Sleddogs

Thanks all.  I will look again.

Not sure if this has been addressed in the past, please bear with me.  We have not cruised since 2018.  We are hoping to return to Alaska next year.  I was researching Alaska cruises on NCL and noticed their booking process has changed.  I used to be able to see the deck plan and pick out the cabin I desired.  We always prefer an aft cabin and I know they sell out quickly.  Is there a way I can choose my own cabin?  I am not happy with what NCL is choosing for me.  Thank you very much.

We did the Park Connection Bus Anchorage to Seward.  Departure point was the Anchorage Museum.  The nice thing about this is that we arrived around noon for the 3 p.m. bus and they held our luggage for us so we could explore the city.  We ended up visiting the Museum and had time for a bit of shopping.

The view along Turnagain Arm is gorgeous and Seward drop off is a breeze.  Along the route you will see the "Ghost Trees".  These are the trees that were destroyed in the 1964 Earthquake.  Interesting info here if you'd like to check it out...

https://www.alaska.org/detail/ghost-forest

We plan on doing the bus again next year. 

And the website isn't even working properly. I log in, it shows my cruise, and then "click" on what I want to see, and nothing comes up. I've had this problem with Royal before. Extremely frustrating.

It's so nice when a local weighs in, the information is much appreciated to be sure.

My concern is that I've already booked a "Mt. St. Helens Tour" through RCI for our visit in Sept. I would apprecate any feedback on this. Would you know how long the drive is from Astoria to the site? I also worry that it would be a wasted trip if the weather doesn't cooperate and Mt. St. Helens is not visible. Your description of Astoria and sites, is making me second guess this excursion. I can always cancel, but would really like your take. Thank you so much!

Hey there! I actually live and work in Astoria! The previous posters are right .... we have a nice little town with lots to see and do!

 

There is lots to do within walking distance of where you dock. They also usually have busses at the port that will drive you into downtown if you would like. I would guess it´s about a mile from the dock to the downtown area. There are quite a few Art Gallerys to check out (I think you mentioned interest in that!). RiverSea Gallery is great as is Old Town Frame Shop. They would also be able to recommend more places. There isn´t much as far as wine tasting, but we do have some really amazing breweries:

Fort George Brewery: great brew pub with really good beers, definitely known for IPAs and more hoppy stuff. Restaurant will be busy for lunch and food is okay.

Buoy Beer: This place is also great! ON THE WATER - Amazing views. Great food, and a wider beer selection and also a full bar. If you want to go here, get there when they open at 11:00 to avoid a long wait.

Astoria Brewing Company: OK.

Reach Break Brewing: A great brewery near the Fort George. Tap Room, so no restaurant, but 3 food carts on the patio to buy from (thai, bbq, and taco fusion). On a nice day its a great place to sit and visit and relax. Right next door to Reach Break and sharing the same patio is Reveille Cider which has amazing hard ciders!

 

I would also recommend the Columbia River Maritime Museum, and the Film Museum if you love the Goonies.

 

I see lots of posts about Tillamook. In the Summer with traffic, Tillamook is a good 1 1/2 hour drive from Astoria. I would not want to be spending that much time in the car. I would also skip Seaside.

 

If you want to go to the beach, have Astoria Downtown Coffee Shop and Taxi Service take you to the Peter Iredale shipwreck beach. Not sure where you are from, but our beaches are usually COLD and WINDY! hahahaha.

 

If you walk to the Riverwalk all the way to the end, Coffee Girl is a great coffee shop on Pier 39 with amazing views, great coffee and pastries.

 

Let me know what other questions you have about our little town!

 

Oh and as others have mentioned, if it is a nice day, climbing the Astor Column is quite a treat .... but it is a spiral staircase and has made my friends feel a bit woozy after climbing up and down that many steps!

Thanks for the heads up!:D

Thank you for this suggestion. Will definitely check it out. We love train travel too! Have a good day!

Denise

If you chose to drive from Calgary to Vancouver, there are plenty of options to get you down to Seattle for your cruise - namely the Amtrak Cascades (in case your land tour would not be complete without a trip on a train) :)

 

Happy travels!

Wonderful! Thanks so much.

You're so welcome. Being just a couple you can be much lighter on your feet than we were so may get away with just 2 days at Jasper. Anyway, if I can help further get in touch (my e-add is in my signature).

Hi Tony,

Your detailed notes are very much appreciated. We are taking a Pacific Northwest cruise out of Seattle next Sept. and hope to do a 5 or 6 day Rockies tour. It will be just the two of us and have some flexibility, so could go either before or after the cruise.

We don't want to be gone more than 2 weeks total, as we don't like to board our huskies for too long. I admit it, we are those dog owners that treat our dogs like our kids. LOL

Flying into Calgary from Boston would work well for us and then the self-drive to Vancouver would be doable.

Lots to research and your notes are a tremendous help. We don't ski or white water raft, but we do like adventure and there is lots to choose from.

Again, thank you so much for letting us pick your brain as it were. Have a good weekend.

