Alaska Cruise Reviews

We have just returned from a wonderful Tour of The Rockies and Alaska Cruise.  Possibly the best cruise we have done.

The VIP home collection service was great, as we didn't have to make arrangements for getting to/from Heathrow.

The dedicated check-in desk at Heathrow was also much appreciated.

All the hotels we stayed in were of a very good standard.  We would have preferred to have had breakfast included in our tour package as we had to be ready to board the coach fairly early each day, leaving us only a small amount of time to find somewhere serving breakfast.  It was offered at the hotel in Banff, but was very expensive.

Our second hotel, in Sun Peaks, was situated in a lovely little ski village.  Perfect for skiing, but no so perfect for us as the ski season had ended & the summer season did not start until mid-June.  Consequently it was like a ghost town, with next to nothing open.  Breakfast here was a muffin & coffee as the only other option was the expensive hotel behind ours.  In the hotel description it stated that they had all sorts of facilities including a restaurant - which were not open.  Furthermore we had to go 45 minutes out of our way to get to this hotel, so perhaps somewhere else would have been better.

Regarding the tour itself, we found the journeys between Banff & Sun Peaks, & then on to Seattle, to be too long.  Everybody said the same.  Half a day's travelling is ample, but 2 days, one after the other, travelling on a coach, was too much.

The seat rotation system was supposed to be moving 5 rows each day, but our tour guide only moved us 2 rows.  This meant that if we started with a window frame beside us, each time we moved we had the next window frame.  Subsequently we stayed near the back of the coach as there were lots of empty seats.  It would not have been so good if the coach had been full.

We loved Seattle and Vancouver, & both hotels were very central.

The food and shows on the Norwegian Star were excellent.  We have done many cruises, including on the Norwegian line, but we found these to be the best.  The ship itself was not our favourite though.  Our cabin was the smallest we have ever had.  There was no lounge which had windows where we could sit during the day & look out over the sea, as on the Norwegian Jewel.  The lounge was very dark & OK for the evening entertainment, but not good for the daytime.  The smaller of the formal dining rooms was also very dark, so much so that my husband couldn't read the menu.  We used the main formal dining room, but were very disappointed that this closed early on our last 2 days, to accommodate private parties for 900 Thais who were onboard.

Another big disappointment was that there was no formal night - even though Norwegian advertise this.  We had packed formal clothes & used up some of our luggage allowance unnecessarily.

But overall it was a fantastic holiday with some breathtaking scenery.