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Alaskan Cruise with Kids?


dna515
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I'm currently trying to plan our next big summer trip for 2018 and I've always wanted to do an Alaskan cruise. We're from Florida and have done several Caribbean cruises and I'm ready for something new! I have 3 kids, and they will be 8, 6, and 4 next summer. Has anyone ever done an Alaskan cruise with young kids? Any cruise line recommendations? Any and all info is greatly appreciated! TIA :)

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Alaska is amazing with kids - we traveled when I was pregnant with my first, and there were many happy children who had a wonderful time on that sailing.

 

Princess and HAL both have Panamax ships that can get a little closer to the glaciers, so if you decide to do a northbound or southbound you might want to look at those lines. We sailed Princess with kids, and their kids club is great, although the Panamax ships (Island and Coral) are older and won't have as many things for kids as a newer RC or NCL family ship.

 

I'd strongly recommend booking excursions independently, since you can walk to most of them in Alaska, and save a bit of money over the shore excursions.

 

My signature line talks about those excursions (your kids can go on a helicopter to a dogsled, which is amazing but unfortunately you have to pay full price since they take up a seat).

 

The Bering Sea tour is a really interesting and safe way to learn about crab fishing and Alaskan wildlife. Please note that their minimum age is 5.

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My youngest was 10 when we went, so not that young. But I can't imagine it would be too different. We picked Princess and he loved their kids club. His brother was 16 at the time and they room in an inside and we do a balcony.

 

The reason we picked Princess is we were on the Grand which has the Carib deck which has a 9x9 balcony for the same cost as other decks; half is covered and half is not. It has 3 chairs, plus a table you can eat at as well as a small drinks table. This space allowed us to all comfortably be on the balcony.

 

As the cruise was expensive, we didn't want to spend a ton on excursions. In Ketchican, we took the bus to Totem Bight and Potlatch parks. They were wonderful. After the the parks we had lunch and walked all around town, even down to where the eagles gather. In Juneau we book a private whale watch which dropped us at the glacier; the personal small boat all to ourselves was easily worth the $600. In Skagway, we rented a car and drove into the Yukon to Carcross, the desert and the dog sled/trading post. It was awesome...but not sure how practical with the need for car seats etc. I think they do offer a bus tour, but again, maybe not great with kids. If they like trains, the train makes a similar run.

 

If I had wanted to shell out $1000's more and if DH could take more than a week at a time, I would have gladly done a one way to Anchorage and then done a post cruise excursion to Denali. But that just wasn't in the cards and we are glad we did this cruise...Denali will have to wait!

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I think Alaska is the best itinerary with kids since it's all about exploring and nature. If your group is all over 3 and potty trained, then I'd really choose any of the major lines based on itinerary and budget. Like the others here suggested, we made our own plans in each port - which is better on the budget and easier with kids since you choose only what you want to do and go at your own pace.

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We've done Alaska twice with young ones. Once on HAL the other on Celebrity. They were both fine, but I wish we'd gone on Carnival or NCL since they are much more family friendly. We didn't though because those were round trip out of Seattle and we wanted the 1-way from Canada to Seward.

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