auntbevy

Depending on the cruise line you can get an on board credit and not have to cancel and rebook.

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Whale watching in Juneau - we went with Harv and Marv three different times, small boat vs with 200+ people and their staff have all been great, plus it includes going to Mendenhall Glacier afterwards. We are planning our fourth trip to Alaska for this August.

We like the north or south bound itineraries vs round trip as you can see more ports and also do some land excursions before or after if time and budget allow. This trip will be our first Celebrity cruise, we've done Royal Caribbean for two other Allan cruises and then one land only trip there. It's an amazing place - we thought our first trip would be our only one!

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Thank you. I will research this.

Our desire is to go into Denali and I am assuming we must to the land tour. I likewise assumed that it would be more restful for us to cruise the 2nd half, but I understand there is more to it than that.

Alaska is one of the best and easiest destinations to do on your own as long as you are willing to do a little research in advance, especially with the wealth of knowledge here on the CC boards and on Trip Advisor. If you feel at all comfortable with doing it yourself then I highly recommend it!

My husband has two extensive reviews of our trips (attempting to post links here, if not search for threads started by walleyelj, http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1844695 and http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1679447) with info on our trip to Denali and people on here will be more than happy to help you as you plan!

We don't gamble or smoke, so that saves a ton of money, and we do not drink much. On HAL, I always sign up for weekly unlimited laundry and thermal spa. We like active shore excursions, but we don't buy much of the junk sold at the ports.

 

I'm disappointed RCCL doesn't offer the weekly laundry or spa pass. Does anyone know if they have any type of spa pass that allows you to use the semi-private jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, etc.?

We just finished a RCCL cruise to Alaska the end of May. On some of the ships, they do have a thermal suite with a weekly pass. We bought the couples pass. My understanding is the thermal suite isn't on all the ships (we were on Radiance of the Seas). We enjoyed it a lot but I'm not sure I got my $$'s worth.

I love the weekly laundry idea though - that would be great!