We sailed on a family reunion/50th anniversary trip (23 family members) to Alaska on the Vision of the Seas the last week of June.

While we had a great time; there was room for improvement and I would like to offer the following to anyone considering a reunion/family/group trip to Alaska. I will start with the items that were positive and negative from the point of view of our own planning issues (and our responsibility, not RCI) and then discuss the positive and negative aspects that were the responsibility of RCI and the Vision of the Seas. Considering the number of people who do large family group cruises, you might as well learn from our mistakes!

1) Embarkation was from Seattle. The process itself was ok, but Seattle is one of the most expensive airports to fly into from around the U.S.A. If you have a lot of people flying in from other cities you might want to look at other embarkation ports/ships and compare airfare. I spent more on airfare than on the cruise. The embarkation process seemed pretty smooth to me, the traffic around the dock is intense but parking was ample in a fenced lot for those who brought/rented cars. Read more