Alaska is a very beautiful place and the best way to do Alaska is to visit coastal areas. And cruising is a good way to get a glimpse of many key areas.
There are several cruise lines to take from Seattle to visit Alaska. Some of the common cruise lines to Alaska are Holland America, Carnival Spirit and Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Disney Cruise Line might start going to Alaska soon.
We have collected some information here (based on people's actual experience) to give you an idea about what cruise line you should select and some of the things you can expect.
What we heard commonly was that Holland America is a nice cruise line has more seniors than the others. Carnival is for younger people and Norwegian on the other hand is better suited for families with kids. Norwegian has Kids club on the cruise. Kids club has many fun and enticing activities, games and prizes.
To really enjoy the cruise try to get a balcony room. You will have better views from your own room.
Food:
Food on Norwegian cruise line has the main dining room as freestyle meaning you don't have reserved seating and is first come first served. Some people enjoy that because it means you don't have plan in advance and show up when you want while others don't like it because all this means is that you might have to wait and also can take up a lot of your day's time.
However the food is fabulous and plentiful. Each meal has several courses.
Those who don't want to wait there is also Buffet, however the dining room is not as fancy as the main dining room. Some of the other dining rooms do take reservations but you have to book them at least 12 hours in advance.
Tipping:
Norwegian Cruise Lines has a daily service charge/tip that is charged to all rooms (it was about $12/adult and little less for kids). This money is put into a pool and divided between ship staff, including you room steward, all restaurant serves, etc. If you have any problems with the service you receive, you can talk to the "front desk" and change your tip, you can even add more tip to give it to the specific person who went above and beyond for you.
Daily service charge/tip does not include the kids' club crew, bar staff, butler and concierge in Penthouse so you have to tip them separately.
Most cruise lines are adopting this tip structure so inquire with them.
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