Which Line Has The BEST Alaska Cruise?

[HollyK]

I know "best" is in the eye of the beholder. :D Given there are sooo many places we've yet to see, when we go someplace we like to see it as thoroughly as possible (as opposed to going back several times to see it all). Of course Alaska is a very easy cruise for us location wise but I'm wondering if there are more cruises than the standard ones one finds on Travelocity, Expedia and the like that are perhaps longer &/or more comprehensive? We're quite willing to do 10 - 14 days, do it once and then not again for a looong time from now.

 

There seem to be quite a few peeps who've cruised Alaska several times so likely have quite a bit of experience. Any suggestions or ideas?

 

Your thoughts much appreciated. :)

[NancyIL]

Most Alaska cruises are 7-days, with Princess having a 10-day from San Francisco. In 2009, Princess will have a 14-day roundtrip from Seattle on the Pacific Princess: http://www.princess.com/pb/itineraryDetails.do?voyageCode=K911&tourCode=&date=&noOfPax=2&resType=C&definition_name=

[Budget Queen]

Many "bests" to consider, but a top choice with money no object would be Lindblad for me, with Cruise West a close second.

 

Of the major lines, I've sailed on 5 to Alaska, my preferences are HAL, Carnival, NCL, Princess, RCI (at least this week, it's my list:) )

[hal2008]

Factors:

 

1) One-way vs Half-way roundtrip

2) SEA vs VAN

3) Whittier vs Seward

4) Glacier Bay vs Hubbard

5) Balcony vs OceanView vs Inside

6) Floating Retirement Center vs some fun-ship

7) Uptight formal vs Casual

8) NB vs SB (if one-way)

9) Offers Tracy Arm or not

10) open sea route vs inside of vancouver island (motion sickness)

11) Good kids program or dont care

12) Extended buffet timings and/or longer Pizza bar hours or dont care

13) Swimming pool open to alaska air or movable dome or dont care

14) Two hot tubs or five or dont care

15) Miniature golf or shuffle board or dont care

16) At least one wraparound covered deck or dont care

17) Skagway or Haines or ISP

18) Enough time in Juneau or dont care

19) Regular ship or excursion-type small one

and many more factors...

 

pick yours

read board

ask questions/get mixed opinions

decide yourself

 

You WILL HAVE GREAT TIME irrespective of what you end up deciding....

[knorrisb07]

I like both Princess and HAL. We will most likely be sailing with HAL next year

[kalliekae]

"Best" really does depend upon your likes/dislikes. We went to Alaska on HAL and really enjoyed it. We are not retirees and found HAL to have a good mix of ages on the Alaskan cruises. It was also more casual than other HAL cruises we have been on. Figure out what you want to see in Alaska and then check the different itineraries for each cruise line. That should help you decide. Happy sailing!

[Cruising Photographer]

Princess and Holand America are the big boys in Alaska. We thoroughly enjoyed our 7 day cruise on the Diamond Princess in July and thoroughly enjoyed it. We followed it up with a 7 day land tour from Anchorage, through Denali, ending in Fairbanks. One thing I would do different, I would recommend doing the land tour first, then enjoying the southbound cruise so you don't have to keep packing/unpacking on the final leg of your trip. If you have time to plan your own land excursion, you can easily save over $1000 using the Alaska Tour Saver coupon book and "Alaska Tour and Travel" to fill in the gaps. We did all of our hotels, transfers, tours, etc... for less than the price of the Princess hotels & transfers.

ENJOY YOUR TRIP!!!

[tupper10]

To really see Alaska you need to get off of a ship - we have cruised and done an overland trip and recommend an overland trip for 1st timers - if you can afford it. There are two hotels right within Denali National Park(not outside of it but 5 hours in by bus) - you stay overnight there and they have family style meals. Three nights is the minimum I would do to really see the park. They are all inclusive hotels and you can do easy walks, moderate or hard hikes or nothing at all. You go with guides who usually have a PhD in geology, orinthology etc. The lodge is called the Denali Backcountry Lodge. If that is too expensive they do have cabins at a much cheaper rate outside of the park and a lot less crowded than the big hotels. You can also organize a small ship cruise but they are quite expensive and were over our price range so we didn't do it - our friends did and said it was great but you can try to do it on you own. We went to Denali then we trained down to Anchorage and drove to Seward -you can train all the way If you get to Anchorage please eat at the Marx Brothers Cafe for us - best restaurant anywhere and you can email your reservation in advance. It is not a tourist place. We get lunches and such at the Asian grocery store in Anchorage - everything made fresh and one of the best places to get home made salads etc. There is also a wonderful health food cafe but I can't remember the name - 1st time we were there though it was better - I actually had a real tuna (not canned) sandwich. They didn't have that when we went back. I would say that if you are only going once to do the overland trip with the Alaska Railroad - the cruise ship cars are attached but on your own it is much less expensive and the food on board is great. Stay in the park. You can take a great whale watching/wildlife small boat one day trip in Seward and of course visit the glacier as well. If you only do the cruise you are missing some of the best scenary you will ever see in your lifetime. If you don't want to do a small cruise ship due to expense than hop on one of the ships leaving from Seward after you have done the Denali trip. If you are going next summer you need to book hotels in the park now. One other note they don't call the mosquito the state bird of Alaska for nothing so if you go in July be prepared. August has less mosquitos the later in August the better. If you do go in July nothing helps with the mosquitos so be prepared - DEET does not work - they just eat it up - at the lodges we actually wore nets and had not one part of our body exposed and we still got bitten!! It was still worth it. The lodges by the way are where the mountain climbers used to take off and climb Denali - there is a small air strip so you can actually do a flight seeing ride of the mountain - weather depending. Enjoy. If you want to email me for more info fee free dberger731@optonline.net

[agabbymama]

I also recommend HAL, but I differ a little from the others, in loving the cruisetours. The ports are lovely, but getting into the Interior was absolutely beyond compare.

 

I poured through the HAL brochure, finding a cruisetour that did what I wanted to do. To me the Yukon is part and parcel with Alaska, so I wanted to see some of it. Yukon Wilderness Cruisetour #1 was perfect for us. We flew LAX to Vancouver, sailed Northbound on Zuiderdam to Tracy Arm, Juneau and Skagway. Debarked in Skagway up the Yukon Whitepass RR (route the gold miners used) to Fraser, to Whitehorse (Capital of the Yukon), to Dawson City, onto the Yukon River to Eagle Alaska, to Tok, to Fairbanks, onto the Domed railcar to Denali arriving about noon, then departing the next day at about noon, so only 24 hours at the Park, but we did the Tundra Wilderness Tour the afternoon we arrived, and Jeff King's Husky Homestead tour the next morning. There were four of us, and we all thoroughly loved the cruisetour. My husband would have been happier on the ship with all the food, but he even had to admit the land portion was wonderful too.