Alaskan Cruise Land Portion - Fjord & Tundra VS. Grand Mountain Marvels

[Cruiser0721]

Hi, we're planning a last minute Alaska cruisetour on the Radiance of the Seas for this September.  We want to get the most out of the land portion and I'm having a difficult time determining the difference between the land selections titled "Fjord & Tundra National Parks Explorer" and "Grand Mountain Marvels" other than one being a day longer.  It looks like the "Marvels" includes time in Talkeetna and two nights in Denali and the "Explorer" has two nights in Fairbanks.

 

It's just me and my husband and we want to take in as much as possible, but I don't know which one to choose.

 

Help??

[OCSC Mike]

12 minutes ago, Cruiser0721 said:

Hi, we're planning a last minute Alaska cruisetour on the Radiance of the Seas for this September.  We want to get the most out of the land portion and I'm having a difficult time determining the difference between the land selections titled "Fjord & Tundra National Parks Explorer" and "Grand Mountain Marvels" other than one being a day longer.  It looks like the "Marvels" includes time in Talkeetna and two nights in Denali and the "Explorer" has two nights in Fairbanks.

 

It's just me and my husband and we want to take in as much as possible, but I don't know which one to choose.

 

Help??

 

There's an extremely long trip review of my 10-day DIY land tour and 7-night Radiance Southbound cruise from 2018 in my signature  if you're interested.

 

If you want a short answer, Denali, Denali, and more Denali!

 

Nothing against Fairbanks, we started our trip there, drove to the Arctic Circle, and flew back to Fairbanks... but Denali was a much bigger highlight between the mountain and the animals.

Edited May 23, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[mapleleaves]

typically you need at least TWO nites in Denali in order to take a bus tour thru the park.  However, due to a rockslide the park road is only open to about Milepost 40.  Bear sightings typically start near Toklat at Mile 50 so your potential for wildlife sightings will be very limited when you can only travel on 40 miles of the park's 90 miles of roadway.

Having said that, Sept is rutting season so the moose are active and are often seen within the first 5-6 miles of the park road. 

Another thought .... you don;t say when in Sept.  The Denali buses stop running around Sept 10-15. Check the park web site for details.  Bus Tours - Denali National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Talkeetna is a really small town/village. Kinda quirky, artsy fartsy shopping place  People typically do Denali flight seeing from Talkeetna.

Personally, Denali is the hightlight of my Alaska trips. I had a long RV trip planned with the intent of making multiple trips into the park to view wildlife.  But Mile 40 is too limiting, so. I cancelled last yr and again this yr. Very disappointing.  

[britty1]

59 minutes ago, Cruiser0721 said:

Hi, we're planning a last minute Alaska cruisetour on the Radiance of the Seas for this September.  We want to get the most out of the land portion and I'm having a difficult time determining the difference between the land selections titled "Fjord & Tundra National Parks Explorer" and "Grand Mountain Marvels" other than one being a day longer.  It looks like the "Marvels" includes time in Talkeetna and two nights in Denali and the "Explorer" has two nights in Fairbanks.

 

It's just me and my husband and we want to take in as much as possible, but I don't know which one to choose.

 

Help??

My husband and I did Talkeetna and two days in Denali. Don’t think I would have enjoyed 2 days in Fairbanks. You could always do both and do an extra day in Fairbanks on your own. Fairbanks is we’re we finished, could book in the same hotel for an extra day and have both.

it was a great trip.

 

[OCSC Mike]

27 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

typically you need at least TWO nites in Denali in order to take a bus tour thru the park.  However, due to a rockslide the park road is only open to about Milepost 40.  Bear sightings typically start near Toklat at Mile 50 so your potential for wildlife sightings will be very limited when you can only travel on 40 miles of the park's 90 miles of roadway.

Having said that, Sept is rutting season so the moose are active and are often seen within the first 5-6 miles of the park road. 

Another thought .... you don;t say when in Sept.  The Denali buses stop running around Sept 10-15. Check the park web site for details.  Bus Tours - Denali National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Talkeetna is a really small town/village. Kinda quirky, artsy fartsy shopping place  People typically do Denali flight seeing from Talkeetna.

Personally, Denali is the hightlight of my Alaska trips. I had a long RV trip planned with the intent of making multiple trips into the park to view wildlife.  But Mile 40 is too limiting, so. I cancelled last yr and again this yr. Very disappointing.  

 

Forgot about the rock slide. Definitely a good point.

 

We stayed 2 nights in the Lodge at the end of the road and, like you said, flew around the mountain from a Talkeetna flight tour company. Going all the way to the back of the park and the lodge itself was definitely a highlight (except for the idiot tourist who accidentally discharged bear spray into an employee's face). Fortunately we were told she was OK.

 

Our bus ride back to the front early in the morning was pretty cool too. It was just the driver, us, and one employee heading into town for supplies and he went to the back of the bus to get extra sleep, lol. So it was like a private tour. The driver was like, we can stop more, stop less, skip stuff, whatever you want.

Edited May 23, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[Cruiser0721]

Thank you all for your help, you all brought up some good points and items I should look into.  We are going ahead with our plans for the 2 nights in Denali - I have a feeling that we're going to enjoy the land portion of the trip more than the cruise part!  We're so excited and even through the cruise is over 3 months away, all of the excursions are filling up quickly!  Let me know if there's anything that we shouldn't miss!

 

Thanks again!

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, Cruiser0721 said:

I have a feeling that we're going to enjoy the land portion of the trip more than the cruise part!

 

We definitely did but we also stretched the budget a bit with the land portion and didn't do as much in all the ports as we could have.

 

You'll love all of it, just some parts will be even better than others.

[SightCRR]

We didn't really enjoy F/B that much but we missed some of the world class museums. Also the later into the month of Sept the more chance you have of seeing northern lights often not visible from the more southern parts of the state which has easier access to dark sky without light pullulation. YMMV.  

sightcrr

[Cruiser0721]

Fingers crossed that we'll get a glimpse of the northern lights.  The land portion is from 9/10-9/16 - we're from Florida, so I'm hoping we won't freeze.  We go to Breckenridge, CO during spring break, hoping it's not any colder than that!  Just going to be different not wearing shorts and tanks on the cruise portion!