Glacier Bay: HAL? NCL? Princess?

[mikeynla]

Hi there all of you Alaska cruise folk!

 

So, we'll be taking our first ever cruise, to Alaska! And we really want Glacier Bay to be part of our trip...

 

I've been fumbling around for a week, trying to choose one line over another, and I just can't yet make a choice, so I thought I'd ask the experts!

 

We're looking for a ship and a cabin that will WOW us. When applicable, we intend to spend as much time in our room as possible, so the WOW factor of the room is important.

 

For comparable prices, I've found an AF cabin on NCL Pearl, SY on HAL Westerdam, and AA on Island Princess.

 

The Princess trip is a north to south, ending in Vancouver, while HAL and NCL are round-trip. So I understand that more can be seen on the Princess journey, and that I'll have to fly into Anchorage and out of Vancouver.

 

That all aside...

 

Has anyone here done all three ships? Or at least all three lines?

 

I must say that something about HAL really draws me... In short, I'm WOWed! :) The ship, the decks, the cabins. NCL Pearl intrigues me as well. I like the look of pretty much everything. As for the Island Princess, well... the cabin doesn't really stand out, but the ship looks just amazing, smaller than the other two I'm looking at, but still large enough to have all of the "good stuff!" And, from what I understand, Island Princess is really highly regarded...

 

So, I'm leaning toward HAL Westerdam. For a roundtrip, it offers a great itinerary, and I love the look of the ship and cabins...

 

Any thoughts???

 

thanks to all!

 

-Michael

[jmk22574]

Hi Michael - my husband and I took our first cruise ever (to Alaska) last year. We decided on HAL (Noordam) - which isn't sailing an Alaskan itinerary in 2009, but the Westerdam is also a Vista class ship - almost identical. We decided on HAL due to the fact that we wanted a nice, spacious cabin and weren't looking to get involved in a lot of shipboard activities. We were told that the average age of the passengers on HAL was much older than us (we are 34 and 32), and we found that to be fairly true, but we had a great time due to this. One activity we did partake in daily was the daily team trivia, and our "teammates" were in their 70s and a lot of fun.

 

The best part was that we booked an SY cabin/suite...and a week before the cruise, our TA called and offered (actually HAL offered) us an upsell to an SB deluxe verandah suite for $199 a person! That was a $398 difference wherein if we had booked the SB deluxe verandah suite originally, it would have cost us nearly $1600 more. ****If you do book a specific SY cabin (as we did) and you'd be open for an "upsell," be sure to tell HAL or your TA....that way they might just call you and offer you something similar closer to your cruise date.

 

We loved the calm and quite of our cruise (which I think had a lot to do with the Alaskan atmosphere itself)...and the food was wonderful (plus we ordered room service every day for breakfast and often for dinner).

 

Have a great time planning your cruise. We're booked on the Amsterdam back to Alaska this May, but we're actually considering switching to the Westerdam simply because the Sunday-Sunday dates work better for us.

 

Jill

[mikeynla]

Hi Jill, and thanks for the info! Your pics are great!

 

We are actually of similar age (33 and 27), so I'm glad to hear you had such a positive experience. Friends of mine took HAL to Alaska 2 summers ago, and loved it!

 

As I said, something about these Vista-class ships just really calls to me, so again... I'm leaning!

 

:)

[Budget Queen]

I have sailed all three lines to Alaska, but only ship of your list, the Pearl.

 

Since the ship is your priority, then you might want to go to the cruiseline boards and ask specific questions about cabins and each line's service etc. to add to your decision choice??

 

With your priority for the cabin, then I do suggest you only consider port side cabins for your Glacier Bay sailing.

 

For clairfication, you won't necessarily "see more" going a one way, unless you opt for "more" interior Alaska touring?? At the least a glacier boat tour out of Whittier, is a super choice.