Alaskacruise only vs landtour too

[firsttimealaska]

My group of 7 ( family of 5, kids are 8, 11, 14 (energetic, active, outside kids), and my parents very healthy but not too athletic mid 60s) are booked on 7N Southbound Celebrity Summit Aug 22. We are trying to decide whether to do a land tour as well, and have heard several people say no--too much time on train/buses, no guarentee of seeing animals/Mt Mckinley, yet are very excited and would love to do the land tour if possible. OUr maximum is 5 nights, four would be better. What are your recommendations? Should I save my money for great excursions during the tour? book with Celebrity for the land tour? go to Fairbanks in addition to Denali? Go to Talkeetna? Spend a night in Anchorage before the tour? We are mostly excited about outdoor activities--ie hiking, kayaking, animals, scenery, less interested in city activities/shopping, but we have to keep in mind the varied energy levels of people in our party. Thanks:)

[CruisinDoug]

If you are going in 2005 I hope you mean August 19th.:)

[Yukon]

Well, if you don't do a land trip, you haven't seen Alaska, to start with. With a family group like that, though, I HIGHLY recommend that you rent a motorhome - the lower cost and total freedom to do what you want when you want puts it light-years ahead of anything available as an excursion package. The Web makes researching independent travel very easy now - rental companies (most in Anchorage) can be found at http://www.explorenorth.com/autos-ak.html

 

Murray

[firsttimealaska]

:p oops, you're right, the 19th!

[42trvl]

We were in Alaska this past summer with our kids 9 & 11 and 60ish mom. We could not imagine having done the cruise (we did S/B Summit) without additional time in Alaska. They were like two completely different trips, and we feel that we would have missed a lot having only done a cruise. We are also big advocates of independent touring, especially with a mixed age/activity level group, you have much more flexibility and can do a lot more. With six full days we feel we got a nice "feel" for the state, but we did not spread ourselves too thin and have a lot left to see on our next trip:)

[firsttimealaska]

what were the wonderful things you saw or did on land? What did your kids like the most on the land tours? How about your mom? How long did you go to Denali? thanks so much!

[jrask]

The land portion is extremely different than the cruise portion and balances things out. The easiest way is to understand the importance of the land tour is to talk about these differences, rather than the things that you see/do on land. To give you the snapshot, the cruise can be divided into 2 portions: your ports will be coastal areas carved out of the temperate rain forest and then you get your glacier areas. Topographically, the interior and particularly Denali is nothing like this. Denali has tundra and taiga, banded rivers, mountains sculpted by the glaciers leaving beautifully colored rock. Mt. McKinnley is amazing, but shouldn't be your reason to tour interior.

 

The wildlife is also very different. During the cruise portion, expect that wildlife viewing will be bald eagles and sealife -- humpbacks, seals, otters, sea lions mainly. You have a shot at the sealife from the deck of your ship, but it requires lots of time, is far away so you'll need binoculars and goes by pretty quickly, so real viewing will require an excursion like a whalewatching trip. You are also likely to hit the salmon run, so you'll be able to watch that. You could also take an expensive flight trip to go bear watching. The interior brings entirely different possibilities -- caribou, moose, grizzly, Dall sheep, etc. Your odds of seeing each of these in Denali is very high, plus you'll see various birds and smaller mamals (low percentage shot at wolves too.). And did I mention that you have a pretty good shot at having the animals just off the side of the road or walking around your shuttle bus. In Seward, you'll have a chance to take a Kenai Fjords cruise which is also great for animals ... again its sealife, but you'll see puffins and have a fair shot at killer whales too.

 

Different areas in the interior, of course, have different feels. We enjoyed a bit of time in Anchorage, but wanted to spend most of our time away from the city. Lots of little odds and ends to do -- whether its musk ox/reindeer farm or hiking to beaver dams. Note that interior touring is easy, but involves significant distances. 3 hours between Seward and Anchorage. 5.5+ hours between Anchorage and Denali with Fairbanks being further up along that path. Given the driving time, you need a minimum of 5 full touring days to make it manageable. You need a bare minimum of 2 nights in Denali (you'll be taking an early morning shuttle/tour for best viewing, so you need 1 night there before the tour, and the tour/shuttle is between 6 and 8+ hours, so you'll need a night after the tour ... there is a shorter Natural History Tour, but that won't take you deep enough in to have a good shot at the wildlife).

[42trvl]

If you do a search under my username on this board, you can read a detailed review of our trip. As we plan to return to Alaska within a few years, and we wanted to see as much as possible for our first trip, we decided not to take up the time it would take to do Denali right - we figured it would be at least two overnights, and a very full day in the park and thought it would be better enjoyed when the kids were a bit older.

 

Everything was so different for us, that the kids really enjoyed just about everything we did. We enjoyed a couple of nights in Talkeetna with great views of Mt. McKinley and good flightseeing opportunities. The wildlife sightings were great fun for them. We did both the Prince William Sound boat ride with Phillips' 26 Glacier and the Kenai Fjords ride out of Seward, which were good. The train ride from Anchorage to Seward was enjoyed by all. Kayaking is available in many places, and these boards can give you some idea of the different companies you can rent from or go with if you want a guided ride. We did some "light" hiking off the tram at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. Nice, but lots of huge flies - make sure to take the bug spray.

 

Excursions from the ship are greatly varied. Two hits for our family were the helicopter/galcier/dogsledding out of Skagway booked with Temsco and whale watching with Orca Enterprises (Capt. Larry) out of Juneau. There were some good "active" type excursions in Skagway that we'll try more of next time.

 

I'm sure you'll get lots of great ideas from these boards - just search back for a while...:)

[Budget Queen]

I too agree- I would never consider any one way cruise without more time touring interior. But 5 days is very limited, a week is now my min. recommendation. The shorter- the more time in transit that you mention- just a given fact. the RV rental is also my strong recommendation, 2 would be ideal- if you have 2 drivers in your group? It would just allow the space and ability for some freedom of the group- bathroom and fridge are a BIG bonus. :) For me Denali park is a 2 night stay with an all day bus in to at least Fish Creek- this year mile 63. Talkeetna area is worth an overnight. Again my opinion - you don't have time for Fairbanks- again another 2 night stay area. I am no fan of cruisetours- way too costly for what little you get and for me, Alaska touring is lacking with fixed group travel going point to point and no option for all the excellent gems along the way. :) BUT I strongly suggest you budget fully for port tours- you don't want to miss these wonderful opportunities- unfortunately Alaska isn't for skimping. :)

[firsttimealaska]

thanks very much. I have evolved- now we are thinking about three days/two nights in Denali, one in Talkeeta, one in transit, and then an extra night in Seward before the cruise. I really appreciate the guidance, and will post again as I start to plan the port exursions. We had thought to try to see the Mendenhall glacier on our stop in Juneau, but now have heard so much about captain Larry that I am thinking of the whale watching tour. Where would be your recommendation to best see the glaciers if we don't do that in Juneau? Thanks again!

[42trvl]

Honestly, after all the glaciers we saw, Mendenhall was probably the least exciting for us...If you have time in Seward, then Exit Glacier is a good one to go to - it's a nice hike and you can get pretty close up. If you can do one of the boat rides - either Prince William Sound or Kenai Fjords - you will see many glaciers also.