Alaska Land/Sea Cruise - have you done it?

[jwatford]

I am thinking about booking an Alaska land/sea cruise but I have a few questions regarding the land portion.

 

1. What is all included in the sale price for the land portion (hotels, food, excursions?)

 

2. How does transportation work from getting town to town. Is it mostly by coach bus or by train?

 

Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

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[MellyMel612]

If you look at the details for each tour you're considering there are specifics on how you're travelling from place to place - usually by bus or train - and what excursions are included. It tells you when you have free time and when they have an activity planned for the group. Just click the itinerary and then click on the days for details. Most meals were not included but hotels are. We had booked the 14 day Authentic Alaska but in the end decided to do a DIY land portion before our cruise.

[don't-use-real-name]

There are -2- options to the LAND-CRUISE package with a lot of variables* number of days of the land portion.

 

Option 1 cruise northbound and then take one of several land packages usually 3-5 days ending at Anchorage

or Fairbanks with a flight home.

 

And Option 2 the reverse flying to start at Fairbanks or Anchorage for the 3-5 day packages and then cruise

southbound ending at Vancouver for a flight or surface transportation home.

 

 

As noted read the details of your land package - travel can be by Alaska Railroad a real scenic and relaxing way

to travel - by motor coach (bus) - and other chartered venues (don't forget about DIY rental car).

 

 

Alaska RR train travel from Fairbanks to Anchorage is a 12 hour trip covering 350 miles.

 

 

Something to consider in your traveling comfort - living out of suitcase while on a land package with your hotel

changing maybe every night while cruising on the ship your hotel goes with you everywhere every night and there

is no need to pack and unpack except for the last night of the cruise.

 

 

Read on and check back frequently as more CC commentators join this discussion with their traveling experiences.

[Budget Queen]

Budget 50% more for food in Alaska than you would at home. Food is not included on the mainland portion, unless specifically mentioned.

 

I suggest, you look at DETAILS for touring Alaska. Make sure, what's in the tour is where you want to go. Although the train is "relaxing" for some. It takes up more time than bus.

 

 

Frankly a 5 day tour is short. Expect a good deal of time in transit. Being that Denali Park is usually the highlight of cruise tours (be CERTAIN it's of interest to you). to get into the park- make sure you have the Tundra Wilderness tour included.

 

 

ONLY what is listed in descriptions is included. Go to the Alaska ports of call board and get further information.

[pspercy]

We did it in 2010.

Initially I worked on doing a DIY land trip but found it hard to set up the road portion such that we didn't have to backtrack a lot. So many times I figured out a route then looking in Milepost showed that one or more road segments were 4WD only. I also started too late, many places were already booked up. So we went with a Celebrity 11dy CruiseTour. We skipped Denali as we thought DW's back wouldn't have tolerated the long park trip (ended up with surgery 15mos later).

 

 

On the advice of friends who had done it the year before (on HAL) we decided to do the Land portion first as it can be pretty hectic. It wasn't easy to get info on this portion other than the hotels to be used - all expensive places. Not worth saying much more as it's all likely changed a lot since then.

 

 

Our tour group turned out quite small so we could make minor changes in a day's activities and so on. It was a lot of fun and we want to go up there again.

[denatravels]

There is another option besides cruisetour and DIY. I booked a 9 night package through a tour company-- it included more and cost less. I was VERY happy with it.

I did 3 days solo in Vancouver, north bound cruise to Whittier (near anchorage) and then nine nights through Globus.

 

 

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