Try the "Poor Mans Alaska Cruise"--it's the best!
 

We just returned from 3 weeks in AK. We traveled the Inside Passage using the Alaska Ferry System and stayed at B&Bs. We saw Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan. While we met large cruise ships at every port, they spent a few hours in each place while we spent several days.

The Ferry system was superb. On the trips requiring an overnight, the accomodations were simple, but comfortable. We had a US Forest Service ranger on every ferry and attended up to 5 programs a day and boy, did we learn a lot. The other advantage to being on a smaller ship was that we were "closer" to the water surface, so we saw humpback whales, orcas, porpoises, and even jumping salmon, up close. The food was good and the price was right. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

This Alaska "cruise" was so relaxed and simple--no dressing up! It was a busy trip, but I didn't feel like I'd been run through the wringer when I got home.

Personally, if I want a fancy cruise, I'd go to the Carribbean and never worry about what ports I was going to see. If I want to see Alaska, I'd use the AK Ferry system again. As a matter of fact, I'm already planning to go back to AK in the next 5 years and use the Ferry to go out to the Aleutian chain and travel back to Juneau, Hoonah, and Sitka.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

Hello -- my wife and I are contemplating an Alaska cruise in summer 2005. We would take our 11-year-old son, and I'm concerned that some of these operators, Carnival excepted, aren't especially kid-oriented, if not downright hostile to children. I've heard specifically that children are not seen much, nor welcomed much, on Holland America.

We don't want the tank tops-at-dinner, screaming-drunken-disco informality of Carnival, but I don't want my son to be miserable among 1000 senior citizens either.

Of the major lines doing SEA/YVR departures -- Carnival, HAL, Celebrity, Princess, NCL, Royal Caribbean -- which would you recommend?

Seriously? I've been on three Carnival cruises and have never seen the screaming-drunken-disco. And very few people in shorts and the like at dinners in the dining room (but for sure a more casual feel that other cruise lines)

*shrug*...

Sorry, I didn't mean to give offense. But we have two sets of friends who cruised Carnival in the Caribbean and each said the ship was completely out of control -- drunken passengers, all-night rowdiness, people screaming, vomiting off the rails, etc. Like an oceangoing MTV spring break. Their take was that it was fine if you were single, 25 or under and always thirsty. Otherwise, they said, no -- and for them, never again. And especially not for kids. I take it your experience has been different?

No worries. I've never had a bad time on a cruise. Carnival does tend to cater more to the younger crowd (price point).

The only vomiting I've seen was on my first cruise when we went threw the fringes of a tropical storm (motion sickness).

Never had any incidents with drunks or any problems with all-night partiers (other than the clubs the boat is fairly quiet late).

I'm 29 and my wife is 30 our first cruise was 10 years ago (we have never been big drinkers or into the party scene)...

On the sailings to Alaska I've done on Princess, other than a few in the dining room with a big family reunion-looking group, and maybe one or two in a pool, we didn't see many kids on board. I know there was a kid play area and a teen center, but since I don't have kids, I didn't check it out to see if that's where all the kids had disappeared to or if there was actually fun stuff to do in there. I didn't get the impression that anyone was hostile to the kids or were trying to hide them from the rest of us, just that there weren't that many of them on board. Maybe it's because most of the adult passengers were past the age of having kids. I've heard that the Alaska market tends to be a lot older than most of the other markets, so maybe Carnival wouldn't be as bad up there as it could be during spring break in the Caribbean.

Thanks calikak and others for the information.

:)

I havent read much about Royal Caribbean's cruises in Alaska on this thread. Anyone done the Vision of the Seas cruise? or been on that ship?

I worked aboard the sister ship - Rhapsody when it was positioned in Vancouver doing roundtrips to Alaska. Same ship in terms of layout, etc. Visited Juneau, Skagway, Haines, Ketichan....seven times...what specifically would you like to know?

We’re taking our third Alaska cruise this summer with a dozen friends. All our AK cruises have been on various Holland-America ships and this year we’re on the MS Oosterdam.
We’ve done a lot of cruises over the years and plan to step it up a notch or two in the future.
What I like best about the Alaska cruises is that you never see the same thing twice. Always a lot of bald eagles and sometimes a lot of whales and other times just seals, dolphins or whatever. You really never know what’s going to jump out of the ocean next.
The weather changes are dramatic....we’ve seen snow flurries in August :eek:...and the port cities of Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau have a lot of interesting side-trips you can make.
As we cruise around more of the world in the future we may find somewhere we like better than Alaska for cruising but so far it’s our favorite.

Actually, now we're looking at the Serenade of the Seas because for some reason they're telling us that we can only have two people per cabin, even in suites because of coast guard rules....??

Any place to get cruises cheaper than Royal Caribbean itself? I tried some online cruise discount sites, but they seem to be the same price.

About six months ago, RCI clamped down on advertised discounting of their cruises. You may still find a TA who will discount/rebate, but you'll have to speak with one personally and not just look at advertised rates (they'll be the same as RCI).

Or else you could consider Princess .....