Stealthdog

I’ll take the extra adults over no children. 😂

Sometimes we prefer the older cruise ships without the activities because it means there won't be many children on it.

Following! We will be on the Escape for Dec 9th and 16th sailings. Only request is don't break the ship!

Got it on my platinum. Thanks for the heads up!

Who runs that tour group….the Sanderson Sisters?!?

My favorites in no order: 1) Mature clientele 2) Blu Restaurant 3) Longer cruises (though they are harder to find now) 4) Simple, classy ships

All the mainstream cruise lines have been going through cuts. Since cruising reopened we have sailed Disney, Royal, Celebrity, and Princess. Food is the most important experience on a cruise ship to us and the only times we have been satisfied was the Beyond (we ate in Blu) and the Symphony of Seas (we had the ultimate dining package and ate all dinners and most lunches in specialty dining restaurants). We were surprised at how mediocre Disney and Princess were in their main dining rooms (and some specialty restaurants) and the poor quality of meats. Food is always subjective, but I get the disappointment and the questioning of whether the more luxury lines are better fits.

We usually go on cruises early-mid December before Christmas. We prefer the 10+ day cruises - few kids and the ships usually aren't full. But, we had 4 cruise next certificates from before COVID we still had to use so decided on the 2 7-day cruises this time with NCL. We have been a one dog household and have either put him in boarding and dropped him off to Eric's Mom to watch while we are gone. A little more than 3 months to go 🙂

We wore basic hiking boots that provided ankle protection and waterproof. Brand we had was merrell and they were perfectly fine. Any shoes you have that give ankle support should be good. The paths are fairly well managed, but there are inclines and declines and if it rained, it could be a little slick.

I don’t remember a winemakers dinner, but I wasn’t actively looking for it. I love Caymus so could have been convinced! I’ll check to see what brand of hiking shoes we used.

We were June 10th. I loved Mark the Naturalist - he was awesome. We went to a couple of his lectures and listened to his narrations as we were sailing. They were great. We did the same thing - "this is Alaska, this is why we are here" during our excursions and post cruise land tour. 🙂

We just did a sailing on the Majestic (also Alaska, so really can't judge the entertainment either) and I think I agree with every point you made. Princess is a more affordable line compared to Celebrity and I absolutely would go on another one if the price and itinerary were right (or we go on a Princess Casino cruise from the offers we started to get). And the sailing into the fjords and straits were awesome with Princess that you may not get with the other lines, so Princess would be a go-to for Alaska. But, I just don't see Princess and Celebrity being peers. Princess and Norwegian are more similar to me than Princess and Celebrity.

For our 7 day Dec22 cruise, they had different shows on 3 nights (we only went to 2 of them). On our sailing they had a flutist, acrobats who did aerial acts, a hulahopper, the normal dancers, and 2-3 singers as part of the shows. The youtube video was a different show than what was on our sailing, so it looks like they change the shows periodically? Maybe they have scaled back since December as well.....

Its only 1 min, 30 seconds long. It was posted in June - I assume it was also taken in June? I was on the Beyond in December 2022 and they definitely had those shows in Eden (I think there were a total of 3 of them) - I posted them in my live review.

That must be really new. I just saw a youtube clip from June 2023 with an Eden show that included the acrobats, dancers, singers, and other live performers. That "Alice in Wonderland" show they posted was different than ones we saw last year.

This is good news to me - I love Coco Cay - its my favorite Cruise Line Island. I would go on a cruise that does a 3 day, 2 overnight stay at Coco Cay. Celebrity has huge competition if they are rebranding to a younger market - not sure how well they would compete with Virgin (haven't gone on one yet, just heard and its on my list to try). And, local Floridians have a much, much cheaper option for short party cruises with Margarittaville (also on my list). That said, I'm all for Celebrity adding Coco Cay to its list of ports.

