Who Has Booked Alaska for '09???

[CruisinRoxy]

Also booked on the beautiful Radiance of the Seas - Aug 7, 2009 Southbound out of Seward. Self, DH, DD 22, DS 20, DS 11. First timers to Alaska! Very tough making decisions, but decided to do RCI once again as everyone has glowing things to say about this ship.

[IndpdntChik324]

We booked in January for our northbound on the Spirit, 5-27-2009. I've been planning for about a year and a half for this trip, and unfortunately have another year to go. But thanks to the help from everyone on these forums, I think I'm all set on excursions and post-cruise independent land tour.

 

This will be my husband's first cruise, my 3rd (but first to Alaska), and it's our belated honeymoon. We are just so excited we can hardly stand it! :D

[Host Caroline]

Last year was DH's first Alaska experience.. now he's hooked as I bet yours will be as well.. Our cruise has already gone up in price! for almost a year from now.. you'd think with the economy it wouldn't go up so fast so soon! :confused:

 

I started a roll call for Golden 5/16/09 if anyone wanders in here and is going on that date...

[NH Cruiser]

We're going Southbound Seward/Vancouver on Radiance of the Seas - August 7. A few people have found us on the Roll Call board.

 

Caroline, I noticed you are in North Caroline. We moved here last year to Concord. Where are you in NC?

[LoveThisCruisingThing]

My mom and I have booked Pacific Princess for July 9, 09. Two week RT from Seattle going all the way to Kodiak. We are looking forward to this a great deal. It is mom's first big trip in many years. She and dad were avid travellers until dad became sick about 7 years ago. He always wanted to return to Alaska but unfortunately he passed away in Jan of this year. But I know he will be there in spirit and happy to know that we are there.

Grace

[dizrick]

We are going on Holland Americas cruise from Seattle on May 24 2009. It is on the Westerdam and it is our first Alaskan cruise. We will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and this is the wifes dream cruise. She wants to see the whales, I told her we could see whales in Hawaii but she wants Alaska. We are excited about going, everything we have read makes us believe that it will be a memorable trip. If anyone has any tips let us know, we have found a lot of good ideas reading these boards.:D

[pcsooner]

We're planning for Alaska in summer of 2009. I've got lots of questions and find these message boards are the best place to get answers. However there are a number threads concerning one of my questions and it takes a lot to research so many threads on the same topic. However, I don't want to hijack this thread so let me know if I'm out of line here.

 

Here go the questions:

Which cruiseline is best and why do you think so? We've sailed Princess before and were exceptionally satisfied. My TA is encouraging us to go Carnival. Several friends have done HAL and highly recommend it. HELP!

 

Which of the months is best to go and why?We're thinking of June, as near the summer solstice as possible. From these boards it looks like lots of you are looking at May or September. Is there something we don't know? Or is is cost? June does seem to be the most expensive but no more so than our Panama Canal trip.

 

What expenses are included in the cruisetours? We want to do one of the cruiseline's Arctic Circle/Prudhoe Bay cruisetours before the actual cruise. They cost about $2000 pp more than just the cruise but I don't know what all is covered. Is it any or all of the nights lodging, the motorcoaches and railway fare, park/other attraction admissions, flight back from Prudhoe to Anchorage, any meals, etc.?

 

I think that's it for now but as you can tell, I have questions within questions. Any opinions you can give will be carefully considered. Hopefully others have some of the same questions too.

[Host Caroline]

You are not hijacking the thread here BUT you will probably get a lot lot more info on all of your questions if you post them as a separate thread entitlted "questoins about Alaska for next year" or something... since this is more of a pseudo roll call for people just to post their sailings etc?

[sclitlady]

My husband and I are booked on the NCL Pearl: June 7, 2009. I can't wait!

[lovedeals]

My husband and I and 18 friends are booked on the Carnival Spirit southbound for May 20, 09. Eight of us are going a week early to do a land tour starting in Anchorage.

[Addrian]

We are going on Holland Americas cruise from Seattle on May 24 2009. It is on the Westerdam and it is our first Alaskan cruise. We will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and this is the wifes dream cruise. She wants to see the whales, I told her we could see whales in Hawaii but she wants Alaska. We are excited about going, everything we have read makes us believe that it will be a memorable trip. If anyone has any tips let us know, we have found a lot of good ideas reading these boards.:D

 

We are also going May 24th on the Westerdam!

