Do you have a favorite Alaskan cruise?

[tompalm]

Another nice thing about Princess is that they have washers and dryers onboard to do your own laundry.

 

[artringwald]

Very timely post. DH and I looking at an Alaska cruise with land for 2020 or 2021. He is looking at the Costco Princess offering, however, I shudder to think of an Alaska cruise with 2500 passengers and am advocating for a smaller ship. I've asked him to research this and do a separate land portion, however, he likes the idea of doing both portions with the same company.

For those who have done Alaska with Princess, how well do they handle shore excursions with that many people?

For those that have done Alaska cruise and land with a much, much smaller boat, how did you handle the land portion? Do those cruise lines have partnerships with land vendors?

When's the best time to go? We were looking at summer, however are advised that July is when the mosquitoes come out. I like the May suggestion with longer days that one poster mentioned.

Cruise Critic is our next stop. Many thanks for your input.

Ingrid

We've done cruises on ships from 1000-3600 and surprisingly, there isn't as big a difference as you'd expect for excursions, or how crowded it feels on the ship. For excursions, they can only get people off the ship at a certain rate, so on larger ships, they'll schedule more time between excursion departures, or even depart from more than one gangway. However, things can slow down when they have to use tenders in a port instead of pulling up next to a dock. Big ships have more dining rooms, pools, and activities, but we do prefer smaller ships. We like the 2000-2500 range the best.

 

[Fredward]

"For those who have done Alaska with Princess, how well do they handle shore excursions with that many people?
When's the best time to go? We were looking at summer, however are advised that July is when the mosquitoes come out. I like the May suggestion with longer days that one poster mentioned.

Princess offers so many shore excursion choices that there was never a crowd issue. Hiking, flight seeing, whale watches, train rides, off the beaten track options, etc. They also have limits on the number of passengers on certain tours, so if you're interested in a particular offering, it is suggested that you book before your departure. A lot of people just walked around the 3 ports where they dock- Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. Disembarkation time in Anchorage was broken into groups based on which land itinerary (if any) you had booked. We put our luggage outside the cabin before 2 AM and it showed up in our room in Denali. If you didn't want to lug everything on the land tour (like heels and formal wear), it showed up 4 days later in your hotel room in Anchorage. It was amazing how perfect all of their transfers were and we always were handed room keys before arriving at one of their lodges- no checking in at desks. The Princess and HAL ships are smaller than the other big cruised lines and can travel farther into Glacier Bay.

We went the 2nd week in August and the weather was perfect, with no mosquitos. Fall was just beginning and the trees were beginning to turn color. Many people said that it had been raining for more than a month before. Hope this helps.

 

[am1]

Earliest age to bring kids? It would be a one way to Alaska then touring on our own. Willing to pay for helicopter to a glacier etc.

 

[clifffaith]

"For those who have done Alaska with Princess, how well do they handle shore excursions with that many people?
When's the best time to go? We were looking at summer, however are advised that July is when the mosquitoes come out. I like the May suggestion with longer days that one poster mentioned.

Princess offers so many shore excursion choices that there was never a crowd issue. Hiking, flight seeing, whale watches, train rides, off the beaten track options, etc. They also have limits on the number of passengers on certain tours, so if you're interested in a particular offering, it is suggested that you book before your departure. A lot of people just walked around the 3 ports where they dock- Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. Disembarkation time in Anchorage was broken into groups based on which land itinerary (if any) you had booked. We put our luggage outside the cabin before 2 AM and it showed up in our room in Denali. If you didn't want to lug everything on the land tour (like heels and formal wear), it showed up 4 days later in your hotel room in Anchorage. It was amazing how perfect all of their transfers were and we always were handed room keys before arriving at one of their lodges- no checking in at desks. The Princess and HAL ships are smaller than the other big cruised lines and can travel farther into Glacier Bay.

We went the 2nd week in August and the weather was perfect, with no mosquitos. Fall was just beginning and the trees were beginning to turn color. Many people said that it had been raining for more than a month before. Hope this helps.

Ack! Heels and formal wear? Is it "that kind" of cruise?

 

[elaine]

Formal attire in cruising has become much more relaxed in the past 20 years. On my last 2 princess cruises, in Europe not Alaska, but doubt it’s much different, It was perfectly appropriate to wear a simple black skirt and flats or wedges with a silky blouse or nice dressy sweater set with some costume jewelry at formal night. Very Few wear long dresses or tuxes anymore. DH takes a jacket, but rarely even a suit.
Also luv CC. I get great advice there! Rick Steve’s is even better!

 

[Fredward]

They had 2 "formal night" dinners but people wore whatever they wanted. There were lovely young things that probably already owned little sparkly dresses but a lot of us wore black slacks and a nice top. We tried to take layers and wrinkle-free stuff. Some folks had real hiking boots, some had high heels- we sported the comfy retiree look.

 

[riverdees05]

I would be sure to pick one that went to Glacier Bay! We have done the cruise twice and on the second one, we did land and cruise in that order. It was great seeing Denali and well worth the extra time and money!

 

[Firepath]

I shudder to think of an Alaska cruise with 2500 passengers and am advocating for a smaller ship.

It's not just how many people are on your ship. You might want to consider how many other ships will be in a particular port when your ship is scheduled to be there. Even if you're on a small ship, there could be 2-3 or more other huge ships there at the same time. There is a website where you can check that out. I don't recall what it was but saw it on Cruise Critic.

 

[MULTIZ321]

Cruise to Ports App:

https://crew-center.com/cruise-ports-app-cruise-ships-and-port-schedules-search-engine.


Richard

 

[IngridN]

Thank you for all the input. I'm comfy going with Princess and told DH to 'book it'! We're looking at the 14 or 15 day cruise doing the land portion at the front end most likely.

Ingrid

 

[artringwald]

Ack! Heels and formal wear? Is it "that kind" of cruise?

Princess has formal nights when at sea, but they are only in the sit down dining rooms. You can do them if you want, but we usually go casual and get dinner in one of the buffet lines which also serve excellent food.

 

[elaine]

For princess Formal nights in main dining room to Alaska: for men-take a jacket, long sleeve shirt/tie for man. Navy or tweed blazer with khakis or mix/match slacks is fine. No need to take a suit. For ladies, silky pants or any skirt/dress is fine. I tend to take a black silly skirt and a few tops and add a nice sweater and some chunky faux Jewelry. For our 1st few cruises 20 years ago, we lugged tux, cocktail dresses etc.
Now, more luggage=less vacation imho

 

[WinniWoman]

Earliest age to bring kids? It would be a one way to Alaska then touring on our own. Willing to pay for helicopter to a glacier etc.

Our son was 9 but we were on an Alaskan Safari with other families with children.