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Alaskan Cruise
My husband and I are starting to plan a trip this summer (between June and Sept). We'd like to leave/return to Seattle, for cheapest airfare, if possible.
I'm looking for recommendations on: cruise ship (Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, Norwegian, Holland America - all are within a couple hundred $), best ports, specific excursions you loved or hated, best month to travel, etc. Any advice appreciated!
Thanks!
The bigger, better MM: http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
Re: Alaskan Cruise
For individual ship reviews, your best bet is CruiseCritic. Also, their Alaska forums have some fantastic information for private excursions.
One ship I will comment on -- You didn't mention RCCL, so I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but Rhapsody of the Seas is based out of Seattle this summer. If you're planning to book a balcony stateroom, and you can get one of the aft corner balconies on Rhapsody, they're huge. The balcony wraps around two sides of the stateroom, so you have lots and lots of space even though those cabins don't cost any more than others in the same class. We had one on our honeymoon in the Caribbean, and it was wonderful! In a place like Alaska with so much scenic cruising, it would be even more valuable!
We booked a Harv & Marv whale watching excursion in Juneau (a popular CruiseCritic rec), and it was fantastic. It was a tiny 6-person boat (and there were only 4 of us that morning), so we had a lot of control over how we wanted to spend our time. We got to see a lot of whales, and we had a great experience. Also, they offered to drop us at the Mendenhall Glacier instead of taking us all the way back to the ship, so we only had to deal with catching the bus one-way.
In Skagway, we booked an all-day Chilkoot Charters tour (their Yukon Rail & Bus trip). We took a bus trip up to Emerald Lake, visited a touristy sled-dog camp (the puppies still made me squee! So fluffy!), and then headed back to Fraser to ride the White Pass Railroad back down to Skagway. I'm not really a big fan of bus tours, but this trip seemed to let us do the most for the time and money.
In Ketchikan, we actually just caught a local bus to the Totem Bight State Historical Park. I really liked the park, and it was easy to print off the self-guided information sheet from their website before we went.
Cancer sucks.
I agree that Glacier Bay is a must on the itinerary. We went in 2006 and it was part of NCL's schedule back then, but not sure how things stand now.
I also agree with the recommendation to check out the Cruise Critic boards. You'll get a lot more info there.
My favorite excursion was the Mendenhall Glacier Trek & Climb tour we booked on our own. I can't recommend it enough. And don't be afraid to book your own excursions; you don't have to go with the cruise ship's tours and you'll save a lot of money doing it on your own.
Definitely check out cruise critic, there is a ton of information on the "alaska" board!
We took a Celebrity cruise, this was our 4th cruise with them, and by far our favorite line. We like the luxury branding, and the butler that comes with our suite! You should really look into which ships brands fits best with your mentality of vacationing to help choose a line to sail with.
We traveled round trip Seattle, and stopped at: Skagway (rented a car and drove the Yukon - awesome); Ketchican (walked around town, could take or leave this port); Juneau (Helicopter tour for a 2 1/2 glacier trekk, this was cancelled due to weather, but was by far what I considered the highlight of the trip); Tracy Arm Fjord (cruise to the glacier - really beautiful but I hear glacier bay is more spectacular); and Victoria B.C. (beautiful city, absolutely loved walking around and having dinner here).
I really think it depends on what "feel" you are looking for in a ship. I will happily give up glacier bay to cruise on Celebrity because it's my favorite line. But others would rather have the scenery.
Another consideration is the sea, leaving Seattle you are in open water, this is the choppiest ocean you can encounter while cruising to Alaska. We went in mid-August, and the sea's were great about 3-5 feet on the way up, smooth as glass through Alaska, and about 5-7 feet (choppy) on the way back into Seattle. Throughout the months of June/July people reported very high seas (10-12) feet on some sailings. I have horrible motion sickness and was a little worried, but there is no way to predict how the sea will behave. Just be warned that the Seattle r/t tend to get the brunt of high seas.Good luck and have fun planning!
We booked the Golden Princess for this August rt out of Seattle doing the Glacier Bay itinerary.
Haven't booked any excursions yet, but we are really looking forward to the trip.
Wives Unscripted
We took a 10 day roundtrip cruise from San Francisco last summer - it was great to save on the airfare and the extra sea days were really fun too.
If I were to go back, I don't know that I would do a roundtrip cruise though - that way you could see more of Alaskan ports, or at least stay there a little longer.
We had a horrible experience in Juneau - do not book a ride to mendenhall glacier through Juneau Tours. The bus broke down in town, so we walked back to the booth where we were picked up. The girl tried leaving without giving us our money back. It left such a poor taste in my mouth that I don't know that I ever want to go to Juneau again!
In Skagway we rented a car from Avis and took the Klondike Hwy into Canada. It was the best decision ever since we could go at our own pace and we could be by ourselves at all of the stops (so it's just us in our pics!).
Definitely choose a ship small enough to go to Glacier Bay.
Save your souvie shopping for Ketchikan. It's my favorite place to stop for goodies. We also took the public bus to totem blight state park, and it's much better than the totem pole museum in the middle of town.
I've heard wonderful things about Haines too (you can get there by catamaran from Skagway if you choose to go).
I wouldn't hesitate to book a cruise through Princess again. We loved the service, food, and everything that came with it!
Do yourself a favor and stay out on deck often! I can't tell you how many whales, etc. we saw while doing laps to work off the extra calories! One day I was jogging and saw over 30 whales! Enjoy Alaska - it is truly God's country!
We went to Alaska May of 2010. We chose a Princess cruise (in and out of Seattle) and it was Sun to Sun vs Tues to Tues with other cruise lines so we only had to take a week off from work.
Juneau we walked towards the city and booked a bus ride to Mendenhall Glacier. It was pretty cheap like $7 or $10 a person, we had 7 people so my sister negotiated on the price. I know people have said the helicopter tour was amazing but we didn't do that. We also took a tram to the top to check out the views.
In Skagway we rented a private tour that took us into Canada. It turned out to be about the same as booking the tour with a tour group but it was nice to be on our own schedule and beat the crowd.
In Ketchikan we just did the horse drawn carriage tour, I don't think we planned this one very well.
Definitely don't book an inside room, we were trying to save a little bit and totally regretted it.
I love salmon so was disappointed that we didn't go during salmon season, i would of love to see that.
I agree with previous posters the waters out of Seattle is very choppy so for a couple of hours the 1st day i found a lounge and just sat until the water was smooth again.