Alaska help

[ScotsLady]

Hello, looking for some help from people in the know. We are looking to book a trip to Canada and an Alaska cruise in 2016, we have a celebrity voucher so plan to book the cruise part while on our next cruise in March. This is the first time we will have been in this part of the world so want to get the best out of our trip. We plan to fly to Calgary from the UK, and travel to Vancouver on the rocky mountaineer. There seems to be two choices of celebrity cruises from Vancouver. A 7 night Vancouver to Vancouver which does inside passage, icy straight,Hubbard glacier,Juneau and Ketchikan. Or a 7 night which also includes Skagway and ends in Seward. We had hoped to fly back to uk from Vancouver so the first cruise makes sense. Other option is to cruise back from. Seward but then holiday cost will greatly increase.

Any help appreciated.

Irene

[lucky cal]

Hello, looking for some help from people in the know. We are looking to book a trip to Canada and an Alaska cruise in 2016, we have a celebrity voucher so plan to book the cruise part while on our next cruise in March. This is the first time we will have been in this part of the world so want to get the best out of our trip. We plan to fly to Calgary from the UK, and travel to Vancouver on the rocky mountaineer. There seems to be two choices of celebrity cruises from Vancouver. A 7 night Vancouver to Vancouver which does inside passage, icy straight,Hubbard glacier,Juneau and Ketchikan. Or a 7 night which also includes Skagway and ends in Seward. We had hoped to fly back to uk from Vancouver so the first cruise makes sense. Other option is to cruise back from. Seward but then holiday cost will greatly increase.

Any help appreciated.

Irene

 

You may have answered your own question. The only real value for selecting the one-way cruise to Seward would be if you were planning to stay a few more days to see some of the interior of Alaska. If you don't want to do that you can fly home from Vancouver, it sounds like that's the round-trip Vancouver cruise makes sense for you especially if the ports are similar on both cruises. You're planning very far ahead, so you have plenty of time to think about it and do more research if needed.

 

Cheers.

[Cargill]

We have recently done a 7-night cruise (Norwegian Sun) from Whittier Alaska to Vancouver, and I would recommend that option - I think you get more value, and better shore experiences - than on a seven-day round trip. So does your budget stretch to a flight from Vancouver to Anchorage (which is what we did), and having a few days around Alaska, prior to boarding a southbound cruise?

 

Also - if you're up to driving in North America, I would recommend that over the Rocky Mountaineer - the very best things in the Canadian Rockies are not seen or experienced via the train - you need a car (and your feet).

Edited December 11, 2014 by Cargill

[Budget Queen]

The round trip Vancouver option seems best for your flying out of Vancouver. Is another cruise also an option? Another way to get back to Vancouver would be to do a 14 round trip. Not sure where the above poster is going with their "better shore experiences"?? With any selection consider the port times with your activities, but round trip Vancouver usually always has better port times compared to round trip Seattle.

 

I agree, unless you are going to add at least another 5 days for mainland Alaska touring, the one way may not be the most convenient option.

[Cornishpastyman1]

Hello, looking for some help from people in the know. We are looking to book a trip to Canada and an Alaska cruise in 2016, we have a celebrity voucher so plan to book the cruise part while on our next cruise in March. This is the first time we will have been in this part of the world so want to get the best out of our trip. We plan to fly to Calgary from the UK, and travel to Vancouver on the rocky mountaineer. There seems to be two choices of celebrity cruises from Vancouver. A 7 night Vancouver to Vancouver which does inside passage, icy straight,Hubbard glacier,Juneau and Ketchikan. Or a 7 night which also includes Skagway and ends in Seward. We had hoped to fly back to uk from Vancouver so the first cruise makes sense. Other option is to cruise back from. Seward but then holiday cost will greatly increase.

Any help appreciated.

Irene

Hello Irene

It's not quite what you asked for but perhaps in the general area. In July we flew to Calgary from London and drove the Rockies down to Vancouver to pick up an Inside Passage round trip before flying from Vancouver. We stopped at Banff, Jasper and Kamloops on the drive and at Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan on the cruise. I tried to record the whole adventure with a series of videos, which can be found from this

All the best, Tony Edited December 24, 2014 by Cornishpastyman1

[Cargill]

Not sure where the above poster is going with their "better shore experiences"?? With any selection consider the port times with your activities, but round trip Vancouver usually always has better port times compared to round trip Seattle.

 

I agree, unless you are going to add at least another 5 days for mainland Alaska touring, the one way may not be the most convenient option.

 

When researching our trip, seven days one-way seemed to offer better time for shore excursions, then a seven-day round trip from Vancouver or especially Seattle - which is reasonably to be expected.

 

But yes - we had the time to fly to Alaska and have a look around, prior to catching the southbound ship at Whittier.

[Cruisingthesuitelife]

I have family in the UK who did the following; flew into Vancouver, travelled to Seattle (this can be done a few ways; train, car, coach and even a flight), flew to Anchorage, travelled down to Seward (again there are a few options on how to do this) and then did a southbound cruise that finished in Vancouver so they could get the return flight home. They spent time in each location and got to do the better cruise itinerary.

 

It might be more travelling but as you are going that far, might as well make a real trip of it!

Edited December 25, 2014 by Cruisingthesuitelife

[ikirumata]

Do you happen to know how long you are going to be in each port for each of the two itineraries? That could play a part in selecting which one to get.

[fleckle]

Hello, looking for some help from people in the know. We are looking to book a trip to Canada and an Alaska cruise in 2016, we have a celebrity voucher so plan to book the cruise part while on our next cruise in March. This is the first time we will have been in this part of the world so want to get the best out of our trip. We plan to fly to Calgary from the UK, and travel to Vancouver on the rocky mountaineer. There seems to be two choices of celebrity cruises from Vancouver. A 7 night Vancouver to Vancouver which does inside passage, icy straight,Hubbard glacier,Juneau and Ketchikan. Or a 7 night which also includes Skagway and ends in Seward. We had hoped to fly back to uk from Vancouver so the first cruise makes sense. Other option is to cruise back from. Seward but then holiday cost will greatly increase.

Any help appreciated.

If you can spare at least an additional week away from home, you can do both a northbound and southbound cruise back-to-back and end up back in Vancouver for your flight back to the UK.

 

It would be better still if you could add more time between the northbound and southbound legs for some sightseeing in the Alaska interior, including a land trip up to visit Denali Park.

 

As long as you are traveling all that distance, I would say to take advantage of as much time as you can spare to maximize your sightseeing opportunities, even if it means booking a lower priced cruise cabin one way to save money.