First time sailing Celebrity and first time cruising to Alaska (Honeymoon)-

[pattyj 1204]

I have only a few thoughts. I agree that itinerary is important. But have you also considered a pre-cruise tour to Denali? My husband had the best time in the airplane ride by Mt. McKinley. No it wasn't cheap, but how many times he has talked about it made it well worth the money. 

You spend a lot of time in the ports and would you really need a beverage package? Most of the people I talked to said they didn't think it was worth it. I had the soda package and know that I didn't use it enough. We used the balcony a lot during sea days and feel it was well worth it. 

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Your fiance will be very happy with this trip. 

 

[keesar]

We did a cruise on Celebrity and had a good time.  In retrospect, I wished we had considered Princess or Holland America for the itinerary.  They go to places that Celebrity does not go to.  We enjoyed a trip to the Yukon in Skagway and we did a float plane tour in Ketchikan.  Both were highlights.  Expect rain in Alaska.  Some ports will get 230 days of measurable precipitation a year.  Dress for wet, cool weather.  You can get some nice weather which is a bonus.  

[Margin Walker]

On 8/21/2024 at 8:31 PM, Travel-and-See said:

I've done 2 Alaska cruises with Celebrity - one was roundtrip from Seattle and the other was from Seward Alaska and ended in Vancouver. I would highly recommend the Seward to Vancover route.  The Seattle round trip you lose 2 days because you have a sea day on either end. The route from Seward south to Vancouver was the same amount of time, but you saw much more of Alaska both from the ship and from the extra port time in Alaska. 

 

The "Must-do" list will depend on what you are most interested in but I would recommend the train ride in Skagway - it's beautiful and very historic as well. If it's good weather I'd definitely go to Mendenhall Glacier in Junea. You can take a tour bus, city bus, taxi, etc.  I took the city bus cause I'm cheap. Spend some time and enjoy the glacier and the waterfall and walking the hiking trails. 

 

I enjoyed the cruise from Seattle as well - and flying in and out of Seattle is very convenient - but I certainly felt like I got more of Alaska on the Seward to Vancouver route.  

 

I've yet to be on an Edge Class ship, but both the Solstice and Millenium class ships were great for Alaska.

 

Thank you everyone for all of the well wishes.

 

Travel and See, what airport did you fly to when you sailed out of Seward, Alaska?

 

I like this idea of seeing more of Alaska by not flying into Seattle..  Thank you very much for the suggestion.

[Travel-and-See]

Just now, Margin Walker said:

 

Thank you everyone for all of the well wishes.

 

Travel and See, what airport did you fly to when you sailed out of Seward, Alaska?

 

I like this idea of seeing more of Alaska by not flying into Seattle..  Thank you very much for the suggestion.

I flew into Anchorage, spent the night, and then took the train from Anchorage to Seward the day of my cruise - the train station is within walking distance from the ship and there is a shuttle bus service as well. 

 

There are bus transfers from Anchorage as well if you don't want to do the train from Anchorage to Seward. It's a beautiful train ride though - but it does leave early in the morning.  

[awhfy]

On 8/21/2024 at 10:23 AM, Margin Walker said:

This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.  Thank you.  

 

This info lead me into the realization that flying into Vancouver (as opposed to Seattle) might be something to look into.

If you are thinking budget Vancouver is a very expensive city, flights, hotels & food are really pricey. You can fly Southwest or Jet Blue from Miami to Seattle pretty reasonably. 
 

if you normally stay in inside cabins an infinite veranda would be nice. Only true balconies on an edge class ship are suites & sunset balconies 

 

don’t delay on booking the 2025 Alaska cruises have been on sale from awhile

[Pantheral]

We did our Alaska adventure in June 2023. We did a land excursion from Fairbanks to Denali to Anchorage before cruising on the Millennium from Seward to Vancouver. Personally we felt we got the full Alaska experience by doing both the land and cruise portions(especially Denali), but understand that time and money can impact potential travel plans.  Also, the land portion addressed our transportation needs getting to Seward from Anchorage.

 

We were fortunate to have pretty good weather throughout our journey, including nearly an 80 degree day in Juneau, but you need to have layers, including a waterproof layer, as nearly all types of weather are possible and it will get cold if you are journeying to the mountains or on a glacier. 

 

We had great whale watching tours in Juneau and Icy Point Straight and did a great nature jeep tour in Icy Point Straight. For me, glaciers were a must see, especially Hubbard. We did the small boat excursion there and were not only able to get quite close to the glacier we had multiple bear sightings along the way. 

 

For the reasons others have referenced, having a balcony was a must for us, but the ships do have many public areas for viewing as well.

 

Best wishes for a wonderful trip!!

