MobiusHky

Layers are the right choice. Best part is that you can remove layers if you get too hot. It's been a cooler summer this year for a lot of places in Alaska. We barely even hit 75 and that was only for a day or two. The inside passage is sticking to script and is wet and cool. Roughly 50-60 and raining. So that waterproof shell is probably going to be used.

Doing your own trip or with a cruise? Cause it's very different. I personally think it's worth the trip to see Denali even with the road closure. But only if you are free of the constraints of the tour group. You don't need to spend all day there so without the rigid tour, you can drive in and then drive somewhere else. Combine a stop in Talkeetna and make it a day trip. The drive is semi-boring a lot, but it has some highlights. For 2-3 days? I'd personally steer you toward heading out to the Kenai Peninsula and hitting Soldotna and Homer. You can spend 2-3 days on Kenai alone pretty easy. Unless you plan to fly to places.

Kotzebue's pretty easy. Utqiagvik is the one that trips people up. Used to be Barrow, but they changed the name back to the Inuit name. Think UUT-kee-ah-vik.

You say that like you're the only one here from Alaska... LOL! Just messing. Totally agree with you on the plan your own trip being better than the cruise options. If that's a possibility. My thought was that the OP was looking for cruise only and that was the best shot for seeing the sights. Of course, it's not our money we're playing with either. Can you imagine an L48'r in Kotzebue? LOL, that would be a sight to see. Might as well send them to Diomede or Adak. LOL!!!

I don't think there's any real benefit to starting south and cruising up versus starting with the tour and cruising south. Both work. Maybe, if anything, you are more gradually exposed to Alaska if you cruise north first? Maybe? But I'd think a better judge would be to find out what your flights would cost to fly home from Anchorage vs from Seattle and take the cheaper route. Might help to know that almost every flight (not every, but almost) flies through Seattle to get to the lower 48. We gave my parents a Princess cruise/tour for their 50th a few years ago. The only reason we selected the cruise north option was because when they ended in Anchorage we picked them up and they spent a month with us before going home. If you goal is to see as much of Alaska as you can pack into one trip, the 6 or 7 night is probably the widest range of sights. You don't get to Fairbanks, but Denali, Cooper Landing, Seward, and Anchorage is a decent cross section of the populated areas of the state. The sad fact is, Alaska is HUGE. People often don't realize how big this place really is. Cooper landing to Denali Park is 330 miles. That's essentially the distance from Chicago to St. Louis. And that's only about 1/3 the length of the state from Homer to Deadhorse. Glacier Bay is over 400 miles south of Anchorage and that's as the raven flies. Ketchikan is nearly 800 miles south of Anchorage as the raven flies. And Deadhorse is 630 miles north of Anchorage in a straight line. It's not really possible to see everything in a single trip. This map might put things into perspective. The inside passage is the equivalent of traveling around Georgia and Alabama and never even getting to Tennessee. So pick your highlights on this trip. What do you really want to see? The more time you spend, the more you'll get to see, but the more money you'll spend. The nice part of the guided tour is that you'll have someone along with you who knows the state and can give you interesting details. If this is a once in a lifetime trip, never to be repeated... See a glacier. Ride the train. See Denali. Try to see a river. Cooper Landing fits that bill. Ideally you'd want to see a fishing village, but the best shot there would be Homer and none of the cruises got o Homer. So Seward would have to do. And if possible, see some wildlife. Denali is probably you best bet for wildlife. Best time for bears is gonna be around the salmon runs. That's usually late June and early August, but that changes so much it's impossible to set your trip by the salmon.

