Carnival vs. other lines - who's been others? Advice requested re: Alaska

[germanbini]

Hey everyone! Every cruise I've ever been on has been a Caribbean cruise with Carnival, and I've really enjoyed every one. We were thinking we might do something different, and maybe try an Alaskan cruise.

 

Could anyone please give me their opinion and advice regarding their experience on an Alaskan cruise? Any other cruise lines that are great for Alaska, and what are the pros and cons?

[firefly333]

Princess seems to be best known for their cruises to Alaska, but I think with HAL having 3 ships last year, there were some huge bargains on HAL more so than RCL or Carnival.

 

Try looking at Princess as the closest to Carnival .. for some reason, with Carnival only having one ship, their Alaska prices to me are crazy.

 

PS if there is a bargain on RCL, Id grab it too, as I like RCL, but for Alaska, for some reason everyone says Princess does it right. I think they still have this naturalist on who will tell you what you are seeing that everyone raves about.

[toddraz]

Hey everyone! Every cruise I've ever been on has been a Caribbean cruise with Carnival, and I've really enjoyed every one. We were thinking we might do something different, and maybe try an Alaskan cruise.

 

Could anyone please give me their opinion and advice regarding their experience on an Alaskan cruise? Any other cruise lines that are great for Alaska, and what are the pros and cons?

 

 

We cruised Carnival from Anchorage to Vancouver in 2009 and it was great. Our best cruise? Maybe. But they've changed their itinerary, and it might not be as good as HAL or Princess now. Check websites for comparisons.

 

One bit of experienced advice. I have friends who have done the cruise-tour thing and others who just updated the maps in their GPS and rented a car. Do that. Then you get to go where you want to go on your own schedule.

[cathy_kearns]

Our first big cruise was an Alaskan cruise on the Volendam. We really enjoyed HAL, they had a naturist talking on the top deck, and some sort of ranger program for the kids. They also had small enough ships to actually take the inside passage, where the Princess ships were bigger and had to cruise outside the islands along the coast. I know HAL still runs some of their smaller ships, but still has at least one that cruises outside the islands. (The Oosterdam.) HAL has been in Alaska long enough to have Glacier Bay passes, so many of their ships do Glacier Bay. You might want to check that too.

[dolfndreams]

I have loved my Carnival cruises but I'm planning Alaska for next year and plan to go with Holland America. I went on my first Alaska cruise with them four years ago and it was flawless. Comfortable cabin and bedding, great port positions and itineraries. Definitely a classy line and in Alaska I was looking for a more laid back atmosphere.

 

I haven't been on Princess but I like the itinerary for the land/cruise tours better on Holland America after looking at both. , also know I loved the beds and cabins on HA and keep running across posts on hard beds on Princess, may be a small thing but I do love to be comfortable and know how nice HA can as far as bedding and loungers.

 

A couple of other things were the Denali location for HA being a bit more central and they include the Tundra wilderness tour versus the shorter Natural history tour that Princess includes and I like the set up for seating on the McKinley explorer better with Holland America with all seats facing forward versus facing other people on the Princess train. Both lines are great from all I've read, just read carefully what is included and know you can't go wrong.

 

The Alaska port board is a wealth of information. Their suggestion starts with looking at where you want to go first since itinerary is more important than the ship. Also look at how long you are in each port, the one I have picked has us in port at least 8 hrs which gives me lots of time for the excursions.

 

Have fun exploring. Alaska is magnificent. I didn't skimp on excursions on my last trip and plan on doing the same this time. I didn't regret a penny I spent on float planes/whale watching tours and even a Helicopter landing on the glacier. Memories and pictures that still hang in my cubicle at work reminding me i work to live not live to work:D

[Blind Squirrel]

I have done a lot of research on an Alaska cruise. We are saving up for one on the HAL Amsterdam. The reasons I choose this may not make sence to some but here they are:

 

