So the wife and I just got back from a 7-day Alaskan cruise for our honeymoon.
Figured I'd give you all a write up since I don't have to worry about offending any of you
We were super excited for this trip as everyone we talked to who had been on it said they loved it. We even contemplated doing a 10 day cruise out of San Francisco instead of the 7 day cruise out of Seattle. For a combination of not knowing if we'd like the cruise and cost reasons we decided to do the 7 day.
I was going to do a blow by blow but that ended up being too long. Instead I'll give some highlights:
Alaska is freaking gorgeous. We want to go back.
The wife and I are
NOT cruise people. For the most part we were miserable on the ship. There is a lot of people and all the elevators were packed during the key times. We often got on an elevator even if it was going the wrong way just to be able to get on one. The food wasn't bad but it isn't the world class dining they claim. By the end we were craving good pizza instead of the weak ass New York style pizza they had. The breakfast and lunch times for the actual dining halls we just at the wrong times for us. The worst was that we are soda people and it was a giant pain in the ass every time we wanted one. We had the drink package with unlimited drinks (both soft and hard). Yet if you wanted it you had to go the bars to get it. The wife is pretty sensitive to caffeine and their decaff option was Sprite. They got Barqs root beer which had caffeine. And every drink was small. We ended up purchasing bottles of Sprite and Mug root beer during our shore excursions.
We got a balcony suite and I would highly recommend it. It was really nice to sit out there or even just crack the door open and get the fresh air. Plus, on the second night - when we were cruising all day at sea - we did a balcony dinner for two which was fantastic. Great food and a lot of it. Originally I wanted to see the movie under the stars but ended up just lying in bed digesting.
We did the glacier explorer excursion in Juneau and that was amazing. We took small boats to fairly close to the two forks of a glacier.
All the stops were great. We didn't enjoy Victoria that much but I think that was because we chose poorly on the excursion. We did a 2 hour walking tour that just wasn't that good. And the shuttle back to the ship was a disorganized mess. Plus, the boat was only there for like 4 hours.
We want to go back to Alaska but we won't be cruising again.