Alaska Ships to Avoid?

[elliotoakley]

In Florida we are spoiled because often times the “new” ships start here. From what I can see they slightly older ships migrate to Alaska. Does anyone know of any “old” ships that are tatty and in need of an overhaul? I want to avoid these ships.

For that matter, does anyone know of any formerly “tatty” ships that have recently been overhauled?

[CruiserBruce]

There will be approximately 50 cruise ships in Alaska this summer. A little difficult to rate all of them. Perhaps some research on your part, trimming the number down to 4 or 5 you are thinking about sailing on, would be a much more efficient use of time.

 

Some reading over on the Alaska board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

 

might help you determine some direction you might want to take.

[SadieN]

Personally I'd stay away from the larger ships. The Westerdam was too big for us, nothing wrong with the cruise itself.

[Putterdude]

I can't think of a bad ship that goes to Alaska. While we happen to love Celebrity I am not sure that I would chose the Century until there is a definitive statement about what they are going to do with her. Also, while HAL has some good itineraries, I will not likely ever set foot on a HAL ship due to an extremely bad experience we had on their Oosterdam last year.

[jamscckmc]

Princess has some nicer newer updated ships in Alaska. We were on Saphire last year. Nice big ship. Food and entertainment was great. A lot of people say Princess or HAl are best in Alaska. I believe RC doesn't go to Glacier Bay.

[dmwnc1959]

Opinions on cruise lines are as varied as hair styles.

 

You can ask ten people which cruise lines are the best and which to avoid, and you'll get ten different answers.

 

And I can't imagine the cruise lines allowing their ships to get “tatty”. I cruised the Celebrity Millennium in 2011 doing a 10-nt B2B, four months before a major overhaul and refurbishment, and the ship was stunning. At that time she was eleven years old. Sure ships get some rust here and there (it is a ship, on the ocean after all), wear and tear on the carpet and upholstery (over 2,000 people a week use that same ship), so unless you plan on cruising Crystal or Seabourn expect some 'imperfections' should you decide to approach your ship as an eagle eye inspector.

 

With that said, pick your cruise based on the ITINERARY just as much as for the ship. Find a cruise line that suits your needs, then find a route that sees what you want to see.

 

And don't expect to be able to do it all in one cruise. All together combined there are hundreds of ports cities, glacier cruising areas, fjords, excursions, and scenic highlights. Juneau will be different that Sitka or Prince Rupert, and Tracy Arm different than Hubbard Glacier or Misty Fjords. What you see on a round trip Seattle cruise may be different that what you see on a southbound sailing from Seward or Whittier, what you see on a Princess route may be different that what you see on a Celebrity route, and what you may see in May might be different that what you see in late August.

 

You've got some homework to do.

 

Oh, and if you ask people what the best itinerary is, you get another ten different answers. I've cruised Alaska five times (twice on Princess, once each on Celebrity, Cruise West, and Holland-America). All were excellent cruises, and not so much for the ships themselves.

 

It was ALASKA that was the star of the show.

[GORDONCHICK]

I'd always put departure ports and ports of call way ahead of the ship itself. Unlike the Caribbean, the Alaskan experience is more off the ship than on. Now, there are some lines that do have naturalists aboard and have historical classes about the areas, if that is of interest to you. We had one of the professors who talked about the gold rush in AK in our CC group!