Best Cruisetour?

[lktomkies]

Hello-  Getting ready to book an Alaskan cruisetour for Summer 2020.  Will just be me and my husband, both of us in mid-fifties.  We are considering all the major lines...Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, NCL, and Princess.  We are Diamond members with Royal, but really want to withj the cruise line that offers the best on-board enrichment programs, specifically Alaska-related speakers, etc.  Would like to book a 14 or 15 day cruisetour, hopefully with a stop in Talkeenta.

 

Any suggestions?  We are not foodies, so cruise ship food is of no concern.  Really just looking for best itinerary with the best learning opportunities, as this will likely be our only visit to Alaska.

 

Thanks!

 

Linda

[mapleleaves]

 

I would suggest starting your research by reading thru the many trip reports posted near the top of the page.  All the cruiselines and itineraries are represented.   Many of these reports are detailed photo journals with lots of information about the ship, lodging, activiies, excursions, etc.

Also, look thru this Resource thread for the Port/town web sites, the Port Visitor Guides, and general web sites like alaska.org or the Alaska Tourism site.  Borrow some Alaska travel books from your library. The more you know, the better your trip will be.    ie I'm not sure why Talkeentna is a priority for you ... do you know what activities are available there ?

 

 

I will also encourage you to consider DIY with a rental car.  Or if you don't want to drive, go DIY with a pkg tour from the Alaska Railroad or the Park Connection Bus (.https://www.alaskatravel.com/vacations/packages/)

  DIY gives you more control over which locations you visit, how long you spend there, and your schedule in general (no suitcases at the door by 6am ).

 

Have fun with your research ! 

 

[oaktreerb]

Opinions will differ!  Many will say you should rent a car and enjoy Alaska at your own pace.  Many prefer to let someone else do the driving and narrating so they choose a cruisetour.   Cruise first is sometimes cheaper because people like to rest up on the back end of the trip.  

 

Basic information would be to include Glacier Bay (lots of glacier viewing in National Park and rangers come onboard to narrate) or Hubbard Glacier (a huge tidewater glacier) on your itinerary.   If you are interested in Gold Rush history include Skagway on your cruise.  Sitka figures in the Russian history of Alaska.  Most cruise lines will go to one or the other. The most scenic cruises go up the inside passage inside Vancouver Island.  Choose a cruise ship that focuses on outside viewing areas.  Holland and Princess have extensive experience in the Alaska market.  

 

Most cruisetours go to Denali and you should have two or three nights there.  Princess and Holland have their own resort facilities just outside the park and provide bus transportation in the area.  There are a lot of wonderful places and things to experience in Alaska.  If you only intend to go once spend as many days on land as you can, otherwise you will probably want to go back.

[donaldsc]

Just a question on your post - why do you want to go to Talkeetna and what are you planning to do there.  We visited Talkeetna on our land trip to AK and found nothing to do there.  We drove to town on the 14 mile spur road from George Parks Highway and wandered around town for about 2 hours which was about 1 hour more than the town was worth and then drove back to the highway wondering why anyone visited the place.  If you plan to do a Denali flight-seeing flight, many of them leave from Talkeetna but IMHO there is no other reason to visit the place.

 

DON

[chev29]

HAL has a cruise tour D5C with onboard crsdit and a lot of tours  and train. We found this on Alaska cruises web site. Good luck.

 

John

[sandjforever]

We are going on Princess September 2020 on a cruisetour through a Big Box Store.  We have 1 night in Fairbanks, 2 nights in Denali and 2 nights in Mt. McKinley. It includes a riverboat tour, all transportation , all our lodging, Natural History tour into Denali Park, and the train from Talkeetna to Whittier to board the ship. We then have a 7 day cruise which includes Hubbard Glacier, Glacier Bay, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, a day at sea and disembark in Vancouver.  We are adding an extra day in Fairbanks due to flying from the East Coast.

[mapleleaves]

1 hour ago, sandjforever said:

We are going on Princess September 2020 on a cruisetour through a Big Box Store.  We have 1 night in Fairbanks, 2 nights in Denali and 2 nights in Mt. McKinley. It includes a riverboat tour, all transportation , all our lodging, Natural History tour into Denali Park, and the train from Talkeetna to Whittier to board the ship.

 

 

Just wanted to note that your Natural History Tour only goes 30 miles into the Park.  The park road is almost 100 miles long, so your opportunity to view the wildlife and scenery are greatly diminished with such a short trip. 

Tour and transit info on this site: 

https://www.reservedenali.com/tours-transits/the-denali-tour-experience/denali-natural-history-tour/

 

In the past Princess has allowed pax to upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour.  Or get a refund and take the Eielson Transit bus instead.  Prime bear viewing starts around Toklat , milepost 52, so at least go that far. 

