Alaska & Inside Package

[crispy23]

We are seriously considering booking the 11 day Viking Alaska cruise. We wondered what people’s views are generally and in respect of a preference in which direction to travel,  also has anyone has taken the 5/6 day Rocky Mountain rail extension which is seriously expensive but does look a fantastic add on.

[duquephart]

We did Seward to Vancouver for the shorter flight home. Beautiful sail either way. Do not even think of not doing the Denali extension.

[CILCIANRQTS]

6 hours ago, crispy23 said:

We are seriously considering booking the 11 day Viking Alaska cruise. We wondered what people’s views are generally and in respect of a preference in which direction to travel,  also has anyone has taken the 5/6 day Rocky Mountain rail extension which is seriously expensive but does look a fantastic add on.

Check the Rocky Mountain itineraries very carefully.

Much of the voyage is by bus! 

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, crispy23 said:

We are seriously considering booking the 11 day Viking Alaska cruise. We wondered what people’s views are generally and in respect of a preference in which direction to travel,  also has anyone has taken the 5/6 day Rocky Mountain rail extension which is seriously expensive but does look a fantastic add on.

 

Having worked these waters for many years, if the itinerary and time in port is the same, my preference is a southbound, as it gets the transit between Vancouver Island and the mainland in daylight.

 

Rather than the Rocky Mountaineer, may I suggest hiring a car, or small motorhome and setting your own schedule through the Rockies. Rather than flying home from Vancouver, you can drive through to Calgary and fly home from there.

[Vagabond51]

Like Heidi13, I spent a lifetime in these waters. Keep in mind SE Alaska has three seasons. June, July, August and winter. Can't speak to the Rockies transit, but I would HIGHLY recommend the White Pass Railroad ride out of Skagway.

 

I have talked to dozens of people over the years who cruised the inside passage, mostly of them in shoulder season to save a buck (or loonie) or two only to have 7 days where they could not see more than 700 feet off the water, ever. The view NEVER changed, the whole trip. Something to keep in mind. Hope this helps.

[phil1107]

Not sure what shoulder season is. What month was this?

[Jim Avery]

58 minutes ago, phil1107 said:

Not sure what shoulder season is. What month was this?

May and September.  May is traditionally the driest month in Alaska.

[Kiwi Dreamer]

We did this cruise in August 2019 and did the Denali extension and absolutely loved it.  So much to learn about Alaska and visited some great spots.  My husband enjoyed this more than the cruise itself.  We finished in Vancouver and then flew to Calgary and had five days staying in an Airbnb in Canmore.  A fantastic holiday.

 

[phil1107]

I have heard that July-September can be rainy. Is June, therefore, the best month to do this?

[Vagabond51]

10 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

May and September.  May is traditionally the driest month in Alaska.

 

Most people outside of Alaska tend to equate rain with days that have cloud cover and a lack of visability. Many of them do not understand the rain forest environment, of which SE Alaska is a very large one. Yes, it is true that May can tradionally be the driest month. However, ceiling visability can, and oftern does, lower to 1200 to 1500 feet off the deck and can stay that way for weeks without a drop of rain. Not uncommeon for these days to be the majority. Clear sunny days with high visability is NOT the norm statistically speaking. Having a recreational boat for 35 years of regular fishing and piloting two small aircraft long before GPS, I am acutley aware of clouds that cover the top 60% of mountains that drop into the sea that cannot be seen. The friends I have known who got this wrong and are no longer with us are more than can be counted with two hands.

 

I point these things out, not to be argumentative or disagreeable, but to help educate and inform. There are many useful facts I have picked up here that have been most helpful in our cruise preparations. There is also a GREAT deal of misinformation, misguided opinions and wrong facts presented as factual. 

 

When it's nice in May, it is spectacular, as the air is some of the cleanest in the world and the crisp breezes just enhance the majesty of some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere. But you do need to see it, and while it may not rain in May, it is by no means clear. Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but that's just the way it is. If you want to better your odds of clear skies, plan accordingly.

 

Cheers.

[sabrefan]

We have done a cruise to Alaska 3 times. We always liked going northbound as the the scenery gets better and better. Last year we went Vancouver to Seward in June on Viking. Weather was perfect and the marine life was plentiful. We spent 4 days on our own in Homer after the cruise since we visited Denali on our first Alaskan cruise 12 years ago. We have also been to the Canadian Rockies but, previously did this on a separate trip on our own. Not sure you get to see as much being on a train versus doing a self driving trip from Calgary to Jasper Park. 

