coloradocruisers

Only Princess, HAL, NCL, and Cruise West are allowed under the current contract.(I Think) Where does Royal Carribean go on their Alaskan cruises? Kevin

Wow! I didn't realize the contracts were for 10 years! Just think of how the industry has grown in the last 10 years, and how many new ships have been christened. I can imagine the amount of interest will be vey high. Thanks for the info. Kevin

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I've found this discussion all very interesting. I see both good experiences and bad experiences for the same cruiselines. My wife and I were unhappy with the service we received on a Princess cruise, but I know they have their faithful customers. In our case, we paid alot for a suite, without noticing an increase in service. The ship was fairly new (Diamond Princess in 2005), but the furniture looked old and used. My wife thought it was left over from the Love Boat. I ordered a tux, which came with two different size shoes. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about it; so I had to make due. We ordered hors'de ovres one night, which never arrived. When I called the service desk, they said that were too busy. The dining room was excellent, and so was the kids program; but those other little incidents sort of left a bad taste in our mouths. Incidentally, I am the one person so far that voted for Disney. What can I say? They're the only line that exceeded our expectations. On our last cruise with them, we had a concierge assigned to us that took care of everything. Ordering hors' de ovres? They showed up without my placing an order...complementary. It may be a bit unfair to the other lines, because Disney really took care of us on that particular trip.

Absolutely. The highlight of the cruise was our trip up Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm is a fjord bracketed by black granite walls, some climbing up to 3000'. Hundreds of white frosty water falls stream down from above. At temperatures just barely above freezing, they appear to move in slow motion. The black granite walls are covered with greenery, and if you look closely you might spot a bald eagle or two. As you near the glacier, the green water becomes filled with thousands of Windex blue chunks of ice. As we began our trek into the fjord, the sky was overcast and a cold rain made it difficult to stay outside very long; but as we got closer to the glacier, the rain let up. We were told that the overcast brought out the blues in the ice better; but one wonders what they tell passengers on sunny days. Anyway, I'm not sure if Celebrity goes to Tracy Arm, but you're probably going to see Hubbard Glacier instead. I'll bet that's pretty impressive. I look forward to reading about you're experiences.

We are known as the Friendliest Cruise forum on the Internet! What were your impression of your Alaska Cruise... do you write reviews? if so I hope you will take time to share your thoughts... Joey Joey Since it's been three years, so I probably won't post a formal review of our Alaskan cruise, but since you're going there in August I'll tell you how ours went. We went in mid-August of 2005. Expect clouds and rain. When we left Seattle, it was a beautiful blue sky and sunny weather, but that changed as we went further north. It was nice and cool, so I was able to wear a tux without feeling too warm (unlike the Caribbean). In Juneau, we went whale watching in the rain. We did see alot of humpbacks and orcas, though. In Skagway, my wife and I were scheduled for a helicopter flight to a glacier; but that got cancelled due to low ceilings. We spent our time roaming the town and shopping, which was fun. We had a room as far forward on the Diamond Princess as you could get. When you look at a picture of a Princess ship, you see a little curved balcony at the front. That was us. This afforded good views in Tracy Arm, but we did not use it much the rest of the time due to the high winds and rain. I actually thought the furniture was going to blow over the side once we got underway, because there's nothing to block the wind on that deck. My older son liked going out there, but he likes cold, rainy weather. We did not go into the interior of Alaska, so I can't comment on that. We'll have to do that another time. Overall, a unique experience; but I prefer tropical cruises.

Wow. This is a friendly bunch! We just joined this morning, and already four welcome messages. Thanks for providing such an informative website, that appears totally unbiased when it comes to different cruiselines. We just returned from a 7 day cruise onboard the Carnival Conquest during the week of Memorial Day. We drove to Texas, where we both have family; then sailed out of Galveston. We've also cruised on the Diamond Princess to Alaska, and two Disney Magic cruises to the Caribbean. I once did a brief cruise on the USS Tarawa, and my wife cruised the Pacific when she was a young girl living in Australia. We have three kids; two boys (16 and 12), and one girl (6). So far, we've liked Disney the best; but we'd like to try Royal Caribbean next go around. ColoradoCruisers