Considering Alaska CruiseTour June/July 2019

We are considering a CruiseTour in either June or July of 2019. Want to include Fairbanks, a few days in Denali, and a 7 day cruise to Vancouver or Seattle. Would like to pick your brains about itineraries and recommended cruise lines. We think we have it narrowed down to Princess or Holland America, but are not committed to anything yet.
I'm sure there are many TTOL'ers who have done this, and curious as to what worked and what you would do differently. We have cruised a few times, but always Bermuda or Caribbean.
Thanks for any and all suggestions!

In general, I much prefer Princess over Holland America, having cruised Princess a dozen or so times. The age group will be a bit younger on Princess, but overall, Alaska is an older cruise crowd than other cruises. Make sure that your itinerary includes Glacier Bay, as that is one of the best things to see. Personally I think you should start In Vancouver and stay as far north as possible. Starting off in Seattle, you are cruising a couple of days without seeing any of Alaska during that time. We also purposely booked our cruise going NORTH bound, as the scenery gets much more spectacular as you head north. So if you start ALL the way north, then the scenery gets LESS exciting as the cruise goes along. We also booked the land portion at the END, as the cruise portion is more relaxing and laid back, and the land portion is more active. Regardless, it's a spectacular destination. Enjoy!

Our family did an Alaska cruise on Holland America several years ago. Started in Vancouver. It was a wonderful experience. Of the big cruise ship companies, my wife and I prefer Holland America over the others. Different strokes for different folks.

I agree with Carol in regards to Princess. We have cruised about half dozen times on Princess and never been let down. Back in 2003 we did a 2 week Alaska cruisetour with Princess. We flew into Fairbanks to start the land portion of the tour and ended up in Anchorage 6 days later. The train is awesome and the lodges they set set you up in are great. We then went by bus from Anchorage to Whittier and boarded the Coral Princess where we did a southbound cruise. There were stops in Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Skagway as well as cruising into the fjords and bays. The cruise ended in Vancouver, B.C. where we flew home. That was a trip that was definitely a bucket list trip!

check out a National Geographic excursion (100 passengers/50 crew). We returned from an 8 day cruise from Juneau to Sitka. I can’t say enough good things about it!

Goozee

So--Please do say some more good things about it! Trip report please!

We are heading to Alaska on 9/22 from Vancouver. We have never been to Alaska and looking forward to the trip. Return on 9/28 and will be on the repositioning trip through the Panama Canal ending in Ft Lauderdale. We will then do a 7 day Caribbean. All on the lovely Holland America Nieuv Amsterdam. We love Holland America and we are not old!!

Agree with Carol Princess over Holland America and we're regulars of Holland America. Research showed better land accommodations thru Princess. Some of Hold's iteniery rehires boat, air, bus all in same day; nt so with Princess.

There are only two other things important for an Alaskan cruise. 1. choose one that goes inside glacier area for up close views --worth the extra it may cost. Other iteneries only see at a distance. 2. Get a balcony.

We always try to travel on the cheap and forgo balconies or outside staterooms, but not when going to Alaska. We were fortunate to be on 10th deck and room steward one morning took me down the hall to ship front pushed thru a door I'd not noticed in the wall. This enter a vestibule then thru a porthole door onto the front of the ship where we felt like the couple in the Titanic movie, breeze blowing our hair looking forward to the glaciers. Only other person there was the photographer.

On our trip we didn't take many excursions from the ship. Instead we booked on our own. In Juneau we went to a kiosk booked a whale trip for less money . We saw the tours from the ship along side of us plus captain took us to another area around a peninsular away from these boats to see Orca.

We did book the 8 hour train trip gold rush area thru the ship because had anything happened on our own we were afraid to miss the ship.