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Post cruise touring - cruise tour or plan our own itinerary?


gilliansp
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Planning a September 2022 Celebrity cruise Vancouver - Seward. Not sure whether to go with one of the many post cruise tours offered by Celebrity or plan our own tour. There are things we'd like to do that aren't covered by the cruisetour and things included in the cruisetour options that we may not be interested in but also concerned about driving distances, bad weather etc and not making it to our final destination to catch our flight home! 

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On 2/1/2021 at 7:30 AM, gilliansp said:

Planning a September 2022 Celebrity cruise Vancouver - Seward. Not sure whether to go with one of the many post cruise tours offered by Celebrity or plan our own tour. There are things we'd like to do that aren't covered by the cruisetour and things included in the cruisetour options that we may not be interested in but also concerned about driving distances, bad weather etc and not making it to our final destination to catch our flight home! 

When in September is your trip? After the first couple of weeks, many of the summer visitor season activities begin to shut down. So whether you are travelling independently or as part of a cruisetour, some things will not be available if you wait until too late in September.

There's nothing a cruise tour offers that you can't do on your own. I drove motorcoach for those cruisetours for two summers and based on that, I recommend people do their own trip with a rental car.

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Thanks for advice! Planning on arriving in Anchorage approx 6 th September, for one week self-drive touring before cruise, which departs Seward on the 14th. Figured that may be best way to do things, taking into account what you have mentioned. Thought of visiting Denali (! night only), Homer, Talkeetena, and ending up in Seward for a couple of nights.Is that  possible to do in a week?

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On 2/1/2021 at 7:32 PM, Coral said:

I wouldn't go too late in September. September seems to have the most problematic weather of the cruising seasons.

Yes I realised that so planning to do a self-drive tour second week of September.

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On 2/1/2021 at 6:42 PM, 1025cruise said:

For September, I would stick with a cruise tour. Things start shutting down at that time due to weather. It's really the end of the season.

Planning to do a self drive tour during second week September. Not a good idea??

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10 hours ago, gilliansp said:

Planning to do a self drive tour during second week September. Not a good idea??

Your dates should work out just fine. You should get the last of the fall colors. I would put Denali National Park at the beginning of your time. Remember, it takes the better part of a day to get to Denali National Park from Anchorage. And then I'd use the shuttle buses (not a tour) to spend a full day going into the park: https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm . And then a day back to Anchorage. Going and/coming, you'd have time for maybe Talkeetna or Hatcher Pass or the Matanuska Glacier. And all of that is assuming you'll have a rental car. If you are looking to rely on trains or buses, figure a lot more travel time and less options to get to.

If you want to do a 1 way car rental to drop in Seward, Hertz is the only provider. It might be better to finish your driving in Anchorage and then take a bus or train to Seward to catch your cruise.

Homer is great if there's something specific you want to do there. Otherwise, it's a long drive to get there. 

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Hello again. Thanks for your wonderful info, so helpful. We are planning on renting a car, so how long, average, is the drive to Denali, with a stop on the way, to break up the journey, possibly Talkeeetna on the way out and Matunska Glacier on return to Anchorage? Will spend at least one night in Anchorage because of long flight from Europe. Will forget about Homer, take your advice on train or bus to Seward and would like to spend at least one full day/night in Seward before cruise. Can we do all this in 7 days? Many thanks.

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On 2/5/2021 at 12:34 AM, gilliansp said:

Hello again. Thanks for your wonderful info, so helpful. We are planning on renting a car, so how long, average, is the drive to Denali, with a stop on the way, to break up the journey, possibly Talkeeetna on the way out and Matunska Glacier on return to Anchorage? Will spend at least one night in Anchorage because of long flight from Europe. Will forget about Homer, take your advice on train or bus to Seward and would like to spend at least one full day/night in Seward before cruise. Can we do all this in 7 days? Many thanks.

If it was me, I'd give myself 6 to 8 hours to get from Anchorage to Denali National Park. You might be able to do it faster, but I'd allow the extra time. Visiting Talkeetna & the Matanuska Glacier going or coming works. So yes, 7 days will be enough time. But, Canada just closed their ports for the rest of the year, so Alaska cruises aren't happening.

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