Alaskan cruise

[mbrock800]

My husband and I just got back (1 week) from the CB. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and decided that we would not wait another 8 years (our previous cruise) before sailing again.

 

We have decided to take an Alaskan cruise in the Fall of '08 to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We will probably have to wait until the beginning of September so that our children will be in school and less work for people to take care of as we will be leaving them behind.

 

I think we will probably use Princess since we put down a future cruise deposit, but does anyone have recommendations for us?

 

We definitely like the vast array of ammenities found on the larger ships so we are guessing that the Diamond or Sapphire would be our best bet.

 

Would you recommend the first or second week in September?

Is there any pretty foliage during either of these weeks (I know it depends on the year)

What cabins would you recommend? We have heard that it is best to get a covered cabin because of the rain. I guess this means to stay away from the Dolphin deck? What about the Caribe deck?

DO you actually see any wildlife on this trip?

 

AND....would you recommend a cruise starting from the north and heading south or vice versa. I know the Diamond and Sapphire alternate back and forth between northbound and southbound.

 

Thanks for your help.

Merideth

[judynorth]

We have been to Alaska twice - once on the Diamond and once on the Coral. We much prefered the Coral to the Diamond. It just seemed to be a more friendly ship. All of our contact with the crew and staff was positive on the Coral. The same could not be said for the Diamond. The Croal is a smaller ship but has most of the features of the larger Diamond and Sapphire. The major thing that I missed was Skywalkers which has a great view of the wake during the day.

 

We cruised northbound on the Coral and roundtrip from Seattle on the Diamond, which doesn't do that route anymore. If you plan to do a cruisetour I would recommend doing the land tour first and then the southbound cruise. If you are just doing the cruise, then it makes little difference.

 

Yes, the covered balcony is better in Alaska. We had balconies on the Aloha deck both times and enjoyed having the covered balcony. Caribe deck offers 1/2 covered and 1/2 uncovered so if you want a larger balcony I'd go with that instead of Dolphin. Another thing - we were midships on the Diamond and really liked the location because nothing was too far away.

 

Why not go in early May? Alaska is beautiful then and the kids will still be in school.

[Coral]

I also prefer the Coral and Island Princess to the Sapphire and Diamond Princess. It is a much better design of a ship.

 

September has the worst chances for weather in Alaska (expect more rain in September compared to May, June and July). Have you thought about celebrating your anniversary earlier (May or June)?

[mbrock800]

We would love to go in the summer for Alaska, but our son will not be starting school until August. Do you think it would be better to go at the end of August than at the beginning of September. It sounds like the earlier the better.

 

Because we have little ones, we won't be able to do any land tours this trip, so we will probably do either a northbound or southbound (we were told these were the best ones...do you agree?)

 

Any helpful hints about airfare? I guess we will be having to do an open jaw flight (is that what they are called)?

[judynorth]

I prefered the oneway cruise to the roundtrip but be prepared for much higher airfare. We flew into Seattle because we were visiting friends there for a week before the cruise. Then we took the Princess bus to Vancouver. We booked our air ourselves rather than through Princess. I would check both and see which is cheaper and which fits your schedule better. Some people say that you take a real chance using Princess air since they book the cheapest contract fare possible and you don't know what your flights will be until 30 days prior to the cruise. Sometimes the connections can be difficult and inconvenient. We found just the opposite on our recent cruise. It was our first time using Princess air but it was cheaper and our connections were good.

 

I think you see much more on the oneway cruises than the roundtrip ones.

[mbrock800]

Thanks so much for the tips. We are hoping to use our skymiles and not have to pay for airfare. I just checked on the Delta airlines website and they said that you can use your miles for open-jaw flights as well. It didn't say that they debit you for two tickets so I am assuming that it will be the standard published number of miles between regions.

 

Merideth

[Coral]

I have used frequent flier miles for open jaw tickets and they count as just one ticket.

 

I also prefer the one way routes compared to RT.

[Kerry&LuAnn]

Like MBROCK800, we thoroughly enjoyed the Caribbean Princess and thought about an Alaska cruise on the Diamond Princess because it seems to be a similar type of ship. But it sounds like many folks preferred the smaller ships like the Coral. Anyone have a positive experience with the Diamond or Sapphire cruises to Alaska?

[judynorth]

We have friends who went to Alaska on the Sapphire this summer and loved it. Our preference, however, was the Coral. The Diamond is a beautiful ship and the cabins are a little larger but the Coral was still a friendlier ship, in my opinion.

[Coral]

Anyone have a positive experience with the Diamond or Sapphire cruises to Alaska?

 

Diamond, Sapphire, Coral and Island Princess all have the same route - so the Alaska experience will be the same on any of these ships.

 

It is just comparing ship to ship - the Coral and Island Princess are better ship designs IMO compared to the Diamond and Sapphire. They are smaller ships and don't seem as crowded but offer all the benefits (minus Skywalkers) of a larger ship. It just seems that service is better on a smaller ship also.

 

Sometimes I think the design of the Grand class just doesn't make sense (like why the heck is the Traditional dining room <International dining room> impossible to get to and why do they serve breakfast and lunch in this dining room). Or why do you have to walk up the stairs and then down the stairs to get to something when the design of the Coral and Island Princess just flows better. This ofcourse is my opinion but many people on this board rank Coral and Island Princess higher then the other ships in the fleet.

[judynorth]

As far as dining goes, the Sun class ships are even more convenient. Both dining rooms are off the atrium. I really liked that on the Sea Princess. I also like the Cafe Caribe for lunch when the dining room was already closed before we made it back to the ship from an excursion. Of course, in Alaska they only do the round trip out of Seattle.