Alaska Cruise

[mrc]

Mom and Dad have decided for their 50th anniversary they want to do an Alaskan Cruise, and want me to schedule it for them. I know nothing about cruises and it appears there are many choices available. Can anyone here point me in the right direction? They want to see the glaciers and have a couple of stops in Alaska. They don't gamble or drink or socialize much so that is not important to them, the only thing they need is a restaurant that will take orders because dad has extensive food allergies and has a specialized diet. I am just trying to narrow down the options and see who has done it and enjoyed the ship.

[Deerguy]

As far as which cruiseline, I'd go with Princess. For time of year, August is great relative to temperature, wildlife, fishing. As far as which cruise, make sure you book one that includes glacier bay as this will have the best glacier viewing opportunities.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

We are going with Norwegian In August, this will be my first cruise hopefully it’s good.


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[deerplanter]

We went Holland and really enjoyed it, we did the land sea cruise.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/cruise-destinations/alaska-and-yukon.html

My aunt travels all over the world and uses one travel agent, we used her on the Alaska trip and she was great. Pammy Tyler <Pammy@CruisePlanners.com>

[txbassnaholic]

i did a Alaska cruise a couple of years ago. we went on Holland America. had a good time. One thing I would change.....I would not do a round trip, i.e. leave out of Seattle and return to Seattle. Only go one way, from Seattle to anchorage, via train, or vice versa. we hit glacier bay, Juneau, Sitka and a couple of more. for excursions, we did a whale watching excursion , the deadliest boat excursion, and a eagle excursion. the deadliest boat was the best and most informative. Sitka was a great town to visit, very quaint. Juneau was a tourist trap, really didn't care for it. I hope this helps.

[76aggie]

I would also recommend Princess as well. Have been on a couple of AK cruises and went with them both times which were great. Tell your folks to definately get a balcony suite. Well worth the extra dollars. I cannot comment on special dietary needs but that could easily be checked out with Princess. They do have specialty restuarants on board and you can eat in the dining rooms as opposed to the buffets. The dining room meals are a lot better than the buffets in my opinion. I really don't like the buffets on any cruise line. Just OK but not great. Breakfast buffets are pretty good though. They offer a 7 day cruise. When you land in Anchorage, they have a bus waiting at the airport to take you to the ship. It goes through Glacier Bay and then into the Inside Passage with stops in Skagway, Ketchikan and Juneau. You leave the boat in Vancouver. They will need passports. Each port of call has several activities. These are all at additional costs, of course. PM me if you need any other information.

[ctom87]

I’ve been on three cruises with three different cruise lines. Not because we didn’t like any of them, but we just want to try everything/everyone once. The first was Carnival to Falmouth, Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel. The second was Norwegian to Freeport and Nassau. The third was Royal Caribbean to Nassau.

The three cruises all had one thing in common: the most excellent customer service you’ll ever have. Period. On Royal Caribbean, the waitress remembered our names and we had a party of 6 every night. To me, that is extremely impressive. Who knows how many families she had to wait on, but remembering all of our names and setting up an anniversary cake for my parents…she impressed us the most.

The other two cruise lines had superior customer service as well. Enough that I would feel comfortable going on any cruise line because they probably all have the same. Most cruise lines also have a high-end steakhouse type restaurant at an extra fee. They all also have the free food as well.

Either way, I’m sure your parents will be fine and enjoy the cruise.

[wcg89]

We took Carnival out of Seattle for 10+ days back in June 2015, went to Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau, Victoria.

It was awesome, would definitely go again. Snaking through the fjords was one of the coolest parts to me, very pretty.

Saw some neat wildlife too, brown bear, black bear, mountain goat, humpback whales, killer whales. Went on a train ride, went ziplining, saw glaciers. You won't regret it!

[dclifton]

i did a Alaska cruise a couple of years ago. we went on Holland America. had a good time. One thing I would change.....I would not do a round trip, i.e. leave out of Seattle and return to Seattle. Only go one way, from Seattle to anchorage, via train, or vice versa. we hit glacier bay, Juneau, Sitka and a couple of more. for excursions, we did a whale watching excursion , the deadliest boat excursion, and a eagle excursion. the deadliest boat was the best and most informative. Sitka was a great town to visit, very quaint. Juneau was a tourist trap, really didn't care for it. I hope this helps.

***1,000

I would not do a round trip cruise. I was absolutely sick of that boat after being on it for 7 days. Getting on and off was a breeze so i would have much rather got to stop more and just went up or down one way then train or flew back.


I hated Seattle. If i had to do it again i think their is cruises out of Vancouver or Victoria that are one way.

We went on the Norwegian bliss and it was very clean and nice but the food was lacking in my opinion. Now if you went and scheduled a dinner at one of the restaurants that you pay for that food was awesome.

We rode the train out of Skagway that is a must if they make that stop.

[Deerguy]

In addition to Glacier Bay, if they don't mind plane rides, the 5-glacier seaplane excursion in Juneau is awesome. You can just do the plane ride or you can add the Taku lodge and meal (where there is good chance of seeing a bear).

[Quackerbox]

We did princes. Round trip to and from Seattle. I liked Seattle.

My parents are wanting to do the same for their 50th in 2020 and wife and I want to treat. So tagged for new info
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[mrc]

Has anyone left out of San Francisco, dad is wanting to see the Californis coastline also.

[djc]

Last year we did a cruise on Holland America the first week in September. Left out of Vancouver ended in Sewell and then did a week on land. Buses and trains, ended in Fairbanks. I think the land tour was as good or better than the cruise. It was the end of the season, not too crowded, the weather was perfect. Was a bit cheaper than the summer, but the leaves were changing. We saw grizzly, black bear, moose, caribou, whales, seals, otters, mountain goats, eagles, all sorts of critters. I've been on a bunch of cruises and this was the best. We add a cabin at the back of the boat, I highly recommend it. I can give more details if you're interested.

[Dejashoot]

We did Southbound from Seaward to Vancouver last year. Round trip spent too much time on the boat so we did one-way. Norwegian had restraints that were sensitive to dietary restrictions. We took the train from Anchorage to Seaward. Great experience. Had a blast on excursions.

[bobby314]

Number one tip, get a room with a balcony view! So much to see. I have been fortunate that my in-laws have taken my wife and I twice. My advice would be to fly to Vancouver and sail up to Anchorage, you have longer stops and see more, than the Seattle out and back.