[Margin Walker]

10 minutes ago, Pantheral said:

We did our Alaska adventure in June 2023. We did a land excursion from Fairbanks to Denali to Anchorage before cruising on the Millennium from Seward to Vancouver. Personally we felt we got the full Alaska experience by doing both the land and cruise portions(especially Denali), but understand that time and money can impact potential travel plans.  Also, the land portion addressed our transportation needs getting to Seward from Anchorage.

 

We were fortunate to have pretty good weather throughout our journey, including nearly an 80 degree day in Juneau, but you need to have layers, including a waterproof layer, as nearly all types of weather are possible and it will get cold if you are journeying to the mountains or on a glacier. 

 

We had great whale watching tours in Juneau and Icy Point Straight and did a great nature jeep tour in Icy Point Straight. For me, glaciers were a must see, especially Hubbard. We did the small boat excursion there and were not only able to get quite close to the glacier we had multiple bear sightings along the way. 

 

For the reasons others have referenced, having a balcony was a must for us, but the ships do have many public areas for viewing as well.

 

Best wishes for a wonderful trip!!

Thank!

 

Can you share what excursion company you used for the land excursion that started in Fairbanks?   What was the duration of the land excursion?

[Pantheral]

9 minutes ago, Margin Walker said:

Thank!

 

Can you share what excursion company you used for the land excursion that started in Fairbanks?   What was the duration of the land excursion?

We were part of a larger group through our local travel agency so it was a bit of a hybrid tour that utilized several tour companies. However, we met people on our flight to Fairbanks that we on the Celebrity tour package: https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-packages/vacation-packages/cruise-and-land-tours, before joining the same cruise as ours. We ran into them multiple times throughout the trip including sharing the rail dining car with them from Talkeetna to Anchorage, so there travel experience was very similar to ours. 

[MississippiMom]

2 hours ago, Pantheral said:

We did our Alaska adventure in June 2023. We did a land excursion from Fairbanks to Denali to Anchorage before cruising on the Millennium from Seward to Vancouver. Personally we felt we got the full Alaska experience by doing both the land and cruise portions(especially Denali), but understand that time and money can impact potential travel plans.  Also, the land portion addressed our transportation needs getting to Seward from Anchorage.

 

We were fortunate to have pretty good weather throughout our journey, including nearly an 80 degree day in Juneau, but you need to have layers, including a waterproof layer, as nearly all types of weather are possible and it will get cold if you are journeying to the mountains or on a glacier. 

 

We had great whale watching tours in Juneau and Icy Point Straight and did a great nature jeep tour in Icy Point Straight. For me, glaciers were a must see, especially Hubbard. We did the small boat excursion there and were not only able to get quite close to the glacier we had multiple bear sightings along the way. 

 

For the reasons others have referenced, having a balcony was a must for us, but the ships do have many public areas for viewing as well.

 

Best wishes for a wonderful trip!!

I understand that we can’t control the whales, but which whale watching was better, Juneau or Icy Strait Point!  We will only be able to afford one, and were leaning toward Icy Strait Point.  We are planning to go to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

[Northern Aurora]

3 hours ago, MississippiMom said:

I understand that we can’t control the whales, but which whale watching was better, Juneau or Icy Strait Point!  We will only be able to afford one, and were leaning toward Icy Strait Point.  We are planning to go to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

 

We have done whale watching at both ports, and our experience has been that ISP is better.  Other people may report that their "milage" differs.

[Travel-and-See]

19 hours ago, MississippiMom said:

I understand that we can’t control the whales, but which whale watching was better, Juneau or Icy Strait Point!  We will only be able to afford one, and were leaning toward Icy Strait Point.  We are planning to go to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

I haven't done a wale watching cruise in either - but I could see and hear the whales when walking along the shore on Icy Strait Point so I would say you've got good chances there! 

[Pantheral]

On 8/23/2024 at 3:07 PM, MississippiMom said:

I understand that we can’t control the whales, but which whale watching was better, Juneau or Icy Strait Point!  We will only be able to afford one, and were leaning toward Icy Strait Point.  We are planning to go to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

Icy Strait Point was better during our visit. Since we visited in late June, our tour there was in the early evening while the Juneau tour was during the late morning, so the time of day might have had some impact.

[robbinsca]

On 8/23/2024 at 1:07 PM, MississippiMom said:

I understand that we can’t control the whales, but which whale watching was better, Juneau or Icy Strait Point!  We will only be able to afford one, and were leaning toward Icy Strait Point.  We are planning to go to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

Do the whale watching in ISP. There are far more options of things to do in Juneau- like the Mendenhall Glacier. We have been to ISP twice and have already run out of things to do- though it is beautiful there.

 

Also when we went inland on our own we rented a car in Anchorage and stayed at B and Bs along the way. Anchorage cars are MUCH less expensive than Seward. Take the train, or Coach, to/from Seward and get the car at the airport.