sdf1903 Posted July 17 #1 Share Posted July 17 Hello we were all set to book our first, and probably only cruise, to Alaska in 2026. Thought I knew what we were going to do but now not so sure! First choice is to sail southwards and glacier bay to Vancouver. Spend a few days at the start in Alaska and drive up to Denali. To travel from Scotland it’s a lot of money. i was thinking of compromising and doing the round trip but it’s not really what I want. Although it was at the beginning 😂 I am torn between waiting a couple of years and doing the one way cruise or perhaps consider the 14 day grand adventure itinerary sooner. suppose my question is do people recommend the 14 day round trip? I know there is repetition but it does appeal with numerous glacier days. thank you 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skynight Posted July 17 #2 Share Posted July 17 If you have the time I would recommend the 14 day RT Vancouver. This eliminates all the logistics of flying to Anchorage and getting to the port of Whitter. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmurph22 Posted July 17 #3 Share Posted July 17 Or, book a land cruise package with Princess, adding time at Denali before you cruise southbound. This way, Princess handles all the Whittier logistics, and really all the logistics, once you land in Anchorage. We are doing tour "DB4" which is 1 night in Anchorage and 3 nights in Denali, but there are many choices. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Cruizer Posted July 17 #4 Share Posted July 17 I recommend the Sapphire Princess with it's deck 7/8 promenade that goes all the way around the ship. We spent nearly the whole day up there in Glacier Bay, right up front, best place to see animals as well as glaciers. Sandy the naturalist was fantastic and had extra binoculars to pass around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Hag Posted July 17 #5 Share Posted July 17 33 minutes ago, kmurph22 said: Or, book a land cruise package with Princess, adding time at Denali before you cruise southbound. This way, Princess handles all the Whittier logistics, and really all the logistics, once you land in Anchorage. We are doing tour "DB4" which is 1 night in Anchorage and 3 nights in Denali, but there are many choices. This. Princess cruisetours are great. We've only done one so far, but it's one of the best trips we've taken. A few years after that, we did an "on our own" trip to mainland Alaska. That gave us freedom to do some things not on Princess' radar, but we spent way more on that than we did the cruisetour. The Princess tour we did had two nights at Copper River and two nights at Denali. A bus took us overland from Copper River to Denali, and that was a wonderful day. Enough gorgeous scenery to give a person whiplash trying to see it all. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skynight Posted July 17 #6 Share Posted July 17 Agree with post #3. It is a nice option. Many different pre-cruise tours available. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goofy2010 Posted July 17 #7 Share Posted July 17 We did the 14 day round trip last year and had a good time. Even though some of the ports were repeats, we were able to work around any bad weather at the time and still be able to see everything that we wanted. It was much more relaxing knowing that if we didn't see something the first time, we would be back in a few days to be able to see it again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bemidji Ty Posted July 17 #8 Share Posted July 17 We did this cruise last month on the Grand. Vancouver to Whittier and back to Vancouver. It was wonderful. This was our 5th time to Alaska. You will see some ports and glaciers twice. However, we thought this was a feature with benefits. One time at a port we could enjoy an excursion, the other time we would sightsee on our own. There is so much to see and do. We are thinking of going again next year. Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRUEBLUE66 Posted July 17 #9 Share Posted July 17 (edited) We went to Alaska this time last year from Scotland. We did the flights ourselves and booked the cruisetour with 7 nights overland beforehand and then 7 nights on the Grand Princess. It was excellent from start to finish but we had planned it for a couple of years and paid alot of money when we included all the excursions as we probably will only do it once. I thoroughly recommend doing some sort of land tour as the interior of the state is different to the coast and you will see so much more. We also stayed in Vancouver for 4 days afterwards to enjoy this wonderful city and surrounding area. Edited July 17 by TRUEBLUE66 Add text 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougH Posted July 17 #10 Share Posted July 17 I almost always do the 14 day RzT fron Vancouver. More glaciers and 2 times In port if you have bad weather one week. I prefer late May Mid June for longer dsylight hours and usually drier. FYI I have sailed Alaska 30+ times so have my favorites. The Grand Princess is a good choice with a full open promenade deck and lots of unobstructed viewing spaces 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCX22 Posted July 18 #11 Share Posted July 18 Let me preface this by saying I'm not discouraging you from going to Alaska. Last year was my 9th cruise there. The ports on Alaska cruises have turned into tourist traps. They are cool for what they are, but the last frontier aspect has really diminished. The scenic cruising is the better part of the cruise. I still recommend visiting the interior of Alaska and Denali, but having visited many US National Parks, it's not the prettiest. You pay a lot for the convenience with Princess but as an international visitor, the cruise-tour option might be the best. And you won't have to drive on the wrong side of the road for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memoak Posted July 18 #12 Share Posted July 18 7 minutes ago, SCX22 said: Let me preface this by saying I'm not discouraging you from going to Alaska. Last year was my 9th cruise there. The ports on Alaska cruises have turned into tourist traps. They are cool for what they are, but the last frontier aspect has really diminished. The scenic cruising is the better part of the cruise. I still recommend visiting the interior of Alaska and Denali, but having visited many US National Parks, it's not the prettiest. You pay a lot for the convenience with Princess but as an international visitor, the cruise-tour option might be the best. And you won't have to drive on the wrong side of the road for you. Best bet in most ports is to get away from the area around the pier’s especially in Juneau 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCX22 Posted July 18 #13 Share Posted July 18 1 minute ago, memoak said: Best bet in most ports is to get away from the area around the pier’s especially in Juneau I agree. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdf1903 Posted July 18 Author #14 Share Posted July 18 Thanks for everyone’s advice. I think we are going to leave it for 2026 and book it once we are certain we know what we want to do. I don’t want to regret going and not have the exact experience we want. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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