For this cruise I’m more worried about the ports. I don’t need a lot of bells and whistles on the ship. I don’t want a hoopdee either, lol.
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For the Princess one-ways (at least in 24/25) the ports seem to be pretty consistent. The only difference being which ships do the inside passage.
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Ships are so confusing. Our VoyagerOTS oceanview last year had no couch! The beds were right over us. It was an epic oversight on my part
I LOVE the Princess product. I’ve done two moms-only cruises and they were so nicely done. Our food and the staff and cookies at night. (The shows were awful… but they are not the main thing.) I’m not tagging him bc his wife is quite sick right now, but Grumpy_in_Tejas has done at least one, and maybe 2, Princess Alaska cruises. Give him a week or two and then tag him. @scrapper1617 did you do HAL or Princess?
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Haha I am definitely not worried about the shows! Early to bed for early morning scenery viewing!
Did you have any kids with you? The kid’s clubs actually seem pretty impressive and aligned with my kids interests. Supposedly they actually take them around the ship to do stuff? And they have Park Rangers come make them Jr Rangers! And there is Skee ball.
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I did not, but I purposefully asked parents and some middle school aged kids about their experience and everyone expressed how happy they were. The kids got a lot of attention and enrichment bc so few on board.
And I don’t know how you feel about coffee, but IMO Princess has the best coffee of all the lines I’ve been on (DCL, NCL, carnival and Royal). I 100% encourage the specialty coffee punch card.
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I am the least of the coffee drinkers in the fam but definitely think I would enjoy some specialty coffees in Alaska! Noted.
I dislike having to wait until August to know what the ship options will be!!
Is this just for the kids club? Asking for a friend.
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I think all the cruise ships do quite a bit of the Inside Passage. It goes from Seattle up to Skagway. Ports of call along it include Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Haines or Icy Strait Point. We like starting from Vancouver, so you do more of the Inside Passage and less in the open ocean (open ocean is rougher water). Some of the Inside Passage is very smooth, like a river, where it’s protected by the islands. If you start or end at Vancouver, that takes care of the foreign port requiement. If you start from Seattle, they often stop at Victoria on Vancouver Island, and travel more in the open ocean waters to the next port.
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The dotted line is where the “Royal Class” ships have to go out on the ocean in the Canada bit. The Star Class ships are even bigger so I think they probably are able to do even less.
I definitely want to do the Vancouver departure to avoid the stop at Victoria!
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They must have an open house!
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Oops! Sorry I missed this. We did HAL, mostly because our friends’ son was a drummer on the ship. He ended up leaving a few weeks before our trip. 
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Completely unrelated but my father in law and his wife were offered a job as musicians on a Mississippi river boat cruise and DH and I have begged them to take it so we can go on a discount cruise! But they don’t seem to think it will be as fun as we do.
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A family discount for a cruise would be great! 
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Following the thread! We have an Aug 2025 Lighthouse Pt/Castaway sailing booked but I’m suddenly thinking about switching to Alaska instead. And the DCL prices are so high! Probably just me and my DS14, unless we can convince my anti-cruise, “already been to Alaska why go again*,” husband to join us. (He had a work trip; kid and I have never been. And we’re used to doing park trips without him. It’s nice 1:1 time.) Once you decide you can’t do DCL, the other options quickly seem very overwhelming.
*I realize this is a wild statement. It’s Alaska! But we live in NC so it’s quite the feat to get there from here.
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There are only 3 lines that go to Glacier Bay, if that is important to you. So that narrows it down quite a bit. Are you looking for more things to do on the ship or more things to do in Alaska? That’s probably where you can also narrow it down too.
Norwegian just released their 2026 itineraries yesterday! I’m still patiently waiting for Princess!
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There are only 3 lines that go to Glacier Bay, if that is important to you.
I don’t think it is? Maybe I need to research that more. I think Princess is rising to the top for me based on a balance of ship activities (teen club open more than a couple hours a day) and Alaska (NCL videos have me spooked re: the shuttle into one of the ports… maybe that’s actually not a big deal).
I also need to think more about the one-way vs. round trip options… I assumed it would be cost-prohibitive to fly into (or out of) Anchorage but it’s actually not that bad from Charlotte.
Basically lots more thinking to do. 
We are likely doing a 1-way (probably Northbound) out of Vancouver on Princess. I’m actually just annoyed with the fact that we have to get to Anchorage to fly home at the end because I think we are going to focus on the Seward area.
Here’s a snippit of Princess 2025 offerings if you are interested I’m happy to send you the whole sheet.
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DH and I were very happy with the RCL cruise we did. We did a one-way northbound from Vancouver to Seward, with a 5-night landtour combo by RCL that took us to Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali, and Fairbanks.
RCL is known for active activities that can appeal to teens or adults, beyond the teen-only areas… Our RCL cruise did not go to Glacier Bay, but we went to Hubbard Glacier. It was plenty good for us, given all the other aspects of this trip (such as cost and entire itinerary). Unless you are doing a one-way cruise, much of the day will be spent in a port doing excursions or just walking around the port. One-way cruises mean your flights aren’t roundtrip, which can be more expensive.
Our Alaska cruise is one of our favorites (we’ve cruised a fair amount). But every time we are tempted to do another, we remember that we had such great results (weather, whale watching, etc) that we might not be so lucky on another one. Sort of a “stop while we’re ahead.”
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I feel this way about so many of our vacations!
I also LOVE RCL!
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Agreed. Outside of our first cruise, which was on the Magic, we’ve done only RCL - except for a Celebrity ship more than a year ago. Celebrity is a sister-brand to RCL, and we decided we’ll stick with RCL for now. By sticking with one brand, we’ve risen to a higher loyalty level.
It’s great that RCL now does Alaska with more than the Radiance class. Two of the Quantum class ships also go there. We did a Caribbean cruise last Dec on the Odyssey (Quantum class) and were extremely impressed with the entertainment and activities offered on that class. Those ships make a nice addition to Alaska, with their things that can really appeal to kids - and others!
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