Best regards,

Denise & Mark

Hi Denise and Mark

 

Thanks for your kind words, I always make vids of my trips as especially on trips like that I would otherwise never remember where we went ! We had a great time with that one.

 

On the car hire, to be honest I can't recall which company we used except it was one of the big ones (Alamo/Avis/Hertz) but our "search" would not have been very sophisticated. We flew into Calgary from London, collected the car at the airport and drove to Banff. As we needed a Dodge Caravan or similar I imagine my sister (Chief Administrator for Overseas Trips) just Googled "car hire Calgary airport" and took it from there. We collected it at 4 pm which meant it had to be at the Vancouver drop-off point by 4 pm a week later or we would trigger another day's hire charge. Despite seemingly meticulous planning we only made it with 10 minutes to spare but that could be because I threw in an unscheduled stop at Whistler purely because I went skiing there 20 years ago. The others were not overly impressed :')

 

We bought a 5 day National Park pass, and as we were a family/group (of 6) it was just under $20 a day. The driving is very easy, with plenty of parking everywhere. 2 nights at Banff and 3 at Jasper worked well. For our white-water rafting my niece was too young to go on the grade 3 rapids and rather than split the party we just did the grade 2. I think unless you go up to grades 4-6 the difference is marginal, and it was good fun. As it turned out I could easily have taken the camcorder but with the cruise coming up the next week didn't want to risk ruining it, so that is why that bit has just a few stills from the CD that you can buy at the end.

 

Overall I would give ourselves 8.5/10 for the itinerary and what we saw. Maybe even a 9. With hindsight I think I would have done a glacier drive/walk instead of the Glacier Skywalk and missed out the Banff Gondola, which is all very pleasant but had no wow factor after all the really steep gondolas/cable cars we have ridden on our ski trips. My favourite sights were the crashing waterfalls and walking the canyons, especially Maligne Canyon. It was a wonderful experience in the summer but would be even more spectacular in winter when waterfalls are frozen.

 

You'll see that we followed the well-trodden path that 99% of first-timers do, nothing very groundbreaking. As long-time skiers, while we enjoyed the scenery we really wanted to see bears and after a slow start we got lucky. Which was just as well as we didn't see any on the Alaska cruise, and specifically our day out of Skagway and into the Yukon, which was always going to be our best chance.

 

As you're heading for Seattle you'll taking the same roads. Jasper-Vancouver is a very long way, which is why we had to stop at Kamloops. But we did get to see a Grizzly bear at the wildlife park, which you won't in the wild. Obviously how you would do it is down to time, budget and how much driving you want to do. It's clearly not ideal to have a long travel on the day you start the cruise but Vancouver - Seattle is "only" 142 miles so if your ship departs late you could leave Vancouver early to catch it. But that would mean seeing very little of Vancouver and also Seattle (I've not been but imagine it's a great city).

 

These are only my thoughts, there are so many ways to do this sort of thing, but having a car gave us options each day by allowing us to stay longer here and shorter there as the mood took us , as well as be able to work around the vagaries of the differing opinions of a party of 6 :D We saw the Rocky Mountaineer at Jasper but all the passengers on that would have to get on coaches to go where we did so they must have been all around us at various times. All the best, Tony

Hello Tony,

Have begun to watch your terrific videos on You Tube. What a wonderful job you did, we are thoroughly enjoying your tour. Makes us want to visit the Rockies even more. We love these types of trips to Alaska as well, can never get enough of the scenery.

Would you mind if I ask what rental car company you used? You made a self drive trip very tempting. Our only concern is that we would want to end up in Seattle where our cruise begins.

Would appreciate any suggestions you may have. Again, your videos were terrific, you have a nice looking family. Everyone seemed to be having a ball.

Thanks again,

Denise & Mark "Sleddogs"

In case it's any help or interest we did a self-drive from Banff-Vancouver ahead of our Alaska cruise and I made videos of each day which can be seen from no. 7 in this playlist

 

It was all very easy, from memory we stayed 2 nights in Banff, 3 in Jasper and 1 at Kamloops (where there is nothing to see but that wildlife park but Jasper-Vancouver is a very long drive). All the best, Tony

Thank you Tony!

In case it's any help or interest we did a self-drive from Banff-Vancouver ahead of our Alaska cruise and I made videos of each day which can be seen from no. 7 in this playlist

 

It was all very easy, from memory we stayed 2 nights in Banff, 3 in Jasper and 1 at Kamloops (where there is nothing to see but that wildlife park but Jasper-Vancouver is a very long drive). All the best, Tony

Thank you everyone for the wealth of information. Many options. We just returned from our 2 weeks in Alaska and now will research next year's trip. I also feel that doing an independent trip would be less expensive than going thru the cruise line.

I thank you all again for your feedback.

Hope I'm posting this on the proper board. We are doing RCI Explorer OTS in Sept. 2018. I noticed that RCI had a Canadian Rockies land tour add on for 2017, but no info available for 2018 as of yet.

