Can anyone recommend a small cruise to Alaska? Trip is for my parents who are in their early 60s but active and are into nature. They've never been on a cruise before and I am trying to decide between a cruise liner and smaller ships? And if I go the smaller route, does anyone have recommendations? Thanks!

I cruised Alaska inside passage on Princess about 10 years ago. Beautiful trip! For me, the bigger ships are preferred, but the smaller ones have more personalized service.

Do check cruisecritic.com for a wealthe of information on cruises of all kinds/all destinations.

Carol

We took my husband's parents on a small ship cruise in 2004. We used a line which has since gone out of business but others that still have similar trips I believe are Cruise West and Lindblad. All reviews were about the same (great) but we picked a company that at that time was owned by a Native American corporation. Ours was about a 60 person ship (yes sixty, not six hundred). Not so much personalized service as the big luxury cruise lines as the cabins and food were fine but not gourmet. What we enjoyed most was the three on board naturalists, the kayaks on the back of the ship and the hikes and kayak trips we could make from the ship and the places we could stop and explore that the big ships could not. All was more "personal" in that sense. We saw a number of large cruise ships including one that hired a guy in a bear suit to waive from one of the little islands as the ship went by (I am not kidding but I guess just in case the passengers never saw another bear from their big boat). Our fellow passengers were mostly people like your parents, older but very active. It was a great trip and I would highly recommend it. (And we went at the end of May which of course would be before school was out so no younger families on our trip.)

Thanks much for the input. Will check out Cruise West and Lindblad. If anyone has any other suggestions on small operators, please let me know! Thanks again!
Su

SuY, don't forget to check out the forum devoted to cruise lines here on fodors, too!

Have fun planning. That's my next project after China.