Lindsay is looking forward to avoiding the summer heat, at least for a little while.

[lindsaydotcom]

Heh.

**

So we're thinking about taking one last hurrah of a vacation before baby makes three. We want something relaxing, but where we can also go out and do some physical activities, too, and I'm always looking out ofr good photooptions. And we thought it might be nice to do something with Bryan's parents and my mom as well, so we're thinking of an Alaskan cruise this summer. It's sort of short notice, but we're hoping to get a good last-minute deals. We'd (read: I) prefer to either go on either Royal Caribbean, Princess, or Celebrity. Has anyone done one of these cruises before? Are there ports you think are a MUST SEE, or any that you felt you could have skipped? What length would you say is a good option (7 or 10 day)?

Comments

[notjustamommy.livejournal.com]

I love that avatar. I've been giggling over it for a good five minutes!

[paisley-days.livejournal.com]

We did an Alaskan cruise for our honeymoon. We enjoyed it, but would not recommend our ship (Holland America) because the average age was about 95. So not kidding.

I'm dying to go on a Celebrity cruise some time. When we were docked at Ketchikan, we saw a Celebrity ship and all the people getting on looked like fab folks we would totally love hanging out with. We had some friends do a Princess cruise last year and love it. We all agree that if you can splurge and get a cabin w/ a deck it is so totally worth it. Lots of whale watching from the deck.

As far as destinations, you can either do an Inside Passage (Vancouver or Seattle round trip) or Anchorage to Vancouver/Seattle. We did IP because Mr. Motion Sickness did not want to be out in the ocean. I think either way is fine.

My main rec would be to do whatever it takes to get to Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay is awesome. There are calving glaciers which are impressive & lots of wildlife (whales, seals, eagles) Most cruises will do some glaciers, but Glacier Bay is probably the largest of them all.

[ves-heill.livejournal.com]

I think we've decided on inside passage, primarily so we could go r/t from the same port - the airfare will just be too expensive to go into/out of different cities. Unfortunately, it does not look like Glacier Bay is one of the destinations on the cruises we're looking at. Hopefully we'll go back and get to Glacier Bay at that point. :(Here's the itinerary for the Princess one which is tops on our list right now:

Seattle, Washington
At Sea
Juneau, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska
Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska (Scenic Cruising)
Ketchikan, Alaska
Victoria, British Columbia
Seattle, Washington

I prefer Royal Caribbean's seattle r/t itinerary (it goes to Icy Strait Point instead of Ketchikan), but it's over $250 more. Does this look all right to you?

[susan1027.livejournal.com]

I did a 10 day on Princess a while back out of San Francisco. I had a great time. Glacier Bay is pretty amazing and I think most cruise lines go there. I recommend Princess - during the summer it's not all old people. There is a pretty good mix of families and couples.

[ves-heill.livejournal.com]

SUSAN!! Dah-ling, it's been an OCEAN OF TIME since I last saw you. Which means that WE ARE GETTING TOGETHER SOMETIME SOON, right? Email me with your current email addy (you can use the one in my user profile).

I think Princess is what we're going to end up doing, but the itinerary we're considering doesn't go to Glacier Bay. :( It goes to
Seattle, Washington
At Sea
Juneau, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska
Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska (Scenic Cruising)
Ketchikan, Alaska
Victoria, British Columbia
Seattle, Washington

Is Glacier Bay part of the Tracy Arm Fjord thing?