Hello all!

[disneydancersmom]

I am thinking of booking a celebrity cruise to Alaska, and although I have sailed celebrity once with a deluxe balcony, I wondered if you could advise me on room types.

Just two adults, should I save my money and do the deluxe balcony again or is it worth it to spend more on a room?

Thanks so much!

Mary

 

 

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[wendychloecruiser]

That is a very difficult question to answer as only you know what you value. Having sailed in a few suites, Concierge and Aqua cabins, I personally do not feel the need to do it again as the cost to me did not equate to value. A regular, non obstructed view balcony (with a drinks package :halo:) makes me very happy. Others may feel completely differently.

[DaKa2002]

Save the money - to invest in shore excursions or extending the stay in Alaska (pre, or post cruise), especially if this is a once in a lifetime trip to Alaska! A regular balcony just fine, IMHO.

 

We are not experts, but can say we have lived in Alaska for three years, and have 7 Alaskan cruises - northbound, southbound, and in/out of Vancouver over the years (HAL, Celebrity, and Disney).

[Denny01]

Of any itinerary, Alaska is one that you need a balcony if you can afford one. As to Suites, that doesn’t impact the specific enjoyment of an Alaska cruise except as an enjoyable SR as on any itinerary.

 

Not sure what you are referring to as a ‘deluxe’ balcony: Concierge? Aqua?. Most Balconies are pretty much the same size. There are larger ones, but usually due to placement instead of SR Class. I would make sure it is unobstructed and not one of the angled ones that are a bit larger due to the angle but reduce forward or aft view a bit.

 

So, if afford it, go balcony if at all possible for Alaska. If you want a larger SR, go Suite, but it won’t impact the enjoyment of this itinerary except as a nicer SR. Some SR’s have larger balconies that you can share better, but thats their positive for this cruise.

 

I agree that you should save up to go on as many tours (ship or private) as possible, and if avail, take the pre/post tour. The ports are nice, but the tours beyond town are fantastic. We did a private tour out of Juneau that took us on a small bus of 20 max into the Yukon and then the train back. A tour I’ll never forget. The train was late coming back, but the great majority on the train were from Celebrity and were on a ship tour, so we knew we didn’t have an issue on a private tour.

 

Den

[dkjretired]

If you do a balcony, I would suggest an aft balcony since some of the sights, mostly wildlife may not be there on your return trip. Also, agree with earlier poster, save you money for excursions which are a lot more expensive in Alaska than most other places.

[Fla Mike]

I second the aft balcony. We did a concierge aft on the Infinity a few years ago and it was spectacular!

Edited June 26, 2018 by Fla Mike
sp

[Cruise Raider]

We've done all cabin types from inside to oceanview, regular balcony, concierge balcony and aqua class up in Alaska. One of my all time favorite cruises to Alaska was actually the inside cabinm believe it or not. But, each and every one of our 12 sailings up there have been awesome. I loved the concierge cabin because it was an aft facing balcony one, I loved aqua class because it was a group sailing with a travel agency that had all sorts of special events onboard for the 80-100 people that were in our group. We've certainly had no regrets whatsoever with any of our cabin choices, though.

If the savings are great enough, we choose an oceanview so we can still get the beverage package (plus, possibly other perks) thrown in on the deal. But, if it is a one and done for the Alaska itinerary for you, I would try to at least get a balcony cabin. But just remember, if finances are tight, there are always a lot of open deck spaces where you can get out to see scenery at its finest. As mentioned, even the sailing in which we were in an inside cabin turned out to be phenomenal!

[Denny01]

Minor suggestion: you might use a more descriptive title to posts. Then people who are interested in helping out about Alaska or SR type, will see it and jump in. Some very general, non-descriptive titles are skipped, except by members such as me who look at Everything!

 

Enjoy!

 

Den

[Zoedokey]

We did an outside cabin for our Alaska cruise and would book this way again. We spent a lot of time on deck and in the forward lounge with the naturalist on board and on our own, so the balcony would have been wasted. The money we saved we spent on fabulous excursions, float plane, small boat trips, whale watching. Excursions in Alaska are expensive (book private for sure) so that is what we splurged on.

