Alaska with a 3 1/2 year old?

[nyyhoneybee]

Is it doable? Smart? What interary would you suggest? My older two would be 12 & 8 when we went. We would probably be a party of 11 from ages 3 1/2 to 86.

[ktcishot]

Just took my 1.5 yr old and 5yr old over the summer. They had an amazing time and ask all the time when we can go back.

We went on princess 7 day inside passage round trip Seattle.

[kitkat343]

I was pregnant with my first when I traveled to Alaska.  I've taken many cruises with 2-4 year olds, and think Alaska is an outstanding choice (especially if you live on the West Coast and its easy to get to).  The ports are all small, so it is easy to get around and that makes it easy to book independent tours.  There are lots of activities for young children, and they will love all the animals.  Some kids would be afraid of the helicopter to the dogsled excursion, but other children will absolutely love this.  

 

You should post this on the Alaska board since you might get more info there, but I would recommend a roundtrip instead of a one way with small children.   With adults, a one way is usually the best option, but I think a cruise tour might be a bit harder on  a 3.5 year old (that depends on the kid.  My oldest loved   loved St. Petersburg at 3.5 but my two younger ones wouldn't have been able to handle it).  

 

The Alaska board can also give you more up to date information since my Alaska cruise was 12 years ago, but back then Princess and HAL were the two lines most frequently recommended for Alaska.  HAL isn't ideal for young kids, but precovid (and you can check on the Princess board to see more recent experiences) Princess was amazing for young kids.  Their kids clubs are really strong, and have great hours (even if you don't want to leave your kid in the kids club all day not having to deal with 2 hour closures at a time is a big deal when your kid naps.)  

 

The one cruise line I'd warn families to be careful about  is NCL.  My kids have done two cruises in the past year, and they loved the kids club on RC but refused to go to NCL's kids club because they didn't do as many games and activities with the kids and instead spent too much time on the switch (to be fair the other kids on the ship seemed happier with their kids club than my children).NCL has been making a lot of changes to itineraries dropping/shortening ports after final payment for environmental reasons and safety (safety changes are usually a totally reasonable thing  to do after final payment but not when you drop Costa Rica and substitute Acapulco)  

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by kitkat343

[The Chandlers]

We did Alaska with my son when he was 3.5 and it was amazing.  If you can afford to do Disney, I would HIGHLY recommend it.  It was perfection in every single way.  My son is 7 now and he still talks about all the adventures we had.