Help Me Choose an Alaskan Cruise

[Barklee]

Although my kids and I lover them, my wife is getting tired of Caribbean cruises. We are thinking about an Alaskan cruise next Summer with our son (15) and daughter (10). We are considering the 7-night Alaskan Northbound or Southbound on Radiance OTS and the 7-night Hubbard Glacier R/T out of Vancouver on the Serenade OTS. What are your recommendations?

[Sue L]

I don't think you can go wrong with either, we just did the Serenade because it was cheaper for us to fly roundtrip then one way and we had a few other logistical problems that it made Vancouver easier.

 

The cruise was fantastic and I would highly recommend it. If you would like click on the link in my signature for pictures, if you have a specific questions feel free to ask.

[robtulipe]

The one way to/from Anchorage is better for scenery since you get to see the college glaciers and more of the Gulf of Alaska rather than doing the inside passsage twice (with some of the best scenery being passed by at night) but I agree trying to arrange the open jaw flights is more difficut and expensive than just going out of Vancouver or Seattle.

[gnparend]

I would lean towards the ROS either direction but plan one extra day in Anchorage and take the 6 hr Prince William Sound trip. If budget is not an issue then consider the full land tour which is 13 days (7 crusie 6 land tour) It's a fantastic trip no matter if you take a cruise or both. If you've done alot of Carib trips you will appreciate the change of pace.

 

Our signature has a link to our Radiance pic's

[Bruin Steve]

When we did Alaska a few years back, our decision was easy...

We figured we might only do this once in our lives...or at least not get back very soon...So, we decided to "do it right"...

 

This meant trying to make it as complete a vacation as possible (Of course, it also ended up being the most expensive trip we ever took as well)...

 

We did a 13 night cruisetour with our kids in two Sky Suites on the Celebrity Summit...

 

It is my view that the reason for the one-way cruises is to afford you the ability to tack on that land trip portion before or after the cruise...If you're not doing the land portion, or at least some extra time pre- or post-cruise, you may as well save a lot of money and do a roundtrip out of Vancouver.

 

For us, the land tour gave us the bonus of visiting Fairbanks, doing a Wildlife tour through Denali National Park, enjoying views of Mt. McKinley from Talkeetna, visiting Anchorage, seeing the Iditerod Dog training facility, the Alaskan Pipeline and so much more...then going on the cruise Southbound (my recommendation is Southbound...take the more exhausting land tour first, then the more relaxing cruise and the shorter flight home)...

 

If you're not doing all that...if it's the cruise and the cruise only...take the Round Trip...most of the ports are the same anyway...

 

Have fun...

[SherriZ366]

I did Serenade out of Vancouver for a 7 night the first week in August of 2006 There were a lot of kids on the ship which would be good for your kids. The scenery might be better with Radiance going farther up the coast but travel in and out of Vancouver was easier. DD and SIL did the Radiance a few months before we did and they had a flight from Anchorage that left at 10 PM leaving a long day for their travel to begin.

[tripsrme]

When I go to Alaska I will go with Princess and include land tour.

 

I have heard soooo many people say Princess is the only way to do it.

 

I believe they have some exclusive rights to cruise some of the inside passage that you can't get to on other large cruise lines..

 

I have also thought of including the Canadian Rockies.

 

just IMHO

 

ML

[Bruin Steve]

When I go to Alaska I will go with Princess and include land tour.

I have heard soooo many people say Princess is the only way to do it.

I believe they have some exclusive rights to cruise some of the inside passage that you can't get to on other large cruise lines..

 

I heard all that Princess hype when I was looking into it as well...and I am glad I disregarded it...My Alaskan Cruisetour on Celebrity was flat out fabulous...

 

What Princess tries to sell people on is:

1) Only they have the rights to cruise into Glacier Bay...

 

Answer: Of course, there are trade offs...RCCL and Celebrity cruise into Hubbard Glacier instead...and Hubbard Glacier may be just as amazing...it's far larger than any of the individual glaciers in Glacier Bay ...and an unforgetable experience...Plus, RCCL/Celebrity have an additional stop in Icy Strait Point--which Princess is unable to visit...And, if you really want to see Glacier Bay, you can get a flightseeing tour of Glacier Bay from Icy Strait Point...

