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What's better?.....PLan our pre-cruise week in Alaska thru Cruise line or independently ?


zdad59
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We're just beginning our planning for a land-sea 2 weeks in Alaska.    We have an RCL Future Cruise Credit (FCC) to use so we're sort of bound to RCL.     We're thinking a week on land pre-cruise, followed by a southbound week to Vancouver.     But how to plan the land based week.     There are RCL sponsored/planned tours.    There are some cool independent land/rail tours out there.    It's pretty overwhelming.     Is there a consensus from those with experience on what's the best way to plan the week on land?     I'm pretty adept at planning, so if independent is a batter way to go, there is no fear in that.    But some of the ship sponsored pre cruise tours seem pretty decent too.

 

Any advice from those with experience is appreciated.

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We did a DIY land tour before a southbound cruise. I used the cruiseline's list of stops as a basis and omitted some that weren't of particular interest, then added some that sounded better to us. Had no problem reserving lodging (about 6 months prior) and found several local restaurants that were quite delightful and tasty. Except for the Discovery Riverboat and Tundra Wilderness excursions, we could stop wherever we wanted for a photo op or to just admire the view for as long as we wanted. And no time spent getting 40-60 people back on a bus at each stop. Saved at least a third of the cruiseline's cost for land portion and had a customized tour. Of course, someone had to be willing to drive, but frequent pull-offs to admire the scenery made it not so tedious. Hard to get lost - only 1 road between Anchorage and Fairbanks, with a side trip to Talkeetna. Denali is on the Anchorage-Fairbanks main road.

 

Flew into Anchorage, rented car, spent night.

While driving to Fairbanks, we stopped at Alaska Native Heritage Center, Eklutna (Russian church & cemetery), Talkeetna and the Alaskan Veterans Memorial (in a pull-off).

In Fairbanks, we did the Discovery Riverboat (met folks who were on the ship's tour and would cruise with us), drove out to the pipeline exhibit and visited North Pole.

Spent time at Denali - hiked a few easy trails and took the Tundra Wilderness Tour.

Drove back to Anchorage, toured the Anchorage Museum before returning the car and catching the bus to the ship.

 

 

 

Edited by Cruise Suzy
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There will be no consensus at all on this question so I will give you my thoughts.  I have been on about 5 cruises to AK, did a 1 week cruise in AK on a small ship that held 50 passengers, been in Fairbanks for 1 1/2 weeks in February for an aurora photography trip, spent a week in Haines doing eagle photography and did a 2 1/2 month 12,000 mile driving trip in AK which included driving the haul road from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay and which ended up w a Alaska Marine Highway trip from I believe Haines to Prince Rupert.  The only part of AK that we have not visited is out on the Aleutians although we did get to Kodiak which is a neat place and Nome.  We had a cruise scheduled for that for summer 2020 which unfortunately was cancelled due to Covid.  I guess that we have done AK in almost every way possible.

 

Now for my strongly held opinions and I know that most of the people on CC will disagree w me.  I can say unequivocally that all of my land trips and the cruise on the 50 passenger ship were far better than any of the large ship cruises that we took.  I have looked at the cruise line land trip and I find them to be universally awful.  You get maybe 3 to 5 days on land and as much of your land time is spent on the bus or train getting from place to place instead actually seeing a place. 

 

Take Denali as an example.  The land trips give you maybe 1 or 2 nights in Denali.  However, if you look at the actual arrival and departure times of your 1 night in Denali, you get there at maybe noon on day 1 by either train or bus and leave the next day at maybe 1 or 2PM.  There are 3 tours that are available in Denali.  The cruise company give you the shortest tour which only takes you a few miles into the park but that is all the time that you have and it is also the cheapest option for the cruise company.


Another thing.  AK is a spectacular state with wonderful scenery and also a lot of wildlife.  However, if you are on a bus or train and there is a place that you would like to stop to look at or take pictures of or if there is a bear or moose on the side of the road or tracks, do you think that the bus or train will stop and admire the spot.  Not likely.

 

AK is a really big place.  The land tours try to see too much in too little time.  Distances in AK are larger than you think.  It can take you a lot longer to get from point A to C  because summer is when they do road construction and you will get stuck behind slow RVs.  Don't believe the times that you read in Google.  The reason I said "from point A to point C" is that as you are on your bus going to point C, you will not have the opportunity to make an unplanned stop at point B which might be a great place to stop at.

