Disney Alaska Cruise

[suzi]

Considering this for next June. Worth it, or should I look into another cruise line?

[pharmjenn]

Worth it is always so subjective. I would love to do the Alaska cruise, but Disney is so much more expensive than other lines. We have done a 2wk Panama Canal, and are heading off on the Transatlantic next month with Disney, so I would say it is worth it.
Questions: Have you cruised before, and if so, did your kids like the clubs? Are your family Disney fans? A lot of people feel overwhelmed by the Disney feel to the ships, but I love the character interaction, and the ship.
My DS6 would not come out of the kids clubs except for meals, and we even had to force him out to use the pools. I anticipate it will be the same on the next trip. We spent plenty of time together as a family, so this didn't bother me, but other families had their kids hate the clubs and only want to be with the parents. Would you consider it a good vacation if you had minimal alone time with your spouse?

[suzi]

Been on several Caribbean cruises; 2 w/ Disney, others w/ Norwegian, Royal Caribbean. Love the service w/ Disney and absence of casinos and significant smoking. Castaway Cay is my favorite--don't believe Disney has an exclusive stop such as this on the Alaska itinerary, which is making me consider another line. It is hit or miss w/ my big kids in the clubs--their moods/personalities have varied w/ each trip. Royal Caribbean's clubs were pretty good--wonder if anyone out there has sailed Alaska w/ them? Biggest concern w/ this trip is DS2--he'll be 3 yo at sailing & may still be clingy. ILs will be joining us and might allow me some down time w/ DH.

[pharmjenn]

I really want to do a cruise that stops at Castaway Cay, but I think Alaska may be our next one also. No special stop on that trip, and the weather in June may be too cool for the pools for your kids.
My coworkers sailed NCL (I think) and neither family liked the kids clubs (2 different trips, same itinerary) That scares me to try NCL, since Disney club seems so awesome for our son. We will probably do Princess, as they sail out of San Francisco, so one less cost involved; airfare.

If you ILs will be with you, and your DS3 will stay with them, that could get you alone time, or he is still young enough to be allowed into the nursery

[smilequeen]

We just got back from the Disney Alaska cruise and we loved it. I'm not really the type to do the Caribbean cruise though...rather just go to a nice resort and hang on the beach. So I have not done other cruises. The other one we are interested in is the Northern European cruise.

My kids had a blast. The 9 year old limited his time in the kids club and preferred to spend his time on the sports deck playing soccer. My 7 and 3 year olds loved the kids club, but the 3 year old would start missing us after about 2 hours. By then it was lunch and then nap anyway.

They had great excursions. Not really exclusive, but they did a really good job with them...well organized. My kids loved the shows and the characters. We didn't spend much time in the pool because we're wimps with the cold, but other kids did.

The boys loved every excursion we picked (dog sledding, whale watching, and lumberjack show/native village). There were so many great ones though. The food was decent and the service was really exceptional. The hair dryer sucks and the laundry rooms are small. DO NOT do laundry the last day if you can help it. And iron your clothes early for the "formal" night (which wasn't really that formal). I loved running on the treadmill watching the water. We saw a decent amount of wildlife. Seals near the glacier. Humpback whales bubble net feeding. Really great memories and my kids are begging for another cruise soon.

My BIL/SIL use Royal Caribbean and their son loved the Dreamworks cruise they did. So that is something we'll look into too.

[rlu]

Royal Caribbean's clubs were pretty good--wonder if anyone out there has sailed Alaska w/ them?

Love Royal Caribbean. We went to Alaska when DS was 5 and I recall only did two activities with the club but he enjoyed both. Once during the day, the other was a night pirate theme (he's not into pirates) where they "invaded" the after-dinner show to demand candy and such. It was cute and he enjoyed that but was done with the club. We had my parents, sister and mother-in-law with us so there were plenty of people to hang out with him. He enjoyed the pool (we went in July), playing shuffleboard and, especially, ping pong.

I'll try to find my write-up on the trip. I've been to Alaska four times, twice with land-tours, and overall prefer Royal Caribbean (twice) to Princess (the other cruise line is out of business).

eta: here's one write-up. I could have sworn I had a long one though. http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?393310-Alaska-mid-July&highlight=alaska
here's another http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?347255-Alaskan-cruise&highlight=alaska