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Who's booked Alaska cruises?


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So, the Windstar roll calls are pretty quiet. I started one for the first Wonders of Alaska and Canada cruise, but no one else has joined. And I don't see any other active ones.

 

I'm wondering what people are planning for the unusual ports: Wrangell, Metlakatla and Prince Rupert.

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Windstar rollcalls are often small. The ships are small. On a recent cruise, I was unable to make connections with other guests on the rollcall. A tour company had booked 2 bus loads of guests as part of an escorted vacation. Perhaps, your Alaska cruise has been booked by a group.

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Windstar rollcalls are often small. The ships are small. On a recent cruise, I was unable to make connections with other guests on the rollcall. A tour company had booked 2 bus loads of guests as part of an escorted vacation. Perhaps, your Alaska cruise has been booked by a group.

 

I know that they are often small. With a little over 200 passengers when fully booked, it makes sense that it would be. I was on the cruise you mention. We had a reasonable number on the roll call for a Windstar Cruise. If you look at the Windstar roll call boards, it was one of the more active.The tour company was Tauck and they don't have any Alaska cruises. Their only Windstar tours for 2018 are three itineraries in the Mediterranean and Panama/Costa Rica.

 

My cruise keeps showing up on 7 for 7 special so I doubt that it is heavily booked. It's early in the Alaska season.

 

The small size of Windstar cruises is why I think an general thread for everyone on the Alaska sailings might be a good place to compare notes. Very few of the 2018 Star Legend cruises have any activity - the ones that do are the Asia ones before they head to Alaska.

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  • 1 month later...
My husband and I just booked the Star Legend Alaskan Splendors starting on May 31. We are debating the extended land tour going to Denali. Anyone have ideas?...

 

We were in Alaska last August on Crystal with another couple and did a land tour DIY after our cruise. It was a great addition to the cruise. The Windstar land itinerary looks pretty good. It has 2 nights in Denali so there's a full day to explore there plus whatever time is available in the afternoon after arriving there.

 

You could also look at the Alaska board to read some trip reports of DIY land tours and similar ship land tour itineraries.

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I'm getting really excited about this trip. I didn't realize that they did modifications to the ship in dry dock to equip it - adding a deck and cranes for the zodiacs and modifications for sports platform area to handle loading the zodiacs and handling the kayaks.

 

At the bottom of this page is an interview with Captain James Griffiths about what they will be doing in Alaska.

http://blog.windstarcruises.com/2017/12/expedition-captain-james-griffiths/

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We cruised to Alaska many years ago when are kids were younger. After the cruise we took a car service to Anchorage and rented a car. We then spent time driving to Wasilla (my husband had college buddies that lived there) and stayed one night there. Next we drove to Denali and stayed two nights in a cabin on a river. We took the bus tour into Denali and flew out on a small plane. That was amazing! You felt like you could reach out and touch the glaciers. We also did a river raft tour late at night since we were there on the longest day of the year. I think we got done with the rafting around 10 pm and it was still light out!

 

We also took a train ride at some point but I can’t remember when. We next drove to Fairbanks and stayed in a bed and breakfast for two nights that was in railroad cars. We booked a van tour to the Arctic Circle which was very interesting as we drove past the pipeline. The mosquitoes were terrible at the Arctic Circle!

 

We then left from Fairbanks to fly home. It was a wonderful addition to our cruise and very easy to plan on our own.

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We'll be aboard for the May 17 Star Legend cruise. We live in Alaska, and we've done three Alaska cruises so far, two on Celebrity and one on Holland America. After cruising twice with Wind Star (Caribbean and Tahiti), we're looking forward to seeing some new spots in Southeast Alaska, such as Sitka and Wrangell.

 

Lee and Wally

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We'll be aboard for the May 17 Star Legend cruise. We live in Alaska, and we've done three Alaska cruises so far, two on Celebrity and one on Holland America. After cruising twice with Wind Star (Caribbean and Tahiti), we're looking forward to seeing some new spots in Southeast Alaska, such as Sitka and Wrangell.

 

Lee and Wally

Nice to meet someone else on my sailing. I'll be solo.

 

I started a roll call, but I'm the only one on it so far.

 

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  • 1 month later...
My husband and I just booked the Star Legend Alaskan Splendors starting on May 31. We are debating the extended land tour going to Denali. Anyone have ideas?...