 

The 2nd map in this link is the Park road with popular stopping points marked :

https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/maps.htm#6/63.421/-148.491

[JjC81]

16 hours ago, mapleleaves said:

 

Just wanted to note that your Natural History Tour only goes 30 miles into the Park.  The park road is almost 100 miles long, so your opportunity to view the wildlife and scenery are greatly diminished with such a short trip. 

Tour and transit info on this site: 

https://www.reservedenali.com/tours-transits/the-denali-tour-experience/denali-natural-history-tour/

 

In the past Princess has allowed pax to upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour.  Or get a refund and take the Eielson Transit bus instead.  Prime bear viewing starts around Toklat , milepost 52, so at least go that far. 

 

The 2nd map in this link is the Park road with popular stopping points marked :

https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/maps.htm#6/63.421/-148.491

 

I just sent this to our TA. We are currently looking at NCL cuz they are best itinerary with the wildnetness tour. But I read that princess is pretty interactive so i wondered about them, but they only have history tour and we want to go further.

 

We also wanted aleyska, but my McKinley might be substitute. 

 

So you change the tour ahead of time or on ship? My hubby would not be pleased if we booked and couldnt change it. 

[disneyochem]

36 minutes ago, JjC81 said:

 

I just sent this to our TA. We are currently looking at NCL cuz they are best itinerary with the wildnetness tour. But I read that princess is pretty interactive so i wondered about them, but they only have history tour and we want to go further.

 

We also wanted aleyska, but my McKinley might be substitute. 

 

So you change the tour ahead of time or on ship? My hubby would not be pleased if we booked and couldnt change it. 

We booked a Connoisseur tour through Princess (10 day land tour after a 4 day DIY) and got the Tundra Wilderness Tour as part of the package.  We were able to upgrade to the Katnisha (sp?) tour after we booked.  I just called Princess and requested the upgraded tour.  Have to pay the difference in price but it was pretty easy to do.

[JjC81]

3 minutes ago, disneyochem said:

We booked a Connoisseur tour through Princess (10 day land tour after a 4 day DIY) and got the Tundra Wilderness Tour as part of the package.  We were able to upgrade to the Katnisha (sp?) tour after we booked.  I just called Princess and requested the upgraded tour.  Have to pay the difference in price but it was pretty easy to do.

Not sure how DIY tour works? Do you book through princess?

 

We want tundra or the even longer ride (giving kids tablet for this). Seems best way to see denali. My hubby wants to see mckinley but princess seems to be only ones to do it. But we can do tram up aleyska on Ncl but not princess. Decisions decisions... no clue how DIY works

[disneyochem]

3 minutes ago, JjC81 said:

Not sure how DIY tour works? Do you book through princess?

 

We want tundra or the even longer ride (giving kids tablet for this). Seems best way to see denali. My hubby wants to see mckinley but princess seems to be only ones to do it. But we can do tram up aleyska on Ncl but not princess. Decisions decisions... no clue how DIY works

A DIY tour is a “do it yourself” tour.  Travel independently.  We are taking a cruise up to Seward from Vancouver, spending 4 days on our own (rented a car, made our own hotel reservations, etc) and then starting a Princess land tour for ten days in Fairbanks before cruising back to Vancouver.

 

I’m a planner so I love the research!  Hubby got me the Connoisseur tour as a 25th wedding anniversary gift as well as the 4 DIY days because he knows that no planning would drive me crazy!

[mapleleaves]

There are many ways go DIY,  Do It Yourself .   

DIY requires planning and research since YOU will determine which destinations you want to visit, how long you want to stay at each, what to do,  where to stay (hotel/lodge/cabin/B&B), and how to get around ( car, motorhome, train, bus, or train/bus combo).  

For some reason people are nervous about driving in Alaska. It's very easy, given that there are so few highways, and for the most part 2 lanes they're only 2 lanes.  If renting a car isn't an option, you can use the Alaska Railroad, but keep in mind that you will need to get yourself from the depot to your lodging at each location unless the hotel provides a shuttle.  Or you can travel via the Park Connection Bus, again you need to get yourself to your lodging).  Or travel one way by train and the other by bus .  The train only has one departure per day and is quite slow, whereas the bus usually has 2 per day.

Another option is to consider a land package sold by the railroad .  This offers you some flexibility in determining where to go and how long to stay, but they take care of the lodging/transportation details:

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/travel-planning/packages/summer-packages

 

Similarly the Park Connection Bus parent company offers packages via train and/or bus:

https://www.alaskatravel.com/vacations/packages/

 

Obviously the benefit to DIY is that you go where YOU want to go, have more control over your daily schedule,  no luggage at the door by 6am.   BUT you have to do the research and planning.  My trips have all been DIY ... I love the planning !

Good luck with your research !