Alaskan Cruise Planning Overload- Help!

[Oakman58]

4 hours ago, MommaTravelsToo said:

You have all be so wonderful and extremely informative! I'm down to two- Celebrity Millennium or Royal Princess. I've decided on the one way. One is northbound and the other is southbound. I'm leaning Millennium but would love more input!

 

I would pick a cruise that visits Glacier Bay National Park.  Along with the Royal Princess have you looked at north and south bound cruises on the Coral Princess and the Grand Princess?

[MommaTravelsToo]

1 hour ago, Oakman58 said:

 

I would pick a cruise that visits Glacier Bay National Park.  Along with the Royal Princess have you looked at north and south bound cruises on the Coral Princess and the Grand Princess?

Thank you! Okay the Royal Princess visits Glacier Bay. Have you ever been on the Coral or the Grand? Also, would you recommend Northbound or Southbound?

[Coral]

36 minutes ago, MommaTravelsToo said:

Thank you! Okay the Royal Princess visits Glacier Bay. Have you ever been on the Coral or the Grand? Also, would you recommend Northbound or Southbound?

I like the Coral Princess. I would avoid the Royal Princess due to lack of promenade deck and outside viewing areas. Grand Princess is getting pretty old but I would still sail on that ship.

 

I like Northbound because I have a longer day in Juneau and can do AdventureBound Alaska to Tracy Arm. Very ships allow for this private excursion. Though South Bound has Hubbard Glacier also. So you can't go wrong.

 

Not the person you asked but thought I would share my thoughts.

[MommaTravelsToo]

5 minutes ago, Coral said:

 

 

Not the person you asked but thought I would share my thoughts.

I'm not picky! I love all of the info! Any thoughts on Celebrity? If we take Princess it will be Northbound so I'll keep that great nugget of info in mind!

[Oakman58]

I recommended the Coral and Grand because they are smaller ships than the Royal.  I prefer smaller ships while some folks would much rather be on the larger ships.  Just wanted to give you more options.  Coral gave you some excellent advice.

 

To be honest I don't think it matters which cruise ship you choose, Alaska is awesome no matter what ports and glaciers you visit so there is no wrong choice.  You mentioned the possibility of a group going with you so remember, you can't please everyone.  My wife and I had 14 other people join us on our cruise last June.  One couple wasn't mpressed with Alaska (sad), and one couple didn't like the ship we were on, the rest of our group had an amazing time.  Once you make a decision don't second guess yourself, just go and enjoy.

[MommaTravelsToo]

1 minute ago, Oakman58 said:

I recommended the Coral and Grand because they are smaller ships than the Royal.  I prefer smaller ships while some folks would much rather be on the larger ships.  Just wanted to give you more options.  Coral gave you some excellent advice.

 

To be honest I don't think it matters which cruise ship you choose, Alaska is awesome no matter what ports and glaciers you visit so there is no wrong choice.  You mentioned the possibility of a group going with you so remember, you can't please everyone.  My wife and I had 14 other people join us on our cruise last June.  One couple wasn't mpressed with Alaska (sad), and one couple didn't like the ship we were on, the rest of our group had an amazing time.  Once you make a decision don't second guess yourself, just go and enjoy.

How do I type the sound of applause LOL Thank you!!  You're right! I guess I am so deep in the weeds and I just need to take a step back. We have an aft FV reserved on Millenium and a MS reserved on Royal. Both on the "Land Side" of the ship based on which direction it's going. I'm leaning Celebrity because our balcony is huge and we can have fellow cruising friends come hang with us. Like you said, it's ALASKA, the pictures are breathtaking, I can't imagine how incredible it will be in real life!!

[Coral]

5 hours ago, MommaTravelsToo said:

I'm not picky! I love all of the info! Any thoughts on Celebrity? If we take Princess it will be Northbound so I'll keep that great nugget of info in mind!

I have not done Celebrity in Alaska.....

 

Though I am going to side on Princess. Hubbard Glacier can often be missed. When I did RCCL, Hubbard Glacier was missed all summer that year. We only had one glacier day on our schedule and we missed it. That was the one trip I took my Mom on to Alaska.

 

Princess has 2 glaciers on their NB and SB visit. Glacier Bay is never missed. So if you do happen to miss one glacier, you have another day  of viewing and will see Glacier Bay. And IMO - Glacier Bay is the best glacier to visit on a cruise. Hubbard is nice if you can get close. It is not nice when your ship is 9 miles away (which I have experienced multiple times).

Edited December 18, 2019 by Coral

[Oakman58]

12 hours ago, Coral said:

I have not done Celebrity in Alaska.....

