Alaska 2022 Advice

[Ky Leigh]

Hello!  

You all helped me a month or so ago when I postponed my cruise that my husband and I were supposed to be on this past week.  We are planning to reschedule with our credit for next spring.  A few questions for you all:  

• April or May?
• Leaving from Seattle or Vancouver?
• Serenade of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas or Quantum of the Seas?  Keep in mind.  We are both in our 50's and don't care a lot about go carts, big waterslides, etc.  The ship doesn't have to be fancy but..... we don't want to be an a ship that is run down either and.....we like to eat good food.  

What are your thoughts?  

Thanks in advance!!

 

[SpeedNoodles]

I'd pick May over April (I'd pick June over May).  While the prices are super low in April, there's also a chance that  you'll be limited to how close you can get to things due to ice.  It's also a bit soon to start seeing many whales, if you're into that (if you're not, we simply can't be friends because you're clearly a psychopath.  KIDDING!)  

I've only been up there 3 times - twice on "smaller" ships (Vision, and a Princess ship) and Ovation.  While I liked Ovation as a ship, I wasn't crazy about her as an Alaskan ship.    There were so many venues that had very little window exposure to the ocean compared to the smaller ships (especially a Radiance Class ship that has SO many windows).  I was frustrated sitting in a bar or Izumi and having no windows in case a, you know, whale or something showed up.  Ovation has 270, which is an awesome venue, but aside from that venue I didn't find it terribly Alaska friendly.  On the other hand, she has a far higher ration of balconies (and virtual interior rooms), so there's that.  Both types of ships are great, but that's just my opinion FWIW.

[GKMCruising]

My wife and I just got back from Alaska on Ovation and loved it. We had a JS so it was easy to watch the scenery from our room, but I'll agree, most of the larger venues other than 270 and the Solarium are pretty "land-locked" in the center of the ship with no exterior views.

September was great and we were able to get right up to the glacier, but I'd definitely think May/June would be a better choice than April if you're going early.

Leaving from Seattle was smooth, but I can't imagine Vancouver would be too terrible either.

[SpeedNoodles]

I've left from Seattle and Vancouver. They are both awesome cities.  Vancouver may be more expensive to get to - it just depends on where you are, I guess. Last time the exchange rate was very much in my favor, so I got a great hotel and a ridiculously low price.  It's not as great right now, but it's not bad, either.

[Egeria]

Keep in mind that Orthodox Easter is April 24 in 2022. The native Alaskans don't start up their cultural events until after Pascha (Orthodox Easter) and the churches will be busy with services and not necessarily open for cruise visitors because of the Lenten schedule. The weather is also a lot better in May. 

[emmef]

Keep in mind that Radiance is also sailing Alaska in Summer '22.

[musicmae]

I was just on the serenade in august and I loved it.  It is smaller…holds 2400 I believe.  We sailed at less than full capacity so it was wonderful.  I also did not care about bumper cars etc and found the serenade to be exactly what I wanted.  So much so, that I’m looking at two more cruises on her in 2022.

[Scoular]

We’ve booked to go in May as it fit well with our general holiday schedule but also because I regularly read that the best time to go starts in May. We’ll be on Ovation on the only 8 night cruise. I thought if we’re travelling from the UK we should extend it as much as possible. That particular cruise starts in Vancouver and ends in Seattle. I thought for us it would be nice to see both cities and when flying such a distance it didn’t really matter. We chose Ovation over the radiance class because we felt last time we were on Serenade we were bored in the evenings as we felt we were going to the same places every night. I’ve not been on Ovation before but have been on Anthem and so I know we really enjoyed the quantum class ships. I would have considered going on Serenade again if it went somewhere like Glacier Bay for the May cruises, but it looked a very similar itinerary so in my opinion chose the better ship. I appreciate the comments about being able to look outside and this may be important for you and could be your decider, personally we booked a balcony room as we wanted that option to look outside with a drink etc. if we wanted. 
 

What did you book last time?

[Jill]

We are on Radiance May 27. It’s the Southbound route out of Seward and ending in Vancouver. We have a corner aft JS. We added the 3 night Wilderness Express land tour which starts May 24 in Anchorage. We will fly in on the 23rd. 
 

We chose Radiance because of the itinerary and we knew we wanted to do the land tour to Denali. We’ve never been to Alaska and don’t know at this point if we’ll make it back so going big on this one to cram as much Alaska into 10 days that we can. 

[PG Cruiser]

11 minutes ago, Jill said:

We are on Radiance May 27. It’s the Southbound route out of Seward and ending in Vancouver. We have a corner aft JS. We added the 3 night Wilderness Express land tour which starts May 24 in Anchorage. We will fly in on the 23rd. 
 

We chose Radiance because of the itinerary and we knew we wanted to do the land tour to Denali. We’ve never been to Alaska and don’t know at this point if we’ll make it back so going big on this one to cram as much Alaska into 10 days that we can. 

I'm looking at Radiance and Quantum (instead of Serenade and Ovation) because I haven't sailed on them yet.  Quantum gets a plus because its class is named after it.

I read that the Northern Lights can be seen late August to April, that's why I'm leaning more towards a September sailing.

EDIT:  Ooops... I forgot the Radiance was also the name of its class

[MichelleB1234]

If seeing the Northern lights is important, then fly to Alaska and see more of the land before or after boarding the Radiance.

[D Alt]

On 9/26/2021 at 3:21 PM, GKMCruising said:

My wife and I just got back from Alaska on Ovation and loved it. We had a JS so it was easy to watch the scenery from our room, but I'll agree, most of the larger venues other than 270 and the Solarium are pretty "land-locked" in the center of the ship with no exterior views.

September was great and we were able to get right up to the glacier, but I'd definitely think May/June would be a better choice than April if you're going early.

Leaving from Seattle was smooth, but I can't imagine Vancouver would be too terrible either.

Did you see the Northern Lights in September? 

[GKMCruising]

18 minutes ago, D Alt said:

Did you see the Northern Lights in September? 

We did not, but our waiter said she knew some people who managed to see them the week or two before us on the night we left Skagway. It's just like any other night sky phenomenon - so incredibly dependant on weather and cloud cover, unfortunately.