Alaska 2016 is open for booking!

[Avery's mom]

I guess the title says it all. Royal has released Alaska 2016 sailings today on both the Explorer of the Seas (RT inside passage) and Radiance of the Seas (north and southbound sailings)

I find it odd no email or announcement was sent to consumers or TAs - I just checked and there it was! We snagged an aft JS

 

[bumbershoot]

TAs should have known, as it has been on Royal's announced schedule of rollouts for ages now.

They don't have our roundtrip Radiance cruise on there. Hope it's just "not yet". I wanted to change our cruise this September for next year...they have had 2 such cruises a summer for every year we've looked, and I hope it's not gone.

 

[bcwife76]

Looking at booking the Explorer for Alaska in August 2016. Have not cruised before (our DCL cruise in September will be our first) and I was a bit put off by the seemingly large deposit RCL wants up front, is this standard? $1050 deposit on a $3600 cruise? For our upcoming $2200 cruise our deposit was only $350. As I stated, I'm new to cruising so if this is the norm forgive me ;-)

 

[bumbershoot]

Royal does want a hefty deposit. Awful up front, but much better when it comes to paying it off. I don't know how it compares to most of the cruiselines out there (but obviously it's different than Disney).

 

[CruzTerri]

Yes, every cruiseline has their own policies and promotions for deposits. We just booked our 2016 cruisetour to celebrate our 30th Anniversary. While, we, too, booked an end aft cabin, alas it was not a junior suite. Enjoy your cruise.

 

[queenofheartsfan]

Booked Explorer of the Seas Alaskan cruise for September, 2016. Very excited!

 

[demare]

We booked Explorer of the Seas Alaska for June 2016. I was surprised to see that we could already book excursions, and that you have to pay for them in full upfront. May need to wait one or two card cycles after just paying the deposit.

 

[Crystal O_o]

I just booked RRCL Radiance of the seas for June 10th

 

[M&N]

I am excited. I did a 3 night Disney cruise 10 years ago. Now I am booking a 10 day Alaska Cruisetour for June 2016. I hope to get great advice from all you with experience.

 

[catgirl]

I'm wanting to book an Alaska Cruisetour for summer 2016. Is it better to see a travel agent or book directly with Royal? We have a group of people that are interested in going, maybe 8-12 in all. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[NancyIL]

I'm sorry to read that RCI is using such a large ship in Alaska. I've been on Explorer and several of its sisters, and ships that large overwhelm the small Alaskan ports.

*Now that I have looked at Explorer's itinerary - there's even more reason to avoid it! It goes only to Juneau, Skagway, and Tracy Arm in Alaska - no Ketchikan. It's nice that the ship spends all day in Victoria, rather than the usual 5 hours in the evening, but that's Canada. You can find a better itinerary on almost any other ship that sails to Alaska! The only RCI Alaska ship I'd consider is Radiance for its one-way cruises. If you do that, try to add time on land in Alaska before or after the cruise.

 

[OKW Lover]

Just off the Jewel of the Seas Alaska cruise. The trip was just spectacular scenery after spectacular scenery. Such an amazing place.

Oh yes, the ship was fine too.

 

[NancyIL]

Just off the Jewel of the Seas Alaska cruise. The trip was just spectacular scenery after spectacular scenery. Such an amazing place.

Oh yes, the ship was fine too.

I'm glad you had a great cruise - no doubt made even more enjoyable by sailing with other DISers.

 

[M&N]

I am doing the Alaska Cruisetour in June 2016 on Radiance of the Sea. I would like suggestions for excursions. I am especially interested in totem poles. Where is the best place to see them?

 

[Majorandensleymom]

We booked Explorer of the Seas Alaska for June 2016. I was surprised to see that we could already book excursions, and that you have to pay for them in full upfront. May need to wait one or two card cycles after just paying the deposit.

What date? We are on June 10

 

[shera]

What date? We are on June 10

We will be sailing on the June 10th cruise out of Seattle .It will be our first non Disney cruise.We sailed to Alaska last month with Disney,but the prices to rebook onboard were crazy.So we decided to go with Rccl.We got a great deal,and are excited to try a new cruise line.See you onboard!

 

[Majorandensleymom]

We will be sailing on the June 10th cruise out of Seattle .It will be our first non Disney cruise.We sailed to Alaska last month with Disney,but the prices to rebook onboard were crazy.So we decided to go with Rccl.We got a great deal,and are excited to try a new cruise line.See you onboard!

We have cruised with RCCL a few times. Do you have any kids traveling with you? I have looked to see if there are any other "social media" sites that have groups for dates. Are you aware of any place that have the meet and greet like Disney?

 

[NancyIL]

We have cruised with RCCL a few times. Do you have any kids traveling with you? I have looked to see if there are any other "social media" sites that have groups for dates. Are you aware of any place that have the meet and greet like Disney?

Cruise Critic has roll call forums for each cruise line, so I suggest you start there: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35 Find your ship and sailing date. Neither the DIS nor Cruise Critic allows social media sites to be mentioned on their message boards.

 

[Majorandensleymom]

We will be sailing on the June 10th cruise out of Seattle .It will be our first non Disney cruise.We sailed to Alaska last month with Disney,but the prices to rebook onboard were crazy.So we decided to go with Rccl.We got a great deal,and are excited to try a new cruise line.See you onboard!

If you are interested I did a roll call on Cruise Critics. If you are interested I would love to have you join.

 

[shera]

If you are interested I did a roll call on Cruise Critics. If you are interested I would love to have you join.

That's great,I will go over to cruise critic and check it out.My youngest 2 are coming,they are older,they will be 19 and 15 when we cruise.They are excited to try all the activities on the Explorer of the Seas.