peachycruiser

Would like to do Canada/New England cruise next year. I have been stuck on one itinerary(7 day) that leaves from Boston to Montreal and reverse. It seems to have more ports to see than some of the others. However, only HAL offers this and like someone else said, the HAL ships assigned to this area do not have very good reviews. We have sailed on Zaandam and Westerdam, which were fine; also Carnival, Princess and RCCL. Most other cruise lines have round trips that start in NY or Boston, go up to Nova Scotia and turn around and come back. I do like the idea of going all the way to Montreal, but am wary of the HAL choices. I think they are Veendam, Rotterdam and Maasdam, older ships which have been refitted, but are overdue for another or need replacing. Comments?

Thanks, Budget Queen. We are limited to one "big' tour and in most of the other ports will explore on our own. We will be on HAL. Could you recommend any private Tracy Arm excursions? We have time for the TA excursion but nothing else in Juneau. In fact the only one we have seen is through the cruise ship. That one is 7 hrs; Ive heard there were shorter ones.

Our second Alaska cruise is coming up and my husband and I are debating over a n excursion. During our first trip, which was a cruisetour, we went flightseeing over Mt Mckinley with a glacier landing. I thought it was a no-brainer as to what we would do this time because we enjoyed it so much. However, this time we will not be near Denali and would be doing a helicopter glacier landing near Juneau. Then I ran into some video clips of a small boat excursion of Tracy Arm Fjiord and I questioned our decision. I know all glacier landings may offer something different but the Tracy Arm trip shows the glaciers from another perspective. Has anyone done both and did you like one more than the other?

Our second Alaska cruise is coming up and my husband and I are debating over a n excursion. During our first trip, which was a cruisetour, we went flightseeing over Mt Mckinley with a glacier landing. I thought it was a no-brainer as to what we would do this time because we enjoyed it so much. However, this time we will not be near Denali and would be doing a helicopter glacier landing near Juneau. Then I ran into some video clips of a small boat excursion of Tracy Arm Fjiord and I questioned our decision. I know all glacier landings may offer something different but the Tracy Arm trip shows the glaciers from another perspective. Has anyone done both and did you like one more than the other?

We would like to stay in Seattle a couple of days after our cruise before flying home. Would any of you have any suggestions of where to stay, to eat, what to see? The hotels are very expensive; does anyone know of any moderately priced hotels in good areas? Is the Space Needle area worth checking out? We also would like to ride out to Mt Rainier and I understand there are day tours. Input appreciated.

Thanks for the input.

We are looking forward to our 2nd Alaska cruise. Our 1st was a cruisetour and we booked a glacier landing with Talkeetna Air Taxi. Even though I was very nervous about being on a small plane, the flight was smooth, the views spectacular. We landed on Ruth Glacier on Mt Mckinley.

This time we are just doing a RT Seattle, otherwise, I would do that same excursion. Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria are our ports. From my research, it seems that most of the flightseeing and glacier landings are out of Juneau and are by helicopter. I'd rather not do helicopter, but would if I had to. Do the seaplanes just do flightseeing or do they land on the glaciers? I would rather do one spectacular tour that is particularly Alaska and keep things simple in the other ports. Dog sledding ok if on snow. Any suggestions?

Husband and I are wanting to take another Alaska cruise. The 1st one in August 2012 was cruisetour on Diamond Princess; 3 grandchildren were with us. This time it's just us. I enjoyed seeing Denali and going on a glacier landing on McKinley. My husband thinks he would like to see Sitka, which, from my research is only available on a couple of HAL 7 day Seattle RT. The Seattle RT has advantages: flying in and out of same place is more economical. But if I am going to all the trouble and expense of even going this distance(dread long flights-we live in Ga.)I would like to go back up to McKinley/Denali and we went to Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. Need some opinions: is the itinary that includes Sitka worth missing seeing McKinley and Hubbard and Glacier Bay?

We went with Talkeetna Air Taxi in 2012 and recommend them highly. However that is the only time we have done a glacier landing. We were supposed to fly up to Ruth Glacier but due to weather issues, did not get to go until 5:30 pm, still plenty of light. We had almost given up on going. We kept in touch with them by cell during the day while we hung out in the town of Talkeetna. I was nervous about going in a small plane, but after we were airborne, the trip was awesome. The take-off, landing, flight were all very smooth, better than the commercial jets. I believe our pilot was Brad. I'll have to say, we did not stay long on the glacier, just time enough to take pix and walk around a bit...maybe 15-30 min at most. Talkeetna Air Taxi prices were better than the others and I researched their reputation, which was virtually flawless.