Great Sky Girl

We went on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in 2007. My husband was 6'3" and was fine. We switched the window/aisle seats and is was great. Did not do enough pre-planning and did not know about the park ranger buses. The seats are certainly not like the squished airplane seats!!

You know, the seeing the dog camp we were on the river boat and had to just view what was going on down there!  We did see dogs at the camp, but it was like I told before in the last post. I had forgotten about that dog camp.

It has been some years since we had a tour like yours. We were on Princess, but it's the same tour. You get to go right to the fenced in area where the dogs are, but I did not see anyone getting to up close and personal. There were quite a few people. But I felt like that was a great part of our tour. It was the beginning and I was already hooked on Alaska. You should change to the Tundra Wilderness. You get in much father and see all kinds of animals and I liked the camera on the bus, but if Celebrity lets you, you can ditch that and go on the park buses (much like the Tundra Wilderness bus) and it is much cheaper and if you have time you can go much farther into Denali. On the park buses, you can get off and hike and pick up another bus when you get tired. I just did not see the need to hike and for me, the Tundra Wilderness was far enough. But you do need to take a bus in. Just do it!!

I hope no one gets  a little mad at me, but as Emerald Lake is beautiful and such a pretty color, it is small. I would say very small. Just don't get your hopes up for something spectacular. My husband and I chose to rent a car in Skagway and I felt we were blessed. There were places we just fell in love with and wanted to stay a little longer. Glad we were not on a bus.

I get sea sick very easily. I had bonine with me on my first cruise. It went with the luggage to the ship and I got sick on the train!! Thank goodness I did not throw up or they would have not let me on the ship (I did not know that at the time). The bonine worked. But with my second cruise I found ginger chewing gum and it really worked! Did not even have to use it before the sickness started. We were on an excursion out of Seward and it was quite rough, but I did just fine! Of course I had a zip lock bag full of helpful things!

I would add to not go too early. It is warm in California, but very cool in Alaska. We went twice, both the last week in May and first week in June and there was plenty of snow then. The first time we were a day too early to get far into Denali, but saw a good bit on our tour. The next time we sailed north and explored Kenai Peninsula on our own. Loved it!! And the kids were not out of school yet, so that was a plus.

Your pictures are outstanding!! Thanks for taking the time to share.

When we cruised Princess, Diamond not Golden, our departure time was a little late due to some group not able to arrive on times. But dinner was anytime dinner for everybody! Muster was after dinner time. Our group was late as the train took eleven hours to get from Denali! Then another was even later.

Thank you for posting this. What am I going to do when there are no bears out?

My husband and I did this cruise tour on our first trip to Alaska because we just did not know what to expect there and were concerned about doing it ourselves. Well, we went back a few years later and stayed and extra week with a rental car and had such a great time. Three days is enough to get into Denali. We were booked on a Tundra Wilderness Tour. It was wonderful, but I did not know about the excursions that were the same without the video cameras and were much cheaper. We flew into Fairbanks and the next morning were bused to Denali. The next day was the Tour and the next day we were on the train to the ship, so even though we saw a lot of Alaska, it was through the bus and train windows! Glad we did it, but DIY would have been much, much better.

By the way, I would book the cruise as soon as I could, not wait. It does fill up.

Be sure to check the times in port. Sometimes it is very short. Ketchikan is routinely short. You want enough time they can enjoy their excursions.

When we went out we went through the rough spot and I am one that gets motion sick. I had the wrist bands and Meclizine and ginger gum. The ginger gum is what worked for me. I only got a little uneasy then. Also the ginger ale works, also. The trip was wonderful and I am so glad we went. I will say I did not see sunscreen on your list. You should use it.

My DH and I went only twice to Alaska, and we, too are from the South (Atlanta). We just brought jeans and I had long underwear which I really needed in Glacier Bay. Wore them one other time, but really did not need them. I know we were really lucky, though, as we had only one day of rain in those two trips! They were both in May, but right at the end of May. It seems like most tourists wore jeans, but I really did not pay close attention. And the ship had laundries to use if your jeans do get wet.

