First Alaskan cruise?

DMLAINI

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
First time cruiser. Any tips/recommendations for an Alaskan cruise? It will be myself, my husband, daughter (14), my mom, & my brother. Thank you! We're looking at July 2021.
 
We had a great time on a RCCL trip to Alaska in 2014.; We were supposed to go this June but that cancelled. Any questions if I can help you just let me know.
 


We were going to go this June, our first time on an Alaska cruise, but of course it got cancelled. Down payments are not refundable, but they applied it to a future cruise credit. So we are booked for next year with a huge savings! We were going to spend close to $10,000 on two balcony staterooms for our family of six. Trip was booked a year in advance and was still very pricey... Now, for the same cruise next year, we are spending under $8800 on THREE balcony staterooms for our family of 6!!!!!! so one extra state room, plus an over $1000 savings! If you are commited to going on an Alaska cruise, I'd say book now, take advantage of savings. If you are not, then wait, because down payments are NOT REFUNDABLE, even if you cancel one day after you book.
 
New thing: you can pay an addtional amount at the time of booking, to get your down payment back if you cancel...but it's still a significant amount (like $100 to receive a $500 down payment back, or something like that)
 
With royal, book a refundable cruise fare. Now the price of the cruise and the deposit that you have to leave will be higher than a non refundable fare. But if you are unsure, that is the way to go. I have 6 refundable bookings with royal right now. As soon as I know that I can take the cruise for sure, I call in to change it to non refundable rate if the price is lower. Grand Suites and above do not have a refundable deposit and are non refundable deposits,

It is hard for me to be sure I will be able to make a cruise 2 years in advance for sure.
 


If you are for sure choosing Royal to cruise Alaska there is one key decision to start - one way or round trip.

Round trip typically start and end in Seattle. Rarely they have a start in Vancouver but can end in Seattle. Those usually stay pretty far south so ports tend to be limited to Victoria, CA, Ketchikan, Juneau. There maybe some variation.

Royal does a north or south one way cruise, which has essentially the same stops just reverse order from the other. The one way allows for you to add a land based tour on one end. Since cruises only touch a very small part of the state so the train or personal tours to Kodiak, Denali etc. can really round out a trip of it will be your only visit to the state.

That is pretty high level so if you want more details or have other question please feel free to ask. We did an 11 day last year with Royal that had 2 glacier days and 3 ports so we can add more.
 

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