Alaska Cruise Tour 2020 Advice Needed!

[cruzincraven]

We plan to book an Alaska Cruise Tour for June 2020.  I am pretty sure we have decided to go with a Princess 10 day tour, doing the land portion first then the cruise.  We are going to wait until early Spring to book - hoping to get a better price. My questions are if we wait that late to book will the excursions, both land and sea be filled up?   Is it better to fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks for the cruise tour?  Any advice is appreciated!

Edited July 11, 2019 by cruzincraven

[epixx]

You should really reconsider your choice of cruise tour.  The 10 day is too short, and you likely will not have sufficient time to get into Denali Park.  Find a cruise tour that stays a minimum of 2 nights at Denali so that you can actually get into the park.

[CruiserBruce]

It could definitely fill up. And air fares won't get cheaper or more available the closer you get either.

[Great Sky Girl]

My husband and I did this cruise tour on our first trip to Alaska because we just did not know what to expect there and were concerned about doing it ourselves. Well, we went back a few years later and stayed and extra week with a rental car and had such a great time. Three days is enough to get into Denali. We were booked on a Tundra Wilderness Tour. It was wonderful, but I did not know about the excursions that were the same without the video cameras and were much cheaper. We flew into Fairbanks and the next morning were bused to Denali. The next day was the Tour and the next day we were on the train to the ship, so even though we saw a lot of Alaska, it was through the bus and train windows! Glad we did it, but DIY would have been much, much better.

By the way, I would book the cruise as soon as I could, not wait. It does fill up.

[sandjforever]

I have booked a 12 day cruisetour for September 2020 already.  Have used OBC to book 2 excursions as well, just in case they fill up.  I also wanted a particular room and there are only 2 of its kind on the ship.  Makes paying for it easier too, as I just pay some every month.