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Originally Posted by adam61
My family and I have been on several cruises, primarily either Eastern or Western Caribbean/Mexico all 7 days. We all decided on the last cruise we'd like to try something different and everyone had always wanted to visit Alaska. We also wanted to do something "bigger" as kind of a splurge. There would be 6 people in the Party 55F/45M/35F/30M/22F/21M are age/sex just to give an idea. We've tried several lines, but have had wonderful luck with RCCL for value/price so we'd likely want to do them again. Given all that I'm leaning doing an Alaskan 12-14 day cruise in 2010. The RCCL 12-14 seem to be in May or September.
The idea of being in Alaska sounds wonderful, but I guess what scares me is typically a cruise includes a lot of laying out by the pool or "beach" related activities during all the downtime on a ship. I know at the right time (whenever that is) Alaska is very mild and not at all freezing cold, but it's also not getting a hot tan weather either. So here's my questions I or the group have come up with...
1) When is the best time to visit Alaska is May or September ok? Also what kind of weather would we expect?
2) Is this a good use of a 14 day cruise? It seems to visit a ton of ports which should be wonderful, but how is downtime typically used? It's just a little paradigm shift from a "beach cruise"
3) Is RCCL's Alaska package relatively good? They've been great to us in the Caribbean.
4) Any other major differences 5 time Mexico/Caribbean cruisers would be shocked by in doing the Alaskan trip?
Thanks for your help, we're very excited about the idea, but with the obvious expense and time requirement I want some basic questions answered before I delve too deep into research on it. Thanks a lot!
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Hi Adam61,
I will try and answer your questions as best I can. I went on what I thought was a one time cruise to Alaska and just returned from a b2b Alaskan cruise which makes it more than a dozen cruises to Alaska for me.
To answer your questions:
(1) My favorite time to visit Alaska is mid to late May. There is still snow on the mountains and the weather, while unpredictable, is usually been very good for us in May.
(2) I would recommend taking a one way cruise North or South and then spending a week on land before or after your cruise. You will see so much more of the true beauty that is Alaska when on land. Renting a car and driving on your own is IMHO the best and cheapest way to go.
(3) RCCL and Celebrity are not alowed into Glacier Bay National Park and that for me is one of the highlights of cruising in Alaska. I feel that Princess does the best job in Alaska and gives you the best cruise value.
(4) An Alaskan cruise is not quite the same as a Carabbean cruise. You will find the night life slows down around eleven o'clock. You will also find that the sun goes down very late and comes up very early!
I think you would enjoy a cruise to Alaska, but do your own research and plan your own fabulous vacation.
Hope this helps,
Debra