Recent Alaskan cruisers disembarking in Seward

[BrusselsGirl07]

Hello! I have posted this question on the Alaska port of call board as well, but thought I would also ask here, as my question is Celebrity specific.

 

We will be disembarking from Celebrity Millennium in Seward next year on 8 August. The regular train from Seward to Anchorage leaves at 6pm in the evening, but I have read that there is a special train - the Grandview Cruise Train - that leaves at 7am in the morning and gets into Anchorage around 12.30pm.

 

This does not seem to be an option in the shore excursions (as yet).

 

So my question is, has anyone disembarked from Celebrity into Seward, and taken this train, and if so, how did you go about booking it?

 

Thanks for any help, Yvette

[Gig103]

I took the evening train. After being among the last to disembark, we hired a local "cab" (Ford Bronco with some stickers in the window with a phone number) for $5 to drop us off at a laundry and espresso shop. We did a few loads anticipating our 4 nights on a DIY land tour. They were nice enough to hold our bags while we called our "cab" again to go downtown. There we had a good lunch at the Greek place (skip the pizza, don't miss the gyro plate), and then visited the

Aquarium.

 

We eventually made it back to get our bags and head to the train station where we did have to kill some time before boarding. That's what Kindle is for! :-)

 

Oh and I pre purchased our tickets for the train because I didn't want to get stuck in Seward.

 

Note that there is a free shuttle downtown but it was very slow to load and unload (since folks had luggage) and it was just a school bus. I highly recommend, if you are going downtown, to pay someone!

[gowentgone]

We did not take the train...Celebrity offers coach transfers that are very efficient. Might check this out.

[GreatLakes]

Hello! I have posted this question on the Alaska port of call board as well, but thought I would also ask here, as my question is Celebrity specific.

 

We will be disembarking from Celebrity Millennium in Seward next year on 8 August. The regular train from Seward to Anchorage leaves at 6pm in the evening, but I have read that there is a special train - the Grandview Cruise Train - that leaves at 7am in the morning and gets into Anchorage around 12.30pm.

 

This does not seem to be an option in the shore excursions (as yet).

 

So my question is, has anyone disembarked from Celebrity into Seward, and taken this train, and if so, how did you go about booking it?

 

Thanks for any help, Yvette

 

We actually did this in reverse....took the train from Girdwood to Seward where we spent a couple of days. Because the train did not originate in Girdwood, we were responsible for putting our luggage on the train ourselves. When we got to Seward, they were unloading all the luggage and the 6 of us were all waiting for our luggage. We waited and waited. It's a good thing the train did not leave immediately. For whatever reason, since they did not load our luggage, they did not unload our luggage, and I ran onto the train before it pulled out again and found all of our luggage sitting there. That would have been some cruise with no clothes. So, just a forewarning to you. By the way, we pre-booked our train prior to leaving. We spent 1 or 2 nights at the Alyesska Lodge in Girdwood, before the cruise, and it was well worthwhile.

[Sun-Cruisers]

We disembarked at Seward two years ago and spent an evening at Windsong Lodge in Seward and took the train to Anchorage the next evening. Windsong Lodge picked us up at the terminal and offered anytime shuttles around Seward. Seward was a great day and Exit Glacier offered an up close experience to touch the glacier. The train may be booked online and was an easy DIY transfer to Anchorage.

[BrusselsGirl07]

Thanks to all those who have responded. Pre cruise, we would have already spent 10 days driving and touring around Alaska, up to Denali, then from Anchorage to Whittier and down to Seward. We have 2 nights in Seward pre-cruise, so would have done and seen and experienced quite a bit of this area. I have seen that it is easy to book the 6pm train, but we would like to take the 7am morning train if possible. I have read that the train ride from Seward to Anchorage is one of the most scenic train rides in North America, and as we would have already done the Anchorage to Seward by vehicle, would prefer to go back by train.

 

So my question would be has anyone who has disembarked in Seward from a Celebrity ship booked the early morning train, and if so, who with - directly with the cruise line or a third party? I have emailed Celebrity, so hopefully they will respond as well.

[scoobydrewby]

Did you book directly through Celebrity or through a travel agent? We booked directly through Celebrity and although it didn't show up as a post-cruise option on the website, it is available. I called to ask if they had that option and the operator gave me the details. We ended up spending the day in Seward and taking the late train, but if you call Celebrity directly, they should be able to book you on the early train and give you transfer details.

[BrusselsGirl07]

Thank you! I will call them to try and book.

[tinabinab]

We will be taking the morning train following our upcoming cruise. Like you, I kept expecting it to show up as a Seward excursion or on the transportation page. I kept reading about it though, so I finally called Celebrity and they confirmed that there indeed is one. As we used a TA for our booking, we had to book it through them. It now appears on our transportation page and in our docs. For the record, it was $101 each (including children) and is not recommended if your flight is before 2:30p.m. It's one of the things I had most looked forward to, so I did not really want to take the bus.

 

I wish we could spend some time in Seward, but I made the mistake of booking our early evening flight before really considering the logistics of getting between Seward and ANC. Hindsight.

 

Happy planning! :)

[patty1955]

We took the early morning train from Steward after our last cruise. It showed up online the last month before our cruse, but they wanted flight information and we weren't flying out until the next day. We booked on board. It's a great train ride. This was our second time and it was just as good as the first. Our only complaint was that we had to get up at 4:30 to go through customs and, since we had noro onboard, they were deep cleaning, too. That early morning on top of the the five or six time changes we made between China and the USA, made for a very early morning.