Denali or Yukon and Denali

[TGCRUISEO]

For the Cruise tour portion in Alaska is it better to do just Denali or Denali and the Yukon?

[Alberta Quilter]

I may be biased but I think it would be a shame to miss the Yukon!  I thoroughly enjoyed Dawson City in particular.  Do you think you’ll only go to Alaska once?  If so definitely include the Yukon.  It not, you can include it next time.  But will you want to do two land tours?  They can be exhausting.

[TGCRUISEO]

I have been before on the Oosterdam 11 yeas ago on a inside passage.  Pretty sure we will do the Cruise tour on a 9 day.  Going on the Konigsdam Northbound Cruise first. 
 

seems like they move you around pretty good.  Doing both Railways.  
 

Any other advice about the Cruise Tours

 

 

[Mary229]

I did the Denali-Yukon version last year and am glad we chose to do it all.   We had often considered driving to the Yukon from Texas but once on the road there we are glad we chose the tour.   The roads aren’t bad but it does take a lot of planning since it is so sparsely populated.  We are not usually tour people and we thoroughly enjoyed this and appreciated the orchestrated delivery HAL provided.  A shout out to Bridgette who was our tour escort - so perky, fun and knowledgeable.  It was a Covid year and she kept everyone’s spirit up and unified the group where we all came as strangers and left as friends.  

[oaktreerb]

Definitely include the Yukon.  There are 3 day, 4 day or day cruise options.  Book for as many days as you can.  The best would include the 7 day cruise.  Next would be the 4 day cruise with an overnight in Skagway, two in Dawson city, Denali, and Fairbanks.   You’ll have a great time.

[TGCRUISEO]

Yes the one we are looking at is 3 nights on the ship and rest on hand 

[rafinmd]

That's an excellent choice.  The one weakness is there is no glacier viewing by ship so I strongly encourage taking the Tracy Arm tour if it is available.  You rendezview with a small boat at the entry to Tracy Arm late morning and go deep into the fjords and get a very up close and personal look at the glaciers while enjoying snacks and lunch.  The rendezview with the boat is late morning and then the boat returns you to the ship in time for dinner.  You do not get a lot of time in Juneau but the ship does not leave until late evening so you can see a little bit of the capitol before you leave.  It isn't a cheap tour but I think WELL worth it.

 

Roy

 

[summerclouds]

We did Denali and Yukon on our cruise tour and were very happy with our choice.  Only caveat is to pick one that gives you two or three nights in Dawson City.  When we were in Dawson City on the two night version, I felt really sorry for those on the one night version who arrived in the afternoon of one day and left the next day.  Not enough time to enjoy the area for the amount of time it takes to get there.

[Crew News]

I am in the minority but I prefer my cruisetour land portion to be spent in Denali (three nights and two days).  I also avoid the small airport in Fairbanks with its early morning departures and prefer ending my cruisetours in Anchorage with more flight choices. 

 

The extra day to add a flight tour into Denali is important to me.

 

[Mary229]

50 minutes ago, Crew News said:

I am in the minority but I prefer my cruisetour land portion to be spent in Denali (three nights and two days).  I also avoid the small airport in Fairbanks with its early morning departures and prefer ending my cruisetours in Anchorage with more flight choices. 

 

The extra day to add a flight tour into Denali is important to me.

 

The Yukon tour offers the 3 day option in Denali.  We ended in Vancouver, started in Anchorage 

[Reagan0712]

Absolutely include Yukon, specifically several days in Dawson City. I was there last summer and loved the place.  

[kickboxrca]

I would definitely recommend doing the Yukon portion of the land tour.  We did 2 days in Dawson, and 2 days in Denali - a third day would have been nice for sure - we would have done some hikes on the other day.

 

The only negative that we discovered when we were at Denali and talking to other groups that were touring (and didn't do the Yukon) was that they never had to get up early every day ... we definitely covered a lot of ground, and hence the early days.

 

We had only the three days on the ship - so stopped in Juneau, a sea day, and off in Skagway.  I believe if we had done the land portion first, we would have gone to Glacier Bay.

[summerclouds]

18 hours ago, kickboxrca said:

I would definitely recommend doing the Yukon portion of the land tour.  We did 2 days in Dawson, and 2 days in Denali - a third day would have been nice for sure - we would have done some hikes on the other day.

 

The only negative that we discovered when we were at Denali and talking to other groups that were touring (and didn't do the Yukon) was that they never had to get up early every day ... we definitely covered a lot of ground, and hence the early days.

 

We had only the three days on the ship - so stopped in Juneau, a sea day, and off in Skagway.  I believe if we had done the land portion first, we would have gone to Glacier Bay.

Sounds as if you did the exact same CruiseTour version we did back in 2015.  We also did the cruise portion first. It is the only choice from our trip that I regret.  You are correct that doing the land portion first would have gotten us Glacier Bay.  Don't know if that difference still holds today, but I would definitely recommend to the original poster that going to Glacier Bay would make it worth doing the land portion first if that's what it takes.

[rafinmd]

That's why I recommended the Tracy Arm Excursion on the way into Juneau.  A more intimate glacier viewing opportunity that I thought was at least as good as Glacier Bay.

 

Unless one has time to do what I did.  Cruise first leaving Vancouver on Wednesday in time to arrive Anchorage just in time to sail from Whitter (then Seward) back to Vancouver.

 

Roy

[oaktreerb]

11 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

 

 

Unless one has time to do what I did.  Cruise first leaving Vancouver on Wednesday in time to arrive Anchorage just in time to sail from Whitter (then Seward) back to Vancouver.

 

Roy

I thought your plan was perfect for people who chose the 3 day cruise from Vancouver to Skagway the White Pass RR to the Yukon (Whitehorse and Dawson City) then Fairbanks/Denali/Anchorage/ and 7 day cruise back to Vancouver.   You created a perfect round trip Vancouver with the land tour in the middle.   I think HAL should make your itinerary a standard offering!

 

We’ve done the Yukon itineraries at least four times and it has changed a lot through the years.  Every trip felt like a unique adventure!  

[Harleygirl77]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance on going to the Yukon.  My hubby and myself are booked on the HAL 18 day cruisetour leaving on August 6th from Vancouver.  I know (by the comments) that the time in Dawson will not be enough, but it will give us a reason to return.  

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[mgatc]

I do not believe that the road into Denali park has reopened yet. You can only go part way in. Hopefully will have the road rebuilt by the end of this year. We are looking at this trip as well, but don’t want to go until we can go all the way in to Denali.

[oaktreerb]

1 hour ago, mgatc said:

I do not believe that the road into Denali park has reopened yet. You can only go part way in. Hopefully will have the road rebuilt by the end of this year. We are looking at this trip as well, but don’t want to go until we can go all the way in to Denali.

Go to nps.gov and look at the information for Denali National Park.  The tours are shorter because of the reconstruction of the road.  You can follow the progress on the road and see which busses and tours are available.