?'s for those of you who have planned an extended family cruise to Alaska

[skip323]

I love planning vacations but want to make certain that I am taking all things into consideration when looking at a multifamily, multigeneration trip to Alaska. We are, first of all, looking at July 2011 so I can only guess on prices but I am curious as to what else you may have done in trying to plan one of these vacations. We will have families coming from 4 or 5 states, lots of kids, a couple of grandparents. I think I have a travel agent who will help me work on this but I want to be able to help people plan.

 

I have seen useful packing lists that I will send out (in about a year). I will definitely suggest Cruisecritic as an excellent resource. I have already suggested that passports may be needed as the port of most interest to me is Vancouver.

 

Anything else? Also, is there no such thing as a cabin that can accomodate a family of 5?

[Happy2Cruise4Fun]

First off I would not try to plan everything for everyone. List the dates, try to get cabins near each other, or not depending on how well everyone gets along. Then don't wait for the entire group to decide what to do. If you want to do X and everyone else wants to do Y. Let them go while you do your thing.

 

We have traveled with up to 15 other family members before. There are always pockets of groups with different ideas. We base out of a point, and meet back later in the day if the groups want to split up. You will go nuts if you try to keep everyone together.

 

Thats the best part of family. You are already separated and coming from multiple states. Your used to being apart and doing your own things. Mine just live down the road and we are all happy to take off on our own.

[skip323]

Thank you. That really is my plan....to just do the main ship planning and then let the TA book rooms for whomever wants to go. I am also thrilled at the idea that we an all do our own thing (excursions etc but meet back for a meal or just to "hang out" on deck).

 

As the "planner" though, I want to make certain I get information to everyone for packing and planning. I don't know that there is anything else I really need to do I just want to make certain I am not forgetting anything!

[Newbie0210]

What I did for our family trip (6 adults, 4 kids) would probably be considered overkill by many. But since the other adults in our group aren't as savvy on the internet as I am, I decided to pass along as much info as I could to them.

 

I researched possible excursions, gave my MIL and SIL handouts on several suggested ones and together we decided which ones to do as a group and which days to go separately.

 

I provided them with info on each port including average temps for July, tips of things to take with them (they all loved the over the door shoe organizer), gave them copies of some of the Pearl's menus, print outs of each deck of the ship and what public rooms were on each one, and much more.

 

But if your family can do their own research, then let them. I'm a little nervous that if something goes wrong, they will all silently blame me since I seem to have planned the whole thing. But I didn't make any decisions without getting feedback from the other adults.

[alaskagain]

In 2003,2004 and 2005 FIL took the whole family to Alaksa, doing a different cruisetour each time. The first year, we were all green and really didn't do our research. I didn't find CC till before 2004. By then we were doing different excursions based on what we wanted to do. The first year FIL booked them all and they were usually 2 per port!

 

By 2005, I was venturing out rented the car to drive to Carcross, couldn't get anyone else to go with us, DD and I. In Juneau and Ketchikan the guys usually fish while the gals do something else.

 

This year it is just us 4 and we are fishing in Juneau and Ketchikan with nothing booked for Skagway yet.

 

You have lots of time to let the others read and research what they want to do. We had 3 cabins that all connected through the balconies. The kids loved that. Grandma and Grandpa were in the middle,

 

Have fun.

[skip323]

 

But if your family can do their own research, then let them. I'm a little nervous that if something goes wrong, they will all silently blame me since I seem to have planned the whole thing. But I didn't make any decisions without getting feedback from the other adults.

 

 

Ha! That is me!! I am the overkill kind of gal and this is such a big trip for everyone that I keep thinking I need to give them tons of stuff. I also do not think I have super internet savvy folks in my family. Surely some are but I am far more likely to research...and research....and research, o.k., it is actually an obsession!!!!

 

Thanks for the information everyone! It is truly appreciated!

[harryfat1]

I love planning vacations but want to make certain that I am taking all things into consideration when looking at a multifamily, multigeneration trip to Alaska. We are, first of all, looking at July 2011 so I can only guess on prices but I am curious as to what else you may have done in trying to plan one of these vacations. We will have families coming from 4 or 5 states, lots of kids, a couple of grandparents. I think I have a travel agent who will help me work on this but I want to be able to help people plan.

 

I have seen useful packing lists that I will send out (in about a year). I will definitely suggest Cruisecritic as an excellent resource. I have already suggested that passports may be needed as the port of most interest to me is Vancouver.

 

Anything else? Also, is there no such thing as a cabin that can accomodate a family of 5?

 

Well, you are certainly much braver than me as I don’t think I’d want to tackle the project of working with various family members for a vacation planning. Then maybe you have better relatives than I do.

 

Don’t think anyone answered your question on 5 members per cabin. Read this post from the family section:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=996930

 

As for the main ship planning, it’s hard to predict what ships will be in Alaska in 2011. For 2010, Carnival changed the Spirit to doing roundtrip from Seattle instead of one way route and RCI pulled the Serenade of the Seas out of the market. So just keep that in mind as what you see for 2009/2010 is likely to change by 2011 due to market conditions.

 

You can have the various family members to go the cruise web sites and request brochures to be mailed to them so at least they have a foundation on what’s what. Per your post, you will have lots of kids in the group, then maybe you can do some research on the kids programs available on the various ships, assuming of course, the kids would be interested in attending the programs.

 

I know you said you will use a travel agent, but until you have narrowed down to 2 or 3 choices of ships, it’s hard for any agent to help you as the task of quoting multiple cabins on multiple days on multiple ships becomes exponentially difficult. Perhaps it’s easier if you can narrow it down by eliminating one or more of the following options. Alaska cruise can be divided into 3 basic buckets:

 

1 – One way cruise to/from Vancouver/Alaska. Advantage of this route is you see more, but the open jaw flights can be very expensive.

 

2 – Round trip Seattle. Advantage is low cost of airfare as it’ll be a domestic flight, especially if you live close to a Southwest airport. Disadvantage is the route can be more turbulent and less scenic.

 

3 – Round trip Vancouver. Somewhat a hybrid between the two above. You can fly into Seattle and arrange for transportation to Vancouver, but that would add one more layer of complexity in your trip planning.

 

If you are really ambitious in your trip planning coordination, you can do a Power point slide show presentation on the various aspects of cruises and deliver the info via Net meeting with all the out of state relatives all logging in on a conference call, but that becomes more work related than the fun part of vacation planning.

[skip323]

Well, you are certainly much braver than me as I don’t think I’d want to tackle the project of working with various family members for a vacation planning. Then maybe you have better relatives than I do..

 

Oh...I'm not brave....I'm actually a gluten for punishment!! What can I say??? I am actually going to choose the ship...and the date too. I just think there are too many people to leave that up for discussion. I do like the idea of presenting info on some type of internet slide show/ meeting etc. That could be very helpful for everyone!

 

Thanks for the link regarding the families of 5!