Alaska Cruise Advice

[Theatregirl1122]

My friend and I are planning to take a cruise to Alaska this summer in Early July. We are teachers, so the timing is not negotiable for us.

My mother went two years ago with Holland America and loved it. She feels that Holland America is the best line to take because they really do Alaska well and are good at doing special experiences while sailing. I’m definitely listening to her advice, but I also want to hear what others have to say.

Last time I cruised Holland America was in 2011, but I found their food very boring and old fashioned (basically always two kinds of steak, one fish, and a chicken) in the main dining room. Their entertainment was also pretty terrible. I don’t know if they’ve gotten any better since then? But they were good at doing special things for guests and making sure food was included and available any time you might be hungry.

I cruised with Royal Caribbean two years ago, and I thought that their main dinning room experience was amazing, and their immediate guest facing staff was wonderful, but their dinning hours were very abbreviated. If you got hungry after 9, it was hard to get food. The entertainment was definitely better, although the management was not sensitive to guest needs and they were not good at creating special experiences.

As far as stops in Alaska, my mother says that failing through Tracey Arm and the inside passage are here can’t miss things.

Does anyone have advice on cruise lines and things to see? Remember that we’re teachers so we’re on the budget side of things.

 

[canbelto]

I took a cruise to Alaska. Went on Celebrity. A few things:

1) Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, buy their diamonds. Alaska's tourist stops all have diamond shops and people on the cruise reported being hounded by diamond sellers at stops once they had bought a diamond on the ship. It set people back thousands of dollars.

2) BRING A RAINCOAT. Alaska rains a lot in summer months. A heavy, yucky, cold rain.

3) In general, bring clothes for all seasons. It can be summery and then it can be blisteringly cold, sometimes in the same day.

4) Bring a good camera. Lots of wildlife and scenery you'll want to see.

5) Enjoy the experience! It really is like no other place.

6) At the Yukon stop, take the vintage train to the Yukon territories. It's a very enjoyable train ride and the scenery en route is beautiful.

 

[Vash01]

I took a 7 day Alaska cruise on Holland America in 1994 and loved it. As a vegetarian I am not fussy about food. I was happy with the food. There was so much! I have talked to others who cruised with other lines, and Princess is very good. I have done a cruise with them to another place. They often offer discounts. Norwegian and Celebrity are also very good. My cousin who did an Alaska cruise was not impressed. He said there was not much wild life. I loved the excursions - Misty Fjords, float planes, Mendenhall glacier, landing on a glacier in a helicopter and walking there, were all exciting. Visiting the Alaska pipeline terminal before return was very interesting to me, as a Chemical Engineer. They have whale watching excursions too.

The beauty of Alaska is indescribable. The ship stopped at Hubbard glacier for over an hour and the view was fantastic. Some cruises will take you to Glacier Bay. Some go to Sitka (ours did). There are small variations in the stops but the Inside Passage cruises always stop at Ketchikan and Juneau.
Some cruises give you a cruise plus land options.

I made three more trips to Alaska, all by land. I Went to Prudhoe Bay in one of them. There is so much variety, and the people are great. If you have the time, try to spend a couple of days in Denali national park. A train from Anchorage will take you there.

I have visited Alaska in May (cruise), June, July, and March. I enjoyed all four. July is at the peak of their tourist season. If you are on the land, there may be mosquitos. It doesn’t get very cold in June and July so the raincoat or a jacket should be adequate.

What I like about Alaska is that even in their short tourist season, they don’t jack up the prices. I found the prices to be quite reasonable.

On the boat, definitely take a rain coat with you. The weather is unpredictable. You may need some nice clothes for Captain’s dinner (some people don’t care to dress up).

It will be a memorable cruise. Have fun.

 

[HeatherC]

Me, my mom, and one of my BFFs are going on an Alaskan cruise in June and we're doing the land/sea 11 day cruise on Royal Caribbean. We haven't figured out all our specific details yet (definitely planning on doing a sled dog excursion at one of our ports but we haven't selected our other ones yet) so I can't give you too much advice right now, but there is one thing I was told when we were planning that I wanted to pass along. If you do the land/sea one, I was encouraged to put the land part of the cruise first because all that hiking, traveling, sight seeing, and shopping that you do during the land part will wear you out. They told me that it works much better to do the land stuff first so you're not going into that part of the trip exhausted from all your excursions and adventures on the actual cruise. That's all I've got for now but we can touch base at some point during planning later if you want to bounce some ideas off a fellow traveler. I'm so excited about this trip and I hope you're able to find the right one for you!