Awaiting a call from Windstar to book this same cruise.this will be our 4th Alaska cruise but the first time for a few ports. hope there are some shower only cabins still open.

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Windstar rollcalls are often small. The ships are small. On a recent cruise, I was unable to make connections with other guests on the rollcall. A tour company had booked 2 bus loads of guests as part of an escorted vacation. Perhaps, your Alaska cruise has been booked by a group.

 

Ugh. How did the presence of a large group affect your cruise?

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Tour people tended to all want to eat breakfast and lunch at the same time. Their excursion schedule gave them a small amount of time to eat. The veranda was very crowded when the tour group went there. At dinner, the Tauck people often sat at big tables. They were loud.

On the plus side, since the Tauck people had separate excursions, the ship's excursions did not sell out.

Since we sailed b2b with one week with Tauck and second week without tour groups, it was much nicer the second week. It was quiet.

I understand why Windstar would charter out space to groups. I prefer being on Windstar without the tour groups.

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  • 1 month later...

We'll be doing the zipline out of Hoonah (Icy Straight Point), which is a hoot. We did it several years ago on a Celebrity cruise. It's a mile long and 1,000 foot drop. We loved it. Since we're Alaskans, we're not looking at a whole lot of excursions, just wanting to see some southeast towns and villages we haven't seen yet. In Juneau, though, there's Tracy's Crab Shack, a tented food place that's on the cruise ship piers. They have the best crab rolls you've ever had. We highly recommend them.

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We'll be doing the zipline out of Hoonah (Icy Straight Point), which is a hoot. We did it several years ago on a Celebrity cruise. It's a mile long and 1,000 foot drop. We loved it. Since we're Alaskans, we're not looking at a whole lot of excursions, just wanting to see some southeast towns and villages we haven't seen yet. In Juneau, though, there's Tracy's Crab Shack, a tented food place that's on the cruise ship piers. They have the best crab rolls you've ever had. We highly recommend them.

Just great fun or difficult? My husband just did zip line in Costa Rica 10 platforms with a walk to each one which got progressively higher. I'm his excursion advisor! Help please.

 

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Just great fun. It's a single-line, mile-long, 1,000 foot drop with speeds in excess of 60 mph. Stops at the bottom with almost an arrested landing.

 

Wally and Lee

Just looked on YouTube. No holding on like CR. We have jeep tour booked but looks like we can do this on our own afterwards.

 

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There is one horrible review about the Jeep Tour in Icy Strait Point on Trip Advisor! This was the one tour my husband was insisting we book for our May 31 Windstar Cruise! This is only one review, but we can't find any other posts or reviews about the Jeep Tour. Anybody have any info on this tour or others in Icy Strait Point?

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There is one horrible review about the Jeep Tour in Icy Strait Point on Trip Advisor! This was the one tour my husband was insisting we book for our May 31 Windstar Cruise! This is only one review, but we can't find any other posts or reviews about the Jeep Tour. Anybody have any info on this tour or others in Icy Strait Point?

It looks like there are a few different tours available. The jeep one with guides that we have booked through WS. There is an ATV one that seems to also have guides, and a company that books Jeeps with GPS and maps for the day. Up to 4 people for $400, on your own. Also have seen one company that has combo ATV and zip line. Availability may be limited depending on what other ship may be in port. I guess this town was built specifically to accomodate cruise ships. We may cancel the jeep tour and play this one by ear. But I never base my decisions on one bad review. There are lots of good reviews sprinkled around other travel sites. My question is Malakelta (know this is misspelling). It looks like absolutely nothing there.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
My husband and I just booked the Star Legend Alaskan Splendors starting on May 31. We are debating the extended land tour going to Denali. Anyone have ideas?...

 

My husband and I are booked on this cruise. We decided to do Denali on our own. We are renting a car in Anchorage, staying overnight in Denali. We'll take the bus into the park and fly out. Glad to know some other cruisers on this trip.

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It sure doesn't seem like a very interesting stop. I noticed that it is not included in the 2019 itineraries.

Well there's always the bar and the movie theater. Have not researched Prince Rupert yet. Anything interesting? Also realized that they are doing more than one zodiac a day now. I originally signed up for one at each location and we are booke 8:15 a.m. Called the other day to switch to later times and because they have upped the price of all excursions since I booked in December they want more money for a change to later time.

 

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