Disney alternative Alaskan cruise???

[aaronm77]

Anyone have any experience with taking a non Disney Alaskan cruise? We'd love to book a 7 night on the Wonder in June or August, but it's SOOOOOOO expensive!!!!

 

[dcassetta]

Loved our voyage to Alaska last summer on HAL. Great itinerary that included Glacier Bay and the town of Sitka. The ship was beautiful, the service was outstanding, and we had a wonderful trip. Holland America now has an arrangement with BBC earth, that's added to its programming on the ships. There were some excellent nature programs. And on the day we were in Glacier Bay, the National Park Service rangers came onboard and gave talks.

 

[Shanti]

Anyone have any experience with taking a non Disney Alaskan cruise? We'd love to book a 7 night on the Wonder in June or August, but it's SOOOOOOO expensive!!!!

Haven't done it myself but have heard good things about Princess, which has permits to sail into Glacier Bay (which DCL does not). A nice verandah stateroom on a Princess Alaskan cruise would cost less than an inside would cost on a DCL Alaskan cruise. I know because I price checked, before my son told me that he really only wanted to sail on Disney...

 

[krisinparis]

We sailed on Princess to Alaska because we wanted to visit Glacier Bay NP. We had a great time! There were not tons of kids on board, so the counselors knew each of the kids by name by the second day. The food on the ship was amazing!! It really was the best food of any cruise we have ever been on. (We've been on 6 Disney cruises, 2 Princess, 1 RCCL and 1 Carnival). If you were going to spend tons of time on the boat, Princess might not be the best line if you are sailing with kids as there isn't much to do for them out side of the kid's clubs. However, Alaska is super port intensive so by the time we got back on the boat after a day of hiking, touring, sightseeing- the kids were ready to eat dinner and go to bed. Oh, and we sailed in a mini-suite and the price was very reasonable.

 

[RobbiWA]

We cruised to Alaska with Celebrity. It was amazing! It was my first cruise, but the ship never felt crowded. The food and service was actually better than on Disney, but not much for kids to do...that’s why we do Disney now. But when kiddo is grown, we’ll go back to Celebrity for sure.

 

[NancyIL]

I have done 2 Alaska cruises each on Princess, HAL, and Royal Caribbean. All were great, but my favorites were the two one-way cruises we did between Vancouver and Alaska (Whittier or Seward, depending on cruise line), as we did our own land trip afterwards with a rental car.

 

[Dug720]

Did RCCL on Radiance of the Seas and loved it (other than the “entertainment” - skip that unless you want nightmares...and it’s not supposed to be scary).

Did HAL on the Westerdam and while Alaska was awesome, I will never sail HAL again.

 

[seacruise]

We've had lots of great cruises with HAL so they would be my first choice. They typically have really good 3rd/4th rates. Kids facilities are small, but they kids get a lot more individual attention than on DCL. We've also done Princess, NCL, and X to Alaska. They were all fine as well.

We are looking at 2019 Alaska and will know in a day or two if we are sailing on the Wonder or another ship. I am really tempted to do the Ovation of the Seas out of Seattle in 19 depending on how much less expensive it turns out to be than DCL. Its about $7500 for 4 of us so it will be at least $2500 less than the Wonder I am expecting.

 

[MouseOfCards]

We cruised to Alaska with Celebrity. It was amazing! It was my first cruise, but the ship never felt crowded. The food and service was actually better than on Disney, but not much for kids to do...that’s why we do Disney now. But when kiddo is grown, we’ll go back to Celebrity for sure.

We also cruised with Celebrity to Alaska. Wonderful trip. And we all received free room upgrades (our group had 4 rooms)!

 

[fredandkell]

Had a great trip on Norwegian, admittedly 15 years ago. I wouldn’t worry much about “kid stuff” on Alaska cruises as they are port intensive and kids won’t be in kids club that much as compared to a 7-day Caribbean etc. I actually personally would not pay the DCL premium for Alaska.

 

[Pens Fan]

We sailed on NCL in Alaska last summer and absolutely loved it. My honest opinion is that Alaska is more about the destination rather than the ship. I think you will have a great time whoever you pick. I'd recommend finding the itinerary you prefer, choose a cruise that fits your schedule and budget, and don't look back.

As for itineraries, personally we greatly prefer the one way routes (having also done a round trip on Disney several years ago). They often have longer port times than the round trips and allow you to spend extra time in Alaska if you have the time and funds (highly recommend this if at all possible). I would also prioritize ships that go to Glacier Bay and / or Hubbard Glacier. Both are amazing. Our cruise this past summer went to both which was one of the reasons we chose it.

 

[iivye]

We sailed NCL last summer with a mini-suite balcony room. Glacier Bay was one of the highlights for us and I felt a balcony was a must for Alaska. I agree with others that in the case of Alaska the destination is more important than the ship.

 

[dcassetta]

Did RCCL on Radiance of the Seas and loved it (other than the “entertainment” - skip that unless you want nightmares...and it’s not supposed to be scary).

Did HAL on the Westerdam and while Alaska was awesome, I will never sail HAL again.

What happened on HAL?

 

[cruiser21]

I would probably book NCL's new ship the Bliss. The go- carts on the top of ship look pretty fun. It also goes to glacier bay. It's not cheap it's a brand new ship. I haven't compared it's pricing to the Wonder, but I didn't fall out of my chair in shock when I priced it.

 

[Dug720]

What happened on HAL?

Horrible service in the dining room consistently - in spite of our tour escort (I was with a group) talking with the dining room manager.
Crew was snotty and acted like they were doing you a favor getting anything for you.
The whole ship smelled like an ashtray. That might have improved since they finally ended balcony smoking, but I'm doubtful. And unless they have redone the layout of the Westerdam, you still have to walk through the casino (which will always reek) to get to the dining room unless you want to walk through passenger hallways and then go up.
Not a fan of being treated like a child having to ask for everything in the buffet for the first 2 days - and it never really stopped in spite of the ship NOT having a noro issue. If you want to have a cafeteria, call it that. Don't call it a buffet.
I'm just not a fan of the whole HAL "vibe". It's not my style and I'll choose to spend my money elsewhere.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Because two other couples cruising with us didn’t want to pay the going rate for DCL, wife and I did the Celebrity Millennium cruise with them from Seward, AK to Vancouver Canada. We loved the trip; from the ship to the itinerary including the excursions we signed up for. We have no problem suggesting this over DCL.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We did NCL. I definitely didn't enjoy all of the upsells on the ship, but we just wanted to see Alaska and it did the trick! We sailed out of Seattle which was such an amazing city to visit as well!

 

[Dug720]

We did NCL. I definitely didn't enjoy all of the upsells on the ship, but we just wanted to see Alaska and it did the trick! We sailed out of Seattle which was such an amazing city to visit as well!

A Seattle departure definitely is awesome! No exchange rate or international flights to deal with and a super cool city to boot!

 

[natebenma]

We sailed on the Carnival Legend, Glacier Bay itinerary in August. A month later I took my first Disney cruise (Fantasy- Caribbean). I have trip report for the Alaska cruise (see the link in my signature). I will eventually do one for the Fantasy trip. I do a comparison of the two cruise lines at the end of the Alaska report.

Bottom line- I do not regret saving the huge amounts of money we did using Carnival for Alaska. The destination was really the important part of that trip for us.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Princess advertises being #1 in Alaska and has great programs as part of their North to Alaska program and their partnerships with Discovery and Animal Planet. While I haven't done it personally, we are planning to cruise Alaska with Princess in 2019.