Alaskan Cruise

[Glenda]

We are wanting to take an Alaskan Cruise on our 50th anniversary in July. I'm sure many of you have been. What is the best cruise line and the cheapest way to go? I imagine I had better sign up right away for the best deals. I could get a travel angency to do it for me but they are so darn expensive. We would also like to take the train through the mountains while we are there. We will have to fly out of Tulsa or Kansas City, probably to Seattle and then catch the cruise line there. Any good ideas and experiences ?

 

[Bina]

I know that Eva and Norma don't live near you, but they have recently done the Alaska cruise thing and you may
want to send them a PM. Hope it works out.

 

[dick0236]

My wife and I did an Alaskan Cruisetour with Royal Caribbean two years ago. We went in May. Flew from Louisville to Anchorage thru Texas. Bad experience getting to Alaska. Did a couple days tour inland which I heartily reccomend. Boarded ship in Seward, AK and took the inside passage south to Vancouver, Canada. Flew home from there. Great trip.....would love to do it again. Alaska is really different and beautiful. We normally book everything with Royal Caribbean. Seems to have fewer "glitches" than going thru travel agent.

 

[Rebecca]

We have booked some of our cruises with www.cruise.com On our last cruise that we booked with them, the cost of the cruise had been reduce on line before our final payment and all I did was call them up and they match the reduce price, plus still gave us the add on bonuses that came with the special rate when we booked our cruise. Vacation to Go also have good prices on their cruises.

This is a new forum: http://www.cruise-addicts.com/forums/ This one is the forum that we have used: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/ You can find out a lot about ports of call and cheaper tour groups. You can go to roll call for your ship and meet people that you will be sailing with. We met a couple on this forum and went in together with a rental car in Germany and we drove to Berlin. It was 1/4 the cost of the train trip that the ship tour offer.

When we did Alaskan many years ago we flew into Seattle and took a bus to Vancouver. We rented a car in Seward and drove to Anchorage. We were on the Love Boat twin sister. It was with Princess Cruise line.

 

[Jkm7]

Princess and Holland America are the leaders for Alaskan cruises, many think.

They combine land touring with cruising and have done it longer than the others with many choices of itineraries.
Hope you find the perfect choice for you. We love cruising.

 

[Greg a]

I have heard great things about the trips out of Vancouver as Dick mentioned ............gee do you have the same body scanner when cruising and waht about those BUY ME DINNER FIRST pat downs




.

 

[Adrienne]

We did an Alaskan cruise (our first cruise) in August 2005 (I had A-Fib and was starting to go into CHF, but that's another story). We used NCL which at that time left from Vancouver. It was the Norwegian Sun which just moved in the summer to doing Baltic cruises which we did this past summer also on the Norwegian Sun. We love NCL and the freestyle dining. We enjoyed Alaska a lot.

 

[Freddie]

WOW Glenda, good for you - hope you have a blast.

 

[nngbwh]

I believe Gadgetman did an Alaskan cruise and posted some pictures here a few months ago. Hope you have fun, Glenda.

 

[olefin]

Glenda, we did the Inside Passage in 07 out of Juneau for 7 days. (also our 50th A) Small ship, only 220 passengers. Being smaller it could go in closer that the big ones. Was small but cost more than the floating hotels. But the ticket also included all land excursions. Empress of the North. Best food of all the 10 cruises we been on. No longer in business.

We flew to Settle, rented a car and saw Washington for 3 days then flew to Juneau. Flew home from Juneau.

Also for our first cruises we booked direct to the lines but last couple years have found better deals by using a agent.
We first go to the ship line online, find the suite we like and reserve it, then book with an agent to get better price and several hundred in onboard credits and other freebies.

We use Royal Caribbean Line some but Holland American Line is our favorite due to the age group.
We are booked on the largest cruise ship in the world next month, RCL's, Oasis of the Seas, 5,400 passengers. It has a sister ship the same size. We saw them both last December in the Caribbean.

Rebecca, posted a great link, Cruise Critic is the place to go for cruise info. We've learned a lot from that forum.

Enjoy, know you will!

 

[Glenda]

Thanks everyone, some great information. Now just to get busy and decide. I have a good friend that is a travel agent so I'll probably let her book everything. She booked our trip to Hawaii in October and everything was great, of course we stayed with my daughter who lives there. That was a great plus!