Cruise to Alaska on Celebrity
 

Has anyone been on a Celebrity Cruise to Alaska? What I have read in travel books they are quite nice and food better than a lot of the other lines. Went on cruisecritic.com and there seemed to be people complaining about the food.
Also trying to decide midship vs aft for cabin location. Planning on going in 2015 but would like to book as early as possible.

What ship is offered? That makes a huge difference.
If you are at all prone to motion sickness then midship is the better choice by far. However if not some really like aft cabins with a balcony just to relax into the ships wake.

I have been to Alaska 4 times - 3 cruises - 2 were on Celebrity and I am very happy with them - I would strongly recommend you get a room with a balcony - surprise you do use it in colder climates - it is great for viewing the glaciers and some of the other areas that you will pass. I agree midship is probably the best area to be.

I hope you are adding a land portion - the ones I have gone on have always been like 7 days on ship and 7 days land.

You can do some of the excursions yourself when you land - but for peace mind you just might want to book it through the cruise line.

Also, one thing to keep in mind if you book it through the cruise line they will always wait for you before they depart. Otherwise if you are late the ship will sail without you.

Food has been satisfactory.
Enjoy I love Alaska and can't wait to go back again and again.

I wouldn't worry too much about the people on Cruise Critic complaining about the food--they do it a lot even when the food is very good. I've had minor complaints about food on cruises, but my biggest complaint is that it's all TOO good. (Bad for the waistline!)

I suffer from seasickness and generally try to get rooms in the middle, but there have been times when I couldn't and the rooms in the fore and aft have been perfectly fine. In fact, I just got back from a cruise where we were in the very front of the ship on the lowest passenger deck and it was one of the best sleeps on a cruise that I have ever had! With modern technology, you'd have to have pretty rough weather conditions to notice any motion at all.

I agree with longhorn55 --- one interesting story when I was on one of Alaskan cruises with Celebrity -- we were at the dinner table and one of the passengers said "Did anyone see any whales today?" and another passenger said only the cruise ship -- the food was good.

IMO the route is more important than the ship. We've sailed on Celebrity (not to Alaska) several times and found them more than adequate. Our one cruise to Alaska (former residents so a bit of a "busman's holiday") was with Royal Caribbean - no complaints there either.

However Celebrity doesn't visit Glacier Bay, which would be a concern for me. I'd also suggest looking at Vancouver departures/arrivals, rather than Seattle, as the Seattle ships cruise to the west of Vancouver Island, on rougher open ocean and far from land. The Vancouver boats use the east side of Vancouver Island, on calmer waters and with more scenery.

Also, due to US maritime law, the Seattle departures are all round trips, whereas Vancouver also has one-way cruises to/from southcentral Alaska - Seward or Whittier - so that you could do some land touring before or after the cruise.