Alaska Cruise Question - round trip or 1 way Seattle/Vancouver

[SallyMagoo]

I am planning an Alaskan cruise for my family for June 2007.

Would it be better to do a cruise that is a round-trip from Seattle/Vancouver, or a cruise that begins or ends near Anchorage? It looks like the cruises beginning or ending in Anchorage cover a lot more of the coastline.

Is the extra scenery worth the extra dollars for a one-way flight (for 3 people) from Anchorage/Seattle? Or would we see enough on a cruise that begins and ends in Seattle or Vancouver?

I would appreciate hearing your responses. I am thinking about arrange a last-minute cruise through Vacations to Go next year. I've been looking at what's available for this June to get an idea. Would I be better off buying something really early instead?


Sally

[Dave M]

First, I think you'll be happy with either type of cruise.

The primary advantage of the round-trip Seattle-to-Seattle or Vancouver-to-Vancouver cruises is convenience and lower cost, particularly the lower air ticket cost.

The primary advantage of the North-to-South or South-to-North cruises with one end in Seward (the port for Anchorage) is not the added scenery on the cruise. It's the access to a whole new world of scenery at the north end of the cruise: Fairbanks, Mt. Denali, wildlife, Anchorage itself, the much different land scenery than you have likely ever seen, etc.

If I was on a tight budget and had only a week, I would take one of the round trip cruises (such as this summer's TUGgers' cruise). Otherwise, I would take one of the cruises that starts or ends in Seward.

As for last minute bargains, I think you'll be disappointed if you wait. Kathy Q recently priced out our TUGgers' cruise for this summer based on NCL's current rates. Those rates range from $200-plus higher per person for an inside cabin to about $600 higher per person for a suite than the rates we locked in almost a year ago. Unless the cruise industry is hurting, which is rarely the case with Alaska cruises, you won't find many last-minute bargains. One reason for that is that there are a limited number of cruise ship slots for the major glacier stop and for some of the small Alaska ports.

[fnewman]

What Dave said !!

Basically, unless you are goign to spend at least an additional week overland touring the interior, the round trip cruise is the most cost-effective way to see Alaska.

[geekette]

I researched this carefully and decided to go with a Southbound from Whittier (newer port for Anchorage). Airfare from Indy > ANC and then SEA > Indy was less than $500 for one. I don't fly a lot, but that seemed pretty good to me. I go into ANC night before the cruise and don't fly out until next afternoon so have plenty of time to see Vancouver before staying in Seattle for the night.

Do some research on Cruise Critic. For me, I wanted to make sure that if I never got to Alaska again, I saw as much as possible within monetary reason. I narrowed it down to 2 cruise lines that had naturalists on board because that is important to us.

I wanted to see Glacier Bay and Mom is dying to see Prince William Sound (we'll do a $100 day cruise there before we board). This helped narrow down to very few itineraries.

I disagree about discounts. I have recently seen some HAL for May/June under $500. (obviously, this will have been some weeks ago since it is now LATE May...) To me, discounting is a crap shoot. While I'm not too particular about what cabin (price is more important), I wanted to make sure we got one!

We ended up with oceanview same price as inside, so I'm happy with that.

Determine your priorities and then see what fits and choose from a short list.

Good Luck!

[fnewman]

Absolutely - whatever fits your needs is always the best choice. With respect to 'last minute' discounts, it can be either a good thing or really expensive, depending somewhat on how picky you are. Having made a selection that suits you - go and have a great time (and keep looking at cruise critic for more great hints).