Transportation From Whittier after Cruise

[Sierra298]

We are looking to go to Seward after getting off the cruise in Whittier in July 2024.  I will have 2 little kids.  Is it a realistic possibility of me to take the shuttle to Anchorage solo, get a car and drive back to Whittier to pick up the family to then drive to Seward?  In my eyes I save a little money, by not having to buy 3 shuttle tickets, and I save a lot of hassle by not having to shuttle the kids up to Anchorage to just turn around and drive back down to Seward. I get that this will probably be a 3 hour+ turn around.  Am I being a super parent or a silly parent?

[Coral]

I would take the whole family to Anchorage on a shuttle - pick up a car and then drive to Seward.

 

Otherwise, your family will be sitting in Whittier with nothing to do for a long time. 

[Glaciers]

Another option might be to use PJ's Taxi to take all of you from Whittier to Seward. It's easy to do Seward activities without a car. You can always rent one there if needed, if they are available. What's your time worth?

[Northern Aurora]

How old are these two "little kids?"  Hopefully there is another family member with you and the "little kids."  If not, the cruise line will not allow you to disembark without the kiddos.

 

Disembark the ship as a family.  According to post #1 our OP is only saving a little bit of money.  And remember you have to "time the tunnel" so it may take much longer drive to Anchorage to avoid purchasing three shuttle tickets.  Don't try this.  Don't be the silly parent.

[NothingBeatsBaseball]

I was in a similar spot. The cruise I wanted went to Whittier, but I wanted to spend a few days in Seward. I did look up the PJ's option, they got a quote to me really quickly, but I decided not to do that.

 

So I had three options left. 1. Shuttle to Anchorage, rent a car there. 2. Rent a one way Whittier to Anchorage (where we were flying out of) car from Avis 3. Hunt down a Turo that would do a drop off in Whittier.

 

I booked an Avis rental I could easily cancel (I didn't need to put my credit card in) and then I hunted Turos. They aren't supposed to do oneway rentals.... but they can do dropoffs for a certain fee and some do extend to Whittier for a fee even if they are Anchorage-based. I eventually found one, and a minivan too (Avis didn't have a minivan) that was about $400 cheaper than Avis even with the dropoff fee. 

 

The Turo thing was still a little nerve-wracking for me but the one in Whittier and the one we did for the day in Juneau both worked out great.

 

I'll say this the drive to Anchorage and back is gorgeous so if there is any drive you have to do twice, it is probably as good as it gets. 

[AKJonesy]

@NothingBeatsBaseball mind saying why u did not do the PJs Taxi. I like to know all these options plus it might be helpful to the op.

[NothingBeatsBaseball]

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted the car we were going to use for the rest of the trip as soon as possible. I don't remember the quote from PJs but I was still going to need to get a one-way rental in Seward to Anchorage even if I took PJs to Seward. So if I recall the math was breaking down. Plus driving is one of my favorite parts of a trip.

 

I guess if I only had a few days on the mainland I could've done PJs to Seward and then a bus/train from Seward to Anchorage to fly out, but we were going to head to Hatcher Pass after Seward so a car was going to be a necessity to get there.

[Sierra298]

Thank you everyone for all the advice.  It seems like the separating idea is a poor idea, I'm glad I'm figuring that out now!  I will look into the options a little bit more but I won't split the family up.