First Cruise to Alaska...
 

First cruise to Alaska... Looking at the 11N cruise from San Francisco to Vancouver B.C. with Celebrity Millennium, then AMTRAK Thruway Service (motorcoach/bus service) to Seattle and spend time with family. Good choice or not?
Alternate route would be a Seattle to Seattle roundtrip Princess 7N cruise, though reading Fodor messages it would not be the best sightseeing route. Your thoughts please. Thank you.

If the Celebrity cruise, sails inside Vancouver this is a more scenic choice. Overall, in my opinion, Princess' round trip Seattle cruises are lacking.

have you looked into comments on
the www.cruisecritic.com board also?

Be aware the the M class ships, incl. Millenium, have had 18 individual occurences of azipod problems resulting in shortened port times or completely cancelled cruises over the past 6-7 years.

Suggest you look at HAL.

My friend is going from SF to Vancouver only, not to Alaska, just to be at sea, make sure your cruise actually going to Alaska!

Take a southbound cruise from Seward to Vancouver. That way, you don't double back. And Seattle is a pretty short and easy drive from Vancouver.
We cruised on Celebrity's Summit several years ago and loved it.

Thank you to all that replied to my inquiry.

budgetqueenalaska - this was the cruise itinerary posted for Celebrity Millennium 5/19/08 - 5/30/08 cruise:

1 San Francisco, California
2 At Sea --- ---
3 Astoria, Oregon
4 Seattle, Washington
5 Cruise Inside Passage, Alaska
6 Ketchikan, Alaska
7 Juneau, Alaska
8 Skagway, Alaska
9 Cruise Hubbard Glacier
10 At Sea --- ---
11 Cruise Inside Passage, Alaska
12 Vancouver, British Columbia

It looks like the cruise does sail inside to Vancouver, however after thoughtful consideration (due to airfare and amount of days we would be at sea as first time cruisers) we are reconsidering the Holland line over Princess for a 7-Night cruise instead from Seattle. We will be able to visit with some of our children that live in the area.

Rhea58 - As you suggested, I will check www.cruisecritic.com board also. Thank you!

kfusto - Wow, 18 individual occurences of azipod problems? That's scary. I'll check HAL to see what they are offering. Thanks!

FainaAgain - Yup, the Celebrity Millennium will make three Alaskan port calls. See above itinerary. Thank you for the "heads up" caution.

mscarls - We live in Hawaii and would need to buy to one-way fares from Honolulu to Anchorage, then Seattle back home. I've come to realize this cruise can get pretty pricey, when we count in airfare. Will do the HNL to SEA roundtrip and try to find dates that we can use our mileage on. Thank you for your suggestion. I've concluded that taking the one way Alaskan cruises take in more than the roundtrip ones.