Anyone that can help with Alaska Round Trip Seattle or Vancover

[marcyjane]

Hi,

Trying to decided on an Alaska cruise in May 2006.

Have view the several cruise lines web sites and to choices. Due to cost of air fare feel that a round trip Seattle or Vancover will fit our budget better. Will we be disappointed? I read here on cc that some people say you don't see as much on roundtrip that the north or south bound.

Just anyone that has done roundtrip or north or south please give me your honest opinion on the cruise and which cruise line you feel is the best for Alaska. As well about the weather in late May.

Due to my vacation time off we want get to do the land tour before or after, but of course will do the cruise shore excurison.

Just anything you have to offer will be appreicated and Thanks in advance for your time and trouble.

Sherry

[Tracyr]

I can only answer about the round trip, I have done it 4 times, twice from Seattle and twice from Vancouver. I only do the round trip because we live close enough to drive, so it saves a lot of money on airfare. I really liked leaving from both ports. If you leave from Seattle, you get a short stop in Victoria BC. It is a beautiful place. My favorite cruise line is Holland America with Celebrity being second. We did NCL but did not enjoy it, ourselves. Another plus to the round trip is you are mostly on inside waters. We have never had what I would call rough seas. Sometimes, if Sitka is included you may feel a little more motion because you have to go out of the passage to get there. Hope this has given you some information. I would be happy to try and answer specific questions.

[Budget Queen]

I have done both. And my opinion only, round trips are just excellent packing a great itinerary into 7 days. :) But I give a big preference to Vancouver due to my liking the inside sailing. I would suggest if you really want to see Victoria, either pick a cruise with a long port time, which few have or go there independent. Most port stops here are clearly not enough time for much of anything. Round trips have a great potential for excellent scenic sailing, the one ways add a day for College Fjord and Gulf sailing, but the scenery is not repeated on the round trips since it is a loop route. I have also been on one ways where they sailed way out from land, so no guarantees on it being "better" with a one way.

 

And lastly, no guarantees on "smooth sailing" it's a myth that the inside passage is such. 3 of my trips, all round trip Vancouver encountered very rough sailing, one time lasting 3 days.

[gg3]

I would definitely cast my vote for sailing out of Vancouver. We have gone the Alaska roundtrip twice - once from Vancouver and once out of Seattle. Vancouver truly has the real Inside Passage Route. Seattle route goes to the W. side of Vancouver Island so you are at sea (Pacific Ocean) many hours instead of seeing the gorgeous scenery. Also I would vote for taking a smaller class ship for many reasons. Less passengers to get on and off, less passengers to get sick and have to leave ship (sometimes ships have to return to port, etc. for this), and smaller ships can just manuever around the Inside Passage better, getting closer views of glaciers, etc. If it costs you less to fly into Seattle, you can rent a car, take a shuttle or bus, or the train into Vancouver. Best wishes for a wonderful trip of a lifetime. Weather will be just great whenever you go. Its Alaska - kinda cool, kinda rainy, awesomely beautiful!!!!

[Jacquelyn11]

Went on the NCL SUN RT from Vancouver. I can speak about the Airfare. It was about $200 cheaper to fly into Seattle than Vancouver. There is a shuttle that take you from the SeaTac Airport to the hotels near Canada Place in Vancouver. It was called Quick Shuttle. It cost $74 Round Trip Vancouver to Seattle. It left SeaTac at 8am and we were at our hotel by 1:30pm. You could do this on depature day without a problem, but I prefer to be in the city I depart from the day I sail. WIth the cost of the hotel (They are also cheaper in Seattle) we saved about $100pp.

 

I got my Vancouver Hotel on Hotwire, and many folks also use Priceline. Can ususally get a room for around $100/night, with rack rates being $200.

 

On our sailing the end of July we had little to no rough seas at all. Only took bonine because of the speed boat ride to Anan Bear Observatory. (A MUST DO if you can! But if you go late May Anan is not open yet!)

 

Had a great time planning my cruise! Let me know if we can help more!

 

Jacquelyn :D

[zachnlucy]

We did a RT out of Vancouver last year on the NCL Sun. We loved it! Flew into Seattle because it was so much cheaper than Vancouver, and took the train to Vancouver. Very scenic and about 3-1/2 hours, cost about $35/pp one day. This year we're taking a NB route because we're spending several days inland after the cruise.

[marcyjane]

Thanks to all you can for all the good info.

 

I like the idea of the train ride that would be fun, never been on a train before.

 

Thanks so much:)

 

Sherry

[slomotion]

MJ

 

This is a very subjective item. That said, we viewed our trip as a trip to Alaska and wanted to see what we could reasonably see within this trip. When I say trip to Alaska, that meant (to us) partially on a ship (Summit) and partailly on land (delux motorcoach and train).

 

With that in mind only a one way would have worked for us, and we arbitrarily decided on a one way northbound from Vancouver to Seward starting with the inside passge and ending in Seward. From there we took a tour on to Anchorage, then Denali, and finally Fairbanks.

 

We flew from cental CA to SFO and on to Vancouver, and flew back from Fairbanks.

 

We had a great time.