First-time Alaska Recommendations?

gwest12 · #1 (**permalink**) May 20th, 2006, 10:01 PM

My wife and I are hoping to take a 7-day Alaska cruise in July/early August with our three sons, 19, 17, and 15. (Yes, we know it's late. The opportunity just arose.)
Assuming that we can find accommodations, we were interested in any recommendations people may have regarding:
Cruise Lines (we're leaning toward Royal Caribbean)
Specific ships or classes
Ports of Call
Excursions

If you'd prefer, you may e-mail me directly at gwest12@earthlink.net

Thanks!
Geoff West
Glendale, AZ

ms_Kalamity · #2 (**permalink**) May 24th, 2006, 12:20 PM

You need to determine a few things prior to booking. What do you want to see? Do you want a one way trip with perhaps a land tour at the beginning or the end of the cruise? Do you want round trip? Once you determine a few of those specifics then it will be a lot easier to commit to a particular cruise line and itinerary, if it is available at this late of a date. We are takeing our first ever cruise to Alaska next month, and we booked it back in Sept 05, when the prices were considerabley cheaper! We decided on Royal Caribbean because of the inside passage route which we wanted to see. It is supposed to be awesome, and also because in our opinion, of the lines we looked into, it seems to have a lot of elegance and "class" for the dollar. If you pick a trip out of Seattle, you will still probably leave out of Vancouver with RCL if I understand it correctly. I could not find out what pier they left from in Seattle, and got the idea/indication that they put you on a transfer bus and take you to Vancouver to board your ship. I could be wrong on that part. We chose to leave directly out of Vancouver.

Good Luck
Jane

gwest12 · #3 (**permalink**) May 27th, 2006, 11:55 AM

Thanks for the feedback, Ms. Calamity!
We almost took the RC-Serenade cruise on 8/6 but finally opted fror the Princess-Coral departing 7/31. It gives everyone a bit more time to re-grasp reality before school resumes on 8/14. ;o)
Here's hoping we both have incredibly memorable first cruises!

ms_Kalamity · #4 (**permalink**) May 27th, 2006, 01:07 PM

Congrats on finding the trip that you wanted. Thats great! We are counting down the days till we are able to leave for ours. If you have a digital camera you might want to invest in a extra memory stick for all the pictures that you will be takeing! Keep reading this board you will find a lot of great info here on things to expect, and what to look for. You will need either a passport for each of you, or birth certificate and Picture ID (Government issuded Driver License etc). Hope you have a GREAT TIME!

Jane