 

2) They own their own hotels...

 

Answer: I don't care who owns the hotels so long as they're nice...Leading up to booking mine, I kept reading really negative reviews on the Princess hotels...The RCCL/Celebrity hotels (that they use, but don't own...allowing them to change if they find better), especially the Talkeetna and Alyeska hotels, were absolutely phenomenal...

 

3) They've been doing Alaska longer than anybody else...

 

Answer: Fine, but it doesn't mean they do it better...

 

4) They own their own dedicated domed rail cars...

 

Answer: Sure...but so does RCCL/Celebrity...

 

We took Celebrity because, having cruised on both, we just always found them superior to Princess...

 

Case closed...

[Sue L]

this is hubbard glacier which is the most active glacier in the world., lots of calving. Absolutely beautiful!

 

 

[Sue L]

When I go to Alaska I will go with Princess and include land tour.

 

I have heard soooo many people say Princess is the only way to do it.

 

I believe they have some exclusive rights to cruise some of the inside passage that you can't get to on other large cruise lines..

 

I have also thought of including the Canadian Rockies.

 

just IMHO

 

ML

 

 

Our friends were on Princess the same week we were on the Serenade and when they got back I showed them our pictures of Hubbard Glacier, etc and they were amazed they said they didn't see anything like it.

[Bruin Steve]

...and that photo of Hubbard Glacier, no matter how spectacular, doesn't even do it justice...That's just a small section of the front face of the Glacier...the thing is immense...massive...

[blondechick76]

We just booked Radiance Northbound starting on June 6. I just read some really good reviews about this ship and RC in Alaska. We also looked into the fact that we have a 13 year old and wanted to make sure there were things for him to do.

 

We still have to decide what we are going to do once we are in Alaska. We are not sure if we are going to do a land portion through RC or do it on our own.

[Sue L]

...and that photo of Hubbard Glacier, no matter how spectacular, doesn't even do it justice...That's just a small section of the front face of the Glacier...the thing is immense...massive...

 

 

It was a really small section. this might give you a better perspective. The ship in front of the glacier is a full size cruise ship from Regent Lines. Also the glacier goes way down to the right of the picture

 

[Pitcruiser]

Alaska is great but keep in mind it can rain a lot. Our day at sea coming south was heavy rain and 30 knot winds over the bow, and our cruise into Hubbard Glaciar was so rainy and foggy that we couldn't see the glacier (great picture of the whole family huddled in full rain suits hanging onto the rail though). Good rain gear and duck shoes came in really handy the first half of the cruise. The second half was sunny and great - White Pass rail road was fantastic excursion, as was helicopter ride up onto a glacier and float plane trip into the mountains. While we really got rained on, we have a number of friends who cruised the same route and had nothing but sun and warm weather. Its just the luck of the draw - be prepared for rain though! My kids said that while they were glad to have seen Alaska, they would prefer to go back to the Caribbean.

[My2Kitties]

We did NB on Radiance...check out my review and photos...

Suggestions:

1. take the railroads - white pass and train from Seward to Anchorage were wonderful

2. if you do NB stay overnight in Anchorage - the travel back is long...we left the ship at 7:00am Friday and got home Saturday at 2:30 in the afternoon...a good nights sleep in between would have helped.

3. Whichever you do ENJOY!

 

there was a curfew on the ship under 18...there is not all the crazy parties and pool stuff going on but all the kids I met said they had a great time.

[Corby44]

We just returned from a cruise-tour on the Radiance. It was tour #11D and was fantastic. Flew into Fairbanks and spent 5 days on land tours on the way to the ship, then 7 days cruising down to Vancouver. Even spent a couple days there at the end. This was a once in a lifetime trip for us and we were not disappointed. All the land tours were probably what we would have booked ourselves. The tour guide, (Joanna), did a great job in explaining everything. I know these cruise-tours seem a little pricey, but if you don't know what you want to see they are a good general coverage of Alaska. We had a fabulous time and don't regret any of it.