 

I would suggest that instead of trying to see too much in your week on land, pick maybe 2 or at most 3 locations that look interesting and concentrate on them instead of running from place to place.

 

One more thing.  Does RCL go to Glacier Bay.  If it doesn't dump the RCL cruise even though you have FCC on them and go on a line that visits Glacier Bay.  Glacier Bay is not a National Park for nothing.  It is a place that you will never forget.

 

Enough of my long winded preaching.  Hope that this helps.

 

DON

Edited by donaldsc
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We did a DIY land portion before our southbound cruise on RCL in 2018. Two couples in 50s and 60s.  We flew into Anchorage and spent 1 night there and picked up our rental car. The next day we picked up some supplies and headed to Denali, stopping to hike in Denali State Park, have a picnic and visit the Veterans' Memorial.  We rented a cabin through VRBO in Healy and loved living like a true Alaskan for a few days.  We took the park bus to Eielson Visitor Center (66 miles into the park). (Note: If I had the chance to do this over, I'd fly to Katishna, spend the night and take the bus out. The 8-hour day on the bus was not our favorite, just saying....)

 

We stopped in Talkeetna for lunch on our way back to Anchorage. Spent 1 more night in Anchorage and headed to Seward.  We decided to skip Fairbanks and spend additional time in Seward, which was the right choice for us. We did the 6-hour Major Marine cruise, visited Exit Glacier, went to the SeaLife Center (paid extra to do the Puffin Encounter) and took a helicopter to go dog sledding on a glacier!!

 

RCL cruise embarks in Seward and it was incerdible to see our ship in the harbor when we woke up in the morning! We LOVED the RCL cruise - we did book all of our excursions independently.

 

As far as Glacier Bay goes....I was beating myself up that our ship didn't go there.  We had a great glacier experience in Kenai Fjords and went to Hubbard Glacier on the cruise.  We were lucky that day and the captain got within 4/10 mile of the glacier! So yes, everyone says you HAVE to go to Glacier Bay...but if you have RCL credit, I'd say stick with RCL.  We also added on a few land days at the end of our cruise - Vancouver and then Seattle (it was cheaper to fly home from there). We're from the east coast, so decided to see all that we could on the west coast!

 

Have fun planning!!

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You have enough time to decide what option is best for you. Personally I would DIY the land portion because there are so many unique places that a group tour would not include, e.g. Hatcher Pass, or deep in Denali at Camp Denali/North Face Lodge. A short sail on the Alaska Marine Hwy can take you from Whittier to Valdez. DH and I even played midnight golf in Soldotna!

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I spent two summers driving motorcoach for Holland America, transporting visitors who were traveling on a cruisetour. 
Based on that experience, I recommend doing the land portion DIY. There's nothing on a cruisetour that you can't book independently, often for cheaper. Travel is easy to plan using this forum or the TripAdvisor forum for Alaska.

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LOts of good stuff.     I am a super-planner, so maybe doing the land portion as a DIY could be fun.    We would certainly fly into Anchorage, likely after a doy or two stop over in San Francisco or Seattle (want to break up the trip from Philly, otherwise a real long travel day).    Now to breakdown what to do and where to stay.   Definitely a day or two in Denali, but we'll have to add a few other stops.

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1 hour ago, Ashland said:

OP...definitely use your FCC don't let it go to waste regardless of how some other's feel about RCI and their itinerary.

 

My thought was that if RCl doesn't do Glacier Bay, do your AK cruise on a ship that has a good AK itinerary.  You can then use the FCC for a cruise that works better than the RCl AK cruise.   I have been on a cruise that did the Kenai Fjords Glaciers.  I have been to Hubbard Glacier which is amazing if you get close to it as getting close to Hubbard is a crap shoot.  Glacier Bay is better.  

 

DON

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2 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

My thought was that if RCl doesn't do Glacier Bay, do your AK cruise on a ship that has a good AK itinerary.  You can then use the FCC for a cruise that works better than the RCl AK cruise.   I have been on a cruise that did the Kenai Fjords Glaciers.  I have been to Hubbard Glacier which is amazing if you get close to it as getting close to Hubbard is a crap shoot.  Glacier Bay is better.  

 

DON

RCI doesn't do Glacier Bay. The OP has a time limit use for their FCC...so their decision.

I guess we've been lucky and have gotten extremely up close to Hubbard on all our cruises...

one particularly close..I guess it helped that our Captains parents were onboard :classic_wink:

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To help you decide go to the library and check out the newest version they have of the "Milepost". It will give you all there is to know about the roads, what to look for and what to avoid. Then if you decide to diy buy your own latest and greatest milepost to take. 

