First Alaska Cruise Questions

[SCGirl3211]

My DH and I are looking to book our first Alaska cruise. It will likely be our one and only so we want to do it right! We are unsure about the land tours and how that all works. What ports are the best and what is not to be missed. How to decide? Any help with choices would be greatly appreciated.

 

Debbie and John

[TexasBorderAussie]

Go down on the boards page and check out Alaska in the ports. You will find a wealth of information regarding your question.

Have fun. I think you will love it.:)

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We did 2 cruise tours in Alaska with Celebrity and enjoyed both. Most of the travel was on the train, 3 different days from Fairbanks to Anchorage, that we especially liked. Tour guides were very knowledgeable and organized the time well. We had a good mix of included excursions and others that you could book through the tour guide. Except for the 1st time in Denali the hotels were good. We also not having to rent a car and drive from point to point.

 

We are going again this year but will be doing a pre cruise trip on our own, one day in Anchorage then the train to Seward for 2 nights and will be doing 2 long excursions.

[Hydrokitty]

My DH and I are looking to book our first Alaska cruise. It will likely be our one and only so we want to do it right! We are unsure about the land tours and how that all works. What ports are the best and what is not to be missed. How to decide? Any help with choices would be greatly appreciated.

 

Debbie and John

 

Without knowing your itinerary it's hard to suggest places so I'll tell you where WE went and what we thought was "do not miss". First we went with HAL and started in Fairbanks for a pre-trip land portion. I'm assuming you're on X (good choice, HAL cruise was terrible) and if you have an opportunity to take a pre-trip these were the best things we did: McKinley Explorer train from Fairbanks to Denali; Denali NP; Explorer from Denali to Anchorage; Native People's Center (Anchorage); Kenai Peninsula cruise (we saw whales, porpoise, otters, seal lions and a glacier calving). There were other things like panning for gold that were fun but not in the "not to be missed" category. As for ports these are the ones we made:

 

Haines: IMHO the prettiest of all the ports and the best place to find a supermarket if you forgot anything.

 

Skagway: the White Pass-Yukon Railroad. This is definitely a not to be missed!!!

 

Juneau: Red Dog Saloon was fun but very touristy. The Mendenhall Glacier NP was outstanding and gives you an opportunity to see global warming in action; we also took the gondola up Mt. Roberts for spectacular views...nice but again, not must see if you're pressed for time.

 

Ketchikan: great walking city and the Saxman Totem Park was interesting.

 

Don't know what kind of time your're looking at, but if you take a cruise that ends in Vancouver try to spend at least 2 nights there....one to see the City and the other to go to Butchart Gardens.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Hydrokitty

[Doctor G]

Two things I have done that were spectacular. From Juneau I took a helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier. You get off the plane and spend about an hour walking around on the glacier. This was a ship's excursion. In Ketchikan, i took a float plane to Misty Fjords National Monument. I did this twice, one was a ship's excursion, one was private with Island Wings. It's a spectacular sight to fly over the mountains and land on one of the lakes. Both of these excursions are expensive, but the scenery is so breath taking and most people will never have the opportunity to experience this. No matter what you do, you will have a great cruise.

 

Carolyn

[Syrreal]

You'll have a great time in Alaska. It was my first cruise and got me hooked.

Even if you decide not to do a cruise tour, if you have the time, rent a car and do some of the things around anchorage or go up to Denali. Also, the train ride to Seward is beautiful.

There are also several chances to go into the Kenai Fjords NP from Seward as well as whale watching and other sea life tours.

You'll have a fantastic time!

[Smallfamily]

Carolyn can you tell me more about the float plane tour from the ship. Did you land on the water ? On an iceberg ? How many people were on the plane and did everyone have a window seat? I heard you may not get to sit by your spouse because they decide based on weight :(

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Doctor G]

Carolyn can you tell me more about the float plane tour from the ship. Did you land on the water ? On an iceberg ? How many people were on the plane and did everyone have a window seat? I heard you may not get to sit by your spouse because they decide based on weight :(

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Both these flights were from Ketchikan. The first float plane I went on (ship's excursion) was 10 passengers and I believe everyone had a window. They do ask for weights before you fly, but did not seem to really use it in the seating. If I am remembering correctly, this plane had one seat on each side of a middle aisle. We landed on a lake in the mountains, but only got off the plane to stand on the floats

 

The second time I flew with the company Island Wings which had been highly recommended on CC. This was a 6 passenger plane with one seat in the back, two sets of two seats without an aisle, and one person in the co-pilot's seat. The pilot let us choose our own seats. We landed on a lake and got off the plane onto the shore, but stayed on the shore near the plane.

 

Space is very limited on all these planes and you need to be little bit agile to get into the seats. While there is snow in the mountains, there are no icebergs in this area. Float planes can only land on water.

 

The excursion that landed on a glacier was a helicopter from Juneau. They give you special boots to wear and you do get off the helicopter and spend some time on the glacier. For this I took a ship's excursion. I think the helicopter takes only 5 people and the pilot does seat people by size.

 

Whatever you do, have a great time.

 

Carolyn

[Mr. Click]

Be sure to pick an itinerary that goes to the Hubbard Glacier. Mendenall was amazing to see but at Hubbard we were able to sail to within half a mile and it was just stupendous. We spent our whole time just hanging out on our balcony. It was just breath taking. Check the Alaska boards for other ideas, there are lots of them, we did our own three day tour from Seward post cruise and really enjoyed the Kenai Pensuila and all of the sights along the way to Anchorage. Whale watching is a must but find a small group tour, a lot more fun that way. Once you pick your cruise be sure to join the roll call for that cruise, it can be a big help finding smaller tour groups. I always said once would be enough, now that I have been, I am not so sure.

[ClaudiaB]

Go down on the boards page and check out Alaska in the ports. You will find a wealth of information regarding your question.

Have fun. I think you will love it.:)

 

Ditto.

The Alaska-specific board here is great. You can do it yourself easily and stop and go where you want. Alaska is beautiful and it's all about the scenery and nature. Resist just walking into town and shopping. It's not about that. If it's in your budget take a whale watching tour, a plane flight over and to a glacier, a bear watching tour, dog mushing, hikes up to glaciers, etc. Listen to the lectures on board from the naturalist. If it's Brent Nixon you've scored big and he'll have the best times and places to view certain things (wildlife). I don't think we spent much time at all in the interior of the ship on our Alaska cruises.

Bring your best binoculars!!! (the ones that are provided in your cabin are cheap toys really) And a waterproof/windproof (Gore Tex) jacket as a layering piece. Gloves are great and a hat/neck band for the day the ship is at the glacier.

 

And have fun. You'll never forget it!

[Northern Aurora]

SCGirl: At the top of the Alaska Cruise Critic forum are several stickies of trip reports organized by year. Spend some time skimming through them as they are of great help to someone starting the planning process.