My husband and I are thinking of taking an Alaskan Cruise for our 20th anniversary next year. Would love ideas of cruise ships, best places to go etc. This would be our visit cruise anywhere. Also when would be the best time to go?

Determine first- how much time are you allowing and do you want interior land touring??? This is too broad a question with endless answers.

I suggest you head to your library and take out Alaska travel books, Alaska by Cruiseship and Fodor's Alaska are especially good.

Hi fdk- we really enjoyed Juneau, where we first saw the bald eagles perched atop the trees, and where we took a short bus ride to hike the Mendenhall Glacier.

We also really liked Sitka, a quaint little town where you can see Mt. Edgecumbe, a pretty snow-capped dormant volcano. (If you dock there on a rainy/foggy day- like we did- and can't see the mountaintop, check out the photos of it on postcards- it looks like a miniature Mt. Fuji.)

In terms of when to go- we cruised to Alaska mid-August, and enjoyed a sunny 75F day in Juneau

Bloom

Plus, you need to consider your own personal style, too. There are lots of Alaska cruises from a large variety of cruiseship lines-- would you want a huge liner with food & entertainment around the clock, or perhaps a small under-100 passenger boat that is very informal and comparatively spartan in its offerings? Or something in-between?

My husband and I did an Inside Passage cruise with Cruise West in July. Although we had taken several "traditional" cruises in the past, though none in the last 10 or 12 years, we're now sold on small ship cruising. The emphasis on the small ships is the destination. However, the ship itself might be considered rather spartan for those who are interested in a more luxurious cruise experience. When we came upon a pod of humpback whales, we simply stopped for a couple of hours and watched them - and they watched us - while they dived or swam up to the side of the boat. When we saw bears, we sailed closer to shore for a better view. We were also able to sail into some smaller ports like Petersburg, where the larger ships can't go. Prices are higher but I realized on the first day out, as the planes flew in over Misty Fjords, that we were doing a lot of things as a part of the cruise that passengers on the liners were having to pay extra for. Plus they flew in for an hour and we were there for several hours. Someone I talked to later in Fairbanks, who was on a Princess trip, said she realized after they had signed up for all the extra trips that the cost was about as much as a small ship.

However, there wasn't a lot to do at night - have a drink in the lounge and watch a slide program on whales or birds presented by the ship's naturalist. Or borrow a video to watch in the cabin. But we were usually fairly tired fairly early, by 10 or so, having gotten up pretty early to the sound of ice banging on the hull or because someone had spotted wildlife. Food was quite good, though not the numbers of choices on big ships.

Probably would never had considered this except for having taken a small ship Danube River cruise in '05. And can't say we'll never take a traditional cruise again, but we are leaving in 11 days for another Cruise West trip in the Sea of Cortez and are planning another European river cruise later in the year if the Kenyan situation doesn't settle down and we decide not to take an African trip we were about to book just before the election. If we do big ships again, it probably won't be until after we exhaust a list of small ship cruises that interest us.

Do some research, as previous posters have suggested, but if a bit more "adventure" appeals to you, consider a small ship. If you want a luxury trip where Alaska is somewhat secondary, book on a large ship.

First, congratulations on the upcoming Anniversary!

We took an inside passage, seven-night cruise to Alaska with Princess Cruises just prior to 9/11, so some six years ago, and found the boat (Sea Princess)and service to be superb.

Sea Princess is a big girl with about 2000 passengers onboard but it has no problems accommodating everyone in style. Just think that there will be more bars and more space in the casino.

In the alternative, I understand that Princess now has a smaller ship (about 700 passengers) cruising Alaska and that would be somewhat more intimate but not much different otherwise.

We had a balcony cabin and felt that the extra cost was very much worthwhile to sit on our balcony and watch this gorgeous land go by.

Weather was cool but pleasant. If temperature is a big factor, I would suggest that you go in July or August, since May/June or September sailings would be cooler yet.

As far as things to do, I would so very highly recommend that you surf yourself onto cruisecritic.com because there are tons of people there that do nothing but cruise and know cruise travel hands down.

Anna Roz

Here is a nice Alaskan Cruise FAQ that you may find useful:

http://www.al-cruise.com/FAQ.php

Best,
Jessica

Happy Anniversary! We just celebrated our 42nd--were there older folks on your ship? What small ship did you travel on? Did you book directly through the company or another way? Thanks!

I would highly recommend helicopter and seaplace tours of the interior as your shore excursions. You will see the spectacular interior scenery that you cannot see from the ship.