Alaska Cruise?

My family of four plan to travel with cruise to Alaska this summer. We have two young school aged daughters. We want to find out which cruise line goes to the most beautiful &scenic route and still is friendly to young children, and where to find for some great deals.

Thanks in advance!

Public Comments

1. All cruises have a kid camp place. I've heard that Carnival and Disney are the best for kids.

2. First off you maybe alittle late as Alaskan cruises fill up fast and early. All cruise weither south or northbound travel the inside passage and stop at most of the same ports. All are setup with programs for children. I would try;
www.Princess .com
www.NCL.com
this two will offer the best price. Also I would act fast to find out if any cruises have cabins open.

3. We went to Alaska july 2005 and it was one of the best cruises ever! (a very close second to Disney ) We went on Holland America. We did not bring our children but once we were there we wished we had. (well some of the time).

HAL does have a kids club onboard most ships. I would check cruise critic for more info on choosing the ship and cruise. For this kind of money maybe look into buying a travel book too.

We choose HAl because we wanted a reliable name, big staterooms. If it rains you may be indoors more. The gratituties were only $10 a day. We liked the ports of call.

Fantastic service. Great food, lovely ambiance..We were on the Amsterdam.

things I remember. Fishing!! We went on a fishing expedition and there were some kids in other boats too. Your fishing Salmon, Halibut, Cod. Someone got a small shark. Then they bring you to a remote island camp and they cook up the fish you have caught!! Great blueberry pie too. Everything is included. This was much more fun than I expected. The 10 yr old on my boat outfished us all. (we throw back ones after we get enough for food)

Sitka we did the sea otter/wildlife and stop at remote island. This was fun for us. We saw whales and they were RIGHT by our boat. The island..well bring a camera for some good photo ops. You don't go inside the interior because there are wildlife on the island we went to. We ate blueberries right there. yum

We did the gold excrusion where they take you to a river to sift for gold. I kid you not! I have a piece in my china cabinet estimated at $250. My husband just got some flakes he has in a test tube. lol. We had done it as a 1/2 day fun thing. Worked out for us. The kids there did have a blast sifting. There were several excursions of this type. Many "western" ones too.

Balconys are good for viewing Glacier bay. The boat actually turned 360 degrees so that both sides of the boat could see both views. (also the kids can watch tv as the view may not entice them for as long as it does adults)

Victoria BC . How embarrased I was to be a Canadian for this stop. We took the worst excursion. (trip to a castle/home called dun-something.) The bus driver left someone at one stop where multiple buses where. He said that the couple probably got on the wrong bus anyways. So needless to say when we actually got to the castle we zoomed thru (it was nice) to get back to the bus in time. lol.

Several others said the buschart (sp?) Gardens were just incredible.

The dog sledding on a glacier was .. so fantastic. Helicopters to a glacier where the dog camp was. Wonderful views. fun mission impossible music... etc.

I think our stops were juneau, sitka, ketchikan, National glacier bay , Hubbard glacier(viewing) and victoria. Seattle was the start/stop.It was the Alaska explorer cruise.

( we bought a bronzed polar bear at the juneau gallery store and it was shipped wonderfully to us. They had a number of bronzes and sculptures and was just to the right from getting off the walkway)

Check out the links below. Trip advisor has top things to do in the different stops. ps. It was at times 15-19 degress celcius. So bring layered clothing.

4. All the cruise lines go to basically the same ports. The cruise lines with the best children's programs that go to Alaska (Disney does not go to Alaska) are Carnival and Royal Caribbean.