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OT: Alaskan Cruise

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fg7321

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Nov 29, 2009
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Planning on a cruise to Alaska this summer . Looking for ideas and cruise lines and boats to target. We are looking mostly at Princess. My wife and i are 64 & 63 and are pretty active. We want to do a Land and sea package with an adventure or two thrown in.


We have never been on a cruise so we are trying to make sure we don't make mistakes and get surprised.....
 
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Raritan83

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Sep 6, 2011
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Doing one with my wife and kids this summer. We are doing Princess round trip from Vancouver so can’t help with the land portion.

That said from my research it seems the kings of Alaska are Princess and Holland America. They have been doing the longest and apparently have it down. They also have far and away the most permit to Glacier Bay National Park which was a big thing for us. The NCL and RCCL one ways do not have Glacier Bay and only select NCL from Seattle have it.

We went with Princess as it supposedly trends a bit younger. On the one ways Princess is running 3 Grand class ships and one new Royal class. The Royal class is new, bigger and more speciality dining but you lose a promenade deck for more viewing points and you will go outside Vancouver island as opposed to inside which cuts a day of scenic viewing. The Grand Princess has a covered pool if that is important.

If a AARP member they sell discounted gift cards to Princess (8%) and Holland America (10%) and likely the other lines. Reminder you don’t need be 65 to join; it is only $12 to join and we saved hundreds with the gift cards.

Hope that helps.
 
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MURF87

MURF87

Senior
Jan 19, 2008
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Wife and I took an Alaskan cruise summer of 2022. Sailed on Celebrity Solstice out of Seattle. Stops in Ketchican, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, BC, then back to Seattle. If you stop in Skagway make sure to take the train from town up to the mountains... fantastic ride and scenery! The stop in Victoria, BC was about a half day or so but I had been there a couple of times previously. Would stay away from any land excursion with mass meals (salmon bakes) as the food wasn't that great.

One thing I'd recommend is to watch some online videos from seasoned cruisers about Alaskan cruises. Even in summer want to bring layers and waterproof clothing. Footwear should be waterproof too.

We really enjoyed the cruise. For wife it was her first time to Alaska and had been on Caribbean cruises before. For me, I served 24 years in the Coast Guard, served on two USCG cutters on the west coast and did a number of Alaskan patrols, but this was my first "civilian" cruise EVER.
 
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DowntownT_Brown

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Oct 24, 2007
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Went on an Alaska land and sea tour with Princess and it was great, stopped in just about the same locations people mentioned above.

I assumed that I would enjoy the land portion more as in other cruises I have done I had always preferred the shore excursions than sitting on the boat but the glaciers changed that for me. Sitting on your room's balcony with a cocktail in hand while watching/listening to calving glaciers is epic.

If you are comfortable with small planes the Misty Fjords floatplane tour from Ketchikan was great.

On the flip side the land portion was miss after miss by no fault of the cruise company.
We stayed by Denali for 3 days but didn't sniff even a view of the base of the mountain as it is under clouds for the vast majority of the year.

We went on a tour to watch bears fishing on a salmon ladder and while we saw around 100 bald eagles we saw one bear about a quarter mile away and there was almost mutiny on the tour bus after plodding around for 6 hours in the rain.

Either way, it was great and would do the same tour warts and all again.
 
Tango Two

Tango Two

Heisman
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Aug 21, 2001
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fg7321 said:
Planning on a cruise to Alaska this summer . Looking for ideas and cruise lines and boats to target. We are looking mostly at Princess. My wife and i are 64 & 63 and are pretty active. We want to do a Land and sea package with an adventure or two thrown in.


We have never been on a cruise so we are trying to make sure we don't make mistakes and get surprised.....
Click to expand...

Did you try the search feature?







 
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365Poster24Seven

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Oct 13, 2022
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Go with Disney first class all the way and no nickel and dime in g its customers. They sal out out of Vancouver.
 
UMRU

UMRU

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Sep 19, 2006
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fg7321 said:
Planning on a cruise to Alaska this summer . Looking for ideas and cruise lines and boats to target. We are looking mostly at Princess. My wife and i are 64 & 63 and are pretty active. We want to do a Land and sea package with an adventure or two thrown in.


We have never been on a cruise so we are trying to make sure we don't make mistakes and get surprised.....
Click to expand...
Depending on how much you want to spend and what you are interested in, the National Geographic/Linblad cruises are exceptional. ~60 people with several onboard naturalist guides.

Nat Geo
 
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Brisket and Bourbon

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Jun 22, 2023
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Hope for no big mid latitude cyclone…the video my friend sent me from his Alaskan cruise would have had me 🤮🤢 hopefully you get a big ol heat wave high pressure and it’s clear as can be 🤞
 
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RU1977

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Nov 15, 2006
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Only suggestion I have so far is to do the land portion first. It tired us out, so you can relax/recover during the cruise portion Alaska is beautiful......
 
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Scarlet4ever

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Feb 14, 2004
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Make sure your itinerary goes into Glacier Bay. As another poster said Princess and Holland America have the most access to Glacier Bay (they limit access to the National Park - 2 ships per day).
 
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thegock

thegock

Senior
Jul 30, 2012
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Check out LINDBLAD. Best experience of any of the other lines at a premium price. U R worth it.
 
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Southern Gentleman

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Aug 10, 2011
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My wife and I are considering an Alaska cruise as well next summer. We are 67 and 68 and enjoy traveling. Anyone else thinking about it?
 
29PAS

29PAS

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Sep 21, 2001
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My wife and I took two road trip vacations in Alaska and loved both of them. Both times, we flew to Anchorage and rented a car - and these were in September after all the crowds had left and the weather was still good - saw no snow other than what was still on the mountains.

First time, we put the car on a train over to Valdez, then drove north to a little beyond Fairbanks. Second trip we went south on the Kenai Penninsula to Homer and Seward. On both we wandered around touring different areas and stayed 2 nights if we liked a place. We stayed in motels and BnBs and availability was not a problem. The food in small towns at local restaurants was surprisingly good. Anyone who likes halibut would be in paradise. And we met a ton of interesting people, both tourists, transplants and natives.

One funny encounter was at the reservation desk for K2 Aviation in Talkeetna for a flight up one of the glaciers (hope it's still there). The woman behind the counter had a distinctive accent. I asked her where in South Jersey she was from. Turns out she had grown up in Margate!

We're not cruisers so this may all be irrelevant but they were two vacations we loved and still talk about. This was about 20 yrs ago and I'd do another in a heartbeat just to see what the place is like now.
 
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