The Edge Class entertainment is completely different than the rest of the Celebrity fleet. Its like comparing RCL Oasis Class to Radiance Class entertainment. Celebrity stepped up its game with entertainment with Edge Class. Outside of Edge Class, I am not a very big fan of Celebrity's entertainment. I loved Eden - its something you don't experience on any other cruise line/ship. The Beyond and Symphony of the Seas are my two favorite ships. To me, the Beyond had a much different feel than any other cruise ship I've been on - it felt more like a land-based resort and every once in a while you go outside to be reminded you are on the cruise ship.

The December cruise for me. Holiday cruises tend to have more children on board. Though, I’m not sure how many would be on board for a 15 day cruise regardless, so it’s probably not an issue with either cruise. The December one also has an extra port stop - there are enough Sea Days that I’d prefer the extra port stop. The difference in weather will probably be marginal - it will be great in November and December. The only other consideration would be travel. I’d rather fly to California for the start and end in Florida, since I live here. But, the first cruise leaves the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so that will probably be a really busy travel weekend.

We just sailed our first Princess sailing on Majestic. It’s hard to compare lines based on one or two experiences. That said, to us Celebrity is a generally a higher end line than Princess. Food and entertainment is always subjective. We were very disappointed with the food (MDR and some specialty restaurants) on Princess. The only exception was The Catch, which was fantastic. Princess has a lot more in common with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. Not that there anything wrong with that. The entertainment was standard for a cruise outside of Oasis Class or Edge Class ships. We would sail Princess again depending on itinerary and price - but to us Celebrity is clearly the superior brand.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We are on the Escape in Dec for a back-to-back. If you try any of the specialty dining restaurants, I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts. Hope you and your Mom have a great time!

Eric and I (JC) will be on board. We are actually doing a B2B on the Dec 16 sailing as well. It’s been several years since our last NCL as well:

We just did Kenai, McKinley, and Denali last month. McKinley was the our least favorite lodge of the 3. For us the packing/unpacking wasn’t the issue, the amount of time there was - like you mentioned. You get there late afternoon and have to leave the next morning. There really wasn’t much time to do anything except explore the lodge area. We did get lucky and saw a moose on a trail though! If we do a land tour again, we would avoid any one night stops. Denali was wonderful - we had 2 days there and would have loved an extra day.

Look - you clearly have your thoughts. Good for you. Don’t know why you are making this personal. I stand by recommendations to the OP.

My recommendation was specifically to a Floridian who is accustomed to warm weather, apprehensive of Alaskan weather, and prefers the ship over excursions. I loved my land portion too. But, I'm not telling him to do what I like. I am giving him a recommendation based on what he says he likes and is concerned about.

A little late to this topic, but wanted to chime in. We just got back from a June Northbound sailing on Majestic Princess, followed by a 5 day landtour in Denali. Up front - I would highly recommend anyone who has never gone to Alaska to go. This was our first time there and it was amazing. Depending on your line and itinerary you might never even have to get off the boat, if your sailing sails through the Straights and past the Glaciers and Fjords. I’ll punt on the specific ports because we haven’t been to all of them and the ones we did, this was our first time. As someone who also lives in Florida, we thought we were preparing ourselves by buying a bunch of long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, and hiking pants. Even with all that, we were unprepared for the ~ 40 degrees drop in temperature. I was cold every day on the ship. But, seeing wildlife in their natural environments (gators and turtles aside), and the nature of the Alaskan wilderness was worth it for me. The inconvenience of flying cross country, when you can just drive, or even Uber to a Florida port for a cruise, was also a pain. My recommendation specifically to you is do an Alaskan cruise, but don’t do any landtour add-ons. I probably wouldn’t recommend the specific one you are looking at if you aren’t going to experience the ship sailing into the bays to see the glaciers because it’s too early in the season. Those cruising days were one the bigger highlights on our trip because we could experience Alaska while still being on the ship in a warmer location. The experiences of Alaska your first time is worth the effort. That said, now that I have experienced the awesomeness of my first Alaskan cruise, I’ll pick any Caribbean cruise over a second Alaskan cruise primarily because of convenience and cost of getting to the port, not needing to pay for a hotel before the cruise, and the weather. But, go to Alaska if you haven’t done it yet - you won’t regret it.