Alaskan Cruise

We went on Norwegian Cruise line.
I like their approach to dining -a person can sit at whatever table one wishes (vs assigned seating) and at any time the person wishes (vs assigned time).
We left from Vancouver.

Pay extra to get a room with a balcony if you can afford it. Don't waste your money on a room with a window.
The windows are high and one has to stand up to enjoy a view rather than sit on a chair/sofa and enjoy the view.

We enjoyed all the excursions. 2 sisters and spouses were on same trip--all of us enjoyed whatever side excursion we took. Whale watch, trip to White Horse to see the gold miners trip, etc. We took a rainforest hike and that was pretty.

If you leave from Vancouver, stay a day or two extra and see Vancouver.

We went last September, on Holland America, from Vancouver to Seward. We love Vancouver and flew in two days early. We had a balcony but to be honest, we spent way more time on deck than on our balcony.

From Ketchikan we did a float plane excursion to Misty Fjords National Park, landing on a lake. It was beautiful and so peaceful.

My husband loves trains so we did the White Pass train from Skagway, it was beautiful.

The Glacier Bay day was memorable.

After we disembarked in Seward we did a whale watching tour in Kenai Fjords National Park. We went close to the Aialik glacier and saw tons of orcas and other wildlife.

To be honest, whatever you do you can hardly go wrong. Every place we went was beautiful, every picture I took looks like a postcard. We spent another week on land after our cruise and could go back again and again to see things we didn't get to see in our two weeks there.

We've been twice, both on Princess. The first time we did a Cruise/Tour, out of Vancouver. A 7 day cruise and 5(?) days inland via train to Denali SP and NP's and flew home from Anchorage. We had a naturalist on board. Spring for the balcony room if you can. So much to see sunrise/sunset. For the glacier viewing we we had room service deliver coffee and breakfast and we saw Glacier Bay in our PJ's and warm coats on the balcony. Highly recommend.

The second cruise was RT from San Francisco it was two days of cruising just to get to the inland passage. It was OK, but I'd rather spend time in Alaska and not at Sea. The good part was that we didn't have to fly or have hotel room, we just drove up the morning of embarkation and drove home on disembarkation.

The 100 occupancy boats can get up closer to wildlife than the big boats. Might consider a smaller boat if that is something of interest to you.

We just went on the Norwegian Joy in June and we were not impressed. The freestyle dining created more problems than it solved, the main buffet area was constantly crowded, the food was subpar for a cruise, and it was almost always difficult to find places to sit. You are better off staying in your room and ordering room service, because even though it’s the same food at least it’s relatively hot and you’ll have a place to sit. 

The muster drill was complete chaos. They had us going up the stairs from deck 5 to deck 8, fighting all the people flooding down from decks 9-10 going to deck 6.   I looked at my DH and said, “In the event of an actual emergency, we’re DEAD.” What the heck were they thinking? It was insanity. And once we got to the muster station, it was no better. There was a huge crowd of people in an interior restaurant, and our muster station was behind a wall so we couldn’t see where to go and there was no one directing people so there were hoards of people milling around looking for where to go.

On top of all that, other than the *two* shows (for a 7 night cruise) and the one water slide that was almost never open, all the fun things they advertised for the ship turned out to be not included with the ticket price and were all an extra $10-40 per person add-on. If you didn’t have reservations for those two shows before you boarded the ship, you were out of luck and waiting in the standby line for seats. We ended up taking our nine year old to shows at 9:45 and 10:00 pm because we couldn’t ever get earlier seats. 

There were no wave phones in the rooms, only hardwired lines, and if you wanted to use your cell phone in airplane mode to text your friends or family also on the vacation, it was $10 per phone so there was no way to reach anyone on the fly. Every time we turned around they were trying to sell us something and DH really didn’t like that. By the time we would have added in all of the extras we might have wanted to do, we could have just cruised with Disney and had a much better experience. The friends that we traveled with agreed. We were glad we didn’t spend more for a balcony room because in Alaska in June it was rainy and cold. Maybe in August it would be better for that.

