Alaska cruise

Anyone done the cruise from Vancouver up to Alaska in the last few years?
Wife and I getting one for anniversary, Overwhelmed for sure, looks complicated. We talk to travel agent tomorrow, many questions.

My parents did it 4 years ago.

They had a great time. Honestly, it seems to me it’d be difficult to go wrong with any of the established operators.

Be sure to use a travel agent who specializes in cruises, not just a general purpose tour agent. For the exact reason you mention, the options and choices are mind-blowing. It really helps to have an agent who can explain choices in detail.

The only downside according to my parents is lack of time available at certain stops that they were interested in. To me this is kind of the universal complaint of all cruises. Stops are short and it’s run, run, run.

Grouse

I’ve done 2 Alaska and 6 total in the last 15 years. Not complicated at all. We always booked air, transfer to & from ship, and cruise itself through the cruise lines. We’ve done princess & royal Caribbean and both were great. This fall we are going on the pacific coast trip, Seattle down too San Francisco then up to Victoria BC, and back to Seattle.

ENJOY & don’t worry.

FW and I did the cruise,bus, train tour about 8 years ago. Flew to Van and cruised to Skagway, bussed up to Whitehorse,over to Fairbanks, and train to Denali, train to Ankorage to fly home. If you are just cruising I think it would be fine. If you are doing what we did do it in reverse. Fly to Ankorage and end with the cruise. Staying on the boat at the end would be more relaxing. Bussing and train everyday is pretty hectic with side trips etc. Beautiful trip. Would go back in a heartbeat.

That is the one cruise trip I haven’t heard of issues on the ships.

Forgot to mention our trip was through Holland Cruises. Booked plane fares ourselves and went to Vancouver a day early to allow for connection issues. Did some sightseeing in Vancouver before we hit the ship.

I was on a Princess Cruise last fall from Seattle (Inside Passage).

Wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the cruise part of things, but loved it. Little bit overwhelming if you haven’t been on one before at first.

College of mine and his family were basically on the same cruise a few weeks before us and really enjoyed it as well. They only thought the buffet was their only option unless they wanted to pay for the other dining experiences. There’s a few other restaurants available on the ship and we all thought the food was wonderful.

I would recommend booking any excursions once you get on shore as you’ll save quite a bit vs doing them through the ship.

If you’re in Skagway, do the train ride.

Wish we would have at more time in Ketchikan. We heard (don’t know if it’s true) that Princess doesn’t own any shops in Ketchikan so they cut that part pretty short.

ps: Make sure to get a balcony. We had a mini suite and had plenty of room and were very comfortable.