Can anyone tell me if this is worth doing? Cost? Would we be better off to plan our own trip to the Canadian Rockies independent of the cruise line? That would leave us free to do a "pre cruise" or "post cruise" trip. We usually like to do land tours prior to our cruise as in Alaska.

Have wanted to do this itinerary for a long time and would really appreciate any advice. These boards have proved to be invaluable. Thanks so much.

We did the Davison Glacier tour two years ago and it was absolutely wonderful! Fun boat ride (on former Navy Seal boat) and great tour guide. Lunch, then they fit you with the proper boots and coats. Trek thru the forest, then hop in a canoe to get to the glacier. We walked right up to the glacier and touched it. There was an amazing cave right there, the colors of the ice were incredible. You don't go in the cave, but what photo ops! It was the absolute best excursion of the trip. We've been to Alaska three times and this was one excursion I'd do again. Highly recommend!

http://www.explorefairbanks.com Also look at Northern Alaska tours. They have an awesome Arctic Ocean trip.

After 3 trips/land tours to Alaska we really want to do something completely different.

We are intrigued with the Arctic trips. Budget Queen have you done the Arctic Ocean trip?

Thanks!

We've sailed Alaska 3 times, done the land part twice, once thru Celebrity and once on our own. Sailed the inside passage on NCL, Celebrity and HAL. Hal last year was a tremendous disappointment, food & entertainment not so good, but it was the ports and our excursions that made the trip.

We have always sailed early August and weather was wonderful. We always thought August was the best time to go. Now we are retired and the last Alaska cruise we sailed early September and it was great except for a bit of rain in Ketchikan. We are doing NCL from Seward next September and our own land bit.

We look for an itinerary that offers the most time in each port. Then we narrow down the ships and offers.

We have been so fortunate to have been able to see Denali in all of her glory on each trip.

I hope you find the right trip for you. Would be happy to answer any questions. Good luck!

We are hoping to doing the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park on our own after our cruise ends in Vancouver. Does anyone know if the Oosterdam offers luggage transfers to the Vancouver airport? That way we could do the tour and our luggage would already be at the airport when we got there. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Denise (Sleddogs)

I'll be able to look into this one for sure. Barbara Lavallee is great. I also like "Parka Pete and Kuspuk Kate" by Jean Campbell. I made the sleddog one for a wall.

The Rushin Tailor and Changin' Threads are the same company if I'm not mistaken.

I've ordered online from Rushin Tailor. Quality of kits, fabric is great and service outstanding. :) How I wish I was going to be in Skagway this time around.

We haven't been to Tracy's Crab Shack, but will check it out. I already know I will be in salmon heaven again just being in Alaska.

Thanks!

Hi, CP

 

Have you ever gone to Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau or Ketchikan? They have King Crab Legs (frozen) and nothing on HAL has ever come even close.

 

We spent an interesting afternoon on the balcony one time watching the cooks at the Shack cook the frozen crab legs. Huge kettles, huge crabs.

 

You are likely correct: snow crab.

This will be our first HAL cruise. We'll be sure to stop by the Queen's Lounge, I'm sure we'll love the BB King Blues Club. Thanks for the tip. :)

We will be on the Oosterdam on the Sept. 6th sailing Seward to Vancouver. Is Alaska King Crab on the menu or available by request? I tried to find a copy of the dining menu online without success.

Thank you!

Denise (Sleddogs)

"Love to Chill"...thank you for the information, very helpful. Last time we were there, we had to go directly to the airport, so we never got to visit. We promised ourselves, next time we were in Vancouver, we'd plan to take some kind of tour. We can't wait!

"Putterdude".....thank you too, your info about where we would pick up the tour at Canada Place has pretty much made up my mind about going w/LandSea Tours. Sounds convenient, and easy. Plus, with LandSea handling our luggage and bringing us directly to the airport, it's a win-win. Checked reviews about them and they are top notch. Planning to call them this week. Many thanks....

Sleddogs

"Martincath", let me just say you are awesome! Thank you so much for the information. We will share this with our friends, discuss our options and be able to make an informed decision. Looking forward to seeing your beautiful city.

Thanks again! Have a great day!

Sleddogs

First of all, to all of you who are so informative & helpful on these boards... The time you take to answer questions truly makes our travels so much easier, and what makes Cruise Critic so special. THANK YOU!

We will be a party of 4 disembarking from our HAL Oosterdam cruise in Sept. I see that the ship's shore tour of Vancouver (HOHO) is a mere 2 hours. Our flight only leaves at 8:30 p.m. Have looked at Landsea Tours and like what they offer (4 hours).

I phoned them and they tell me that they are not allowed to pick up right at the pier and that we would have only a "short" walk to their shuttle bus & they take care of our luggage. Does anyone know more about this? All I can picture is 4 tired cruisers dragging tons of luggage to pick up the tour. Perhaps we could do the luggage transfer off the ship as a better option and then pick up the tour?

This is the last excursion we have to book, and I really would appreciate any advice.

Thank you so much.

Sleddogs (Denise)