Could use some advice-1st Time Cruisers!!

[TNguy12]

My wife and I are first time cruisers and planning a trip to Alaska to celebrate a milestone anniversary! We're in our late 30's and this will be a first time to Alaska as well!

 

I've been doing my homework...reading reviews, posts, forums, etc. as I do every time we travel and I'm afraid I'm having a bit of analysis paralysis. I've narrowed it down to four possible options:

 

1. Princess Cruise - Either Coral/Island Princess one way northbound out of Vancouver.

 

2. Celebrity - Either Millenium or Celebrity out of Vancouver as well.....one way also.

 

3. Holland America: Round trip out of Vancouver...variety of vessels.

 

4. Pacific Princess: Roundtrip out of Vancouver.

 

We're looking at going the last week in May/First week in June. From everything I've read....it seems that Glacier Bay is a must do...however. it looks as if the berths on Celebrity would be bit 'nicer' than Princess..

 

Pacific Princess would be the perfect itinerary, however, I'm concerned as I've heard that its a ship in need of a refurbish/remodel and lacking many of the amenities of a larger ship.

 

Thoughts/Advice?

 

Thanks!

[Budget Queen]

If you haven't you might want to post your thoughts about the Pacific Princess on the Princess page.

[Gunner22aa]

Have the longest track record in the Alaska market and although you don't mention the possibility of a cruise tour with a land based part of your cruise also have the most extensive infrastructure in the market to support this type of activity as well. As to Celebrity having nicer cabins I really find Princess and Celebrity very much the same in this area and I have cruised both extensivly in various cabins and suites. Celebrity, Princess or HAL (which I have not cruised but gets solid reviews for Alaska) will all give you a gret experience. For me I would base my choice solely on itinerary for this trip if I were looking at any of those three lines.

[sambamama]

I have not cruised to Alaska, but have cruised twice with Celebrity and lots with HAL. Cabins are bigger and have more storage space on HAL. Celebrity's are very nice. HAL's crew is friendlier. Food on both is excellent. The entertainment is better on Celebrity and the adult only Solarium is aplus, but I don't think you will use it much going to Alaska. The Aquaspa cafe there is super for breakfast and lunch if you want healthy organic choices.

[AmberCascades]

Have you checked Frommer's or Fodor's guide books for cruises? They give a good breakdown of what you can expect on each ship and each line with respect to food, fellow passengers, etc. Last year we booked a roundtrip from Vancouver with Celebrity and the main reason was because it fit into vacation time we already had booked. After booking I started reading up on things and it looked like the Century would be the right ship for us anyway (so a bit of luck there). However, we liked the itinerary and we were prepared to love our trip and the ship and everything even though people said it was an older ship and needed refurbishing. It was a great trip and we had a wonderful time. You should decide first what is most important to you - the ship or the itinerary. That will narrow things down a bit.

[cibumcupio]

I remember making the same choice two years ago. It was our first cruise as well, and it was our honeymoon and I remember thinking all the choices were so confusing. In the end we were deciding between Celebrity and Princess, and we went with Celebrity. It depends on what you think is important. For us it was food (we're big food people), then itinerary, cabin, and price. After reading these boards for a while, it seems like the general consensus was that Celebrity had the best food, followed by Holland America, then Princess (people seem to think Princess has gone down in recent years). I haven't much to compare it to, but Celebrity dining really was amazing. I've had some of the best meals I've ever had on that ship, and I live near NYC so I've had some pretty amazing dining.

 

As for itinerary, the main choice is Glacier Bay or Tracy Arm Fjord. Again, searching these boards show that people give Glacier Bay an edge, though Tracy Arm has its own merits too. Since we hoped that one day we go back to Alaska and do a longer trip with a land tour, we just picked one hoping that we would do the other someday. We ended up with Tracy Arm and it was absolutely beautiful. Nothing like sailing through a fjord in the early morning with the sun streaming in while sitting on your balcony eating breakfast. As for one way vs roundtrip, it depends on how much time you can take off. If you do one way, you really have to tack on a land tour at the end, and at least spend a few days in Alaska. Flights from Anchorage also aren't cheap. Roundtrip is easier and cheaper, but you will see less. We ended up with the roundtrip option to save us time on planning because we were also planning a wedding. And roundtrip flight tickets are much cheaper too. Again, hoping to go back one day and see more.

 

As for cabin sizes, the balcony cabins on Celebrity are bigger than Princess. This was another tipping point for us since it was our first cruise and we weren't used to ship cabin sizes yet. I was surprised by how roomy our Celebrity cabin was. Princess cabins are among the smallest.

 

Since the prices for Princess and Celebrity were about the same, we just picked one, and ended up very happy with our choice.

 

All in all, any of those choices will probably be great. In terms of ages on board, Holland America will likely have the oldest crowd on board, followed by Princess, then by Celebrity. Though the time of sailing will affect this a lot more than the cruise line. My in-laws did the Princess Alaska cruise last summer, and though they loved it, they did complain that the people on the ship were so old (and they're not young themselves, haha).

[cibumcupio]

We're looking at going the last week in May/First week in June.

 

Oh, just noticed this part. I know it's your anniversary so going at a later time might seem weird. But just know that Alaska will still be very cold then. We had friends who were there in May on a babymoon and a lot of excursions were canceled, and even some ports were canceled due to the bad weather. They still had a great time, but they said it was COLD. Their pictures showed them in heavy winter coats the whole time, and hiking trails were still snowed over. We were there in July and a light jacket was enough.

[Koali]

We were in the same position last May around the same time too. We eventually made our decision to go with Holland based on the itinerary. It was our first cruise so we didn't really have any expectations or loyalty to a cruiseline. We met fantastic people and got their opinions of different cruise lines. We are definitely planning on returning to Alaska on another cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Budget Queen]

Oh, just noticed this part. I know it's your anniversary so going at a later time might seem weird. But just know that Alaska will still be very cold then. We had friends who were there in May on a babymoon and a lot of excursions were canceled, and even some ports were canceled due to the bad weather. They still had a great time, but they said it was COLD. Their pictures showed them in heavy winter coats the whole time, and hiking trails were still snowed over. We were there in July and a light jacket was enough.

 

I disagree. You need a lightweight jacket no matter when you go. You don't state when this cruise was, I suspect beginning of May, since this type of weather is WAY more likely. Mid May and later has much higher odds of very favorable weather. I have cruised that timeframe over 10 times and with 35++ cruises to Alaska, my only perfect weather trips have been 3/4th weeks of May.