Alaska cruise?

[dxtbowhunter]

Planning a 2024 trip to cruise Alaska. This is my first ever cruise. Anything I should look for or plan. Any input will help. Thanks

[Cottonfish]

This is relevant to my interests.......looking at a 2026 Cruise for 30th wedding anniversary.

Stu

[Copanocruisin]

We are going out of Vancouver in September. Spending 3 nights there prior to our Royal Caribbean cruise. All ready to go, although still waiting for our beauracratic gooberment for our passports, Danged since early February. They sure cashed the checks quick. It will be a trip of our lifetime for us. Just saying......Smokey

[kerrbow]

Went in 2018 out of Vancouver. Flew in early, rented a car and went to Vancouver island for 3 days. Got on a Princess ship, went to Alaska. Rented a car and spent 10 days In Denali and the Kenai peninsula. Amazing trip.

[Sasqy]

We took one out of Seattle!
The Salmon ladder, Space needle, Pikes market.
In Juneau take the tram up Mt. Roberts. Big Cross up there with an amazing view. Mostly shops in Ketchikan. Wanted to go fish Halibut, just didn’t get around to it. Lots of whales and such as you cut though the pass at the sound. Make sure and check the schedule, to see the glaciers. Sometimes they pull up to them early in am. Don’t want to miss that. Great place to go see. When coming into the ports, watch for bears, etc. on the shores.

[tps7742]

Went in 2018 out of Vancouver. Flew in early, rented a car and went to Vancouver island for 3 days. Got on a Princess ship, went to Alaska. Rented a car and spent 10 days In Denali and the Kenai peninsula. Amazing trip.

Now that sounds like fun. We just went in May on the Norwegian Cruise Line(Encore) and had a great time but your experience sounds like allot more fun. We did the traditional stop at ports, tours etc. and for the money we paid for the key card accessed floors believe me being in charge of your own destinations I am sure has its advantages. Don’t get me wrong the scenery, service was top notch.. But we did go with 3 other couples and that influenced our excursions. If a person can make the trip go for it. We boarded out of Seattle.

[coker737]

Pack you Binos. There will be a lot to see off the ship. Eagles and Whales......Oh they will try to sell them on the **** at $$$$$

[dxtbowhunter]

It's overwhelming on the options for ships.did yall just pick one and go with it.

[Bassdeer]

Get on the mailing list at (Travel with Alan) They have some of the best deals out there.

We took them in 2022, click on the link and this is the trip we took. 14 days land and sea.
Travel With Alan (constantcontact.com)

[HuntForHorns]

We are heading on another Caribbean cruse in august and I am so bummed. Going from hot here in Houston to more hot and humid down there. I wanted to take an Alaskan cruise instead but always get caught up on the day travel time and expense to fly seattle. It is so much easier to just load the van and take the 1 hr trip to the cruise port in Galveston.

Next year I am booking Alaska for sure. For those that have gone, is it better to fly in to Seattle or fly to Seward, AK? SW flies to Seattle. What other airlines have you used if you flew to a different port?

[kerrbow]

We are heading on another Caribbean cruse in august and I am so bummed. Going from hot here in Houston to more hot and humid down there. I wanted to take an Alaskan cruise instead but always get caught up on the day travel time and expense to fly seattle. It is so much easier to just load the van and take the 1 hr trip to the cruise port in Galveston.

Next year I am booking Alaska for sure. For those that have gone, is it better to fly in to Seattle or fly to Seward, AK? SW flies to Seattle. What other airlines have you used if you flew to a different port?

I think most cruises out of Seattle are return to Seattle. We flew to Seattle, got on Amtrak and took the scenic train up the Pacific coast 4 hrs. to Vancouver. Rented a jeep and went to Vancouver island for a few days(fantastic side trip) got on the boat to Alaska 7 days. Took the bus from the cruise to Anchorage and rented a pickup and drove to Denali for 3 days and then came back thru Anchorage and down to the Kenai peninsula for another few days. Flew from Anchorage to Austin by way of Seattle. You will wish you had done it years ago once you go.DO NOT JUST GO ON THE CRUISE. SPEND SOME TIME IN ALASKA. MAGNIFICIENT.

[kerrbow]

It's overwhelming on the options for ships.did yall just pick one and go with it.

Went on Princess, enjoyed it. Next time will go on Celebrity. We are old fogies and like our quiet timesl

[Wampuscat]

My wife and I did Alaska on Princess in 2019 for our 30th. I highly recommend getting a balcony room. We stayed on ours while at the glaciers, much better that on deck with the crowds, even though it wasn’t “crowded”. We recommend Princess for the 30+ age group, Holland America was described as “to old” by a lady we me in her 70’s.

We first went to Seattle for 5 days of sight seeing, mainly around Mt Rainier and the Olympic Peninsula. That was great.

We then flew to Fairbanks and did a 7 day land trip down to Anchorage to meet the ship. The land tour was via bus and train each morning stopping at lodges ran by Princess. We did 1-2 excursions each day on both land and sea. After so much running we needed a few days to rest.

We’ll do this again. it’s not as cheap as a Carnival cruise out of Galveston, but you’ll have great memories that don’t include crowds of screaming disrespectful kids. Alaska kinda prices that out the disrespect.

My wife is setting up an Alaska cruise for a church group right now.

[bow newby]

Definitely leave out of Canada. You get to spend more time in the Alaska ports. And not as much time on the boat if you leave from Seattle. Alaska is an awesome place and you will be able to decide what you like the best on a cruise. You will definitely want to go back

[gtsticker]

We did our trip with YMT tours. Flew into Fairbanks and did 10 days of fun stuff all over Alaska, saw tons of Game and went to Denali and even went halibut fishing, Then we border a boat and went 7 days on water to all the ports. We have a friend that lives in Juneau and she said that most all the shops when you get off the boat are owned by the cruise lines. Alaskan made stuff will have apolarbear on the tag or something like that. We did excursions at every port. I was underwhelmed with the cruise portion of the trip after being on the land portion. It was a great experience.