We decided that even though the Disney cruises we’ve taken in the past cost more up front, they don’t ding you on the back end and are a much better overall value. We wish we would have gone on Disney for this one too. In our experience, the high level of service, the quality of the food, the entertainment, the cleanliness of their ships and the sheer orderliness of everything a guest encounters is all far superior. 

As for the ports, we found most of the stops to be quite touristy in nature with mostly just shopping unless you wanted to pay $$$ for the excursions. We did enjoy the whale watching tour we went on in Victoria. DH isn’t much into history or museums so the castle and gardens weren’t his thing. We did a gold panning thing that was okay, but a lot of the excursions were really expensive so we didn’t do them.

P. S. Check the weather too. Everyone warned us to bring layers and rain gear and it didn’t rain a drop and was in the high 60s and 70s the whole trip.

The difference is that it’s August now. When we went in mid June it rained almost every day, and at least three days we had torrential downpours. Don’t be fooled, Alaska is a rainforest. DD and I didn’t have rain gear and we ended up needing to buy fleece lined raincoats at one of the ports because the expensive plastic trash bag ponchos the cruise ship was selling just didn’t cut it. It was so cold and rainy many days they didn’t even have the pools or the water slide open on the ship.

If I was going to go again, I would go much later in the summer than when we went. All that rain made it downright miserable at times.

If it's just two adults, check out Viking Ocean Cruises. We did one of their river cruises this summer and it was the best experience ever.

We've never done an ocean cruise, but will definitely consider Viking if we do. They have smaller ships and there's a shore excursion in every port. They don't nickle and dime you. Plus, it's adults only, if that's something you're interested in.

I just got back a week ago from a Land and Sea Alaskan Cruise with Holland America. It was just stunning. In fact, DH and I joke that it was beauty overload and that we almost got tired over everything being so beautiful!

We wanted to really take in the scenery so we spent quite a bit extra to get a suite that was on the back of the ship. It had a wraparound balcony that was over 47 feet long, so we had an unobstructed view of the back and right side of the ship. It was amazing. The weather was gorgeous so we ate most meals out on the balcony.

We did Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks, Seward, Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway and Vancouver by boat, by train, by helicopter, by ship, by motor coach and by seaplane. We saw whales, seals, dolphins, moose and bear. You are going to just love it!

We went on a Disney cruise to Alaska. We live north of Seattle, so getting to Vancouver (we took the train) is no big deal. No flights for us! Disney just does it right and we (just DH and me for our 50th birthdays) had a blast. We'd traveled to Alaska previously, so we'd already been to Skagway, Haines, Juneau, and Ketchikan. We still found all kinds of fun things to do, including zip lining in Skagway. Huge rush!

After a Caribbean cruise on Celebrity a couple of years ago, we booked one for Alaska the following summer. I decided to get my hip replaced, so we cancelled and didn't rebook. While I adore the Disney line, I'd go on Celebrity in a heartbeat.

Regardless of the line, this is a trip I'd make sure to have a balcony or at least a porthole. The scenery is amazing!

DH and I did Celebrity cruiseline a few years ago - late June to early July. 

Friends of ours were just telling us how much they enjoyed the Viking cruises they have taken in the past, noting the smaller ships with fewer people, the nice excursions at each port and especially the no nickel and diming were things they noted too.

My husband and I did an Alaskan Cruise for our honeymoon in 2017 and we sailed on the Disney Wonder.  I can't tell you how much we loved that trip.  It wasn't just magical, it was amazing and we're actually thinking about doing it again.

We did an inside passage return out of Vancouver on Royal Caribbean.  It was A-Mazing.  We got an aft balcony.  Best decision.  Gets all the sun and none of the wind.  Perfect for glacier bay.  Definitely do the train trip out of Skagway, go whale watching but not through an excursion, go hiking.  Take a good camera and binoculars.  The beauty is just incredible.  Also, do spend some extra time in Vancouver if you get the chance, its a great city.