Thread: Alaska Cruise

What cruise line is recommended for Alaska?

There is no best cruise line in Alaska - each cruise line, and indeed each ship, has its own personality. It depends on your personal likes and dislikes, the sights and activities you're looking for in an Alaska cruise, whether you just want a cruise or want to add on a land tour, what your budget is, how long you want to go for, etc, etc. To see what the main attractions are in each Alaska port, see Alaska Cruise Ports: Top Excursions - AlaskaCruiseCenter.info - that may help to get you started in setting priorities.

I've been on 9 Alaska cruises since 2005, with RCI (4 cruises), HAL (once), Princess (3 cruises) and Celebrity (once), and haven't had a bad one yet More and more I really like the longer ones - an 11-night on the Celebrity Infinity was fabulous but the 14-night on the Radiance of the Seas was perhaps even better.

Thanks for your response. We have now decided to go on Holland America - Volendam . We will book a verandah stateroom. Do you or anyone else have suggestions on which verandah staterooms are the best on this ship?

Cabins A7087 and A7088 aft on Deck 7 are generally considered to be the 2 best Verandahs on the Volendam, but any of the fore and aft cabins on that deck are great (the mid-ship ones can get noise from the Lido Deck).

What date(s) are you looking at? Be aware of the weather conditions that can play a big part in the periods of lower prices. Alaska Cruise Weather will give you an idea of what sort of weather to expect (it has both historic and current weather for all Alaska ports)

Thanks for your help . we are going in June

Originally Posted by explorenorth

Cabins A7087 and A7088 aft on Deck 7 are generally considered to be the 2 best Verandahs on the Volendam, but any of the fore and aft cabins on that deck are great (the mid-ship ones can get noise from the Lido Deck).

What date(s) are you looking at? Be aware of the weather conditions that can play a big part in the periods of lower prices. Alaska Cruise Weather will give you an idea of what sort of weather to expect (it has both historic and current weather for all Alaska ports)

But then the months of the best weather also have the most tourists.

Originally Posted by nealberk

But then the months of the best weather also have the most tourists.

That depends of what you mean by "best". My definition of best is driest - I love sun, hate rain. That happens in late May and early June when numbers are still relatively low.

After much research and guidance from previous cruisers, I chose the last week of May for our upcoming Alaskan cruise because of the increased daylight hours, decreased chances of rain, and cheaper fares

Which ship and what day? I have some friends cruising on the Westerdam on the 28th, I believe.

We went on Holland America's Veendam for the full 20 day tour and certainly was satisfied with the choices. I could not have done it better for the first time through.

Lots of my photos here: Alaska Cruise Tour