[Jim Avery]

1 hour ago, Vagabond51 said:

 

Most people outside of Alaska tend to equate rain with days that have cloud cover and a lack of visability. Many of them do not understand the rain forest environment, of which SE Alaska is a very large one. Yes, it is true that May can tradionally be the driest month. However, ceiling visability can, and oftern does, lower to 1200 to 1500 feet off the deck and can stay that way for weeks without a drop of rain. Not uncommeon for these days to be the majority. Clear sunny days with high visability is NOT the norm statistically speaking. Having a recreational boat for 35 years of regular fishing and piloting two small aircraft long before GPS, I am acutley aware of clouds that cover the top 60% of mountains that drop into the sea that cannot be seen. The friends I have known who got this wrong and are no longer with us are more than can be counted with two hands.

 

I point these things out, not to be argumentative or disagreeable, but to help educate and inform. There are many useful facts I have picked up here that have been most helpful in our cruise preparations. There is also a GREAT deal of misinformation, misguided opinions and wrong facts presented as factual. 

 

When it's nice in May, it is spectacular, as the air is some of the cleanest in the world and the crisp breezes just enhance the majesty of some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere. But you do need to see it, and while it may not rain in May, it is by no means clear. Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but that's just the way it is. If you want to better your odds of clear skies, plan accordingly.

 

Cheers.

Weather.Com shows May as "driest" month but you are surely right about changeable conditions.  As a ship Captain running a freight ship from the lower 48 to most points North for three years I learned quickly that forecasts in the typical sense meant little.  Tracking the low pressure systems was the only way to predict how bad it was going to be with any accuracy.  For a solid year we ran to a Northern terminus of St Paul in the Pribiloffs.  Year round.  I tell people the most important thing to bring to Alaska is flexibility.  Your plans can and will change.  I remember sailing up Johnstone Strait in beautiful sunny weather only to  blink twice and it suddenly looked like someone painted the bridge windows gray....🥃

[Vagabond51]

I was a young buck many years ago trolling for Kings on the other side of Pt. Retreat about 2 hours out of dock. It was one of those crisp beautiful mid May days, clear, sunny, flat water. At that time we were in a 17ft Boston Whaler. One of the first trips of the new year after 7 months of cabin fever. Just after lunch the wind shifted coming from the northwest. We knew that was trouble. By the time we got the downriggers in, everything secured and scurried north up Lynn Canal to Pt. Retreat for a U turn to harbor, the seas were 6ft, white capping and building. Less than 90 minutes. Still clear and sunny and beautiful. Made the 180 turn, which was a seat clencher through the troughs. I believe you can still see the fingernail marks the wife put into the teak on the dash. Coast Guard was running around making sure everyone was OK. Shortly after the wife told me to go buy a real boat. I started to give her reason to postpone. My friends looked at me and told me I was nuts to give my wife grief when she told me to go buy a new boat.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Vagabond51

[travelbug11]

If I was doing the land tour, I would start in Anchorage.

 

I like to go in May and can’t wait till May 20th! out of Vancouver 

[Heidi13]

Just booked a R/T from Vancouver, but not until June 2025. Departing Vancouver 6th June, so it will be 12 yrs since our previous Alaska cruise. My largest gap between Alaska cruises since my first in 1979.

 

Just under 800 days to go😁

[SJD117]

17 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Just booked a R/T from Vancouver, but not until June 2025. Departing Vancouver 6th June, so it will be 12 yrs since our previous Alaska cruise. My largest gap between Alaska cruises since my first in 1979.

 

Just under 800 days to go😁

My last Alaskan “cruise” was in December 1989, on an Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Skagway to Bellingham, when my sleeping bag, tent, and I enjoyed three days of comfort in a top deck solarium. That was 33 years ago and counting! One of these days I’ll do the voyage again, perhaps even in a real cabin.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

My last Alaskan “cruise” was in December 1989, on an Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Skagway to Bellingham, when my sleeping bag, tent, and I enjoyed three days of comfort in a top deck solarium. That was 33 years ago and counting! One of these days I’ll do the voyage again, perhaps even in a real cabin.

 

These days, the Alaska & BC Northern Ferries are still the best way to see the coast. We used to pass the Columbia and Matanuska on a regular basis, as they headed through our waters to Bellingham.

