choosing a cruise! Overwhelming.

[tddragoon]

My family and I are planning on an Alaskan cruise for next summer. I have been on a Caribbean cruise before, so I am not totally new to cruising. There are just so many choices for Alaska. I can't decide whether a round-trip or one way would be better. Are there any pros/cons I should know about between the itineraries?

 

Also, does one or two particular lines provide better experiences or are all lines the same? Just a note, we are from CST and EST, should we do anytime dining because of the time difference or will we be fine without it?

 

One final question, has anybody been to the new crab fishing Sea Star thing in Ketchikan? I'll post the link, but I'm not sure if it would be considered advertising or not.

 

As you can tell, I'm overwhelmed and any advice/links will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the potential double post, my internet likes to time-out often.

[Sunshine Gal]

Hi tddragoon,

 

If you have the time a one-way cruise is much preferable. Allow your self some time on land in Alaska before or after your cruise. The port cities are great but to really experience Alaska you need to travel inland in Alaska.

I would recommend renting a car and just do your own thing. Denali is my favorite destination. I have cruised to Alaska on Princes, Hal and Celebrity. I would highly recommend Princess or Hal for cruising Alaska. The food and service are very good on Celebrity, three of the four Celebrity m-class ships (Millennium, Infinity & Summit) have experienced, off and on, the same recurring mechanical problems for many years and for an Alaska cruise where getting to all of the ports is so important, for my self I would hesitate to sail any one of these three ships. I would recommend doing a lot of research, on your own, before you decide which cruise line to take for an Alaskan cruise.

Hope this information helps.

[Toyz711]

research each of the ports, find the ones that MOST interest YOU.

here's some information:

http://www.traveljuneau.com/

http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/mendenhall/

http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/

http://www.skagway.com/

i don't have sitka or hoonah (icy straits point), haines..or?

after you research the ports and the activities they offer..make a list. then you can go through the cruise ships and see which ones matches you list best.

as for round-trip vs 1-way...

to me, some of it is time...it take so much to get up there and do the long transfers, seems like a waste to not take the time to do more...like denali? to us is was "ease", leaving from seattle and doing a round-trip just worked for us. no packing and repacking, no transfers...made it more like a vacation for my DH.

be sure to learn your glaciers::D

http://www.alaskacruises.com/alaska_glacier_viewing.asp

[Cruising Carol]

Unless you have family in Seattle, and therefore a good reason to start cruise there, I would advise going from Vancouver. You will get beautiful cruising of the inside passage rather than ocean cruising out of Seattle. Vancouver is also worth spending some time before or after your cruise.

[Toyz711]

just to keep it real, the ocean sailing was only the 1st night. by 10am the next morning we were in the "passage" with views on both sides. since the open waters sailing was at night, i didn't even notice.

[tddragoon]

About Anchorage, Seward and Whittier are pretty much Anchorage right? Any comments on the time difference thing? We've pretty much narrowed the lines down to Princess. What about RCI, we've cruised with them before and loved them. How do they compare in Alaska? Thanks for everything so far!

[fti]

My family and I are planning on an Alaskan cruise for next summer. I have been on a Caribbean cruise before, so I am not totally new to cruising. There are just so many choices for Alaska. I can't decide whether a round-trip or one way would be better. Are there any pros/cons I should know about between the itineraries?

 

Also, does one or two particular lines provide better experiences or are all lines the same? Just a note, we are from CST and EST, should we do anytime dining because of the time difference or will we be fine without it?

 

One final question, has anybody been to the new crab fishing Sea Star thing in Ketchikan? I'll post the link, but I'm not sure if it would be considered advertising or not.

 

As you can tell, I'm overwhelmed and any advice/links will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the potential double post, my internet likes to time-out often.

 

Good comments and recommendations in the above posts. Do some reading of the first 10 pages or so of posts on this board. Look at cruise itineraries - which catches your eye? Generally booking a ship/line that hits the ports you are most interested is the way to start your search.

 

Another decision is if you want to visit Glacier Bay or not. Only a limited number of cruiselines can go there.

 

If you can do a one-way, as has been mentioned, you have the chance to do a land tour before or after your cruise. If at all possible, I would highly recommend that. Often the landtour is the highlight of the trip (though the ports the ship visits are also great).

 

If you have any questions once you do some initial research, feel free to post back and ask any questions.

 

John

[agabbymama]

Start by making a graph chart. Put the cruiselines/ships across the top. Down the side put things of interest (ports, cabin size, size of ship, time in ports, glaciers, one way or R/T, excursions offered, etc). As you research put an "X" in the adjoining box), and you can keep adding to it. When you finish your research, one line/ship should have more "X"s than the others. Like I really wanted to go to Sitka, so any ships that didn't go to Sitka were eliminated. This time I wanted to go to the Yukon, so chose a cruisetour with HAL (leaving the ship at Skagway going overland through Whitehorse and Dawson City Yukon to Interior Alaska, Eagle, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali and ending in Anchorage).

 

Anybody on this board can only advise what they liked, you have to be the one to research and decide what is best for you and your family. Alaska is beautiful and you will have a great time, regardless of what you decide to do.

[MercedMike]

Start by making a graph chart. Put the cruiselines/ships across the top. Down the side put things of interest (ports, cabin size, size of ship, time in ports, glaciers, one way or R/T, excursions offered, etc). As you research put an "X" in the adjoining box), and you can keep adding to it. When you finish your research, one line/ship should have more "X"s than the others. Like I really wanted to go to Sitka, so any ships that didn't go to Sitka were eliminated. This time I wanted to go to the Yukon, so chose a cruisetour with HAL (leaving the ship at Skagway going overland through Whitehorse and Dawson City Yukon to Interior Alaska, Eagle, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali and ending in Anchorage).

