New to Regent - Alaska cruise help!

[MarEll1]

We are looking at a Seward - Vancouver cruise this August. Our TA is pushing us to use Regent to book the air. We are in Tucson but can fly nonstop from/to Phoenix for less than $600 each and I’d rather choose my own flights. Will Regent still include the pre cruise hotel and transfers if we book our own air? Do we even want the Regent pre cruise hotel or should we choose our own? We are planning on a Concierge Suite but maybe don’t need that? Sorry so long - I don’t think our TA books a lot of Regent. She is pushing Oceania but a Concierge Veranda on Oceania is waay too small for us. And frankly with all the add ones we would need on Oceania, I think Regent makes more sense.

[cwn]

Stick with Regent. Go with the concierge suite for the night before and more important the early chance at booking tours and dinning reservations since you are new to Regent. Personally I would take the air credit and book my own flights, Regent doesn’t book your flights until about 70 days out, so for best flight choices, do your own. This doesn’t effect the hotel night and ship transfer. Flying to Alaska is tedious, and tiring, think about going earlier and renting a car for a day or two to explore the peninsula……. Beautiful! 

[jeb_bud]

If you book your own travel you also need to get yourself to your hotel. Concierge will get you the hotel night which also includes transfer to the ship. 
 

Our first Regent cruise was Vancouver to Seward in Concierge. Our home airport is not on Regent’s list and we found it marginally more expensive to book our own first class air than to let Regent book us in coach. So we booked our own air and took a taxi to the hotel. 
 

If this is your first trip to Alaska I would think about flying in a few days early, renting a car and spending a couple of days in Denali National Park. 

Edited January 19, 2023 by jeb_bud
Correct a typo

[MarEll1]

6 minutes ago, jeb_bud said:

If you book your own travel you also need to get yourself to your hotel. Concierge will get you the hotel night which also includes transfer to the ship. 
 

Our first Regent cruise was Vancouver to Seward in Concierge. Our home airport is not on Regent’s list and we found it marginally more expensive to book our own first class air than to let Regent book us in coach. So we booked our own air and took a taxi to the hotel. 
 

If this is your first trip to Alaska I would think about flying in a few days early, renting a car and spending a couple of days in Denali National Park. 

Thanks for the information. Husband has trouble taking more than a week vacation at a time but I’m working on him to spend a bit more time in Alaska precruise.

[MarEll1]

27 minutes ago, cwn said:

Stick with Regent. Go with the concierge suite for the night before and more important the early chance at booking tours and dinning reservations since you are new to Regent. Personally I would take the air credit and book my own flights, Regent doesn’t book your flights until about 70 days out, so for best flight choices, do your own. This doesn’t effect the hotel night and ship transfer. Flying to Alaska is tedious, and tiring, think about going earlier and renting a car for a day or two to explore the peninsula……. Beautiful! 

Thanks for your advice! 

[MarEll1]

One other question - will we still be able to book decent shore excursions now for an August 23 cruise? I know many people book Alaska cruises a year ahead. I don’t want to book this and then find the shore excursions we are interested in are full.

[cwn]

1 hour ago, MarEll1 said:

One other question - will we still be able to book decent shore excursions now for an August 23 cruise? I know many people book Alaska cruises a year ahead. I don’t want to book this and then find the shore excursions we are interested in are full.

Alaska is popular, but you should not have any problem. If you should have to waitlist for one you want, it usually clears by final payment. And you can book a back up and a waitlist at the same time, A couple of the ports don't really need a booked tours. They are fun to just walk around and explore on your own. We have been there 6 times on cruises and twice on RV trips

[MarEll1]

3 minutes ago, cwn said:

Alaska is popular, but you should not have any problem. If you should have to waitlist for one you want, it usually clears by final payment. And you can book a back up and a waitlist at the same time, A couple of the ports don't really need a booked tours. They are fun to just walk around and explore on your own. We have been there 6 times on cruises and twice on RV trips

Great information - thank you. Since you have some experience there, could you tell me if I can convince husband to go to Anchorage a few days early and rent a car is it easy to sightsee on our own? Don’t really want to do a Denali “package”.