[nanabeth]

We did Seward to Vancouver in August, 2022 with the 2 day pre-cruise extension in Anchorage. We loved it. Whichever way you go I would recommend either doing the extension to Denali or go on your own. We did not do the Denali extension because we had already been there when we traveled around Alaska by RV in 2013.

[longterm]

On 4/17/2023 at 10:15 PM, Heidi13 said:

Just booked a R/T from Vancouver, but not until June 2025. Departing Vancouver 6th June, so it will be 12 yrs since our previous Alaska cruise. My largest gap between Alaska cruises since my first in 1979.

 

Just under 800 days to go😁

We're planning to do that same trip--we'll have to meet and tip a glass or two! Haven't been up there since 2007; I have a good friend who's a salmon guide on the Kenai River down in Soldotna--my son caught a 22-pounder last time. I have some ideas about this trip, will pass them on at some point.

Edited April 19, 2023 by longterm

[Heidi13]

10 minutes ago, longterm said:

We're planning to do that same trip--we'll have to meet and tip a glass or two! Haven't been up there since 2007; I have a good friend who's a salmon guide on the Kenai River down in Soldotna--my son caught a 22-pounder last time. I have some ideas about this trip, will pass them on at some point.

 

Great news - I already started a Roll Call and since it's been a few years since we have headed north, I'm already searching private tours.

[longterm]

5 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Great news - I already started a Roll Call and since it's been a few years since we have headed north, I'm already searching private tours.

A couple of recommendations, from a trip there with my son:

 

Talkeetna - take the train up from Anchorage, take a small plane up to Ruth Glacier, where it lands on the glacier (which is about a mile thick). Ruth Glacier's where base camps are established for climbers going up Denali.

 

Viking offers this trip, but my son and I did it in 2005: take the Alaska RR and get off midway between Anchorage & Whittier where you get on a rubber raft and float on the Placer River, right up to Spencer Glacier, which is very small. There are icebergs floating around--really a great experience and one of our favorite things that we did. Plus, they let my son, who was 10 at the time, stand in the doorway as we headed to Anchorage, going backwards, so that the back door was facing the tracks. Really great experience for us.

 

If you're a fisherman, a guided salmon trip is pretty fantastic; my friend Scot would be happy to see us down there. Soldotna's about 2 hours from Anchorage, if I remember correctly; it would mean an overnight stay in the town, which is pretty tiny.

 

Going up to the lodge at the top of Girdwood is fun too, great place for a lunch and a ride on the tram.

 

As to Anchorage itself, I don't remember being too impressed; there's a tiny museum there, but it wasn't anything remarkable, if I recall; we also visited the wildlife center, my son panned for gold (!), rode the Iditarod trail (on these wheeled carts behind the dogs); it was okay, but not something my wife and I will do. 

 

Our plan is to stay over in Anchorage a couple of days, take the train up to Talkeetna, possibly go down to Soldotna to see my friend, and then fly home.

 

 

[LindaS272]

Anchorage—a half hour from the Real Alaska. There was a tourist production at the convention center called “Wild About Anchorage.” We had a magnet for it on our fridge and just turned the W upside down 🫠. Lived there in the 80s.

[SJD117]

7 minutes ago, longterm said:

A couple of recommendations, from a trip there with my son:

 

Talkeetna - take the train up from Anchorage, take a small plane up to Ruth Glacier, where it lands on the glacier (which is about a mile thick). Ruth Glacier's where base camps are established for climbers going up Denali.

 

Small planes do land on the Ruth Glacier -- but it's not the location of the main base camp for Denali climbers. That honor goes to the Kahiltna Glacier. Linda and I landed on the Kahiltna back in the 1980s. It was by far the most spectacular flight I've ever taken, before or since.

[longterm]

23 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

Small planes do land on the Ruth Glacier -- but it's not the location of the main base camp for Denali climbers. That honor goes to the Kahiltna Glacier. Linda and I landed on the Kahiltna back in the 1980s. It was by far the most spectacular flight I've ever taken, before or since.

Oh... I thought it was, because there were campers on Ruth Glacier when we landed there in 2007. I think the pilot may have told us it was their base camp.

 

Definitely something we'll do again; it was a lot of fun. There were 2 different flight choices--one circled Denali then landed, and the other just went to Ruth and landed--which is the one that my son and I took. Here we are (16 years ago and 100 pounds heavier!).

Edited April 19, 2023 by longterm