Do we Jump Ship or stick with the DCL we love for Alaska?

[quickcat]

Honestly, if we had a re-do we would pick Disney to sail on. We picked Princess because everyone says it’s about Alaska. Well, yes that is true but you are on the ship every night and morning (and sea days) and while we had a good time on Princess, we wished we would have paid the difference and went with Disney. Nothing wrong with Princess, but we missed Disney.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I agree with Princess Shmoo, it depends on how much you value the DCL experience. I am one of those people who love cruising on pretty well any line. I understand there are differences, but usually for me, and likely b/c I now have 3 kids, I'm one to carefully weigh the value of the additional cost of DCL. On some itineraries, the extra cost seems worthwhile. On others, no way. If I were in your shoes I would do the Princess land and sea tour hands down. And I'd also spend a few extra days in Vancouver

 

[ninergrl6]

The Alaska cruise I took was with Holland America, and it was the worst service I've ever had on a cruise (of the 4 cruise lines I've tried). The ports were great, Alaska is beautiful, and I'm very glad I had a veranda so I could enjoy Glacier Bay from my own room, but I'll never cruise with HAL again.

With that said, the land-sea package you have with Princess sounds great. The more time you spend IN Alaska, the better IMO.

 

[Bonnie1222]

What is the makeup of your party? We chose DCL for our upcoming Alaska cruise, but we have 2 kids under the age of 8 who will love the characters/clubs. When they're preteens/teens I would love to do the Princess/Denali combo or maybe even try a National Geographic ship.

It's just the two of us. We don't have kids.

 

[AquaDame]

It's just the two of us. We don't have kids.

Then I'd say the only real question is how you spend your sea days. If all you need is a drink, a deck chair and a good book, or spend time in the spa, then it really doesn't matter which line you're on. We found ourselves growing bored with the activities - there didn't seem to be much going on around the ship on sea days aside from trivia, gambling, or drinking, so we were on our own for the most part on RCCL. We couldn't find anything to watch on the TV either as offerings were limited (full disclosure, I adore Disney movies so even the one cruise where I was horribly ill and just wanted to stay in the cabin I was pretty well entertained as I drifted in and out of consciousness!). The ship we sailed also allowed children to use the "adult" pool area and solarium as they are indoors and it IS Alaska after all!

 

[jdb in AZ]

We did a Princess land/sea tour. A 7-day cruise and a 7-day land trip with 3 of the nights at the Princess Lodge at the base of Denali. Actually, it was still called Mt. McKinley then. It took three days before the clouds dissipated enough for us to seek the top of the mountain. Some people never get to see the top. We ended up in Fairbanks, and totally enjoyed the full two weeks.

We've cruised Alaska six times now -- it's our favorite place to cool off from the Arizona summer heat. All six cruises were great, but Denali National Park is even more impressive than Glacier Bay, IMHO.

 

[WDWLODGE]

The real question is: Do you want an Alaskan cruise experience (all things Alaska), or a Disney cruise with Alaska on the side?

I agree with Princess Shmoo, it depends on how much you value the DCL experience. I am one of those people who love cruising on pretty well any line. I understand there are differences, but usually for me, and likely b/c I now have 3 kids, I'm one to carefully weigh the value of the additional cost of DCL. On some itineraries, the extra cost seems worthwhile. On others, no way. If I were in your shoes I would do the Princess land and sea tour hands down. And I'd also spend a few extra days in Vancouver

I also agree with Princess Shmoo's statement. It's really what your family values the most. For our family we want the Disney experience and we'll enjoy whatever Alaskan experience comes with it. We are cruising Alaska this May for the first time and when I brought up the thought of cruising with another company to my family I got some looks as if I had 3 heads, lol!

 

[clten]

We did a Princess cruisetour to Alaska before DCL started sailing Alaska and have been back on 3 DCL Alaska cruises. I have been very happy with each of my trips to Alaska. But honestly, I would be missing something if I only did the DCL Alaska cruise. And I think it is a lot of extra travel for no good reason to do an Alaska land tour and then fly to meet with DCL to cruise Alaska. So I would say stick with the Princess cruisetour you have booked. They really do make the land portion very seamless in moving you from hotel to hotel and bus or train. We didn't feel that there was any wasted time in the land portion (which was our fear in traveling as a group - waiting at meeting points over and over again). Their lodges were very nice. We were only in Denali overnight but did get to do the longer tour into the park (which is on a school bus so not the most comfortable mode of transportation but really worth getting a deeper view in the park).

