Alaska Cruises: A Cheat Sheet to Planning the Perfect Adventure

Table Of Content

• Alaska Food: Where to Find the Best Food in Alaska Royal Caribbean Cruises
• My Personas
• Celebrity Cruises
• Best cruise lines for extended trips to Alaska
• Viking Orion Emphasizes Exploration in Alaska with 10-Night, All-Adult Sailings
• Pre-Cruise and Post-Cruise Hotel Stays
• Transportation to and from the Port

Dining highlights on Silver Nova include three extra-fee restaurants, while all other food options are included. In-room dining served course-by-course by your butler is a treat after a long day exploring in port. For a fun meal under the midnight sun (there are heaters and blankets) give Hot Rocks a try. Guests on Silver Nova in Alaska will feel more like they're on a five-star hotel than a cruise ship. Marble bathrooms come with a choice between Bulgari or Ortigia amenities.

Alaska Food: Where to Find the Best Food in Alaska Royal Caribbean Cruises

The duration of your journey is another factor that affects Alaskan cruise prices. Most Alaskan cruise tours run for 7 to 12 nights; the longer you stay, the more you’ll pay. Here, you can check our Alaska cruise review to see which port of calls we visited. Longer cruises often offer a more comprehensive experience, allowing you to explore more destinations. Cruise Critic is the perfect place to plan your next Alaskan cruise. Below you can compare cruise itineraries for all ships sailing to Alaska for the next few years.

My Personas

Visit its most popular attractions, such as the Space Needle and Pike Place Market. An elegant and spacious Alaska cruise ship with fresh floral arrangements and garden-inspired décor. Master frontier flavor with regional cooking demonstrations on board. Choose from seven refreshingly uncrowded ships for a front-row seat to Alaska's splendor. They are living laboratories that show what the Earth was like thousands of years ago and how it is changing today.

Celebrity Cruises

Norwegian Encore operates seven-night round-trip itineraries from Seattle that include time in Glacier Bay National Park with a park ranger onboard the ship. This full half-acre of real grass on the top deck offers some of the best views onboard in a fun, relaxed atmosphere. The space includes a hands-on glass blowing studio, games like bocce and mini-golf, lounge chairs and even rentable Alcoves. Celebrity typically attracts sophisticated young adults and middle-aged couples, though you'll notice more families during the summer sailings in Alaska.

That makes having your own balcony a prime piece of real estate, especially near Denali National Park, portions of the Inside Passage or Tracy Arm Fjord. Embarking and disembarking in Seattle or Vancouver can make air travel easier and cheaper than one-way Alaska cruises, which require flights to smaller, more expensive airports in Alaska. An Alaska Inside Passage cruise typically lasts seven nights, embarking and returning to Seattle or Vancouver.

Most people tend to focus on the Caribbean for summer cruises, but an Alaska summer vacation can be a great option, too. The sheer size of Alaska lends itself to a wide variety of terrain and travel experiences. This diversity means you need to be prepared for a lot of change while traveling. In some parts of the state, dog sledding is still the primary mode of transportation through the winter months. Visit Alaska and get the experience for yourself at the Skagway Yukon Discovery and Dog Sled Tour. The Siberian Huskies are sweet and energetic, and the ride is a thrill.

Find Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam Cruises to Alaska (with Prices) - Cruise Critic

Find Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam Cruises to Alaska (with Prices).

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:23:22 GMT [source]

Pre-Cruise and Post-Cruise Hotel Stays

No matter where you’ve traveled before, there’s little doubt that the landscape of Alaska compares — or beats — anything you’ve ever seen. In Juneau we opted to take the $45 Mendenhall Glacier Shuttle Bus that leaves from the cruise port to Mendenhall Glacier and back throughout the day. How do all of these pricing options play out when pricing out your Alaska cruise? To put these samples into perspective, I broke down the expenses I encountered on my recent 7-night Alaska cruise on Ovation of the Seas. Prices for a Cruise Tour vary depending on how many days the tour runs and the tour’s location.

Transportation to and from the Port

If you have coverage when docked at the ports of call, you might not need to purchase internet for the few sea days. For the ultimate experience, you can take one of the helicopter tours to see the nearby icefields in Juneau. If you want to combine a helicopter tour with a dog sledding adventure, that will easily be over $600 a person.

Great experiences from the great land

While this may not be possible at all ports, it will be at the vast majority. If you are budgeting for local restaurants, the price will range from $12 – $30/meal, depending on the cuisine. While these are sometimes included in the cruise price, they may be an added expense. If they aren’t included, budget an extra $100 – $200 for this expense. There is also the opportunity to book excursions at a cheaper price.

The best Alaska cruises manage to combine epic nature with local flavor, and the following options all offer that mix with some variation. You'll need to set aside a good chunk of money to spend on shore excursions when you're in Alaska. They can be incredibly expensive when compared to experiences in the Caribbean or Mexico.

The MS Roald Amundsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen embark on 14- to 19-day Alaskan voyages between May and September. The storied Cunard cruise line, with more than 180 years of seafaring history, returned to Alaska after nearly 30 years when it arrived back in the Great Land in 2019. In addition to more than 140 shore experiences that immerse guests into this magical destination, Cunard invites explorers, travel writers and locals onboard to share their passions and knowledge.

Erica Silverstein is a cruise and family travel expert, who has been covering the industry for more than 15 years. Her articles have appeared on Cruise Critic, Porthole, TravelAge West, and USA Today. A staunch advocate of cruising as an ideal family vacation, she has, on occasion, banned her own children from cruising with her. Airfare should also be a consideration if you find a last minute cruise deal. While the fare might be enticing, the total cost of the plane tickets might negate any (and all) savings.

Service and food quality in the complimentary main dining room are top-notch, but for-fee restaurants like Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind make for splurge-worthy romantic dates. Solstice sails from Vancouver, calling on Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, Endicott Arm (Dawes Glacier), Hubbard Glacier and the Inside Passage (scenic cruising). Our award-winning North to Alaska program brings local personalities, culture and cuisine on board and ashore to immerse you in all things Alaska during your cruise to the Great Land. Icy Strait Point is home to the remote Tlingit village of Hoonah, home to fewer than 800 people and a deep Native history.

Voyage through the untamed beauty from the comfort of our world-class ships, exclusive rail service and Princess Wilderness Lodges near national parks. Choose from a variety of Alaska cruise and cruisetour itineraries and connect with loved ones, locals and Alaska's wilderness with Princess®. One of the first hidden costs you’ll encounter are port taxes and fees. These are mandatory charges that are rarely included in the advertised Alaskan cruise cost.

Still, you can take a walking tour of Skagway or a bus tour for between $70 and $100 per person. Extras like excursions, gambling, alcohol and premium meals may also affect the price. You can save money on your Alaska cruise by traveling in the off-season, booking at the last minute or using your travel credit card rewards.