Voyage of the Glaciers - Looking for insights

[PacnGoNow]

On 9/18/2022 at 8:47 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Don, I appreciate your thoughts. But for us it’s all about the journey and the sights we see along the way as we are truly cruiseaholics. But being in our 70s now, cruising is more about seeing exotic animals in the wild whenever possible, which except for Alaska seems to be mostly south of the equator, unique scenic locations we can cruise to, and staying in the same cabin the entire time! 😂
 

Since cruising started back up, we’ve been to the Caribbean too many times to count with Celebrity, gone through the Panama Canal with Princess along with a B3B family cruise in the Med from Barcelona to Istanbul and back. Then most recently the Greenland and Iceland B2B with Celebrity I mentioned above covering a total of 135 days so far. In November we’re heading out on a 38 day B2B with NCL which departs from Athens and heads through the Suez Canal, then along the east coast of Africa winding up in Cape Town. 
 

Then in 2023 after a short Disney family cruise on the Wish, we’re off shortly afterwards on a 30 day Celebrity B3B from Sydney to Vancouver. Then we’re off next to Japan for a 17 day Princess family cruise with a couple stops in Korea. Then, it’s on to a 17 day Princess Canada/New England land-sea cruise, as we want to see the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, followed by a 10 day Celebrity Galapagos land-sea cruise to finish up 2023. 
 

In Jan 2024 we’re off on a 30 day Princess Antarctica and South America B2B before going on what we’re hoping to be a 21 day Princess B2B in the summer to include Longyearbyen. But, there was a space for a spring 2024 cruise, and when we read about the Voyage of the Glaciers, that sounded pretty cool, even though we’ve been to Alaska 3 times in the last 9 years, but just not recently. 😁

FWIW I also very much enjoy doing Live From threads while on our cruises, which so far have included 7 since it started back up, and I plan to continue posting to them on our upcoming cruises.

So for us as we are in our 70s now, it’s more about the journey and experiencing as much as we can “in the moment” along the way! 😁

 

 

So, you decided Sapphire and aft?

We’d sure like to do this trip again. 🤔 

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

So, you decided Sapphire and aft?

We’d sure like to do this trip again. 🤔 

 

Right now it’s a toss up between either the Sapphire or Grand in an aft-facing VS or an M6 CC Balcony on the bow of either deck 15 or 16 of the Majestic. It will all come down to price and what the actual 2024 April/May itineraries will be, to include what their previous leg might be to possibly create an even more awesome B2B cruise. 
 

[dreaminofcruisin]

On 9/18/2022 at 3:16 PM, donaldsc said:

My problem with this supposed 14 day cruise is that it is really two 7 day cruises as a B2N w lots of port duplication.  I will admit that that port times are reasonable however.  There are also several good ports that you are missing because of the duplicates.  If you want a 14 day cruise the best bet in my opinion would be to book 2 separate 7 day cruises - a north bound and a south bound cruise.  That way you can pick the 2nd cruise to hit some ports that the first on missed.  We did a great 14 day cruise some years back that got as far as Kodiak but the lines do not seem to be doing this type of cruise any more.

 

I'm guessing your cruise to Kodiak was on HAL?  They still have one that goes there. I've never been too crazy on the idea of trying HAL, but that itinerary is pretty enticing.....

🤔

 

[donaldsc]

41 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

I'm guessing your cruise to Kodiak was on HAL?  They still have one that goes there. I've never been too crazy on the idea of trying HAL, but that itinerary is pretty enticing.....

🤔

 

 

I believe that it was on HAL but I am not sure.  As far as I am concerned too many people on CC worry about what is on the ship such as amenities, entertainment and a bunch of other unimportant stuff when they go on an AK cruise.    These things may be important when you are doing a Caribbean cruise but to me they are the last item of importance on an AK cruise.  In AK what is important is what is outside of the ship and not what is inside of the ship.  I have done wonderful AK trips on the Alaska Marine Highway ferries and believe me they have no entertainment, no amenities and the food selection is cafeteria style.  Also you meet some really interesting people on a Marine Highway ferry.

 

I have seen some posts on AK cruise selection where people pick their AK ship because they have status.  In the Caribbean this may matter.  In AK it doesn't.

 

To me the important selection parameters on an AK cruise are 

 

1) Ship size - the monstrosities of the seas ships do not belong in AK but that point can be argued.  The size of the ship can impact the next points however.  I will add that my ideal ship size for AK is a very small (<1000 people) and we just came back from an AK cruise on a ship that had 180 passengers.

2) Itinerary - this is where point 1 can have an effect

3) Itinerary

4) Itinerary

5) Port times.  Here you need to consider both port arrival and departure times

6) Where the ship docks.  The NCL idea Ward Cove is an acceptable docking location for Ketchikan is absurd.

 

BTW - what is wrong w HAL.  We have not cruised on them recently but we have done so in the past and they were OK.