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

We are planning to sail Princess in Alaska in either 2020 or 2021, depending on whether my parents want to join us. We prefer the itineraries that go to Glacier Bay National Park, like the Princess 7-Day one-day Voyage of the Glaciers itineraries. We will miss the Disney stuff onboard the ship - especially with DD being 8 or 9 when we sail - but, as others have said, this cruise is about spending long days in port seeing Alaska. I think Princess offers the best itineraries for that purpose.

Although we won't add on a cruisetour through Princess, we will be trying to do Denali on our own before or after the cruise if we have time and the budget. DH has a goal of visiting all of America's National Parks, so we'd need to do at least one more (besides Glacier Bay) while we're there!

 

[Santa Cecilia]

This entire thread is making me second guess my choice in having my first cruise ever be Disney Alaska (in September). OTOH, my wife (also a cruise first timer) won’t consider another cruise line since she trusts Disney to deliver on the experience.

Maybe this will serve as a nice intro for us—for Alaska and cruising—and we can branch out more in the future if we enjoy both. And after all the reading I’ve been doing. It seems like catching the cruising bug is just as likely as catching the Alaska bug.

I hope you enjoy your trip—whichever way you choose!

 

[cma0512]

I am looking for honest opinions from anyone who may have debated Disney, but chosen another line to go to Alaska, especially if you have gone on Princess I would really love to hear about your experience.

DH and I have been on 11 cruises.
All Caribbean (10 western, 1 eastern)
10 with Disney, 1 with Princess (a gift from MIL 15 years ago)

Here is my (our) dilemma. The last time we sailed on Princess we found ourselves saying: "Disney doesn't do that" "Disney does this better" "I like the way Disney does this".......... We had a very nice time on the Princess cruise, but it just wasn't Disney. And since we didn't pay for any of it we really don't know what the extra incidentals add up to compared to what Disney includes.

We originally had written Disney out of the picture because we figured it would be way too expensive and we would get more for our money with another line. This is a port intensive destination and we thought no big deal, just go with someone else. When the prices came out yesterday and saw we can book the same category room on DCL as we have right now on Princess for a little less. But with Disney we obviously loose the land portion. (we have a deluxe inside stateroom on both reservations)

We currently have a deposit on a 4 day land -7 night cruise combo from Anchorage to Vancouver on Princess. We start on land - go from Anchorage to Mt McKinley, Denali and Wittier, then cruise to hubbard Glacier Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau Ketchican and end in Vancouver

We also now have a hold on a 7 day with Disney round trip from Vancouver visiting Dawes Glacier Skagway Juneau Ketchikan

We are seriously wondering if we could go 3-5 days early and plan our own mini land trip between Anchorage and Fairbanks then Fly to Vancouver for the Disney Cruise which we have no doubts we will love, even though in the end it will cost us more. We are even considering cancelling our Very Merry later this year to put the money toward this option. Or do we stick with Princess (Coral Princess) and have the all included package.

Your thoughts, suggestions, comments and experiences are greatly appreciated.

Not sure if this will help, but we did Princess Anchorage to Vancouver a few years ago. We had done only one cruise prior to that, Disney Eastern Carribean on Fantasy. We chose Princess for Alaska because they were known for their Alaska cruises. On our DCL cruise, although the ship was amazing, the crowds on the Fantasy made our trip pretty unenjoyable. But we had nothing to compare up until that point. To us, the ships themselves were a huge difference. Princess felt old and just so-so, while Disney wowed. We were in a family suite on Princess, and the service was good, but not amazing. The entertainment was lacking, and the excursions were just ok. We also had 2 children ages 8 and 10 with us, and the boat had very little for them to do. When we were all enjoying the beautiful scenery in Glacier Bay, the kids were bored after awhile and really throughout most of the onboard time they spent a good bit of time in a small room with a foosball table and an xbox. I do think if we had not done Disney first we would have thought this was a nicer trip, but having that to compare made it just seem ok. We have not cruised since, but just booked Disney Med 5/30 for 2020. So overall if you go into your trip knowing it is not Disney and your expectations are lowered, I'm sure it will be great. But if you think you will be missing all the DCL bells and whistles, it may be worth the extra money.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I did DCL Alaska twice. I had an Alaskan northbound booked on Princess, but had to cancel because we needed a new roof. While I enjoyed DCL Alaska and would go again, I'd much rather sail Princess for the itinerary. DCL started off with 3 sea days, which got to be boring for the kids who run around unsupervised on the ship. I know many people think that sea days are great, but I can only enjoy one at a time.