 

Anybody on this board can only advise what they liked, you have to be the one to research and decide what is best for you and your family. Alaska is beautiful and you will have a great time, regardless of what you decide to do.

 

OR -- you could go in to a good local Travel Agent who is a CLIA Accredited Cruise Counselor and is trained and equipped to do all that research for you! It is precisely because there are so many options and so many opinions that it is best to have a trained expert in your corner.

 

Whatever you pick -- Have a GREAT cruise!

[tddragoon]

The two things we really want to do are Ketchikan and Skagway. Everything else is just gravy. Between those two ports, I still have the option of one way or round trip. As for one ways, do you think that Alaska first is easier or Alaska last is easier? You guys have been great helps so far!

[brunolvr]

The two things we really want to do are Ketchikan and Skagway. Everything else is just gravy. Between those two ports, I still have the option of one way or round trip. As for one ways, do you think that Alaska first is easier or Alaska last is easier? You guys have been great helps so far!

 

Since you indicate Ketchikan & Skagway are two places you want to see, check the different ship itineraries and see how much time they actually spend in those two ports.

 

I highly recommend Glacier Bay for a first time Alaskan cruiser. I haven't done a one-way cruise, but I would prefer the land tour first, then be able to relax and wind down on the ship with the different port calls.

[Ivanova]

About Anchorage, Seward and Whittier are pretty much Anchorage right? Any comments on the time difference thing? We've pretty much narrowed the lines down to Princess. What about RCI, we've cruised with them before and loved them. How do they compare in Alaska? Thanks for everything so far!

 

Seward is about 125 miles from Anchorage, and Whittier is about 60 miles away. Both are cruise gateways to Anchorage, and it just depends on which cruise line you sail as to which gateway you'd be at.

 

Many people prefer doing the land tour first, and then having the cruise to relax afterwards. For our recent trip we cruised first (6/29/2007 Radiance of the Seas) and then did a 6 night land tour afterwards (Seward-Anchorage-Denali-Talkeetna-Anchorage).

[LuvShak]

Hello tddragoon,

 

All this info and cruise line brochures can be overwhelming right? Hey, the planning is supposed to be fun too. I remember going thru all of this back in 2004. We were in our late 30's at the time. In the end, after about going blind reading for days and days, we decided that for us:

 

1) A one way gave us more of what we wanted to see...glaciers! So we narrowed our choices to those cruise lines that offered either a Northbound or Southbound choice.

 

2) We had hear soooo much about Glacier Bay NP that we narrowed our choices to only those CL that offered that.

 

3) We wanted to take the opportunity to see gorgeous Vancouver, so we chose CL that embarked/disembarked from this port.

 

After that, the number of choices were manageable, figure out which itin dates fit into our schedule and which still had the availability (cabin type) that we required.

 

My final thought for you, if you go Northbound and end up in Seward, I highly recommend that you take the train transfer to Anchorage, as opposed to the bus. It was a wonderful addition to the depressing affair of disembarkation.:D Also, we did a couple of days post cruise on our own. There is a train in Anchorage from which you depart to go to other AK cities. We went to Talkeetna and boarded a flightseeing plane that landed up on a glacier at the base of Mt McKinley. I can not recommend them enough. One of the highlights of our trip!!

 

Take a breath, decide which things are most important and then start narrowing down your choices.

 

Most of all, enjoy! :)

[kellywhitehills]

You really need to look at itineraries, prices and cruise lines..We reciently cruised Alaska with Carnival and had a really nice time..so much so we rebooked with them again for next year..The line far exceeded all my expectations..

 

In Ketchikan we did tour the Sea Star and it was awesome..One of the highlights of our trip..The Alutian Ballad is now offering a 4 hour cruise out of Ketchikan also..we missed that as they were not operating yet..The guys on the Sea Star were soo nice and had some great stories to tell...Definately worth the time..

[tddragoon]

I think we have it narrowed down to Princess. The TA we went to told us about a sale they are supposed to be having. The hard part is picking the right cruise for a big group, otherwise it wouldn't be this hard.

 

And thanks thanks THANKS for the heads up about the Aleutian Ballad! Now would anybody know if it's possible to both the AB tour and the Sea Star tour?

[LisaH]

Good comments and recommendations in the above posts. Do some reading of the first 10 pages or so of posts on this board. Look at cruise itineraries - which catches your eye? Generally booking a ship/line that hits the ports you are most interested is the way to start your search.

 

Another decision is if you want to visit Glacier Bay or not. Only a limited number of cruiselines can go there.

 

If you can do a one-way, as has been mentioned, you have the chance to do a land tour before or after your cruise. If at all possible, I would highly recommend that. Often the landtour is the highlight of the trip (though the ports the ship visits are also great).

 

If you have any questions once you do some initial research, feel free to post back and ask any questions.

 

John

 

 

Glacier Bay is awesome. I would definitely try to have that included.

[nole62]

We use the Island Princess 2 years ago. The ship was excellent. Our TA had an escorted tour that began in Anchorage. We went by train to Denali then returned by bus to Sewerd. There we took a ship out in the Kenai Pen. That was one of the highlights of our trip Many whales, puffins, otters, etc. We then went to Whittier to board the ship and cruise south to Vancouver. I think that's the way to do the trip. We were tired from the land portion, so after getting up early for College Fiords, we could relax a bit while doing Glacier Bay. It was soooo wonderful, we must go again!!! At the end of the cruise, we spent 2 days in Vancouver and Victoria. Wonderful 2 weeks. If you have that much time, I would highly recommend a trip such as that.