Alaska cruise recommendations

[Nord]

booking a 7 day. What is the best cruisline? Good food, rooms, entertainment etc? Thinking of booking for July but not married to the month. Seeing glaciers is a must.
TIA. I don’t want to be on the Greyhound of the seas. Lol.

 

[$hot]

Carnival is great for families

 

[shunter2005]

We are going the end of May, first of June. Three days in Denali first and then onto a 7 day southern route. Whittier to Vancouver on the Royal Princess. She is fresh out of a refurb last year, so she should be in great shape. Last time Celebrity. We love Celebrity. If you stay in an Aqua class room you are able to have dinner in a private dining room just for that class. Also, Celebrity Millenium just came out of a frest refurb as well. Should be great also.

I would stay away from New Holland (SIL said that the ships were dated and food sucked). JMO..

 

[Mandelon]

We did Carnival out of Seattle. Upgrade was an option to get a balcony and it came with an all you can drink deal.

We got our money's worth. It was an awesome trip.

https://www.carnival.com/itinerary/7-day-alaska-cruise/seattle/legend/7-days/glq

 

[Mandelon]

 

[Lunatic Fringe]

Do you want to see Alaska or a few thousand other passengers?
If Alaska, spend the extra $ and go with these guys.
https://www.uncruise.com/destinations/alaska-cruises
We've been on two trips with them, both times aboard the Endeavour and had fantastic times. https://www.uncruise.com/why-us/our-fleet/safari-endeavour
It's geared to be an activity driven cruise and neither time was the ship sold out. One trip there was only 45 passengers. Being a small ship cruise, they get into places the large ships can't.

 

[Maw]

We did a Holland fourteen day almost three years ago. Seven days up on the inside then seven days back on the outside passage. Late August departure and the only day of drizzle was when we left Seattle. Definitely an older crowd aboard, bundled up like they were headed for the North Pole while I was walking around in shorts and a T-shirt. Too many made-for-cruise-line stops along the way, but still an enjoyable time.

 

[rivermobster]

Don't.

We went to Alaska and stayed at Bed and Breakfasts. (People's personal houses).

It was amazing. The people we stayed with took us to So many cool places we never would have seen on a cattle call trip.

Alaska is a beautiful state. You do not want to just watch it pass by from a boat

 

[napanutt]

We’re doing a 10 dayer out of SF on Princess in July. We like SF because it’s an hour drive from our house-don’t have to fly to get on a ship.
Definitely get a balcony. We’ll never cruise again without one.
Never been to Alaska so that’s all I got.

 

[Xtrmwakeboarder]

Do you want to see Alaska or a few thousand other passengers?
If Alaska, spend the extra $ and go with these guys.
https://www.uncruise.com/destinations/alaska-cruises
We've been on two trips with them, both times aboard the Endeavour and had fantastic times. https://www.uncruise.com/why-us/our-fleet/safari-endeavour
It's geared to be an activity driven cruise and neither time was the ship sold out. One trip there was only 45 passengers. Being a small ship cruise, they get into places the large ships can't.

If I had to pick a cruise, I would probably go with something like this. I think Nat Geo does cruises as well. My mom has had fun with a couple Princess cruises to Alaska. Her last one was a flight to Alaska, a week of driving around, then a week long cruise. She loves it and is planning #3.

 

[TCHB]

Last year we on Princess for 10 days. Our trip was a land and sea. We started out in Fairbanks and went by rail to Denali and then off to Whittier to pick up the cruise ship.

 

[FreeBird236]

We did 7 day Princess out of Seattle, nice ship and destinations, but nothing but cold, rain and drizzle the entire time, first week of July, just lucky I guess.

 

[napanutt]

We did 7 day Princess out of Seattle, nice ship and destinations, but nothing but cold, rain and drizzle the entire time, first week of July, just lucky I guess.

Guy I worked with did the same trip. Another co worker also did.
I’m guessing that’s the nature of visiting Alaska.
Hit and miss.

 

[PlumLoco]

Don't.

We went to Alaska and stayed at Bed and Breakfasts. (People's personal houses).

It was amazing. The people we stayed with took us to So many cool places we never would have seen on a cattle call trip.

Alaska is a beautiful state. You do not want to just watch it pass by from a boat

This exactly. We flew into Anchorage and took a taxi to the RV rental place. Drank until bedtime while watching moose walk down the street until after midnight (but it never gets completely dark) and then slept in the RV until they opened up in the morning. Very accomodating folks and saved us the price of a room somewehre else. So we drove that all over the Kenai peninsula. Also spent a few nights at a B&B in Gustavus, which is as "outback" as it gets. Population 25. Speedlimit 25. Cops have to come by ferry or plane and only come when called. The owners were political refugees from Poland who were now running this place. Much of the food we ate was grown right there. He built an aluminum boat in his shop powered by a motor originally designed to move a battleship gun turret around. He got us within just a couple hundred feet of a pod of whales when we went out. We hiked to the wreckage of a WWII plane and did some extensive kayaking. Later we cruised around Whittier and Valdez and Seward too. Stayed in a 150 year old former brothel in Juneau now being run by some shady Russians. This was the only place I felt I needed to leave the gun loaded and cocked LOL. Side note, it was way easier to get my gun through airports than my wife's camera. Especially at LAX they wanted to take every little part of her camera equipment apart for inspection.
Bottom line though is that we said over and over that a cruise ship would be a terrible way to see Alaska, and 7 days isn't nearly long enough. And summer is normally a very rainy time of year.

 

[coolchange]

My mom and dad did Alaska on one of the smaller cruise ships. a couple of places the captain said they had to hang out for a while and wait for the tide to come up then they went in to these fiords and left a big cruise ships behind. Amazing pictures.