Princess also has the great buffet all day. On board entertainment isn't as good as DCL but the itinerary can be much better.

 

[ldo]

for those with tweens/teens, not Alaska, but we have been on both DCL and Princess in Europe. Sea days/entertainment would likely be similar to Alaska--
Princess: teens liked pool movies every night--most are PG with 1-2 G for the week. they repeat movies on TV the next day and repeat in theater on sea day.
live entertainment is good for tweens/teens, besides pretty good theater productions shows (still prefer B-way quality DCL shows), my teens liked American Ideal at Sea (?) audtitions in the lounger every night and finale show, Dancing at Sea competition. They have very good historical/nature lectures (similar to DCL in Europe). Magician/comedian was main show and then in lounge. Kids went back a 2nd time to see him again.
For ports, I see no difference in DCL or Princess unless you are booking an exclusive $$$ DCL excursion.
My teens still strongly prefer DCL, and I wouldn't take them on a Carib. Princess cruise, but for Europe, Alaska, where the ports are #1, we find Princess to fit our needs and budget.

 

[Geomom]

This entire thread is making me second guess my choice in having my first cruise ever be Disney Alaska (in September). OTOH, my wife (also a cruise first timer) won’t consider another cruise line since she trusts Disney to deliver on the experience.

Maybe this will serve as a nice intro for us—for Alaska and cruising—and we can branch out more in the future if we enjoy both. And after all the reading I’ve been doing. It seems like catching the cruising bug is just as likely as catching the Alaska bug.

I hope you enjoy your trip—whichever way you choose!

You will enjoy your DCL Alaska cruise! That was our first ever cruise! It is a great intro to Alaska--cruising is the best way to see Southern Alaska, many of the ports are only reachable by boat or small plane. DCL also has a Naturalist on board giving talks, as well as narrating the way in/out of Endicott Arm (Dawes Glacier.)

 

[Chrispy97]

Having just done Alaska last August, we thought this was a bucket list type of trip for our anniversary. We flew out to Victoria, spent time in Victoria and Butchart Gardens, then went on to Vancouver and did the cruise and some time in Vancouver.

Now we are thinking we will return someday to do mainland Alaska with a different itinerary.

With DD7, DCL was an easy decision for us to maximize her enjoyment on the boat as well as the excursions. But if we go up there again, with or without DD, it will either be a land-only itinerary or a package like the Princess one to see things we didn't get to this time.

Reading this again it reads like a non-answer, but what I'm trying to say is we do wish we had done more of the mainland up there enough that we would like to go back. That said, we loved the DCL experience in Alaska, although we have no experience on other lines for comparison. My wife's parents were with us and they were pleased with DCL, although they felt Alaska is more about the ports than the boat as others mention.

One other thing: we really enjoyed having the view, especially given the Wonder spends a lot of time on the inner passages with some beautiful scenery to see from the room. It sounds like neither of these reservations has an outside view right now, which I feel like is worth it for those sea days on DCL in Alaska.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Have you considered Celebrity? I’ve done Alaska on Princess (many years ago) and Celebrity Land/Sea (last summer). I highly recommend Celebrity (we are DCL fans). The “land” portion was seamless as well as wonderful. We even stayed at the same hotels that Adventure but Disney uses. If Celebrity is not on the table, keep the land/sea Princess. My first cruise was “sea only” - it was nice but seeing Denali and the Interior of Alaska was so much better.

 

[Hubie]

Been to Alaska four times. Twice to climb and twice with DW. First trip was to complete mountain guide course in Denali Park, second trip was with DW to Juneau. From there we took a small 24-passenger ship to Sawyer Glaciers. We also spent a day at Mendenhall Glacier. Eventually we flew small plane to Skagway where we took the train trip into the Yukon. From Skagway we took Alaskan Ferry to Haines before flying back on small plane to Juneau. Third trip I attempted climbing Mt. Bona, and fourth trip with DW was to Anchorage. From there we took the awesome train to Seward where we did the boat excursion to Glacier Fjords Park, then we rented a car and drove to Kenai and Homer before returning to Seward and taking train back to Anchorage. DCL's itinerary (ports) pretty much duplicates our second Alaska trip so we'd be more interested in doing Princess from Vancouver to Seward or Seward to Vancouver to experience Glacier Bay and than we'd spend some time on land on our own. In your case, I'd probably stick with Princess just because of the itinerary.

