Thread: Celebrity or HAL??

I,m planning to take a cruise to Alaska in July and we are a family of 7 . I need some good advice first of all which cruise line to chose - Celebrity or HAL? I have a choice of Century vs Auiderdam from Vancouver or Infinity vs Oosterdam from Seattle.
The next advice I need is which one is a better option - superior verandah suite on HAL or Sky suites on Celebrity. Being a newcomer and first timer to this cruise and traveling from a long long way, any good advice would be greatly appreciated

Sumayya ... Welcome to CLF! ...

While I've cruised on both Celebrity and HAL, they were not on the ships you mentioned ... and I've never been to Alaska ... so don't know that I can be of much help.

We have had a Sky Suite on Celebrity and were quite happy with it. My daughter's family of four had two Sky Suites on a recent cruise and very pleased. On HAL we've only had a verandah cabin, not a suite. Keep in mind the Sky Suites are always way up on a top deck which some like more than others.

Celebrity and HAL are both laid back ... with HAL being more so. That could be a factor depending on the ages of your family members. My grandchildren (13 & 17) love Celebrity.

Hopefully, others will be able to help you more.

Have fun planning your wonderful cruise!

welcome to cruise line fans

i have never sailed on celebrity -- but have sailed on the zuiderdam and the oosterdam -- so i can't compare cabin categories between the 2 lines

and have done quite a few alaskan cruises

a couple of questions

what are the ages of your party of seven?

have you checked air line prices and schedules for getting to seattle and vancouver?

itineraries are important to us

which ships give you longer port times?

choose an itinerary that includes either hubbard glacier or glacier bay -- jmo -- but tracy arm we don't care for

Thanks for the reply! My youngest is 10 and eldest is 21 and I am going to chose an itinerary that includes Glacier Bay or Hubbard Glacier. The port times are basically almost the same for both. Does it matter much whether we depart from Seattle or Vancouver in terms of port issues etc?

Thanks alot I,m looking at the sky suites on the Celebrity Century and they are located on the 12th deck - sports deck. Is that going to be an issue as I find not much of cabins there? And also, is the Century an old ship and not worth trying?

Originally Posted by sumayya

Thanks alot I,m looking at the sky suites on the Celebrity Century and they are located on the 12th deck - sports deck. Is that going to be an issue as I find not much of cabins there? And also, is the Century an old ship and not worth trying?

The Celebrity Century is an excellent ship.

The Sky Suites on the 12th deck are the best ones because the balconies are larger and they are more private than the other suites located on lower decks. We have sailed on her in a cabin on the 12th deck and I would book it again in a heartbeat.

Hubbard Glacier is an awesome sight! We were there again last year when the glacier was very active. Here is a YouTube video of some of the activity we watched from our balcony.

YouTube Video

Here is a link to lots of pictures of the Century --> Century