[Avidcruiser]

I just booked NCL round trip from Seattle next summer. It's Norwegian Pearl - the newer ship with the bowling alley. We really wanted a round trip from Seattle and RCL did not offer this. We will stay a few days and sight see in Seattle before we leave on our cruise! Can't wait.

 

Never done NCL - hope it's OK! I'll let you know!!

[luvscruising2007]

We really enjoyed our cruise tour on Radiance in June of this year. If you can afford the time and money be sure to include a landtour with your cruise.

Also, go to the Alaska boards. They really provide alot of good information from seasoned Alaska cruisers and residents. I don't think you could have a bad cruise. As someone else said, this is an expensive trip. Many of the excursions are not cheap but you will probably only do this once.

Have fun planning your trip. j

[mach4]

We've done both and either way you can't go wrong.

 

When we did Anchorage to Vancouver, we went three days early and rented a car to tour the Kenai Penninsula. It was a great experience.

 

We also did the inside passage, roundtrip Vancouver. It's nice because the air arrangements are a little easier to manage.

 

In three weeks we will be doing a repositioning cruise Vancouver-inside passage-San Diego. Since we live in San Diego it will be a very nice step off the boat and be home in 20 minutes. I expect this to be the nicest.

 

So don't worry - select one, and be prepared to come back to Alaska again and again.

[3213dev]

I just booked NCL round trip from Seattle next summer. It's Norwegian Pearl - the newer ship with the bowling alley. We really wanted a round trip from Seattle and RCL did not offer this. We will stay a few days and sight see in Seattle before we leave on our cruise! Can't wait.

 

Never done NCL - hope it's OK! I'll let you know!!

 

RCI offer a 7 night roundtrip out of Seattle on the Rhapsody

 

DEV

[twinmom38]

we just returned from royal caribbean cruisetour # 15... absolutely fantastic.. we did the land portion first and we were glad we did. i wouldn't have changed a thing. i have never sailed princess so i cannot compare, but i can tell you that the radiance is gorgeous and the fact that she has so much glass made it seem we were outside when we weren't. the railroad portion of the land tour was incredible, and the royal celebrity glass domed railcars put the others to shame!! we sailed southbound from seward to vancouver. hubbard glacier was amazing... the sounds of the calving were spectacular. we were in alaska from aug 10 until our cruise ended on the 24.. can you believe we had ONE day of rain ? don't overlook the radiance and RCI... i cannot imagine a better time.

[Avidcruiser]

RCI offer a 7 night roundtrip out of Seattle on the Rhapsody

 

DEV

 

You're right! I forgot we looked into that one but we didn't want an older ship.

[Buccaneergirl]

The first time we cruised AK we did Princess w/Glacier Bay and this time we did RCI w/Hubbard Glacier. I liked RCI so much better than Princess (age group & activities) but Glacier Bay was so much more spectacular than HG!! On Princess, we went early June and RCI we went 3rd week of May and we saw sooooo much more wildlife on Princess and I believe it was because of it being in June.

On RCI, we took the landtour and because I am not a morning person, I was pretty miserable when we had to be up and have our luggage out the door at 6:30 a.m.:mad: If we were to go to AK again, we would do the land portion on our own.

No matter what you end up doing, you will have an amazing time and be in awe! No picture can do AK justice and you don't really understand that until you are there!!

Have fun!

[Alegeeter]

I was on the Radiance this summer, and it was the best vacation I have ever been on. The ship id beautiful, and all the glass really makes a difference with the scenery that is around you. Also, going one way is great if you want to tour the cities on either end. I am now bery partial to the Radiance (so book it :) ). Also, the crew on the Radiance was thebest crew I have ever sailed with. And another positive... you can't go wrong with Rune (unless his next contract moves him to another boat).

[Alegeeter]

...Although we experiences no rain on our cruise so we saw everything perfectly. That may add to my strong feelings about the boat