Inside passage or South bound

[HOSKI]

We are trying to decide between two Alaska cruises.  I think we want the inside passage one but would like input from others which would be better. Which would you suggest and why?

Radiance

Vancouver, British Columbia

Inside Passage (Cruising), Canada

Day at sea

Juneau, Alaska

Hubbard Glacier (Cruising), Alaska

Icy Strait Point, Alaska

Ketchikan, Alaska

Inside Passage (Cruising), Canada

Day at sea

Vancouver, British Columbia

 

Quantum of the Seas

Oneway From:Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington

Visiting:

• Vancouver, British Columbia

• Vancouver, British Columbia

• Ketchikan, Alaska

• Sitka, Alaska

• Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier, Alaska

• Victoria, British Columbia

• Seattle, Washington

[CruiserBruce]

Radiance has Hubbard Glacier...far better cruise.

[donaldsc]

You have left off some very important information in your question.  Most important  and a critical piece of information is what are your port times.  Some cruises have horrible port times.  Also what are the dates of your 2 cruises?  My answer is that I would not take either of the cruises.    

 

The big problem with both of them is that neither goes to Glacier Bay.  That is probably because those lines do not have Glacier Bay permits.  Also the inside passage is pretty but I would not base a choice of AK cruise ship on going through the inside passage.  What you see or maybe don't see is more important than traversing the inside passage.

 

Radiance does include Hubbard which is a great glacier that you can get fairly close to but you might not  get into Hubbard at all because of ice and then you have no glacier at all.  

 

The same problem with glaciers exists for Quantum with the added issue that Dawes while a neat glacier is not as neat as either Glacier Bay or Hubbard.  

 

Since you are obviously open to doing a one way cruise I would try to find one that does Glacier Bay and then either Hubbard or Dawes with Hubbard being my 2nd cruise glacier.

 

Hope this helps.

 

DON

 

 

[Aquahound]

Radiance has a far better itinerary.  One-way cruises that sail the Canadian IP are far superior to Seattle cruises.  

 

Since the Quantum cruise is from Vancouver to Seattle, I'm assuming that's the first cruise of the season, since their normal itinerary is round-trip Seattle.  If that's true, you won't get anywhere near Dawes Glacier due to ice.  You'll need binoculars to see it.  

[HOSKI]

Thanks for the input and I welcome more. 

The reasons for the choice of these two cruises are that it is our anniversary month and we have a free cruise from Royal Caribbean casino that we will be using for this cruise.