 

[skategal]

We’ve never done an Alaskan cruise but have done other cruises.

I’ve always heard that the two cruises you want to make sure you have a balcony cabin for is Alaska and Panama Canal.

So my one piece of advice is to purchase a cabin with a balcony.

We have done most of our cruises on NCL so if you have questions about that cruise line, feel free to ask.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

We’re planning on this being a small trip because we just did a four week road trip last summer and then I bought a house. Lol. So we are just thinking of the traditional 7 day cruise, not a land and sea. Although I hadn’t looked into the land/sea ones very much, so I don’t know much about them. I’d totally be interested to hear the details of planning that!

The one we’re leaning heavily towards is 7 days from Vancouver aboard Holland America’s Koningsdam. The itinerary is:

• Cruise Inside Passage, Alaska
• Tracy Arm (this is where we’d catch an excursion into Tracy Arm)
• Juneau, Alaska
• Skagway, Alaska
• Cruise Glacier Bay National Park
• Ketchikan, Alaska

 

[Theatregirl1122]

The one we’re leaning heavily towards is 7 days from Vancouver aboard Holland America’s Koningsdam. The itinerary is:

• Cruise Inside Passage, Alaska
• Tracy Arm (this is where we’d catch an excursion into Tracy Arm)
• Juneau, Alaska
• Skagway, Alaska
• Cruise Glacier Bay National Park
• Ketchikan, Alaska

This is the one we've decided on! If anyone has any suggestions for these ports, please let me know!

 

[Colleen]

We did the same cruise on Holland America last year - went in May. It was lovely - we really enjoyed ourselves, even though we were on the younger end of the average age of the crowd. Definitely not a late night party crowd - we went to a movie a few nights and walked back to our room at midnight without seeing very many other people out and about.

If you're on a budget - we skipped the cruise tours and did our own thing. In Juneau, there are bus tours right at the end of the dock that will take you to the glacier - much less expensive than the shop's tours. It really isn't far - and once you're there easy to navigate your way around. It was a gorgeous sunny day when we were there so we walked around, walked up to some falls, etc.

Ketchikan is very rainy - so do bring a raincoat. I think that was our one day of rain the entire trip. We decided to just walk around and check out the town rather than do a tour.

In Skagway, there's a National Park office about a five minute walk from the cruise ship dock - they have free walking tours basically every hour. We did one - it was really interesting. And I would have been equally happy if they had charged for the tour - it would have been worth it.

There's shopping everywhere - we weren't big into souvenirs so didn't spend much time in the shops - just bought a few things. I think my customs declaration was something like $25 - and probably the biggest expense was some solar activated nail polish.

Glacier Bay was beautiful. It is chilly being that close to the glaciers - the staff come around handing out hot chocolate. They stop for quite a long time so you can take pictures - and they let people out on to the front of the ship. There was a mad rush to do that so we didn't bother, since the view was pretty fab wherever you were on deck.

The food was great on board the ship and the staff were wonderful. Entertainment was ok - we went to some of the shows. The theatre was good - fairly new movies, and popcorn. It was really cold in there - grab a blanket off the deck before you go in. If you go to the later show, you'll probably have the place - and the popcorn - to yourselves! We went with a goal to relax as it had been a very hectic few months before that - and we definitely came home relaxed and refreshed. We had a balcony and spent quite a bit of time out there - saw eagles, whales, dolphins. We live just outside of Vancouver so were able to take Skytrain to the terminal and walk on board.

I'd go again, just for the spectacular scenery and relaxation. Enjoy! If you're not from Vancouver, try to spend a few days in the city - it's a beautiful part of the world - although I am admittedly biased!

 

[kwanfan1818]

What Colleen said is almost exactly what some friends who took this cruise told me.

I'm biased, too: if you have a chance to spend a few days in Vancouver, do.

Also, many people fly into Seattle to leave from Vancouver, and vice versa. If you end up flying to Seattle, and this schedule works, take the evening train (Amtrak). It's a beautiful trip in July: north of the city, there's a long stretch along the water. There are also buses all day between the cities, easily accessible by light rail from the airport, but if you're stuck at the border crossing behind a bunch of busses (or difficult cases), it can mean bug delays.

To get a reasonably priced train trip ($30-40), buy as early as you can. The buses cost between $25-42 (one way) depending on the line.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

Our plan is to fly into Seattle and spend a few days there, then take the train to Vancouver and spend a couple days there.

 

[mattiecat13]

There is a website, cruisecritic.com, that has a lot of great information about cruises. I highly recommend it.