I'm starting to plan for an Alaska cruise in the summer of 2026 to celebrate two family milestones. I'm targeting the end of July. We're going to be a family of 5, with two kids who'll be 11 and 16 by then, an adult "kid" and two adults. Mrs. sxpsxpsxp and I have cruised a few times in the Caribbean, but that was a very long time ago. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise on Celebrity and also liked Royal Caribbean, but not as much.

We're not party people -- this trip is about the sightseeing opportunities, and I'm also considering tacking on some time before or after the cruise to do something additional.

I am thinking we'd like a larger room of some sort, and my instinct is probably leaning towards full suite categories, rather than jr/mini-suites which are just rooms with a little bit of a sitting area. If not ridiculously expensive, I'd like to avoid having someone sleep on the sofa in the living room, which likely means either looking for some sort of connecting room situation or having rooms next to each other or across the hall. Since not many cruise lines have published their summer 2026 schedules yet, I've done some initial research on cabins on Princess, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean on the ships they typically have sailing the area and have a general sense of what those look like.

I'm hoping people here can make some recommends as far as:

Timing - The timing is driving by the milestones we're looking to celebrate, but we could be a little bit flexible in the summer. Is earlier in July or June better? Or August? Am I planning too early?

Itinerary - most cruises seem to be in the 7-day range, but 10 days would also be acceptable. With options from Whittier, Vancouver and Seattle, both round-trip and one-way, it's hard to choose. I'm struggling with silly questions like: "Is Hubbard Glacier much more impressive than Dawes Glacier?"

Cruise line - Given that we'll have kids, a few cruise lines are obviously off the table. Disney is not at all a requirement.

Weather and swimming - The kids are fish, so pools are important. Considering this is Alaska, and most ships seem to have all outdoor pools, how does this work?

Side of ship - I saw some suggestions to try to figure out direction of travel (if one-way) and book the land side. Is this really a factor?

Anything else I'm not thinking of?

Thank you!