Alaska- July or September????

[Screwbit]

We will be doing our first Alaska cruise in 2005 on either Diamond or Sapphire Princess- Inside Passage out of Seattle(everything up to now has been Caribbean). I want to maximize our vacation time, so I'm looking at a July 2nd sail date(which would give us a free day for July 4th), or a September 3rd date(giving us Labor Day). Since we would fly into Seattle a day early, we would only use a week's vacation time. My question is this: Is there a benefit in weather, sights, crowds, etc., to doing one over the other?. I would assume we might have smaller crowds in September, but is there a big difference in the weather? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

We have cruised Alaska in June, July, Aug and Sept.

 

We found that we liked July the best. The weather tends to be a little bit better then.

 

We had a lot of rainy weather Sept 2003.

 

As for crowds - there will still be a lot of cruise ships in Alaska in September as most of them don't start their repositioning cruises until about the 3rd week of Sept. So there will be just as many people in all the ports for both times you are looking at.

 

We also found that the glaciers calved more in July becasue of the more intense sun.

 

:)

[tinydancer21]

I would definatly come in either June or July, after that we go in to our rainy season and it lasts until snow falls. :(

[Budget Queen]

Crowds will be the same- still full peak traveler numbers. Early Sept will be better for wildlife opportunities- like black bear viewing out of Ketchikan and full salmon runs. But overall- the routing on these ships is less inside passage and no Glacier Bay which would be my preference. Choose carefully- looking at ports, time in ports, glacier, route and budget fully for costly excursions, you get only half a trip without them. :)