[JoePDX]

We did an outside cabin for our Alaska cruise and would book this way again. We spent a lot of time on deck and in the forward lounge with the naturalist on board and on our own, so the balcony would have been wasted. The money we saved we spent on fabulous excursions, float plane, small boat trips, whale watching. Excursions in Alaska are expensive (book private for sure) so that is what we splurged on.

 

We also had an outside - booked at the last minute for a very nice price. I spent so much time up on deck (jogging track) going from side to side to see things of interest. A balcony would have been limiting and maybe unused. That was our first time traveling in an outside, and definitely opened up new possibilities for us.....as we had previously thought a balcony essential.

 

Joe

[mandream]

I can't speak for anyone but myself and of course everyone's circumstances, budgets and tastes are different - but just to offer a different perspective..... Even if I never set foot on the balcony - I don't consider it wasted. The floor to ceiling "windows" (door) allow a great view and so much natural light that it makes the cabin feel larger than it actually is.

 

That being said, I always set foot on the balcony.

 

Mike

[fleckle]

............ The train was late coming back, but the great majority on the train were from Celebrity and were on a ship tour, so we knew we didn’t have an issue on a private tour.

Excellent point! Any time we are going off touring on our own, if we can plan to return on the same train or boat as a ship tour, we can relax about getting back as we know the ship will wait for their own tour, even though it won't wait for us.

We have done that when taking the fast ferry from Skagway to Haines and returning on the last ferry of the day, to maximize our time in Haines.

We knew that one of the ship's tours would also be on that last return ferry.

Otherwise, we would have planned to return on an earlier ferry.

By the way, a group can also do that great trip to the Yukon on your own with a rental car and include the train ride one way, as long as you have one member of your party who is willing to skip the train ride and drive the car for that section of the trip while the others ride the train.

It is a very easy and scenic drive. No need to pay for a commercial tour.

 

We prefer to take the train up and the road back simply because it takes off the pressure of watching the clock, knowing all day long that you need to get down to the train station to catch the train at a certain time.

 

If you see bears on the side of the road, you can stop to watch them for as long as you like.

Your only time limit is the time your ship leaves Skagway that night.

And I confess that the last time we did this, we were enjoying our wonderful day of sightseeing so much that we even cut it tight on that time limit.

It stays light up there so late in the summertime that it is really tempting to take advantage of all the time you can spend there.

We figure we can eat dinner anytime, anywhere, but we don't know when we will get another chance to take that trip again.

[Denny01]

I agree with On Our Own, do it a lot, but if your doing Alaska for the first time, our tour guide was fantastic with all kinds of great info; our bus was small; they did stop when there was room to see bears, etc. And not only does one person miss the train to take the car back, the spouse will probably go with them, missing one of the most spectacular train trips. And driving up, do Hope your driver isn’t enjoying the scenery along with you or you might end up being an attraction of people looking at your remains down the cliff - there are one or two (or two dozen cliffs)! So at least one misses all the sights going up and the train coming down.

 

You can all drive back and see more as you drive with a different view coming down out of the high mountains. Of any stop, for me, this is the one to take a tour, ship or private.

 

On your owns can be fun but there are drawbacks. We travel with another couple a good deal. His brother joined us and insisted he could set up on our own and did. The first was Athens. He had all the info on taking the subway to the Acropolis. Turned out it was under construction haftway there and they moved us to a city bus during rush hr Took us 2hrs to get there. He then had us go to a museum that was closed that day. After that, we signed up for ship tours - too late to get private ones. On Deos, the tour picked us up at the ship and took us directly to the island; a trained tour guide walked us all day through the ruins and into locked areas and the tour then took us back into town. He and his poor wife did it on their own. They took a bus into town to catch the ferry that got them there 2+ hrs after us. They walked around on their own reading a book on what they were seeing and stood in a huge line at the end to get back. She wasn’t a happy camper and joined us, forcing him to go with us on other tours.

 

Ship and private tours can be a bust, and so can wandering on your own. Focus on what you want with that short time in that port.

 

You never know where these threads are going to go as guys such as me hijack them for their chance to expound neverendingly!

 

 

Den

[Wine-O]

We booked a year and a half out an Alaska cruise on Millennium. We chose an Oceanview -- one of those newer ones on Deck 3 with the huge window (3112-3144) and even got the Classic Beverage Package thrown in. Reason we didn't book a balcony?? The least expensive one (a 2C) at the time was $1,700 more, and I couldn't justify it for the 7-night cruise. ;p