Table Of Content
The small vessels also do not have any family-focused attractions on board like you'd find on bigger cruise ships. The company is known for trips into wilderness areas of Southeast Alaska, where passengers can enjoy hiking, kayaking and wildlife-watching. You'll go days without seeing anyone else but the handful of people on your vessel. Still, you can get a variation on a luxury cruise experience on a voyage to Alaska from Seattle on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Encore. If you're a parent traveling with teens and tweens, you'll probably want to pick a voyage on one of the big, family activity-filled cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line that sail out of Seattle each summer.
Scenic cruising
On land, you'll likely spy bears and Dall sheep while eagles, puffins and a host of seabirds circle above. Drop us an anchor below to share your picks for the best Alaska cruises 2023. When you finally decide on a ship from our best Alaska Cruises 2023, that’s just the beginning of the excitement.
A more in-depth Alaska escape with Viking
The Millennium offers Edge series staterooms with Infinite Veranda—at the touch of a button, your entire living space becomes the veranda, which means you can walk right out to the water’s edge. And 99% of the staterooms on Celebrity Edge have king-size beds, featuring Celebrity eXhale bedding and Cashmere mattresses. The Celebrity Millennium, launched in 2000, has recently undergone complete modernization, which includes luxury staterooms, enhanced technology, and renovated restaurants and lounges.
Best Luxury Alaska Cruise: Cunard, Queen Elizabeth
This itinerary will sail from either Vancouver, British Columbia or Seward, Alaska. This 13K gross ton ship recently underwent a major update in 2020 as part of the Star Plus Initiative. This all new section includes a number of new cabins, as well as new public venues, in addition to several other improvements throughout the ship. These itineraries will feature stops in Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, and Valdez along with cruising the Hubbard Glacier. There is also the option to add-on a Cruisetour with visits to Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks, or even Homer.
Smaller Cruise Lines
And that’s precisely why so many people who visit Alaska do so via a cruise. Plus, it’s the best way to experience the iconic Inside Passage, the most popular route for cruise ships departing from Seattle and Vancouver from May through September. The key to planning the perfect adventure is finding the right cruise for your personality, budget, and preferences.
Spend the Day on Shore
It’s yet another reason that Holland America drives a pretty hard bargain when it comes to amazing Alaskan cruises. Celebrity Millenium is an older ship with the line but offers some sailings for around $400 as well and does both northbound and southbound one-way itineraries. And if you really want to experience Alaska in all its glory, Holland America has a 28-day sailing in June of 2024 that departs from Seattle. This particular itinerary sails all the way up the coast and above the arctic circle, allowing passengers to see remote places like Nome and Little Diomede Island.
Seabourn Cruise Line
Among the standout dining options on board is the modern French eatery La Dame, which offers a Michelin star-style evening that showcases ingredients like France's sublime Limousin beef, presented with a flourish. The Atlantide restaurant offers such delicacies as caviar and lobster presented beautifully and at no extra cost. Other ultra-luxury lines that operate in Alaska are Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn and Scenic Luxury Cruises, each of which sends one vessel to the state for all or at least part of the summer season. On most of the vessels, you'll find a single casual dining area, a lounge that doubles as a bar and basic cabins. What you're paying for is where the ship can get you and the adventure of it all. Specializing in Alaska trips, UnCruise operates a fleet of super-tiny vessels — the biggest carries just 86 people — that are so small they can go to remote, outdoorsy parts of Southeast Alaska that no big ship could visit.
Best Inside Passage Alaska Cruise: Hurtigruten Expeditions, MS Roald Amundsen
Celebrity Eclipse is a 122K gross ton vessel that is part of Celebrity Cruises’ beloved Solstice Class of ships. There are also several different cruise and land tour packages from Vancouver to Anchorage available ranging from 9 days to 14 days. Ovation of the Seas is nearly 169K gross tons and features several thrills for all ages along with a variety of dining and entertainment options. Most of the ship’s itineraries will feature stops in Sitka, Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria, with scenic cruising in Endicott Arm.