[cwn]

I have blogs of two of our trios to Alaska.

One, a RV trip of two plus months tells about Kenai Peninsula and Homer and also Denali Nat Park.

www.northtoalaska2009.blogspot.com      Sept 3-5 for Denali  and Sept 8-11 for Kenai and Homer.

 

Second one is a driving trip and 14 day Seabourn Alaskan cruise a few years ago. e probably hit some of yur ports.

www.tigerbluecheese.blogspot.com

[cwn]

4 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

Great information - thank you. Since you have some experience there, could you tell me if I can convince husband to go to Anchorage a few days early and rent a car is it easy to sightsee on our own? Don’t really want to do a Denali “package”.

If you can bring up our blogs, it will tell some of the things we did. We also flew to Anchorage in 2002 and rented a 35ft RV and drove 2200 miles in two weeks almost all of Alaska driveable roads. Alaska is beautiful. easy to drive. do not take a bus tour. It is two easy to drive and do your own thing. Order the  Mile Post driving guide for Alaska from Amazon. We use that. it tells you what there is to do, see ,stay and eat mile by mile.For the time you will spend flying to Anchorage you need to rent a car and see some of the beautiful interior. It is a really easy place to self drive!

[MarEll1]

I found the tigerbluecheese blog. Thank you! I’ll look at it tonight.

[cwn]

30 minutes ago, cwn said:

I have blogs of two of our trios to Alaska.

One, a RV trip of two plus months tells about Kenai Peninsula and Homer and also Denali Nat Park.

www.northtoalaska2009.blogspot.com      Sept 3-5 for Denali  and Sept 8-11 for Kenai and Homer.

 

Second one is a driving trip and 14 day Seabourn Alaskan cruise a few years ago. e probably hit some of yur ports.

www.tigerbluecheese.blogspot.com

Try this for the blogs….

https://northtoalaskajuly2009.blogspot.com

 

and

 

https://tigerbluecheese.blogspot.com 

Edited January 19, 2023 by cwn

[MarEll1]

8 minutes ago, cwn said:

Try this for the blogs….

https://northtoalaskajuly2009.blogspot.com

 

and

 

https://tigerbluecheese.blogspot.com 

Those work! Great! I really appreciate it.

[cwn]

2 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

Those work! Great! I really appreciate it.

Glad you could open the files. Hope you can convince your hubby to go a couple of days early, Alaska is worth it and is so much more than what you see from the ship though that is wonderful also! You are going later in the season so expect some wet, but there should not be as many kids. Lodging and eateries tend to be more rustic than big city USA, but the seafood is fresh and good. Have fun planning. We are thinking about a BtoB from Vancouver in 2024.

[2012_Alaska_bound]

15 hours ago, cwn said:

We are thinking about a BtoB from Vancouver in 2024.

 

CWN,

 

Did you see the 14 day Vancouver to Vancouver in May 2024? That is the one we are taking.

 

Martha

[pappy1022]

Please do experience Alaska beyond just walking around the port towns that you visit. The natural beauty is awesome. Our family did a small group whale watching tour, your ship may get close to glaciers, if not, find an excursion that does so. We also took a helicopter trip and landed on a glacier and walked around, and took a flight plane that landed on a remote mountain lake and for an hour or so, we walked around the area and had Alaska to ourselves. There are dog sledding, bear watching, salmon fishing, etc. adventures that are all wonderful. The list goes on and on. And do pick a cruise that goes through the inside passage and sit on your deck and admire the beauty all around you. It could be the cruise of a lifetime and take in as much as you can because it is a beautiful state. 

[papaflamingo]

18 hours ago, MarEll1 said:

One other question - will we still be able to book decent shore excursions now for an August 23 cruise? I know many people book Alaska cruises a year ahead. I don’t want to book this and then find the shore excursions we are interested in are full.

If Shore Excursions are a deal breaker, then what you can do is have your TA put a Seven day hold on the cruise.  This will give you a booking number and you can register with Regent on their website and go to "My Account" and "Booked Cruises," and add the booking at the bottom of the page.  Then you can go into "Manage this booking" and select "Customize" under the "Shore Excursion" prompt and you can go port by port to and see what excursions are still available.   Can't remember if you can actually book them or not before you pay the deposit,  but you can try. Then if you can't get any excursions you want, you can decide if the other Concierge perks are worth the money.  

