Alaska Cruise/Land Tour Recommendations

[mommypenguin29]

We have decided that in 2 years we will be doing an Alaska Trip - we want to do a cruise and land tour combined and looking for going for a total of 2 weeks. We are a family of 4 - me and dh (mid 40s), ds (will be 15 when we go) and dd (will be 13 when we go) - we may also have some parents and other family members going - but that is still to be determined...

 

I know we can't really get prices yet - so at this point I am just looking for any recommendations for a tour you did and loved - we usually cruise with Royal Carribbean - but are open to any cruise lines that are family friendly (not Disney though)...

 

Thanks!

[milo696]

sorry, but can someone explain "dh", "ds", and "dd" please

[CruiserBruce]

33 minutes ago, milo696 said:

sorry, but can someone explain "dh", "ds", and "dd" please

"dh" is dear (or several other less complimentary descriptors) husband, "ds" dear son, "dd" dear daughter.

[oaktreerb]

Start researching by reading the trip reports at the top of this forum.  With a family you would probably be best to plan a cruise separately from your land experience.  Some may only want to cruise.  There are other opportunities for land excursions besides the cruise companies.  Look at what the Alaska railroad has to offer for Denali and Seward experiences.  Check out Alaska.org.  Order Alaska visitor’s bureau information to be sent to you via mail so you can see the variety of experiences.  There are lots of options.  Seward has a lot of experiences that teens would enjoy.

[AKStafford]

For the land portion, I would recommend planning on doing that portion of the trip on your own with a rental car. Don't use the pre-packaged canned trips from the cruiselines.

In Addition to the help you get here on CruiseCritic, you can also get a lot of good land trip advice on the sister site, TripAdvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28923-i349-Alaska.html

[crusinot]

We have not cruised yet.  Sailing Aug 2020 Northbound on Radiance.  I booked the cruise and land tour through Royal.  I went to AAA and asked for an Alaska Catalog.  The catalog or brochure has explanations of each land tour.  My husband likes things all laid out so this worked for us.  We chose the 6A land tour which includes Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise, Alaska Native Heritage Center, Tundra Wilderness tour, Fairbanks City Tour, Riverboat discovery cruise, Rail between Denali and Fairbanks.  I liked the idea that transportation and hotels are all planned out.  It is just my husband and myself doing this cruise.  I think that even looking at a brochure would give you some ideas as to what you may want to search for if you planned on doing it on your own.  I don't think that Royal gives our the Alaska Brochures anymore but you could always call and ask. Hope this helps

[rma2001]

We did a combo of both DIY and a Princess land tour and both had their upsides.

DIY - we did Anchorage and Seward and it was nice to have a car and do what we wanted and when we wanted.  Being on our own schedule was nice.  Downside is all the extra planning for what to do, where to go, where to stay, etc.  It was fun for a while in the planning but did get a little overwhelming at times.

 

Princess Land tour we went from Anchorage to Denali for 2 nights and then to Talkeetna for a night and then a train right to the ship.  The nice part about the land tour was I didn't have to do any driving and all the bags were taken care of.  The rooms were all taken care of too.  With a large group, this was nice, I didn't feel pressured to find the right spots and get everyone to the next place.  That was all on Princess.  The downside was being on a schedule with them.

 

If/when I do it again I would probably do the land part on my own so I could get exactly what I/we wanted.  If you do Denali (and you should) make sure you get at least 2 nights by the park, 3 or 4 would be better.  Our second lodge seemed almost like a waste of a day with the travel there.

[masterdrago]

We did a pre-cruise land tour just this May. You might find the full trip report educational and may get some ideas. I've provided a lot of info that I've not found in some of the other trip reports I've looked over but much can be gleaned from many that are at the top of the Alaska page.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2660632-trip-report-may-24-2019-radiance-of-the-seas-seward-vancouver/