Holland America and Princess have by far the most 'presence' in Alaska. As far as HUGE ships, Princess has, unfortunately, succumbed to some extent to the huge ship craze, although their ships are not as large as Oasis of the Seas and NCL Epic, etc. It's been a long time since we cruised Alaska, but it USED to be that you almost needed to do either HAL or Princess among the larger cruise lines in order to get into Glacier Bay, which is a real must, especially if you think you will only do Alaska once. It used to be that the National Park Service only gave out just a limited number of permits for Glacier Bay, so you should check that out, to see if your ship would visit Glacier Bay or not. HAL and Princess both have lodges which they own in Alaska and you can book package deals which include the land lodging with the cruise price. You should at least LOOK at both of them before you look at anything else. Both have plenty of balcony cabins. HAL has traditionally been an older crowd than Princess, but Alaska in general is an older crowd than the Caribbean. HAL will have smaller ships than Princess and the food will be slightly better. But Princess will have a livelier crowd onboard.

As far as the others, I really don't know what they have to offer these days, but I would check out Princess and HAL first and then compare them to the rest.


Carol Hill