Alaska Cruise July 2009

Hi

Considering a family cruise next July, after scanning a lot of posts everywhere we decided to have the southbound cruise to Vancouver; still we are so confused which cruise line to select; we are a family of 4 including 2 teens, we are intersted in the freestyl cruise; our budget is 5000-7000 USD for a suite sleep 4. We used the NCL during our Hawaii vacation, it was okay for us, but we read a lot of negative posts regarding their Alaska cruise.

Thanks for advice and help.

Alaska Cruise July 2009

I am by no means the cruise expert on this board but here are my two cents (you get what you pay for!).

The main decision regarding your Alaskan cruise should be the itinerary. Do you want more glacier viewing days or more port days? More common ports (Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan) or less visited ports (Haines, Sitka, Icy Strait Point)? Most all of the one-way cruises will have either two glacier viewing days or an extra port day.

Another decision is Glacier Bay or Hubbard Glacier. Most cruises include one or the other. I have been to both. Personally I prefer Glacier Bay but Hubbard Glacier is very impressive if you can get close (we did but reports last season were many ships didn%26#39;t get too close due to all the icebergs from the calving).

So look at the itineraries of NCL and other lines and start narrowing down your choices from there.

It would be interesting to hear the specific negative posts regarding NCL in Alaska? Were those posted here or on another message board? Remember, all message boards contain opinions. Unless I see an overwhelming number of negative opinions over a longer period of time, I am very skeptical.

John