My husband & I (late 50's) want to take our first cruise to Alaska from Vancouver - we are not looking for luxury, just decent accommodation, moderately priced - a smaller, more casual experience with some adventure such as hiking. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Cruise West
Lindblad
Discovery Voyages
Odyssey Unlimited

I wouldn't consider these smaller lines to be moderately priced, though. What I'd suggest you do is go on a mainstream ship like Royal Caribbean or NCL or Carnival and do your own thing off the ship, where you can usually book more adventurous shore excursions for much more reasonble prices if you do it yourself. Often tour companies will be found right off the cruse-ship pier, and you can save at least 25%.

Doug is so right. I would suggest NCL or HAL with HAL busually more expensive and NCL having (imho)better service. But HAL does have a naturalist come on board for the glacier cruising and I'm not sure about NCL. Frommers has a great guide book out that tells you in detail how to do your own side trips with prices etc. This was such a fantastic cruise - I would love to go back. Have a wonderful time!

Fodor's also has a great guide to cruising in Alaska.

You will pay more for a smaller ship.

NCL is quite casual and has some good prices for Alaska. RCI does as well and I prefer them over NCL but it is all subjective.

Carnival sails to Alaska as well so you have several lines that can provide you a pretty casual experience with good value overall.

Our Alaska cruise on the Sapphire Princess was excellent. Would have no problems being on her again or her sister ship the Diamond. Princess will be a bit more however. Just one bit of advice, especially if you want to do outdoor activities and that is to be careful about when in Sept. you go. A friend of mine took the last cruise of the season in late Sept. to Alaska. Actually it was arepositioning cruise that disembarked in Florida. He said it was pretty cold in Alaska then. We were there in late August 2005 and the weather was fine albeit a bit rainy at times.
I have read several times that Princess and HAL have the tours down pat so though you will pay more you can expect a cooresponding level of value. JM2C. Also don't forget the binoculars.

I will be doing that exact cruise in Sept.Vancouver to Anchorage on Princess. I have already done round trip Seattle on the Diamond about 3 years ago. It couldn't have been more beautiful, and what a ship! I got a great deal from www.bestcruises.com. Even though the ship is huge, I never felt lost or on board with 2500 other passengers.