7 day round trips out of Seattle or Vancouver do not go as far north as I would like. I want to see Anchorage. For 7 day cruises that leaves doing a oneway cruise. Either start or end close to Anchorage. The one way cruise's don't actually go to Anchoage as they don't go up the cook inlet. Looking at the airfare to Anchorage one way for two peope is about the same as the cruise fare for one. So my reasoning is that if I take a 14 day round trip from Seattle the second week is 1/2 price as I can drive to Seattle or take amtrack both very cheap. The 14 day goes up the cooks inlet and docks in Anchorage for a full day. I think 7am to 11pm. It also goes to Homer and other ports the normal 7day one ways don't. I looked at doing a B2B on the one ways starting in Seattle but by the time you got of the ship after the first leg and took the train into Anchorage you would not have any time to look around before you had to take the train back to get on the ship.

 

Princess used to have a 14 day round trip out of Seattle but not any more. Hal is the only one, and only with one ship.

 

The Breeze is supposed to do Alaska but I doubt it will be 14 days.

[epixx]

I have done a lot of research on an Alaska cruise. We are saving up for one on the HAL Amsterdam. The reasons I choose this may not make sence to some but here they are:

 

7 day round trips out of Seattle or Vancouver do not go as far north as I would like. I want to see Anchorage. For 7 day cruises that leaves doing a oneway cruise. Either start or end close to Anchorage. The one way cruise's don't actually go to Anchoage as they don't go up the cook inlet. Looking at the airfare to Anchorage one way for two peope is about the same as the cruise fare for one. So my reasoning is that if I take a 14 day round trip from Seattle the second week is 1/2 price as I can drive to Seattle or take amtrack both very cheap. The 14 day goes up the cooks inlet and docks in Anchorage for a full day. I think 7am to 11pm. It also goes to Homer and other ports the normal 7day one ways don't. I looked at doing a B2B on the one ways starting in Seattle but by the time you got of the ship after the first leg and took the train into Anchorage you would not have any time to look around before you had to take the train back to get on the ship.

 

Princess used to have a 14 day round trip out of Seattle but not any more. Hal is the only one, and only with one ship.

 

The Breeze is supposed to do Alaska but I doubt it will be 14 days.

 

We're frequent Carnival cruisers, but we tried HAL for the first time in August on the 14 day Amsterdam Alaska cruise. Great, great, great itinerary. Not only does the ship visit some of the more unusual, but very worthwhile, cruise ports, but the port times are substantially longer than on most of the 7 day itineraries. The longer port days allow a number of better excursions or multiple excursions at a single stop. I highly recommend this ship and itinerary.

[Ken076]

We chose Princess for Alaska, 7-day Vancouver-to-Anchorage and would highly recommend Princess. Ship was spotless, we felt the food was as good or slightly better than Carnival and that the the total crew a bit "friendlier" than on Carnival.

 

Princess reps willingly processed several price drops for us and voluntarily reduced the Insurance premium whenever our fare crossed below a premium boundary (for this cruise only we chose Cruiseline insurance as they were first to include "Cancel for Any Reason" which was a concern for us at that time). Airfare to/from Anchorage and Vancouver IS pretty expensive. Hotels in Vancouver are very pricey and almost as pricey in Anchorage (Holiday Inn Express near the Airport was somewhat reasonable and very nice - down the street from Gwennies Restaurant).

 

We ended-up with a mid-ship Baja deck (deck 11) Balcony for $750pp (we originally booked at $1450pp) in late August. We chose large ship Diamond Princess as having more choices to offer on a 7-day cruise - more than we took advantage of. A Balcony is NICE, but most watched the Glaciers from the outside decks. it WAS nice watching the ship pull into the Ports at/before sunrise from the Balcony!.

 

We were shirtsleeves in Vancouver and all the Ports and Anchorage, but the two days near the Glaciers our heavy winter ski coats and sock hats were still not enough.

 

We did the LumberJack show and our own walking tour in Ketchikan, the lengthy White Pass Railroad excursion to the Yukon Territory (excellent) in Skagway, and the Whale watching and Mendenhall tour in Juneau (due to the all day/evening stay in Juneau I'd book a independent, smaller whale-watching tour. We did the Tour/Transfer from Whittier to Anchorage, stopping at another Glacier/museum, the Aleyska Tram, and the Anchorage Museum of Natural History (EXCELLENT). The Alaska Excursions are more pricey than the Caribbean!

