Setting up luggage for land tour?

[chrismch]

We're doing the land tour before the cruise and need help with luggage planning. When we arrive at the airport in AK to start the land tour, is that when some luggage is taken and held by HAL until we start the cruise at a different port? When we do the final train to Anchorage, do we then size down again for that?

[Shmoo here]

We're doing the land tour before the cruise and need help with luggage planning. When we arrive at the airport in AK to start the land tour, is that when some luggage is taken and held by HAL until we start the cruise at a different port? When we do the final train to Anchorage, do we then size down again for that?

 

I'm not sure if it's different now, but when we took our cruise/tour (land first), everyone had all their bags with them during the land portion. In our case we only had 2 checked bags and 2 carryons (backpacks) between us. Some others had much more luggage. I know one group of 4 had at least 6 checked bags and at least that many carry ons, plus they usually had several plastic shopping bags with them.

 

Every morning our checked bags would be picked up and placed beneath the bus for the day's travel. Onboard the bus, we were "supposed" to only have our one carryon, but those with more generally brought them all on.

 

Once we got to Fairbanks, we received two tags per person. One tag said "meet me tonight" and the other "meet me onboard". For the trip from Fairbanks onward (until we got to the ship) we were only allowed one checked bag each and one carry on (limited storage onboard the train).

 

Let me tell you, there were some people on our tour who just freaked at having to consolidate everything they would need for the next 3 days into one bag.

 

The day we left Fairbanks the luggage tagged "meet me onboard" was trucked directly to Seward to wait for the ship. The other bags were transported onboard the train to Denali. And then from Denali to Anchorage. From Anchorage, again the bags (just the one checked bag each) were beneath the bus to go to Seward and directly to the ship once there.

[travgurl]

Can we lock our bags? I plan to back two separate bags for 2 people together. One bag will be for land and the other for the ship. That is what I have been advised.

[Shmoo here]

Can we lock our bags? I plan to back two separate bags for 2 people together. One bag will be for land and the other for the ship. That is what I have been advised.

 

We always lock our bags, if they are going to be out of our control for any length of time. Some people don't.

[mapleleaves]

There are several trip reports for cruisetours in the 2014 list, at least one was for HAL. You might find the information you're looking for there ... people are usually pretty detailed.

Otherwise look at the 2013 list (STICKY above) and start with reply #45 where the reports are sorted by cruiseline.

Edited August 17, 2014 by mapleleaves