Edited January 20, 2023 by papaflamingo

[MarEll1]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

If Shore Excursions are a deal breaker, then what you can do is have your TA put a Seven day hold on the cruise.  This will give you a booking number and you can register with Regent on their website and go to "My Account" and "Booked Cruises," and add the booking at the bottom of the page.  Then you can go into "Manage this booking" and select "Customize" under the "Shore Excursion" prompt and you can go port by port to and see what excursions are still available.   Can't remember if you can actually book them or not before you pay the deposit,  but you can try. Then if you can't get any excursions you want, you can decide if the other Concierge perks are worth the money.  

That’s great advice. I wasn’t aware I could do that. Thank you.

[cwn]

2 hours ago, 2012_Alaska_bound said:

 

CWN,

 

Did you see the 14 day Vancouver to Vancouver in May 2024? That is the one we are taking.

 

Martha

That is one of the ones we are looking at. It is early in the season so the weather should be at its best, down side is it is baby time at the glaciers. Sometimes the ship are limited  in how far they can go toward the glacier. We have been once in May one e in late June and the rest of the time at the end of the season…. Sometimes the last ship! But we want to do a 14 day cruise just to have longer on the ship.

[cwn]

18 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

That’s great advice. I wasn’t aware I could do that. Thank you.

Glad Papaflamingo explain how to see the excursions before you book. We never had trouble getting what we want.

 

The helicopter and plane rides are wonderful but of course an extra cost. Do try to get out on a glacier by helicopter. We did the first time we went in 1991. And do at least one whale watching tour. Several ports will have them. Go to a salmon bake also. They are kind a hokey, Last time we were there we had  a young bear visit looking scrapes of the s'mores. And the salmon is good and fresh. But do not pass up some just walking around. There are bits of history hidden in the towns, it is harder to see now that 2 to 5 ships spit out 1000s of passengers each  day, but it is there.

[jeb_bud]

21 hours ago, MarEll1 said:

Great information - thank you. Since you have some experience there, could you tell me if I can convince husband to go to Anchorage a few days early and rent a car is it easy to sightsee on our own? Don’t really want to do a Denali “package”.

You need to put in a little work but it’s easy to do. We did a simple extension to our cruise by renting a car in Anchorage and heading north. We booked a hotel at Denali, the same one Regent was using for their extension assuming they had found a good one. Booked an evening show at Husky Homestead and a bus tour into Denali the next day. We could have used another day or two but we got a nice overview. Since you are driving on your own you can also stop at any interesting sites along the way. Just be sure to book your car and hotel early. 

[MarEll1]

2 minutes ago, jeb_bud said:

You need to put in a little work but it’s easy to do. We did a simple extension to our cruise by renting a car in Anchorage and heading north. We booked a hotel at Denali, the same one Regent was using for their extension assuming they had found a good one. Booked an evening show at Husky Homestead and a bus tour into Denali the next day. We could have used another day or two but we got a nice overview. Since you are driving on your own you can also stop at any interesting sites along the way. Just be sure to book your car and hotel early. 

We are looking at a southbound cruise so would do this on the front end. I will try to figure out Regent’s Denali hotel - I’d agree that it would likely be a good one. Thank you for your advice.

[jeb_bud]

7 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

We are looking at a southbound cruise so would do this on the front end. I will try to figure out Regent’s Denali hotel - I’d agree that it would likely be a good one. Thank you for your advice.

In 2016 it was Grande Denali Lodge. The rooms are fine and the views are excellent. 

[MarEll1]

35 minutes ago, jeb_bud said:

In 2016 it was Grande Denali Lodge. The rooms are fine and the views are excellent. 

Great! I will check it out. Just talked to our TA, she is going to put a hold on the cruise for us.

[MarEll1]

So we have the 7 day hold, but Regent told our TA we can’t see shore excursion availability until we pay the deposit. So I guess we will pay it and keep our fingers crossed.