Which ship should we take

[WannaGo]

I would love some advice on which ship to take on our next Alaska cruise. Have been on RCL's Serenade and Radiance. We now would like to sail out of Seattle instead of Vancouver. We are looking at either NCL's Star or Pearl or the Golden Princess. Anyone sailed on both? I have read some horror stories about "freestyle" dining on NCL's ships. We have grandparents as well as a 4 yr old with us. Appreciate any help!
Thanks!

[Dwayne]

Hi WannaGo, and welcome to Cruise-Chat!

Plenty of nice and experienced people here with a wealth of info. Just wanted to give you a Welcome Aboard.

IslandCruz

[penny3333]

I'd vote for the Golden Princess. They also offer Personal Choice dining, which is where you can choose your own time to eat (within the hours of operation for dinner). They have traditional dining as well. NCL offers a very good product, but in my opinion Princess does it best. Good luck and no matter what you choose, you will have a wonderful time!

[f-mattox]

Hello WannaGo, and welcome again.

I have only cruised on Princess so I can't give you a comparison.

But in all fairness, most of the problems with NCL seem to be on NCL American in Hawaii. And even with that, I spoke to several people on a recent Princess cruise to Hawaii who had been on NCL and loved it.

I do think, however, that Princess is probably better suited to Alaska cruising--they pioneered it almost 50 years ago. And with Princess, you get a choice of Traditional or Anytime dining; with NCL it's only Freestyle.

So even without having tried NCL, as a long time satisfied customer of Princess, I would have to recommend them.

Rick