beeandkmon

What is everyones favorite shuttle from cocoa beach to the ship? Staying there pre cruise 

On 2/8/2024 at 10:08 PM, Firehunter said:

This sounds fun. Is it an excursion? Can you share more information as tion about scheduling it? Thank you.

We booked it from the railway website. There is a “hikers service” option. We did it on our own and just walked to the train depot. Make sure you arrive early! 

Thanks. The reason we are staying at cocoa beach is because we want to get a morning surf in before getting on the ship and this was the way to do it! I did find a shuttle that will do it for an upcharge

We are arriving at mco at 9:15 at night and staying at a hotel on cocoa beach. Anyone know which shuttles operate at this hour?

Looking for some advice/suggestions on renting a car for the day. 

We did the hikers train service out of Skagway. There are two different places the train will drop you off and you get off and hike. Later the train picks you up. This was such a cool experience and it involves a much shorter train ride plus a hiking break. Highly recommend 

Has anyone done any of the zip lines at great stirrup cay? I can’t find reviews anywhere 

I emailed st. Thomas adventure tours and they said they could accommodate: https://www.stthomasadventuretours.com

The epic is only in st. Thomas from 6am- 2 pm. We’d love to snorkel but a lot of trips I’ve found don’t leave until 10am. We always prefer to book on our own as we hate crowds. We don’t have our own snorkeling equipment and with such a short time I don’t know if I want to do the ferry on our own. Any recommendations for tours that leave early in the morning? 

I think this questions depends a lot on your own personality. There are pros and cons of each one and different people will prefer different things. I know I am impatient and don't like waiting on groups of people and would prefer to do things at my own pace (usually fast). I also don't mind planning and my husband doesn't mind driving. We also are always looking for the best deal on everything. So DIY is for us. 

On the other hand, some people get really stressed doing things on their own and the anxiety of travel would ruin their trip. The extra cost is worth it for the comfort of everything being taken care of. Also,  some people are more social and love the chance to travel with a big group. 

I think you need to decide which is best for you based on your personality. Both options will allow you to see and do great things. Picture yourself traveling: with your group in a car or on a big tour bus. Go with your gut- which sounds more enjoyable to you? 

We did the park to park bus. We actually booked through major marine tours as they had a package that combined our boat tour and the bus transfer. 

I always say, you don't go to Alaska for the cruise ship- you go for Alaska. I would pick the line that has the ports that you prefer. 

It was not open when I was there- but this was in July of 2019. 

We were told in one port (I can't remember which...) to look for a sticker in the window of shops that are actually owned/operated by Alaskans and not just set up for tourists from the cruise ships. We were able to find these and it helped direct our shopping. 

I think it also depends on if you have anything else planned that day and which method of transportation lets you accomplish that. Our ship left out of Seward; however, I think the advice still applies. We didn't have as many time options on the train- but the bus had a lot. The bus allowed us to get in at an earlier time (and save money..) so we were able to do a boat tour that day before boarding our ship. I'll be honest; we had taken the red eye in and both fell asleep for a little on the bus so we were glad we didn't spend the extra money to sleep through the scenery anyway. 

That being said I have heard people LOVED the train that day. We didn't love the bus...however we did love our boat tour that we were able to do because we got in at the right time. 

So my advice: If you really want to ride the train- ride it- I imagine you will have an unforgettable experience. However, I wouldn't sacrifice something else fun to make the timing of the train work. 

**We did the park connection bus and it was very comfortable and nice

So I am going to go against what everyone says and not say the longer the better. So maybe it was the fact that we were tired from taking the red eye in the night before; however we were definitely "done" at the end of our 6 hour Major Marine tour. Now we absolutely loved it - but were glad we didn't have a longer tour. I would not book a shorter tour as the shorter tours don't leave Resurrection Bay; however, the six hour tour was enough for us. 

Our two days went like this: 

Saturday: 

* Spend day with toddler at Zoo before leaving him with grandparents

* Put toddler to bed (8:00 pm) 

* Leave for airport ( 2.5 hour drive ) 8:30 pm 

Sunday: 

* Flight leaves (12:30 am) 

* Land in Anchorage at about (5:30 am) 

*Park connection bus to Seward (7:30 am) 

* Stash bags at Major Marine Check in desk and then go get breakfast (10:00 am) 

* Major Marine Tour (11:30-5:30)

* Drop bags in hotel and then head to dinner at Seward Brewing Company (HIGHLY Recommend)- did not even let my husband shower because I knew if I even sat on the bed I would not wake up

* 8:00 pm- crash hard 

I would also recommend doing a one way instead of a loop and spending some time pre or post cruise on land in Alaska. There is so much to see away from the coast. 

We booked an inside room because we like to spend the extra money on activities and other trips. I had strongly considered a balcony because I knew it was recommended for Alaska; but in the end I just couldn't justify the cost. 

I ended up being very pleased with our inside room because of the sunlight issue. It only was dark for a few hours each night and I liked that our room had no windows and was dark. One "trick" for an inside room is to turn your TV on to the bridge camera when you are in your room. This makes it feel like you have a window. 

Seward was one of my favorites and I loved our 2 day stay there pre-cruise. If you like outdoor adventure ice climbing at exit glacier was one of my favorite vacation activities ever. Finding a cruise that either starts or ends in Seward would be my choice. 

We did the Kenai Fjords tour and LOVED it. We did the shortest of the all day options so we could leave Resurrection Bay but didn't know about spending so many hours on the boat. Our ship left from Seward and we took the bus. We booked it as a package with our Kenai Fjords tour. The bus was fine- it was basically just a way to get from point a to point b. The train seemed more like an "event." However, I wouldn't give up the boat tour to take the train as the boat was awesome. 

We were on the Jewel and did whale watching excursion in ISP with Icy Strait Whale Watching Tours. I don't have anything to compare them to but I really enjoyed it! My trip report has a full review of the trip. I will say we also saw whales on our Major Marine Tour (which we loved!) in Seward.  

We used the park to park shuttle service booked with our major marine boat tour. However, our cruise left out of Seward and the bus was to downtown Anchorage. If the timing works for you I would recommend a Major Marine boat tour. 

We really enjoyed our two days in Seward- we loved our Major Marine boat tour and had a spectacular time ice climbing. If you decide you can't make it to Denali make sure you at least stay in Seward for a few days. 

There were small children on our whale watching tour in icy strait point Icy Strait Whale Watching Tours.  We didn't have any with us but you could bring them on this boat. 

In Skagway we did the hiking service train and hiked to Laughton Glacier. This hike would be too much for the little ones but the train to Denver might be nice. You would take a 20 minute train ride then get off to hike and take the train back. This would allow the kids to ride the train (which they may like) and also have a nice hike. Ive heard the Denver hike is easy to do. You can book here: https://wpyr.com/excursions/

When we arrived at 1:00 there didn't seem to be a whole lot of tour operator booths...I think may they are had already "booked" for the day and closed up shop.