won't let me post part 2!!!

[Joby]

RCCL Serenade of the Seas around $1000-1100 pp

Vancouver depart 5:00 pm

inside passage

hubbard glacier 1 pm --5 pm

skagway, alaska 7:30 am--8 pm

juneau, alaska 7 am-- 4 pm

ketchikan, alaska 7 am-- 6 pm

inside passage

vancouver 8 am

 

Do either the Serenade or Infinity have Naturalists onboard? What about the viewing areas of the 2 ships (covered for Mom) and outside?

 

Any other suggestions/opinions?

[Cruisechick82]

I'm sorry the board won't let you post your questions together.

 

I am going on the Serenade next year. Got an inside room for $966 pp. I don't think RCCL has a naturalist onboard. I'm not sure about Celebrity.

 

I have never been on the Serenade, but it is supposed to be great for Alaska because there is glass everywhere so you can get great views from many different places on the ship. Even the elevators are glass and face outside!

[Joby]

Cruisechick82, it was a bit irritating about the multi-post, but oh, well.

 

How did you decide to do the Serenade/ It's a tough package to put together--good food, service, great itinerary, good price, etc.

[Budget Queen]

Yes some if not all Celebrity ships have a naturalist. There will be inside viewing, but you may want to get there and make a claim very early, your glacier sailing day. These are top areas with people parking there all day.

[Cruisechick82]

Cruisechick82, it was a bit irritating about the multi-post, but oh, well.

 

How did you decide to do the Serenade/ It's a tough package to put together--good food, service, great itinerary, good price, etc.

 

I had a very hard time deciding which ship to take. I hope this will not be our only Alaska cruise, but you never know. I ruled out HAL because they were a little too expensive, although they are supposed to be a great cruiseline for Alaska. Celebrity was also a little more pricey and didn't have the exact itinerary we wanted. We wanted to visit Skagway and Keitchen for sure.

 

We wanted a roundtrip sailing, preferably from Vancouver because of the more scenic true inside passage sailing. We also wanted to see a major glacier, either Glacier Bay or Hubbard. Princess doesn't have any roundtrip sailings next year that visit either of these glaciers, they go to Tracey Arm. So that ruled them out. We didn't really want to go on Carnival, altough I've heard that for Alaska they are not the party ship that they are in the Carribbean.

 

That narrowed us down to NCL or Royal Caribbean. We have sailed on RCCL before and really enjoyed it. We enjoyed the traditional dining on RCCL, but the freestyle on NCL could be nice for Alaska. So it was either the NCL Star sailing roundtrip Seattle visiting Glacier Bay, or the Serenade r/t Vancouver visiting Hubbard. After much deliberation we decided to go with the Serenade as we know what to expect with RCCL and the Serenade has longer port times in Alaska plus the inside sailing route with Hubbard Glacier.

 

Good luck making a decision, no matter what I'm sure you will have a wonderful trip as it seems to be hard to go wrong with any cruise that visits wonderful Alaska.