If you do a one-way Anchorage/Vancouver try to stay a day or two in Vancouver - an amazing city. I'd recommend downtown waterfront across from Canada Place, near all the tourist attractions Gastown, Observation Tower, Chinatown, etc.

 

Consider purchasing "The Alaska Cruise Handbook" by Upton and reading it it advance and consulting as you progress.

 

ken

[lillian marie]

We've done Alaskan cruises with CCL and Princess. Both were nice cruises. Princess was an older crowd=lots of electric wheelchairs and 10 days. My husband got plowed into by an elderly lady in an electric scooter-wheelchair looking at photos in the photo gallery. He limped for a few days but was okay. We took a tour to the Mendenthall glacier which was great but it took forever to get these 2 folks with walkers off and on the bus. I do like the Princess food and they had a historian on board who gave detailed lectures on Alaska, wildlife, etc. Both were really great cruises .

[Jenbo57]

We've done Alaska with Celebrity and HAL; in May we're going back up on Princess. I'd give the edge to Celebrity; they just did everything right! HAL was good also, but for whatever reason, they're just not my cup of tea.

 

The thing to remember regarding Alaska is that Alaska (and the surrounding environs) is the star; honestly, I could probably go up there on an old tug boat and think it was the most amazing trip ever! Choose based on the itinerary: do your research, figure out what ports/places are most important to see, and go from there. If this is the one and only time you think you'll head north, I'd recommend an itinerary that goes into Glacier Bay. That's one place you won't soon forget!

[Pineapple Princess]

On our Alaska cruise we sailed with Holland America. Great service. Great food. Will choose them again if we go back to Alaska.

[LRene]

We've done both Carnival and HAL. On Carnival in 2009, we were lucky enough to do the old itinerary of Vancouver to Anchorage. This year, we did a last minute trip on HAL and went round trip Seattle because we only had 7 days.

 

I'd highly recommend you do any itinerary that gets you as far north as Anchorage and don't waste your time and money on Seattle/Seattle. You miss so much of the beauty of Alaska on that itinerary.

 

Of the two cruise lines, I'd say we enjoyed HAL much more in almost every aspect except one. Michelle, the naturalist on Carnival, is great and really knows the area. HAL didn't have a naturalist making wildlife sighting announcements and in fact, until park rangers boarded at Hubbard Glacier, no one gave any commentaries. If there were whales off the port side on Carnival - Michelle would tell you where to look. She made it so much easier!!

[llachance]

done HAL twice and Princess once. Loved them all for different reasons. Sailed Seattle to Seattle on HAL and San Francisco to San Francisco on Princess.

 

Despite what a previous poster said we had a naturalist on both HAL cruises - as well as a ranger and some point during each. Had a great naturalist on Princess as well.

 

Biggest downfall with Princess was the size of the balcony and cabin...probably the smallest ever. My next trip to the north although not to alaska will be on the Disney Wonder, Vancouver to Los Angeles :)

[Pee-ah]

Just make sure your cruise either starts or ends in Vancouver as you get to cruise the inside passage... ships cruising from Seattle you sail around Vancouver Island (open sea) and the inside (between the island and the mainland) is AMAZING for whale watching and other sites:D

[pokergirl34]

I'd like to try an Alaska cruise -- the Tuesday-Tuesday itinerary Carnival has is not to my liking though. I just don't understand why they don't start/end on a Saturday or Sunday. Even Friday would be ok. Tuesday is just odd and would require us to take 2 weeks off to be able to do the cruise.

 

So this thread is well timed for me. I am not sure we'd do HAL...Princess maybe, but from what I hear the crowd on HAL is a little quieter than we like.

 

Anyone sailed Norwegian to Alaska?