 

DON

 

 

[Wishing on a star]

Just a heads-up on booking those wonderful Aft facing cabins.   There have been a few reports of people being booted 'upgraded' to lesser desirable non-aft cabins.  I don't know what the deal is?  Don't know if it is more than a couple of unexplained occurrences.   But, just wanted to mention that.   Make sure, and keep checking that the cabin is DO NOT UPGRADE, AT ALL.   And keep your fingers crossed!

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

 

I believe that it was on HAL but I am not sure.  As far as I am concerned too many people on CC worry about what is on the ship such as amenities, entertainment and a bunch of other unimportant stuff when they go on an AK cruise.    These things may be important when you are doing a Caribbean cruise but to me they are the last item of importance on an AK cruise.  In AK what is important is what is outside of the ship and not what is inside of the ship.  I have done wonderful AK trips on the Alaska Marine Highway ferries and believe me they have no entertainment, no amenities and the food selection is cafeteria style.  Also you meet some really interesting people on a Marine Highway ferry.

 

I have seen some posts on AK cruise selection where people pick their AK ship because they have status.  In the Caribbean this may matter.  In AK it doesn't.

 

To me the important selection parameters on an AK cruise are 

 

1) Ship size - the monstrosities of the seas ships do not belong in AK but that point can be argued.  The size of the ship can impact the next points however.  I will add that my ideal ship size for AK is a very small (<1000 people) and we just came back from an AK cruise on a ship that had 180 passengers.

2) Itinerary - this is where point 1 can have an effect

3) Itinerary

4) Itinerary

5) Port times.  Here you need to consider both port arrival and departure times

6) Where the ship docks.  The NCL idea Ward Cove is an acceptable docking location for Ketchikan is absurd.

 

BTW - what is wrong w HAL.  We have not cruised on them recently but we have done so in the past and they were OK.

 

DON

During the summer of 2017 we were on a HAL 14-day Alaska cruise on the Amsterdam that did a RT from Seattle which included stops in Kodiak, Homer and Anchorage as well as the Tracy Arm and the other normal stops. Unfortunately, it was too foggy the morning we were supposed to tender over to Kodiak, so we had to bypass that stop and move on to Homer, which we enjoyed. 

 

IMHO there is nothing wrong with HAL cruises. Their food has always been quite tasty and they offer some interesting 3-5 week itineraries. They just got too "relaxing" for us starting about 6 years ago. That is except for a 40-day In-depth EXC B2B cruise on the Maasdam in Oct 2019 which visited some New Caledonia islands before circumnavigating Australia. But, of course, HAL's In-Depth EXC program faded into the sunset shortly after that cruise rather than being implemented fleetwide, as some had suggested back then.

 

But when they made the policy change to focus the bulk of their evening entertainment around the Music Walk rather than providing quality guest entertainers and production shows in the main theater, that's when we made the move over to Princess and Celebrity. Not to mention Princess and Celebrity usually have 4-5 assistant CDs, that are always trying to make you laugh, along with usually one very funny CD whereas HAL has a combined Cruise and Excursion Director and maybe one assistant. Like I said, HAL just got too "relaxing" for us. But that's just us. Obviously, there are many others that enjoy the Music Walk platform and that's great.

[ghgeckos]

I did the Voyage of the Glaciers round trip from Vancouver in July this year. Stoping at some ports twice was fine as the views of the glaciers from the Majestic were amazing. The Captain would give full view to the port side then turn the ship around so the port side could also enjoy the view. The Majestic captain studied the routes and sails close to the land in Glacier bay. He even reversed the ship at one point so everyone could see the brown bear. This was a wonderful experience.

[Smokeyham]

Loved our Voyage of the Glaciers cruise on the Sapphire.  I would hesitate to do that trip in a larger ship especially, as others have mentioned, that those ships can't do the passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland, which really was a highlight for us.

Also, we really enjoyed having a full wrap-around Promenade deck.   

The Sapphire's size seemed just right to us.  Not being so large that you had to make reservations for everything but being large enough to have a variety of dining and entertainment venues.

[mam11]

We did the B2B out of Vancouver in August. Of the 4 glacier days, two were successful. Our first Glacier Bay day was fogged in completely, and our Hubbard day had so many ice chunks in the water that we couldn't do it. College Fjord was a huge highlight for us. And of course Glacier Bay is wonderful. 

 

Didn't mind the port repetition- but do pay attention to the times in port when scheduling excursions. We did whale watching in Juneau and it was spectacular. The first week the port weather was great, warm and dry. The second week not so much. Whittier was a gray rainy day. We were able to find a guide to take us through the tunnel to the wildlife preserve and back to the ship. 

 

We found the Grand to be just fine. Our cabin was one that had been replaced- husband said they use a crane and take the whole cabin out, put a new one in. Very light woodwork, self closing drawers, very attractive. It was an accessible and the bathroom had been reconfigured to save a little cabin space. I couldn't find any info ahead of time about which cabins are redone so I was very happy when we boarded. 

 

A small disappointment- Good Spirits only served the special drinks after 530 PM. We liked the production shows so much we went to them both weeks. Had a great cruise director. The crew was very friendly and helpful- all glad to be working!