Best Alaskan cruises and excursions
Sep 17th, 2002, 07:51 PM
#2
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Marika,<BR><BR>People really need more information in order to lead you in the right direction. If you have been on Carnival, but want to step up a bit, Royal Caribbean. If you have been on Royal and want to step up, Celebrity.<BR><BR>I went on RCL and had the best time in the world. They are my favourite cruise line, so I am slightly biased, but I thought they were excellent. The children on the ship seemed to be having a ball, and I loved the service, food, and entertainment. The Radiance is a stunning ship, so highly recommend that one.<BR><BR>My personal opinion, though, is DO NOT even think about going if you are not going to get a balcony. Don't believe what people say about not spending time in the room. You only don't spend time in the room if the room is not worth it. We spent over 4 hours each day on our balcony and though expensive, was the best investment Daddy Warbucks ever made. The scenery going by was breath taking and we got to watch the glacier calve from our balcony. Others had to fight for shoulder room up top while the four of us were in comfort. (We were also right next to the bridge and got to talk to the Captain and Naturalist, so that made things even more interesting.)<BR><BR>Itinerary is really not important- any schedule will thrill you and all parts of Alaska are stunning. About the only thing that I recommend to clients is to look at the flight schedule- we don't fly into Seattle and out of Fairbanks from our market because the flights are a nightmare. I always suggest the clients to Fairbanks to Seattle.<BR><BR>Hope this helped a little! Good luck deciding!
Sep 20th, 2002, 12:26 PM
#3
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If I can change your mind, do not go on a cruise to Alaska, especially with the kids. It is boring… After couple of glaciers there is nothing to see … They will drop you or in the small villages, were there is absolutely nothing exciting except moskitos. If you absolutely have to, go on Celebrity Mercury.
Sep 21st, 2002, 07:58 AM
#5
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We took our 15 year old son on the Dawn Princess this summer. It was a great trip for all of us. He joined the teen group that met the first night, and although he didn't go to every activity, he made friends with a group of guys and girls. We rarely saw him on board ship. I would recommend a balcony if you can swing it. As for excursions, we took the helicoptor/1 hour glacier walk on the Meddenhall Glacier in Juneau (the highlight of the trip!), white water rafting on the Nanana River and a catamaran/canoe trip to the Davidson Glacier. We flew to Fairbanks and took the train for 2 days. One day on the train is really enough. We wished that we had had more time to spend in Denali, just hiking around.<BR>Alaska is anything but boring!<BR>Have a great time; your kids will love it.
Sep 21st, 2002, 12:34 PM
#6
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I have been on NCL, RCCL, and - this past July - on HAL. I was initially skeptical about going on HAL because I had heard everyone talk about the average age of the passengers in the 70s range (and I'm not talking about the year they were born). We brought our kids - 8 and 12 - on board too. It turned out the average age during the summer is about the high 40s and there were over 100 kids of various ages on board. There were 6 cruise staff assigned to run Club HAL (their kids program) so there were lots to do. Although we really enjoyed RCCL (3 years ago on the Vision of the Seas), we enjoyed the Volendam even more. The food was definitely higher quality (Alaska King Crab in many meals, better steaks, etc), the service was more sincere, and the waiters did not constantly try to peddle drinks to you. The entertainment on HAL is much more sedate - geared to older passengers - whereas the entertainment on RCCL is much livelier and therefore more fun. One thing to consider though is that I found the humour used by the entertainment on RCCL to be much raunchier than on HAL.
