Anchorage Shore Excursion Recommendations

[hgill]

I need some help recommending shore excursions to two ladies who are going to Alaska In June. They will be taking these excursions through Holland America. Comments or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. They are asking about either: 1. Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise. 2. Poratage Lake and Glacier Sightseeing. or 3. Prince William Sound Glacier Explorer. Thank you.

[AKKarl]

All three start south from town down the Seward Hwy. which is a scenic byway. The drive for Portage and PW Sound will be around an hour while the trip to Seward where the Kenai Fjords cruise takes off from is 2.5 or sometimes 3 hours in a coach. The drive is beautiful and will be narrated, but take the "seat time" into account. Portage is the quickest and most different from what might be seen on the cruise as your boat is on a lake for about one hour. It might also include the Begich-Boggs visitors center of the National Park Service, which is quite nice, check out the itinerary. The Kenai cruise will almost certainly include nesting sea birds and is the best place to see them, although the PW sound boat might see some also. One of the routs for the PW sound boats is to visit Collage Fjord (they use different routs based on duration) so if your ship was there the previous day, this might not be an option.

 

Hope this helps

 

PS the drive times listed above are each way.

[Budget Queen]

In my opinion, a Seward day trip is way less than ideal and I would never consider it. Are they on the Amsterdam with an Anchoarage port time? OR do they have extra time with a cruisetour??

 

Seward is definately excellent with a one way cruise and doing a day trip, but not round trip from Anchorage. A Kenai fjords boat tour- of at least 6 hours on the water, is a top touring choice. Loaded with varied wildlife and close up glacier view.

 

Of your two other choices, by far, again my opinion, the Prince William Sound boat tours are superb and would absolutely be my choice over Portage.

 

I have been to all these areas doing touring.

[Budget Queen]

For clarification the Portage Glacier visitor center is not a National Park. It is part of the National Forest service.

[negc]

For clarification the Portage Glacier visitor center is not a National Park. It is part of the National Forest service.

 

On my first trip to Alaska almost twenty years ago, it was early June and we visited Portage Glacier and the Visitors Center and found it fascinating. When we were next in Alaska (1999) it was late May and after driving from Anchorage, we arrived at Portage Glacier to find the Center not yet open for the season, and the parking lot filled with snow. The drive was still very scenic which reduced our disappointment somewhat.:) When I was there it was still possible to see the glacier from the Visitors Center, but I understand that it has retreated significantly and it is now necessary to take the boat tour to view Portage Glacier.

[alpal1993]

If they are sailing the 14 Night Amsterdam cruise Here is my experience with The Grand Anchorage (including Native Heritage Center) Portage Glacier Tour which we booked through HAL as directed by alaskatours.com for Grayline,The tour was cancelled a month after booking as all tours now offered are listed as intransit.The tours listed did not fit my requirements so we rebooked today directly through Grayline and my confirmation came back via Holland America.I feel this tour offers me everything I wanted to experience.We will be cruising up Cook Inlet which is supposed to have magnificent scenery.We will be doing wildlife cruise out of Sitka.So I didn't feel going all the way back to Seward would fill my needs of seeing Alyeska and the rest of the Grand Tour.Also the price is very reasonable for a 10 hour tour and everything elese that is included.

[AKKarl]

Yes BQ, my apologies. It's the Forest Service. I knew that, just wasn't paying attention to what I was typing.

[negc]

According to the information that accompanied the booking made by friends who will be on the same land tour prior to our Radiance cruise in June, we will now go from Talkeetna to Anchorage where we will tour the Native American Heritage Center before checking into the Marriott in Anchorage. The following day we will be bused to Seward but no times are specified. The previous itinerary had us doing the Heritage Center tour the morning after we arrived in Anchorage followed by the bus transfer to Seward immediately following the tour. If the new itinerary is correct and it allows us more time in Seward it might be a significant improvement but we don't know the specific details at the present time. Who knows what,or how many, changes will take place before we actually leave for Alaska?:)

[Budget Queen]

According to the information that accompanied the booking made by friends who will be on the same land tour prior to our Radiance cruise in June, we will now go from Talkeetna to Anchorage where we will tour the Native American Heritage Center before checking into the Marriott in Anchorage. The following day we will be bused to Seward but no times are specified. The previous itinerary had us doing the Heritage Center tour the morning after we arrived in Anchorage followed by the bus transfer to Seward immediately following the tour. If the new itinerary is correct and it allows us more time in Seward it might be a significant improvement but we don't know the specific details at the present time. Who knows what,or how many, changes will take place before we actually leave for Alaska?:)

 

Don't count on having more time in Seward, until you get the actual schedule. I've seen these buses leaving at all times. IF you truely want "more time" in Seward, this is your perfect opportunity to dump the cruisetour and get yourself on the Alaska RR and in Seward in time for various touring. Especially if you have any interest in a Kenai Fjords boat tour.

[negc]

Don't count on having more time in Seward, until you get the actual schedule. I've seen these buses leaving at all times. IF you truely want "more time" in Seward, this is your perfect opportunity to dump the cruisetour and get yourself on the Alaska RR and in Seward in time for various touring. Especially if you have any interest in a Kenai Fjords boat tour.

 

Thanks, that is what we have been thinking as well and until we get final confirmation of the land tour itinerary's times we won't count on anything. Thought that the possible change was interesting, however, and does raise some interesting possibilities.

[PennyAgain]

The changes may mean that you kill some time the last morning you are in Anchorage and then get bussed to Seward. Hurry up and wait!

[negc]

We will wait and see what the final documents say, but there are worse places than Anchorage to have to wait, if that's what it turns out to mean, and if it does come to that we might be able to take BQ's suggestion and ditch the final transfer and get to Seward on our own and do a bit of touring there. :)