Then start to eliminate things since you wont have time for everything. I would skip Fairbanks skipping gold dredge, pipeline and north pole. It is a long drive. Then keep a watch on the Denali road work. If they have more slides at m/p 42 skip Denali as most of the animals and mountain views are past 42. 

That way you can spend more time around ANC. One highlight would be Hatcher Pass and walking on Matanuska Glacier with a guide after driving 2 hr out of Anc. This would take one whole day.   Palmer Musk Ox farm, Wasilla dog sled museum, reindeer farm are other sites but I have no idea how c-19 has affected them. For an extra pricey option look into one day fly in to Katmi to see if the dates for bear viewing line up. You can fly from either Lake Hood in Anc , Soldotna or Homer. Then there is lots to see south of Anc like Homer and Seward on the way to ship.   I would have a hard time on a bus driving past wildlife or mountain view on the way to hotel. One other tip is if you see cars pulled off on side  of road pull in behind them because likely something to see. You will see the cars long before you see the views they are getting. Have fun.   

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Good discussion...  a few comments...

 

People on this forum are probably planners... so I would expect responses to favor DIY.

I am a planner and we normally do DIY, but for Alaska we did the RCCL land tour.   We really enjoyed it. 

 

One thing to consider is the drive times.  Alaska is really big.   8 hour drives do not appeal to me, I am tired if I am the driver  for that long.  I enjoyed the free time on the bus.  

 

I also got to know a few people on our bus group and enjoyed the conversations...   This would not happen in a rental car.

 

Another thing to consider is your ability to extend your trip.   An example, if retired you may be able to extend the trip by doing DIY,  and get a longer vacation for less money.   However, if you are limited on time away from home the pre packaged cruise tours may get you to see more things in fewer days and leave the longer drives up to the bus driver.

 

Have fun...!

 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Ashland said:

RCI doesn't do Glacier Bay. The OP has a time limit use for their FCC...so their decision.

I guess we've been lucky and have gotten extremely up close to Hubbard on all our cruises...

one particularly close..I guess it helped that our Captains parents were onboard :classic_wink:

The first year I was schedule to go to Hubbard glacier - no ships made it (even if Captain's parents were onboard). I don't know if it was after a certain date but Hubbard was blocked from all ships and I went in July and for the rest of the season.

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17 hours ago, zdad59 said:

 I am a super-planner, so maybe doing the land portion as a DIY could be fun.    We would certainly fly into Anchorage,     Now to breakdown what to do and where to stay.   Definitely a day or two in Denali, but we'll have to add a few other stops.

As other's have pointed out, Alaska is big. It's easy to cram in too much driving trying to see it all. So choose the highlights and enjoy them. From Anchorage, Denali requires a minimum of 3 days (in my opinion). The drive up is a day, with time to stop at Talkeetna or Hatcher Pass. You'll want a full day for getting into the park on the shuttle buses ( not a "tour"):  https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm  And then a day to get back to Anchorage. If you want to add additional days to Denali, there's plenty to do. You could also add an additional day on the way back at the Matanuska Glacier.

 

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3 hours ago, CCJack said:

Good discussion...  a few comments...

 

People on this forum are probably planners... so I would expect responses to favor DIY.

I am a planner and we normally do DIY, but for Alaska we did the RCCL land tour.   We really enjoyed it. 

 

One thing to consider is the drive times.  Alaska is really big.   8 hour drives do not appeal to me, I am tired if I am the driver  for that long.  I enjoyed the free time on the bus.  

 

I also got to know a few people on our bus group and enjoyed the conversations...   This would not happen in a rental car.

 

Another thing to consider is your ability to extend your trip.   An example, if retired you may be able to extend the trip by doing DIY,  and get a longer vacation for less money.   However, if you are limited on time away from home the pre packaged cruise tours may get you to see more things in fewer days and leave the longer drives up to the bus driver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the basic problem w your assumption and also the basic problem w cruise or bus trips - they end up spending more time on the bus than actually seeing things.  I don't consider an 8 hour bus ride a vacation.  I consider it a form of torture.  The same thing goes for train trips which many people do in Alaska. 

 

You have to accept the fact that you are not going to see much of AK in 7 days (or a month or even a couple of months).  So don't try to see 5 things in 7 days spending maybe 1 day in each of the 5 places.  Instead pick 2 or 3 really interesting places that are reasonable distances from each other and concentrate on those limited areas.  Then figure that hopefully you can come back some day and see a few of the places that you missed on the 1st trip.  