Should I cruise on Princess to Alaska? I booked a sailing to see for myself - Cruise Blog
Should I cruise on Princess to Alaska? I booked a sailing to see for myself.
Posted: Thu, 10 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The former travel editor at Parents magazine, Karen Cicero specializes in travel, children's book, lifestyle and food coverage. She manages the experience portion of the Good Housekeeping Family Travel Awards. She has sailed on four cruise lines with her family and toured several others. She recently was a featured speaker at several travel industry conferences, including PRSA, Mid-Atlantic Tourism Alliance and the Family Travel Association.
If we were to pick one mega-ship operator to see Alaska on, it would be Norwegian Cruise Line. If your idea of a good time includes loads of onboard amenities (like over-the-top spas, nightly theater productions, go-kart tracks, and a water park), this is the sailing for you. It’s also one of the more family-friendly lines sailing in Alaska, with kids clubs and programming specifically geared at youngsters. The Alaska cruise season, like the 49th state’s summer, is all too brief.
Exploring the interior of Alaska will give you an entirely different perspective on this vast and rugged state. Take an Inside Passage cruise and gaze upward at the sky that is as blue as the lakes below. Hop on the Alaskan Railroad near Anchorage and see the spruce-lined, mountainous landscape whir by from a new perspective.
These trains offer the largest domed windows ever made for a rail car, so you can enjoy the view and some yummy food at the same time. For 2023 and 2024, Viking will base one ship in Alaska during the summer (the 930-passenger Viking Orion), but it'll expand in 2025 with a second vessel (the 930-passenger Viking Sea). In addition to 10-night sailings to Alaska, the ships occasionally offer longer, 22-night sailings that extend beyond Alaska all the way to Japan. Most Viking sailings to Alaska also begin or end with an overnight call in Anchorage, which is too far north for ships on seven-night Alaska itineraries from Seattle and Vancouver to reach. Passengers can visit attractions in and around the city that they couldn't see on the sailings offered by almost every other line.
Click here to jump straight to the comparisons of the best cruise lines for Alaska. Indeed, Viking is known for catering specifically to a certain type of thoughtful, inquisitive, generally older traveler who is as interested in learning while on vacation as being pampered. Agewise, its sweet spot is travelers (mostly couples) who range from 55 to 75 years in age. So, if you're on the younger side, this might not be the perfect couples cruise for you. In addition, Princess offers longer and more far-ranging "Off the Beaten Path" routings that add nights at the remote Copper River Princess Lodge in eastern Alaska near Wrangell-St. Elias National Park or the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge on the Kenai Peninsula.
Regent’s Seven Seas Explorer is all about luxury, from its all-suite design to its all-inclusive fares, which cover airfare, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants, gratuities, Wi-Fi, laundry and unlimited shore excursions. Itineraries can be customized to fit your specific interests, whether you want to take a glacier hike, immerse yourself in Alaska’s history or eat your way through the state. Whether you're interested in hiking through a forest, trekking to glaciers or a shopping spree downtown, the towns along Alaska's inside passage provide a variety of adventurous activities. Alaska cruise ports such as Juneau and Ketchikan are small cities with their own personalities. Anchorage is the state's largest city and a gateway to the rest of the state.
This “best of” 7-night itinerary is focused on the region’s iconic Inside Passage, which gives passengers an efficient taste of all the area’s most photographed and talked about sights. Plus, Holland America offers more access to Glacier Bay National Park and has more departures featuring Glacier Bay National Park than any other cruise line. Regatta offers sailings out of Vancouver, Seattle, and Los Angeles with 7-night to 13-night itineraries. There are both round-trip and one-way sailings with Oceania so there’s a lot of variety of options there as well. For about $400 per person you can find sailings on Volendam and Noordam for 7-night voyages. Even the 2016 Koningsdam has some September itineraries for just over $400 per person for an interior stateroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment