North bound or South bound for 7 day one way cruise

[wsp2205]

this is the very first of my Alaska cruise booking, and actually very first of any cruise booking at all. Starting a new chapter of vacation experiences in life!

 

I used to be doubtful of cruise traveling as I am the type of person who wants to have full control of my agenda and hate to be bounded by any preset schedules. Food, luxury rooms, entertainment, etc are just nice extras instead of the essential necessities of the trip itself, to me. But Alaska is the destination on my bucket list for a long time and a self planned road trip is too tricky to plan for a single woman so I am looking at the cruise option. 

 

But after some initial research, I found myself stuck with the classical south bound vs north bound options. This is the list of pros and cons after from my research: 

North Bound: pros
1. cheaper in airfare (for me it looks like there is about $300 difference between NB vs SB)
2. scenery gets better and better
3. able to connect to a 26 Glacier Cruise tour after the cruise trip, if I decide to do it
4. if to connect with a road trip after cruise, it could happen with slightly warmer temperature (2 weeks later leading into the summer as I plan to go in June)

cons: 
1. road trip happens after the cruise segment, which could be tiring as many folks have pointed out
2. The biggest consideration is: north bound stops at Glacier Bay 6:00am - 3:00pm , while south bound 9:15am-7:30pm. I am a very late riser. getting up at 6am to see anything is totally beyond me. So the big question is: for the Glacier Bay stop, how much time is preferred? do we really need the full 9-10 hours or as much as possible? 
3. north bound stops at college fyord while south bound stops at Hubbard bay. I assume for 1st timers, both are equally good?

 

For me, it looks like the decision making is on whether I should pay $300 extra to get more time in glacier bay. is it worth it? Any opinions here? thank you all!

 
 

[oaktreerb]

Glacier Bay is a sail in, pick up the rangers, stop in front of the glaciers for a few hours while the boat turns for viewing from port and starboard, sail out, drop off the rangers, sail out of the area.  It’s pretty much an all day thing.  You’ll probably be up and about before the main event of glacier viewing and calving.  

 

Not sure what Hubbard Bay experience is,  Hubbard glacier is a huge glacier.  College Fjord is an experience of viewing glaciers from the ship that covers a lot of the area that the 26 Glacier Cruise covers,  

 

Have you considered taking a cruise tour?   For people who do a land tour, many prefer the land portion first and then cruise.  

[Coral]

I like both NB and SB.

[wsp2205]

yes, I am planning a land portion from Anchorage, either before or after the cruise part depending on the decision of NB vs SB. I read about the preference of land portion first and then cruise and found the preference is mainly from those from east coast who want to avoid flying red eye back. For those who don't really have this issue (those living on the west coast), I believe we can ignore this preference? or am I missing something there?