I think you can see Alaska so well by renting a car in Skagway and taking the drive to Emerald lake. The drive and stops are so beautiful and will take your breath away. May is wonderful with a good bit of snow on the mountains and they are so close, right there! You get away from the crowds in the town. You can often spot wildlife. I just want to go back again!

I would just say, make sure the cruise has what you want, not just the price. Ports, time in ports, etc. Going to Alaska is always expensive, even the lower price tickets are expensive, so make sure this is all that you want.

I, also, thoroughly enjoyed your trip reports. It did take me two days to read through them, but you write so well! My husband and I took two trips to Alaska, our first with a cruise tour and the next with a DIY tour which we enjoyed tremendously. My husband loved to drive and had an innate sense of direction, even in Alaska! We have rented cars all over the country! Thank you for your time to let us all know the wonders of Alaska.

Wonderful pictures! And the Ketchikan pictures were perfect. They always have rain!! Great report.

We were on a balcony and asked the steward for the blanket and he happily provided! this was on Princess and in 2011

We were in the Park in late May, going only to Teklanika but saw so much wild life I could hardly believe it! Bears,lots of caribou, moose, fox, Dall sheep and a lot of other smaller game. We did not know we would not be going to the Tundra (it opened the nest day!) and wish we could have, but Princess gave us a discount back. They did not let us know ahead of time, we would have probably waited a week!

Yes, that will be fine. I just had a long sleeve shirt I wore over my short sleeve tee shirt. And athletic shoes are just fine. It's not a hard trail just rocky for a bit. It's been a while since I was there, 2011, so it could have changed a bit, but I am sure you will be fine. Enjoy!! I loved it.

My DH and I were there the May 30 and could only go 54 miles in, BUT we saw bears!! Three of them. We also saw all kinds of wildlife. It was wonderful! We had good weather, but Denali was covered that day. We got to see her from the train ride the next day though!

Thanks for the responses. Before the Alaska cruise, we'll be driving through the Rockies, and will be standing on the Columbia Icefield and see other glaciers (again). We've seen sea lions, otters, etc. up close often. But we'll look into this Knai Fjord cruise.

 

I checked the coupon books. Toursaver does apply for Major Marine 7.5hr cruise, but the book itself is $80 + shipping ($65 to Canada, or $10 to US), to save $50/p, and other coupons (rails, excursions) are not valid for the days we are in port (they timed their coupons well). The Northern Light only applies to 8:30am Alaskan Explorer 6-hr cruise, so we'd need to be rushed to get to that. Other NL coupons also do not apply on the days we are in port (they timed the coupon invalid days well)

I found the Columbia Icefield just magnificent! It was the first glacier I had stood on and I was mesmerized. But the Kenai tour is great and then the Glacier National Park was wonderful. All different, all worth the time and money!

On our second cruise to Alaska we got off the ship in Whittier, went to Anchorage, rented a car, drove down to Seward with many stops before, spent two days there, drove to Homer spent two days there came back up, took a great trip down the river on a raft (fun!!) , went to Alyeska , Had a great time then spent a day and a half in Anchorage. Great trip!! But we had seen Denali on our first trip and did not feel we needed to see it again. I personally liked Anchorage. My husband and I were geocachers (I bet your boys would like it if you can get into it. Google it!) and spent time hunting and seeing the town that way. Talked to some Alaskans about their life there. DIY is the best way!!

The first time we went to Glacier Bay the weather was spectacular and we were up early and experienced so much. I got tired and went back to my cabin, but my husband stayed up and went to the other side as the ship turned. Then there was a loud crack and boom!! I did not know what happened, even though I had experienced calving that morning, but my husband knew. As the ship was still rocking he told me about the huge calving of Margarie glacier. One ranger said he had never seen it that large before. Of course my husband did not have the camera but certainly remembered it clearly!!

My husband had a case of the norovirus and the balcony was a must as he did not leave the cabin for two days. He spent time out there when the steward came to clean and the second day he was feeling some better and sat out the whole day.