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Vancouver R/T - Have I missed something?


sdfamily

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HAL has 2 boats (both doing Glacier Bay) and Disney has the Wonder (does NOT do Glacier Bay).

 

Is there any other boat I'm missing? For our group, I think Vancouver is best, but I'm searching for other options....

 

TIA!!!

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We went to Alaska a couple of years ago and did 9 nights in RVs and then a 7 night southbound cruise on the Coral Princess.

 

Now, I'm organizing an extended family trip. I'm trying to make it cost effective for everyone, and flying roundtrip from the midwest to Seattle is muuuuch more cost effective than into ANC and home from YVR (or vice versa). Also, IMO, if you do a one-way the benefit is being able to add on a land portion. Which, makes the trip longer that a week. Several people have jobs where they can only take off one week (go figure:o). So, I narrowed the choices down to round trips from Seattle / Vancouver (since easy to get to from Seattle).

 

Seeing Glacier Bay before, I'm pretty sure that that is a must see for the other parties in our group.

 

So...my choices are (in order of preference):

- HAL Vancouver R/T - Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay, msZuiderdam or msVolendam

- NCL Pearl Seattle R/T - Glacier Bay

- Golden Princess Seattle R/T - Glacier Bay

- HAL msOosterdam Seatle R/T - Glacier Bay

 

It might just turn out that our decision is based on dates that everyone is available.

 

What do you think of the order of preferences? The HAL round-trips from Vancouver that do Tracy Arm (plus the add-on excursion) AND Glacier Bay seem like the best itinerary.

 

We have 5 young kids coming with us, so I'm sure they would love the Pearl. We chose our last cruise based on the itinerary and that was fabulous! My kids loved every minute of it and did no miss the rock wall or the bowling alley. ;) They were outside watching the spectacular scenery.

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Just returned from our 1st Alaska cruise on the HAL Zuiderdam and I highly recommend it for many of the 'benefits' you have named.

Love the ease of leaving from Vancouver (and stayed a few days there post cruise). Loved the Inside Passage, Glacier Bay and Tracy Arm plus each of our ports of call.

 

We did not travel with children, but were told there were about 50 on the ship.

If they like scenery and trying to spot wildlife, then buy a few pairs of binoculars and they will be entertained for hours and hours!!

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Did read a recent review of someone whose children loved the HAL's Kids Club. I have read the same before. I think because in other destinations HAL tends to attract the older crowd, many are afraid to try it in Alaska. However, that does not appear to be the case. On our HAL cruise in 2008 you the parents who brought their children and grandchildren, so we had quite a range of ages. BQ also says the demographics on all the Alaska cruiselines tends to be the same, even Carnival.

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