[Tapi]

In my humble opinion, Carnival does a great job in the Caribbean, but not so much in colder temperature itineraries. We sailed to Canada/New England on Carnival a few years ago, and even though the destinations were wonderful, the onboard experience was somewhat of a letdown. Instead of replacing the usual warm weather activities with more indoor, cool temperature activities, there were periods of time during the days at sea when there was literally not much to do. Many passengers seemed to just be walking around aimlessly bored to tears.

 

We're sailing to Alaska for the first time next year and it will be on the Sapphire Princess. We were looking for an economical way to see Alaska for the first time (which normally is a roundtrip out of Seattle). We also needed a weekend departure, preferably Sunday. That narrowed it down to Norwegian Pearl and Sapphire Princess. My parents are joining us and they wanted a Mini Suite. Princess turned out to be substantially more inexpensive than Norwegian on that type of accommodation. Our itinerary won't be visiting Glacier Bay (instead it is going to Tracy Arm), but since we don't have a point of reference, we're sure we won't be disappointed. We figured that doing Tracy Arm first will give us an excuse to return to Alaska on another cruise that visits Glacier Bay, and hopefully one that travels north or south to/from Vancouver.

 

Write a list of what's important to you. How many days do you wish too sail for? Round trip or one way? What type of cabin? What's your budget? Do you need to sail on a specific day of the week? What ports must you visit? Are you planning on maybe cruising to Alaska again? As you can see from reading other posts, my wish list is different than the one from others, and yours will probably be different as well!

[iceleven]

I've sailed Norwegian to Alaska - Seattle to Seattle. It was a great cruise but can't say much for Ketchikan. Nothing but a tourist trap but we booked a zipline tour and absolutely loved it. We could watch the bears down below as we flew through the air on cables high up in the temperate rain forest.

 

We loved our other tours as well and they included a helicopter ride to a glacier where we were able to get out and actually walk on the glacier and drink the frigid fresh water in a stream. We kayaked across the bay in Prince Rupert and biked 20 miles downhill in Skagway.

 

Of course the tour excursions were excellent adventures but the awesome scenery we were surrounded by, while on the ship, will always remain in my memory.

 

I believe we went in July but had cold and cloudy and sometimes rainy weather pretty much the entire trip. I hear that the earlier cruises, perhaps in May, tend to have sunnier weather.

 

NCL was a first class, top rated ship. We booked at the very last minute and had to take the last cabin available and it happened to be a corner "penthouse" suite. We had a wrap around aft deck, that made viewing everything a bit more advantageous because we then could see both sides. The evening we left the glacier, the captain turned the ship around and as it was pulling back into open water, we sat on our balcony with all the majesty in view behind us and shared our bottle of champagne.

 

I would have loved having a longer itinerary but we only had a week to travel as my husband was changing jobs. If you can begin your tour further north, even Vancouver, I would say all the better.

 

Let us know what you have picked.

[slicklefty]

We sailed the RCI Radiance of the Seas last year. We did a cruisetour...and really loved it! Started in Fairbanks and worked our way south. Wilderness Explorer train was awesome. 1st class accomadations. Sailed the inside passage starting in Seward which was beautiful. Loved the size and layout of the ship...covered adult pool area was GREAT! Saw Denali as well, took the Tundra Wilderness Tour, nice to see but LONG, ~9hrs (granted it was raining and the schoolbus windows were freq. covered in mud making it hard to see, but still great). We gave them high marks, essentially we were combined with Celebrity cruisers on the land portion.

[Cruzaholic41]

Hey everyone! Every cruise I've ever been on has been a Caribbean cruise with Carnival, and I've really enjoyed every one. We were thinking we might do something different, and maybe try an Alaskan cruise.

 

I highly recommend the Radiance of the Seas. She will be going in to dry dock just prior to her Alaska sailing season. She is getting a lot of additions, so you would be sailing on a brand new ship. Radiance Class is known for it's sea views due to large walls of glass. Plus, you can go out to the bow on the heli-pad. Personally, I think she is the best ship sailing Alaska.

 

And as slicklefty said, the covered Solarium pool is great.