Alaska land tour prior to cruise - advice for when to return rental car to ANC

[Needz2Cruise]

For those of you that have done the RC land tour starting in Anchorage: we're flying in a couple days early and renting a car. Presumably we're to meet our tour guide or RC rep at ANC airport for the first night of the tour. Since I haven't seen any info from RCCL yet, about what time of day should I plan on returning the rental car to ANC, since we won't be coming in on a flight that day? Thanks!

[jean87510]

Anchorage?  I thought the tours started in Fairbanks?

 

Just drop off rental car at airport.  We are doing the same only we start in Fairbanks.

 

Edit to add I read a few spots we will get the itinerary times closer to cruise (3 weeks or so).  I will be timing mine for whenever.  We got our flights separate from Air2Sea as we didn't like the late departure from Vancouver times.

Edited March 3 by jean87510

[Needz2Cruise]

On 3/3/2024 at 9:39 AM, jean87510 said:

Anchorage?  I thought the tours started in Fairbanks?

 

Just drop off rental car at airport.  We are doing the same only we start in Fairbanks.

 

Edit to add I read a few spots we will get the itinerary times closer to cruise (3 weeks or so).  I will be timing mine for whenever.  We got our flights separate from Air2Sea as we didn't like the late departure from Vancouver times.

Some tours start (or end) in Fairbanks, ours starts in Anchorage. I'm planning on returning the car to the airport. I'm just trying to get an idea for when to setup the return time. Maybe I'll make it late afternoon and return early if necessary...we did go with Air2Sea as the fares, for us anyway, were much less than going thru the airlines. We're also doing an overnight in Vancouver post cruise as that's a fun city to explore.

[cruiseguy1016]

What time will you be picking the car up? Make sure it gets returned by that time on the last day or you'll be charged for an extra day. I always schedule pick-up for a 1/2 hr after my flight arrives and schedule the return for the same time on the last day. They don't care if you pick it up late or return it early, just don't return it late.

[reallyitsmema]

On 3/2/2024 at 4:05 PM, Needz2Cruise said:

For those of you that have done the RC land tour starting in Anchorage: we're flying in a couple days early and renting a car. Presumably we're to meet our tour guide or RC rep at ANC airport for the first night of the tour. Since I haven't seen any info from RCCL yet, about what time of day should I plan on returning the rental car to ANC, since we won't be coming in on a flight that day? Thanks!

 

We started our land tour in Fairbanks, not Anchorage, but we had flown into Anchorage to tour around for a few days prior to our land tour.  We flew Anchorage to Fairbanks early on the morning of our land tour and met a rep at the airport who got us connected with the transfer to the hotel.  Once at the hotel around 10am, we found out the leader of our land tour would not be at the hotel to meet people until 2pm.  This was not told to any of us in advance and we weren't the only ones already at the hotel.  I would really try to get some information from the cruise line about what you schedule is or find a review in the Alaska forum of the same cruise tour.  We knew we were staying at the hotel we were transferred to for a couple of nights but thought the first day wouldn't be just a throw away day.  We ended up getting a shuttle to downtown and doing some stuff on our own but we should have rented a car like another couple did and gone farther on our own as we ended up downtown the next day on the land tour and had already seen most everything that interested us.  The following link should give you an idea of you schedule a bit:

 

https://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/

 

You can also see the optional excursions that you can purchase for your tour under the resources tab.  You book those when you meet your tour guide the first day.  We had decided what we wanted before and were able to just fill out the form we were given and didn't miss out on any of the excursions that don't have a lot of spaces.

 

[Needz2Cruise]

7 hours ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

What time will you be picking the car up? Make sure it gets returned by that time on the last day or you'll be charged for an extra day. I always schedule pick-up for a 1/2 hr after my flight arrives and schedule the return for the same time on the last day. They don't care if you pick it up late or return it early, just don't return it late.

I'll be picking it up 8:30 on Saturday night and will return it sometime on Monday, whenever we need to meet someone at the airport for the land tour pickup.I'll definitely stay within the 24 hour window you mention...thanks!

[Needz2Cruise]

9 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We started our land tour in Fairbanks, not Anchorage, but we had flown into Anchorage to tour around for a few days prior to our land tour.  We flew Anchorage to Fairbanks early on the morning of our land tour and met a rep at the airport who got us connected with the transfer to the hotel.  Once at the hotel around 10am, we found out the leader of our land tour would not be at the hotel to meet people until 2pm.  This was not told to any of us in advance and we weren't the only ones already at the hotel.  I would really try to get some information from the cruise line about what you schedule is or find a review in the Alaska forum of the same cruise tour.  We knew we were staying at the hotel we were transferred to for a couple of nights but thought the first day wouldn't be just a throw away day.  We ended up getting a shuttle to downtown and doing some stuff on our own but we should have rented a car like another couple did and gone farther on our own as we ended up downtown the next day on the land tour and had already seen most everything that interested us.  The following link should give you an idea of you schedule a bit:

 

https://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/

 

You can also see the optional excursions that you can purchase for your tour under the resources tab.  You book those when you meet your tour guide the first day.  We had decided what we wanted before and were able to just fill out the form we were given and didn't miss out on any of the excursions that don't have a lot of spaces.

 

Thanks for all that info! I've already seen that website, looked at the excursions and the videos, etc. Much more informative than anything I've seen so far.

 

Are you saying that you meet the land tour at the hotel, and not at the airport? I was under the impression that there was at least a transfer provided from the airport to the tour hotel. No big deal if not; I can always return the car to the airport and uber/lyft from there to the hotel.

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, Needz2Cruise said:

Thanks for all that info! I've already seen that website, looked at the excursions and the videos, etc. Much more informative than anything I've seen so far.

 

Are you saying that you meet the land tour at the hotel, and not at the airport? I was under the impression that there was at least a transfer provided from the airport to the tour hotel. No big deal if not; I can always return the car to the airport and uber/lyft from there to the hotel.

 

There is a Royal Caribbean rep in the baggage area at the airport that coordinates the transfer from the airport to the hotel.  At the hotel, you will meet your tour guide, who will discuss plans and the optional excursions.  We just were not aware that she wouldn't be at the hotel until much later and would have flown in later in the day than we did.  We did two days DIY in the Anchorage area before our land tour partially to adjust to the different timezone as we flew in from the east coast.

[Needz2Cruise]

7 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

There is a Royal Caribbean rep in the baggage area at the airport that coordinates the transfer from the airport to the hotel.  At the hotel, you will meet your tour guide, who will discuss plans and the optional excursions.  We just were not aware that she wouldn't be at the hotel until much later and would have flown in later in the day than we did.  We did two days DIY in the Anchorage area before our land tour partially to adjust to the different timezone as we flew in from the east coast.

Good to know! I'll probably shoot for returning the car early afternoon and go from there. Thanks!

[steveru621]

We flew into ANC three days early and rented an SUV at the airport. Planned and drove to Denali entirely self directed.  We returned the SUV the night before the train and took a taxi to the train station for the trip to Seward.

 

What I don't understand is if RCI is running the tour, why do you need an SUV?

[Arkiepig]

Avis has a location downtown.  We are booking with them- but only for a day trip out of Anchorage