 

[NancyIL]

Been to Alaska four times. Twice to climb and twice with DW. First trip was to complete mountain guide course in Denali Park, second trip was with DW to Juneau. From there we took a small 24-passenger ship to Sawyer Glaciers. We also spent a day at Mendenhall Glacier. Eventually we flew small plane to Skagway where we took the train trip into the Yukon. From Skagway we took Alaskan Ferry to Haines before flying back on small plane to Juneau. Third trip I attempted climbing Mt. Bona, and fourth trip with DW was to Anchorage. From there we took the awesome train to Seward where we did the boat excursion to Glacier Fjords Park, then we rented a car and drove to Kenai and Homer before returning to Seward and taking train back to Anchorage. DCL's itinerary (ports) pretty much duplicates our second Alaska trip so we'd be more interested in doing Princess from Vancouver to Seward or Seward to Vancouver to experience Glacier Bay and than we'd spend some time on land on our own. In your case, I'd probably stick with Princess just because of the itinerary.

Princess sails to/from Whittier rather than Seward. I prefer Seward, but I also prefer Princess's one-way itineraries.

 

[terrilt]

I am looking for honest opinions from anyone who may have debated Disney, but chosen another line to go to Alaska, especially if you have gone on Princess I would really love to hear about your experience.

DH and I have been on 11 cruises.
All Caribbean (10 western, 1 eastern)
10 with Disney, 1 with Princess (a gift from MIL 15 years ago)

Here is my (our) dilemma. The last time we sailed on Princess we found ourselves saying: "Disney doesn't do that" "Disney does this better" "I like the way Disney does this".......... We had a very nice time on the Princess cruise, but it just wasn't Disney. And since we didn't pay for any of it we really don't know what the extra incidentals add up to compared to what Disney includes.

We originally had written Disney out of the picture because we figured it would be way too expensive and we would get more for our money with another line. This is a port intensive destination and we thought no big deal, just go with someone else. When the prices came out yesterday and saw we can book the same category room on DCL as we have right now on Princess for a little less. But with Disney we obviously loose the land portion. (we have a deluxe inside stateroom on both reservations)

We currently have a deposit on a 4 day land -7 night cruise combo from Anchorage to Vancouver on Princess. We start on land - go from Anchorage to Mt McKinley, Denali and Wittier, then cruise to hubbard Glacier Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau Ketchican and end in Vancouver

We also now have a hold on a 7 day with Disney round trip from Vancouver visiting Dawes Glacier Skagway Juneau Ketchikan

We are seriously wondering if we could go 3-5 days early and plan our own mini land trip between Anchorage and Fairbanks then Fly to Vancouver for the Disney Cruise which we have no doubts we will love, even though in the end it will cost us more. We are even considering cancelling our Very Merry later this year to put the money toward this option. Or do we stick with Princess (Coral Princess) and have the all included package.

Your thoughts, suggestions, comments and experiences are greatly appreciated.

Alaska is about Alaska, NOT a Cruise Line. DCL doesn't have access to Glacier Bay, which is a do not miss. GB is a Nat'l Park, a Park Ranger even gets onboard - only a few lines have access. Princess has done Alaska the longest and most of their cruises go to GB. They also have an amazing Cruise/Land tour. I hear good things about NCL for Alaska too, as they have some access to GB. To get your Disney fix, either cruise DCL to the Caribbean or go to WDW - but for Alaska, choose a line that you will SEE the highlights of Alaska, you'll see more and pay less. We also did our own excursions, don't miss the WhitePass Railroad to the Yukon in Skagway (we booked with Beyond Skagway) and WhaleWatching in juneau (we LOVED Jayleen's WhaleWatching). We try not to repeat vacations, as there is a big world to see, but we'd love to do Alaska again.

 

[Bonnie1222]

Thank you everyone for your input. We are still on the fence so we put the deposit down on Disney so we didn't loose the room. Worst case is we get our deposit back.

The Disney Experience is a huge part of the trip for us, not really for the characters because we have not kids but for the atmosphere Disney projects and the customer service.

The land portion of Princess is something I really want to see. Since we are traveling from FL to get there this will most likely be a once and a lifetime trip and we want to see the most.

We are going to look into some land packages on our own and see if it is doable on own before we make our final decision. Thankfully we have time to plan and really do our research before we have to make our final payments.