Despite being a Celebrity forum, I gotta be honest, I think you're best possible experience is going to be on Princess if you REALLY want to see Alaska. Let me try to explain. With regards to the round trip cruises, these are "Canadian" Alaska cruises. They stay in the inside passage and you'll see a lot of really neat things in places like Ketchikan, Wrangell, Sitka, Juneau or maybe even Haines. But ALL of those stops are in the Canadian attached areas of Alaska. You don't actually get to real actual Alaska. And like someone else said, you don't even get to Glacier Bay. Which is still south of the main body of the state. If you just want tourist trap places that are almost more Canadian than Alaskan, that's fine. If you really want to SEE Alaska, all dependent on what you are willing to pay, you are much better off doing a Princess Cruise/Tour on a one-way from Seattle or Vancouver to Anchorage. Princess owns several lodges around Denali Park so they have a deal where you cruise to Whittier, then a train ride to Denali, spend a couple nights near the park and then take a motor coach to Anchorage. It's probably the best all around Alaska trip if you don't want to just fly up and try it yourself. Or even more, go all the way to Fairbanks and see honest interior Alaska. But no offense to my friends who live in Fairbanks, no one wants to go there.... 😆 July/August is kind of a wash depending on how late in August. By the end of August we're starting to hit the rainy season. Odds are it'll be more overcast and more rain. The days will be shorter and feel a little closer to what you might be used to. In July, it should be warmer in the mid 70s normally with some peaks to 80. This year, it's hit 70 one day all year and today might be the second. We've been hovering around high 50s to low 60s this summer. The inside passage tends to be more rain that up in real Alaska. I only pipe in because a lot of people from outside don't realize how different the inside passage is from the rest of Alaska. Technically you've seen Alaska, but you haven't really experienced Alaska if you stick to the inside passage.

Have you checked out the deck plans site: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/deckbydeck.php?ship=Celebrity-Solstice&deck=11 They typically have decent info on the rooms and some photos.

My point is to simply remind people that their expectation of privacy ends when they leave their cabin. I'm not an influencer. Trust me, nobody wants to see me on youtwitface. There is a pretty bold line of demarcation between filming people as part of a documentary or story not related to them specifically and filming people with the intent to earn money off their likeness. For instance, filming people on the ship as you walk around is ok for your YT channel (unless the cruise line says no). Filming people and then using that footage in a commercial to promote the cruise line is not ok without consent. There are tons of cruise videos, walking videos on streets, etc from all around the world. In those videos, people are not required to provide consent. But if you make a commercial that promotes your restaurant in Italy for instance, you need their consent or you blur their faces. BTW, I'm super left brained so even though I'm saying this is the legal aspect, personally I can't stand influencers and what they do. I know it's the "new entertainment", but frankly I see them as money _____s just looking to be rich/famous without having to work. But then, I feel the same way about celebrity tours of vacation destinations. Like when celebrity chefs tour Italy for their show. It's just paying for their vacation. So is it morally ok to film people, no. But legally it is.

That's not correct. In order for that to be the case, the cruise line must have in place a policy that specifically states that video is not allowed without the express written consent of the cruise line. Without that policy put into place, you don't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy". The only places that you would have that expectation would be in your private room (stateroom) or in restrooms or lockers. Again, if the cruise line published a "no photography or filming" policy than you would be right. But a cruise line is still "public" in that you are not in your private property. You're welcome to do the research on your own, but this is a pretty decent interview conducted with a lawyer who says basically the same thing. https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18015374/whyd-you-push-that-button-record-stranger-public This is a common misunderstanding of the law. You can be filmed anywhere that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Even on cruise ships. This is the life blood of paparazzi. As long as you're in public, you're fair game.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about that. If you're in the public, you can legally be recorded without your consent. Celebrity would have to create a "no filming" policy to prevent you from ever being recorded.

What makes you think it's not already? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/politics/artificial-intelligence-2024-campaigns.html

Believe it or not, there's a YouTube video on this exact cabin. search "Celebrity Eclipse Cabin Tour 1636 (Aqua Class)" in YT and you'll see it.

LOL, that was me. 🙂

Katakolon, Santorini (tender), Kusadasi, Mykonos (tender), Souda, Pireas, Zakynthos (tender), Ravenna. I might enjoy the ship pulling into places like Santorini and Mykonos, but probably more interested in Katakolon, Kusadasi, or Pireas to watch the docking. I'm a left brained engineer and my wife thinks I'm nuts. But that's the kind of stuff I enjoy.

Awesome! Thank you for the info! That was really helpful!