one way or round trip

[JohnVSB]

Hello, we are a family of 4, parents traveling with our 22 and 19 year old children, visiting Alaska and cruising, for the first time. We are planning on a 7 night cruise, early August and need help deciding if we should do the round trip or one way itinerary. We are leaning towards Celebrity, will there likely be other young adults, the same age as our children on this line?

 

thanks

[melika091900]

Hello, we are a family of 4, parents traveling with our 22 and 19 year old children, visiting Alaska and cruising, for the first time. We are planning on a 7 night cruise, early August and need help deciding if we should do the round trip or one way itinerary. We are leaning towards Celebrity, will there likely be other young adults, the same age as our children on this line?

 

thanks

 

IMO,, all of the alaska cruises have older people ....from what ive heard,,

i think that celebrity and HOLLANd are the ones with the oldest crowds..

i would recommend,,, NCL, out of seattle on Star.. or carnival spirit out of vancouver maybe,,

it might be a better liking for the kids,

we are in our late 20's and celebrity was ahhh,,, boring IMO,,we were on the mercury.. and carnival was the best, then NCL , more mixed ages,,

but like i said alaska theres always an older crowd,,

good luck deciding,,

check out the celebrity boards,, and ask the same question.. im sure you will get a lot of responses..

melissa

[Roz]

John,

 

For 4 people, a round trip cruise may be better in terms of purchasing airfare. When you leave from Vancouver, for instance, and then have to fly home from Anchorage, it's way more expensive.

 

As the previous poster said, Alaska on any line tends to attract an older crowd. Are your kids interested in going on the cruise to do things with other young people their age, or are they more interested in Alaska as a destination? If being with people their own age is more important, I'd tend to lean towards Carnival or Royal Caribbean.

 

Holland and Celebrity are a more elegant cruise experience. It all depends on your tastes and theirs.

 

You may also try posting over on the Alaska board and the boards for any of the cruiselines you're considering.

 

Regardless of what you finally decide, you can't go wrong in Alaska.

 

Roz

 

P.S. Welcome to Cruise Critic! I see that this is your first post.

[SPI_Rick]

One-way or Round-trip probably depends on the itineraries and whether cost is a major concern for you (....isn't it aways a major concern?). As Roz mentioned you can probably save airfare by doing the round-trip. Airfare to and from different cities is usually more expensive. But if you get a better itinerary it may be worth it to you.

 

As for the passenger ages: I think the answer is "It all depends". We did a Holland America Lines Alaska cruise many years ago. We chose HAL because it had a reputation as an upper-scale line that catered to an older (and perhaps more refined) passenger base. As it turned out we were inundated with children.....from 'barely able to walk' to young adults. Alaska cruises generally take place during the summer when kids are out of school/college and a lot of people bring their children (or grandchildren) along.

 

Plus, your children are old enough to manage even if the general population is much older than they are. So, find a good cruise line with an itinerary that you like and enjoy your vacation.

[Roz]

Good advice, Rick. I've done 2 Alaskan cruises on HAL. First one in July had 35 kids and a sprinkling of 20 somethings. Second one in May had a few infants, toddlers, and 2 grade school children, and few other people under the age of 40 or 50.

 

HAL is doing more to attract families, especially with their Vista class of ships.

 

Roz

[cberge]

Hello, we are a family of 4, parents traveling with our 22 and 19 year old children, visiting Alaska and cruising, for the first time. We are planning on a 7 night cruise, early August and need help deciding if we should do the round trip or one way itinerary. We are leaning towards Celebrity, will there likely be other young adults, the same age as our children on this line?

 

thanks

 

You have been given some good advice re the cruise ship lines etc.,but if you do not want to do a RT itinerary then check out an opn-jaw airfare going inot one city and flying out of another.They sometimes can be the same or even cheaper.Check with a good TA for this.I fly to Europe a lot and in and out of different cities as well as to CA sometimes and have always had a good fare doing it this way.Worth the time to check out.

[Big Al B.]

Also, sometimes the cruise air can be a better buy in the "open jaw" category. I know this was true when we did our miami-LA canal cruise.

[nparmelee]

We did the one way, Vancouver to Whittier on Princess, tons of kids!!!! That was in August 2004. In the ports we saw ships from most of the other lines, tons of kids on all of them including Crystal and HAL. The one way was nice because you really got to see a lot of Alaska, we also spent a few days in Victoria pre-cruise and went up to Denali post-cruise. If we had only done Ketchikan and Juneau I'd have thought Alaska was always rainy and dreary, it wasn't until we got up Skagway that we had some wonderful weather and the glaciers are amazing!

 

For airfares, check the cruise line prices for both the round trip and one way air, then you can also check most of the airlines with multi-city and round trip for a comparison. We like to do our own air and have either saved money or gotten about the same price as the cruise line air.

[JohnVSB]

Thanks all for the advice and information, it is very helpful!

[kitty9]

Royal Caribbean will have tons of kids no matter the destination. They have the most diverse age groups of any cruise line. Personally, I don't care at all for NCL, as I found their food and service to be quite below most other mass market lines. HAL will have an older clientele, but Celebrity has attracted older teens and 20 somethings for their Alaska cruises.

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

I recommend a round trip in order to save money. Also, look at cruises that go round trip from Seattle as you probably will save on airfare for 4 people.

 

Your children will have a great time even if there are not lots of persons their age on the cruise. My children have been on 2 cruises and my DW and I have been on 14. And on both cruises including one to Alaska my children had a great time - they were 22 and 17 at the time.

 

Rent a car in Juneau and Skagway as this will save you lots of money with greater flexibility to see and do more.

 

Above all. go and do not worry excessively about your children - they are not little anymore.

 

Fred

[RevSmith]

My personal choice with children would be Royal Caribbean, they have some nice ships going up there and a great children's program. It will be cold on board no matter what time of the year you go...so dress accordingly. That means not a lot of pool activities, because the indoor pool is for 16 and older. But Royal Caribbean is very family orientated and I think has a little younger crowd than Holland America or Celebrity.

Also, do the round trip, then what ever you missed from your cabin on the way up you'll get to see on the way back. This is a great learning experience for your children. Have a great cruise.