 

DON

Edited by donaldsc
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1 hour ago, Coral said:

The first year I was schedule to go to Hubbard glacier - no ships made it (even if Captain's parents were onboard). I don't know if it was after a certain date but Hubbard was blocked from all ships and I went in July and for the rest of the season.

My cruises that went to Hubbard were always mid to late May...That might make a difference.

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We did a 3-week DIY tour this summer in Alaska after our Princess land/sea cruise was cancelled two years running.
 

My first comment to you is what are your interests/priorities in visiting Alaska?  Wildlife? Hiking? Glaciers?  It is very easy to tailor a tour that fits your interests.  For example, hubby is a huge train buff.  One of our priorities was to maximize train travel—which you can see many folks say how boring/long/torturous the trips are.  The train ride from Anchorage to Denali fulfilled his childhood  dream—others on these boards tell you not to do this ride.  If you do want to experience the rail, I would suggest the Glacier Discovey train or the Coastal Classic (Anchorage to Seward).  Both are very scenic!

 

Alaska is big but very easy to navigate.  Just keep in mind travel distances.  We enjoyed staying at least two nights at a place rather than constantly packing and unpacking (that’s not our preferred method of travel).  On our three week trip, we were able to visit a number of places— (Denali, Girdwood, Seward, Homer, Talkeetna) and saw wildlife (cruises, hikes, kayak, canoe), trekked on a glacier, flight seeing, sled dogs, the Great One in all of her glory—but did not have time to see it all!

 

Next summer, we, like you, have FCC that we need to use.  We’re taking a northbound Princess cruise, have 12 days to DIY and then cruise back to Vancouver on NCL.  Next summer we are visiting Denali, Wrangell St Elias NP, Fairbanks and Seward.  

 

 I started planning using the Princess tour as a starting point and, after using the Trip Advisor Alaska Forum, the Mile Post and the Lonely Planet Guidebook, developed an itinerary that met our needs and interests.

 

Have fun planning!  

 

 

Edited by disneyochem
Darn autocorrect!
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We had a great time on our Princess cruise tour several years ago. I liked that many things were planned for us. We did have our travel agent get us upgraded to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. It was great. In our case, I found a last-minute deal. It was less expensive than booking things on our own.

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@Ashland

Yes, it does seem you were pretty lucky.  We’ve been to Hubbard 5 times and only made it past Haenke Island twice.

 

For train enthusiasts with a local twist, another option is the Hurricane Turn Train from Talkeetna. 

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/ride-a-train/our-trains/hurricane-turn

 

“Locals have long loved the Hurricane for access to remote cabins, hunting and fishing, while visitors consider this train the Alaska Railroad’s best-kept secret for a truly authentic Alaskan experience – not to mention the panoramic views at the train’s turnaround point, Hurricane Gulch. On a clear day, Denali towers over the braided Susitna River.”

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13 hours ago, quack2 said:

Too many of the cruise line land itineraries include Fairbanks.  While Fairbanks may have its charms, I have yet to find them.

 

I have been to Fairbanks 3 or 4 times and I have enjoyed my stay every time.

 

Fairbanks is a good jumping off point for some locations such as Chena Hot Springs and the Prudhoe Bay haul road both of which are well worth doing.  Amazingly enough, it also has 2 superb museums - the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska and the Fountainhead Auto Museum which is one of the best auto museums in the US and perhaps the world.  I have done all of those things and visited the museums 2 or 3 times.

 

It is also home of the World Ice Art Championships - Ice Alaska which has superb very large ice carvings but that occurs in February so most cruisers would not be able to see it.  If you do go there in February, also go to Chena Hot Springs for the aurora.

 

I believe that Fairbanks is also a jumping off point for trips to Nome but I have not done that trip yet.

 

DON

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We have a cruise tour booked with Royal.  I’m having second thoughts.  One thing is the expense…..and no meals are included.  So I’m now thinking about just going a couple of days early and seeing what we can see in the area around Seward and Anchorage.  While Denali would be wonderful, I’m not sure this is the trip for it.  We may not be able to get 2 full weeks off from work to go.  My sadness would be no Denali or dome train at least this time.
 

Renting a car would be a must and they seem steep.  Is there transportation available from Anchorage to the port without a car?  In other words rent RT from Anchorage and then get another way to the pier?  In my brief search there seems a lot to do within a 3 hours of the port.

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