 

Though I am going to side on Princess. Hubbard Glacier can often be missed. When I did RCCL, Hubbard Glacier was missed all summer that year. We only had one glacier day on our schedule and we missed it. That was the one trip I took my Mom on to Alaska.

 

Princess has 2 glaciers on their NB and SB visit. Glacier Bay is never missed. So if you do happen to miss one glacier, you have another day  of viewing and will see Glacier Bay. And IMO - Glacier Bay is the best glacier to visit on a cruise. Hubbard is nice if you can get close. It is not nice when your ship is 9 miles away (which I have experienced multiple times).

 

More great advice from Coral. 

[Anita Latte]

18 hours ago, MommaTravelsToo said:

How do I type the sound of applause LOL Thank you!!  You're right! I guess I am so deep in the weeds and I just need to take a step back. We have an aft FV reserved on Millenium and a MS reserved on Royal. Both on the "Land Side" of the ship based on which direction it's going. I'm leaning Celebrity because our balcony is huge and we can have fellow cruising friends come hang with us. Like you said, it's ALASKA, the pictures are breathtaking, I can't imagine how incredible it will be in real life!!

 

We sailed Millennium northbound June 2018. I have visited a FV balcony...if you have one of the ones on the corners...those are amazing...and if you are anticipating that your stateroom would be a sort of hang out place where your family and friends would gather...that is the perfect room for such a happening. I really think that you need to get a priority picture of what is important for your cruise and then go from there. It feels like you have good thoughts and imaginings about sailing Celebrity, having the FV, and picturing your group on Millie...and are looking for validation that Millie is a good pick outside of these particulars.

 

I picked Millennium because I am very familiar with the Celebrity product. This was a family cruise...something we have done two other times on M-class with Celebrity. So, Millennium was easy to be at home on and we already had worked out some of our "routines" and things we liked to do, places we liked to hang out, etc and so, logistically, it was a great set up for us. To be frank, I didn't even look at other cruise lines, itineraries, or anything...it was almost a spur of the moment thing that happened when I booked our cruise and so I didn't anguish over such details. Part of that is just having what is truly important at the forefront of the decision making process. 

 

It seems to me that while the destination is important, it is equally important that you can imagine being social with your extended family and friends...that they are as much of a "destination" and "itinerary" and "must see" as Alaska is. With that in mind, the FV stateroom is a great option on a ship that has a very good itinerary in Alaska. 

 

If you are concerned about the glacier viewing day, I would recommend that you add one of the Kenai Fjords day cruises out of Seward pre or post Millennium. Pick one of the longer cruises that goes out of Resurrection Bay. It would be a great add on to your cruise and another opportunity for you to see glaciers and wildlife, etc.

 

FWIW, our sailing was the first beautiful sunny day of season (so we were told) where Millie was able to get close to the glacier. Every glacier viewing day has issues...it's true that Glacier Bay is never missed but I've read about how the fog conditions can make it impossible to really see anything. All anyone can do is hope and pray for favorable conditions. Excursions and pre or post cruise plans can increase your glacier viewing chances...but all of Alaska, as well as most travel...is subject to current conditions. Which is why it is even more important for you to be making decisions based on what is really important to you. When you absolutely know that your choices were the best you could do to meet your priorities, then it is easier to roll with the things that may happen that aren't ideal...such as poor weather, etc.

[Jimbo]

We cruised in a FV corner cabin for our cruise in Alaska back in 2017 on Infinity which is just like Millie. The cabin itself is very nice, lots of room, 2 tv's too. It's kind of like 2 rooms, you can kind of divided it in to 2 rooms because of the partition that is inbetween.

 

As far as the balcony it's really large, there is a good size table out there with 4 chairs, also 2 loungers. The balcony is really deep and excellent for taking pictures.

 

We did have a regular balcony but close to the sailing someone must have canceled late, we saw the price for the cabin greatly reduced and we jumped on it for only a little more then we were paying originally.

 

One more thing about the cab in, because of it's location there are actually 2 metal doors to get into the cabin. We didn't figure it out until about halfway into the cruise it was what was causing us to have internet connections issue. The signal had a hard time getting through both doors. To solve the issue we had to leave the second door into the cabin open. After  that  our internet worked fine.

 

No idea why someone on the ship didn't let us know at the start of the cruise is beyond me. Kind of pissed us off, they had to send IT people from the ship to our cabin about 6 times until they figured it out....Weird though since this must have been the same problem on every sailing.

 

The balcony can easily fit 20 -25 people on it with no problem.

 

Enjoy the cabin and Alaska.