round trip or one way for Alaska 2005

[MOMJAHELKA]

I am trying to coordinate a group of 16 for a cruise to Alaska July 2005. I choose the Coral southbound from Whittier because it is more north and I think you will get a better "feel" of what Alaska is about. We are not doing an orgainized land tour, but are flying in two days early and hopefully taking a helicopter tour. Some of the group are now talking about sailing on the Diamond round trip from Seattle. If anyone has done these cruises, would you please give me your opinions. Pros and Cons . Thanks

[vettechick]

It was a great cruise! I'm not sure, but I think the Seattle round trip does not go to Glacier Bay, which in my opinion was the highlight of the trip! We left from Whittier, 7-day, cruised through College Fjord, Glacier Bay (stopped at the glacier for almost 2 hours of viewing!), stopped in Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, then a day of cruising "inside" before ending up in Vancouver.

 

Most of the glaciers were on the north end of the trip (near the beginning for us). As we moved south toward Vancouver (Seattle) the scenery turned progressively greener. If you want to see ice, go north!

[Stevesan]

Looking at the itinerary on Princess' web site, it appears that the R/T spends both the sail and first sea day out in the Pacific where it can be rough. Also, it subs Tracy Arm for both Glacier Bay and College Fjord, not the best alternative. You'll note that day 6 of the R/T is functionally a sea day (again in the Pacific?) with the evening in Victoria. That trades one sea day on the Coral for two full plus one effective sea day on the R/T.

 

You could have some unhappy campers if the R/T both misses Glacier Bay and routes out to rough seas.

 

The only advantage I see in the R/T is it's cheaper, IMNSHO.

 

I'd rather go with plan A. I don't envy you. It's impossible to please sixteen people.

[vettechick]

The airfare on the one-way was a lot more expensive than the RT cruise. This may be a factor if someone is tallying up total cost.

 

FYI, we booked airfare thru Princess when we couldn't find it any cheeper ourselves.

[CruiseAholic]

I have done 2 RT Vancouver Alaska cruises and 4 Southbound (Seward/Whittier) cruises. While they all were wonderful, I prefer the Southbound, Glacier Bay and College Fjords are outstanding.

 

However, so is Hubbard Glacier, which is usually seen from the RT Vancouver/Seattle itineraries.

 

Another thing to consider, do any of them stop in Sitka, a lovely city.

[CruisinChris]

This is a no-brainer - go for the one way. Southeast, as they call it, is very different from the Anchorage-Whittier-Kenai area. Don't know if you've decided where to stay since youre talking about going early, but thought I'd mention that you can book the Princess lodges independently. We stayed at the Kenai Princess lodge for 4 nights pre-cruise in May 2003 and had a fabulous time. It was stunningly beautiful. the web site is princesslodges.com. You can often get good rates on the website too! Have a great trip!

[geoherb]

We had a terrific cruise last summer on the Star Princess. It did about the same itinerary that the Diamond has this summer--round trip from Seattle. I had researched the positives and negatives before booking. Having relatives we wanted to stay with in Seattle before our cruise swung it to the top for us. (Our other option was a southbound cruise with just one night in Alaska and a few nights in Seattle after disembarking in Vancouver.)

 

The seas were pretty calm during our days at sea, even though we sailed west of Vancouver Island. Sawyer Glacier was spectacular. Cruising through Tracy Arm to get there was an added benefit. I don't know how the captain maneuvers. It looks like you could throw rocks from the ship and hit land on both sides at the same time in some spots.

 

One of the biggest obstacles for us was budget. I tried to keep the cost per person less than $2,000, including airfare from the East Coast, cruise costs (including excursions and onboard expenses), and our four nights in Seattle. We came in under budget.

[geoherb]

P.S. We're planning to go back when we have more time to do some land travel in Alaska. I want at least five days there to travel independently.

[Sailingbear]

Can't talk from personal experience yet but the way I look at it, cruising Alaska is not something you would do routinely ... go for the one-way and get the most out of the trip!

 

Looking forward to cruising Alaska in the future. Who knows ... perhaps next year!

[Coral]

I never thought I would do Alaska routinely but I ended up loving it that much that I have gone back the past 2 years and have now cruised Alaska 4x.

 

I have done the RT out of Vancouver and also Northbound and Southbound cruises - I much preferred the one way cruises to the RT out of Vancouver.

[MOMJAHELKA]

Thanks to all of you. I very much appreciate all the comments. It's a once in a lifetime trip, so if we have to put a few more dollars into it, so be it.

[zachnlucy]

We cruised the Inside Passage RT last summer from Vancouver on NCL, and it was awesome. For 2005, we're planning a northbound on the Princess Sun so that we can see more, and also spend a couple of days at the Talkeetna Lodge at the end. The open jaw flight is more expensive, though. Either way you go, it is so beautiful. We would wake up all night long and run out to the balcony just to gaze at everything.

[cpayne]

We recently returned from a R/T Alaskan cruise from Seattle. For us the trip to Alaska was not about seeing any particular cities, but being able to do certain activities such as dog sledding, helicopter glacier landing, sea kayaking, etc.....From there to make our decision we looked for convenience. My husband works for the airlines so we fly stand by and doing so from cities such as Vancouver, Anchorage, etc....is miserable. We looked at buying tickets and one way were very expensive. We looked at using frequent flier miles for tickets. Since they were one way departures we would have essentially had to cash in miles for four R/T tickets for 2 people.

 

We went back to the idea of convenience and low stress therefore opting for the Seattle itinerary. Our itinerary allowed us to do all the activities we wanted and to see some incredible scenery. Mission was accomplished and loved this route.

 

Other posters are correct, though, that you won't see as much ice. This was a surprise to me as I thought I would see more. I know understand that we needed to go further north to see more of this. However, we did go to Tracy Arm Fjord and both North/South Sawyer Glacier and had some amazing views. We also took a helicopter flight that landed on an actual glacier. We were able to "hike" around the glacier which was also incredible!

 

The one thing we did that was the highlight of our trip was to take a shore excursion to the North/South Sawyer Glaciers. We took a heated covered catamaran to Tracy Amr Fjord. It was a 5 1/2 hr excursion that left Jueau at the same time our ship left port. Because of all the ice our actual ship (NCL Spirit) was able to get in Tracy Arm, but not back far enough to see the North and South Sawyer Glacier. The tour we took took us directly up to both to the point you could almost reach out and touch them! We then later met up with the ship out in the open waters, tethered up along side and re-boarded. Was really fun to see the look of envy and awe from all the ship passengers as we boarded the ship out in the open waters!

 

I think what it boils down to in trying to determine which itinerary to do is to look at what your interests are, what do you want to do and decide from there.

 

Good luck!