[dizrick]

Awesome Addrian, maybe we will have enogh cc'ers to have a meet. We are really excited about this cruise.

[Host Caroline]

We're going Southbound Seward/Vancouver on Radiance of the Seas - August 7. A few people have found us on the Roll Call board.

 

Caroline, I noticed you are in North Caroline. We moved here last year to Concord. Where are you in NC?

 

Mint Hill.. about 10 miles south of you! We get together with some couples from CC that live in Concord and Mint Hill tht we have cruised with several times.... we'd love to have you join us some time if you would be interested.. we are all going again next year in November.

[deepnite10]

We just booked the Golden Princess out of Seattle for May 16.. DH has never been to Seattle so we are going early so I can show him around a bit... my boss swears I get even more ornery if I don't get an Alaska fix at least every other year:rolleyes:

 

in the mass of humanity on the 16th we may bump into each other..we ll be on the Star :D

[NH Cruiser]

Caroline, thank you for the invitation. Please send me an email when you're getting together the next time.

[Bufferdoo]

We have been looking into a Holland Alaska cruise.(had one booked for this summer, but cancelled after they changed some of the land tours). I had been told by some people that if you go to Alaska, be sure to go on Holland and I have not seen them mentioned much here.

We are recently back from a southern caribbean on Carnival Destiny. Ship was pretty old, but we made the best of it and had a great trip. We are now trying to plan Alaska for 2009. Any ideas send my way! Thanks

[Divetex]

I'll never flame you for posting what you did. You were treated horribly, and you certainly have the right to say what you said. My only question is this. In view of your horrid service on the Coral Princess, why in the world did you give good tips?

[Divetex]

We booked next year's Alaska cruise on the Radiance primarily because of its itinerary and the fact that we'll be in Seward for a couple of days before we sail. We like Princess, but we also like RCCL. Simply stated, we don't go to Alaska for the ship.

[Host Caroline]

. Simply stated, we don't go to Alaska for the ship.

 

Amen to that!

When I was a TA many moons ago and before my first Alaska cruise I didn't believe it.. after 8 I definitely do. It's the scenery and ports that are the draw here.. no matter what ship you are on, it will pale in comparison to this amazing destination...

... IMHO;)

[Hogladyrider]

My mom and I are booked on Spirit 5/6/09 Inside Passage - our 1st time in Alaska for both of us.

 

She's flying in from Mass and me from FL - the planning has already begun!

Susan

[Host Caroline]

I just finished getting frequent flier tickets to Seattle for next May.. now we can breath a sigh of relief and begin the real wait... switching to a Princess Rewards Visa and have some US Air miles left but the 50,000 went to good use and we are glad to have them redeemed as crazy as air fare is getting...

[me00930]

Thanks Cincinnatigal.

 

We are from the Cincinnati area also! We have booked on Radiance and after reading all the threads am concerned about our choice. It is our first Alaska cruise with a group of 6. I love RCCL of all cruises I have taken. I have traveled Carnival, NCL, HAL, and Cunard and I liked my RCCL cruise the best. We are doing a cruisetour in July 09 and can't wait!!

[Host Caroline]

Thanks Cincinnatigal.

 

We have booked on Radiance and after reading all the threads am concerned about our choice. It is our first Alaska cruise with a group of 6. I love RCCL of all cruises I have taken. I have traveled Carnival, NCL, HAL, and Cunard and I liked my RCCL cruise the best. We are doing a cruisetour in July 09 and can't wait!!

 

I much prefer Princess over others although I'll go on almost any cruise line..we also cruise Carnival more for military rates and used to cruise RCI more before they got so dang expensive.

 

I'm curious why you are concerned re RCI and what people are posting? I know the Radiance is a lovely ship and the scenery and ports are what you are going for anyway -- those are the same no matter what ship you are on? so what's up? the tour part??:confused: A neighbor's daughter worked with "Celebrity Connections" (royal carib and celebrity tours) and for HAL over 3 summers recently and said she thought Celeb Connections was better!

[Hogladyrider]

Cruise is booked for 5/6/09 is it too early to book airefare? We are making our own air arrangements.

 

Searching the web now Delta has some great one way rates below $200.

[wrp96]

Never too soon to book airfare if you find flights that will work with your cruise and are at a price that you think is reasonable.

 

If you can find fares for as low as $200 right now I would snatch them up.