What is the best Alaska cruise with teenagers?

[goodysueshoes]

My husband and I are bringing our three teenagers to Alaska this June 2018. We have two boys age 18 and 16 and a girl 13. The boys definitely want to get some fishing in but I want it to be fun for my daughter as well. So what I am thinking of doing is flying into Vancouver and taking a 7 day cruise to Seward (or I could do it in the reverse). We would fish in Ketchikan and Seward and extend the cruise to go see Denali.

After doing much research it looks like there are three cruise lines that go from Vancouver to Seward, Royal Caribbean, Celberity and Holland America. The ships are the Millenium, Radiance of the Seas and Noordam. I would love to hear some recommendations on which line to pick. I am getting the feeling that there isn't much to do on the Celebrity and Holland for teenagers. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas that I may have missed? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[mom says]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

I agree that Radiance is more likely to have amenities more suited to your teens. Both Celebrity and HAL tend to be much quieter.

[Ashland]

I also agree that your best option will be Radiance (4 Alaska cruises on her) especially with kids. Enjoy the northbound it's our favorite...sailing towards Alaska instead of the southbound that sails away.

 

You then have a few options to get from Seward to Anchorage...great scenery especially using the train.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

[Clarea]

If you can wait until 2019, you will have Royal Caribbean's Ovation as a choice, which has many more bells and whistles for the teenagers. On the downside, Ovation would be a Seattle round trip.

[Keith1010]

I would not start with the ship.

 

I say this having sailed Alaska 10+ times including with our children.

 

Start with the itinerary because you will be spending a lot of time in port.

 

Also please visit the Alaska Ports Of Call Board to get input on itinerary.

 

I would not wait till 2019 when you can do this cruise in 2018.

 

There are enough cruise ships to choose from.

 

Keith

[klfrodo]

My only response will be regarding fishing.

 

Fishing where and for what? Will it be fishing season?

How much to charter?

How much for license?

What are they going to do with the catch?

[goodysueshoes]

Wow, thank you for the responses. We really can't wait. This is the last summer my oldest son with be a sure thing for summer vacations. He's off to college and they often have summer sessions or internships. He always wanted to go salmon and halibut fishing. We are looking to go in June and it says that both fish are in season.

[goodysueshoes]

I would not start with the ship.

 

I say this having sailed Alaska 10+ times including with our children.

 

Start with the itinerary because you will be spending a lot of time in port.

 

Also please visit the Alaska Ports Of Call Board to get input on itinerary.

 

I would not wait till 2019 when you can do this cruise in 2018.

 

There are enough cruise ships to choose from.

 

Keith

Thank you Keith, Why would you not start with the ship? I will definitely visit that board. Thank you.

[WisconsinFan]

I think the recommendation to look first at the itinerary is because all ships don't go to all the same ports. If you want Glacier Bay for example the National Parks only issue a small number of permits. HAL and Princess get the bulk of those.

 

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[Mjschroeder3]

I’m in the same position, taking 2 boys ages 18 and 16 before the oldest moves out. Did you find any cruise ships that they would enjoy?

[goodysueshoes]

We went on the Royal Carribean line and it worked out great for us.  I chose that line because it seemed to have the most options for kids.  However, our kids really ended up hanging out with us most of the time. The food was really good.  We paid for the upgrade to the different restaurants however the one that came standard was really good and we enjoyed our waiter a lot.  Surprisingly my boys enjoyed the shows.  The World cup was on while we were traveling so they spent time watching that.  We also played a family tournament of chess.  My favorite excursion was the helicopter ride to the dog sled ride.  We extended our trip to see Denali.  If you are pressed for time I wouldn't fret about missing it.  It was a really long ride there and then the mountain was covered with clouds.  We did see a mama moose and her babies which was very cool.  One thing - we got two rooms.  A balcony room for me and my husband and an ocean view for our three kids.  We couldn't choose the ocean view room.  I put up an argument but they wouldn't allow it.  My kids ended up with a stuffy room at the bottom of the ship with nothing more than a porthole to look out of.  They didn't seem to mind, but I would have not liked to stay in that room.  Enjoy!

[donaldsc]

You missed giving us an important piece of information - which one(s) of them do not go to Glacier Bay.  If it does not go to Glacier Bay, eliminate it.  If none of them go to Glacier Bay, eliminate all of them and start again.  In general as others have said, for AK you should look at the itinerary first and then the ship.  You go to AK for what is outside of the ship and not what is on the ship.

 

DON

Edited February 20, 2019 by donaldsc