The 2025 Overplanners Thread

[curry767]

5 hours ago, Gardyloo said:

What if - just what if - you scrubbed a couple of the planned days from your land tour and substituted them with something completely off the beaten tourist path?  It would be a first for you as well as your family.

I did look long and hard at something like this. Personally I have a real interest in making it all the way north to Utqiagvik but it’s not really the family’s jam. 
 

I have to come back to our main goals as decided by the family; scenery, wildlife and glaciers. So this dictates what we are willing to do. 
 

I am still considering swapping our time down in the Kenai for Lake Clark National Park. This would be something I haven’t done before and would tick all of main goals. At this point in time I don’t have a plan for this but it’s still something I am considering. 

[curry767]

@kchamp27 Sounds like a solid plan you have there. I love the contrast of doing a Land and Cruise Alaskan holiday. I’m sure you will have a blast

[Coral]

8 hours ago, curry767 said:

@kchamp27 Sounds like a solid plan you have there. I love the contrast of doing a Land and Cruise Alaskan holiday. I’m sure you will have a blast

A lot of people do land and cruise combination. Heck, cruises even sell combination vacations 🙂 

Edited August 28 by Coral

[racnwdow]

On 8/26/2024 at 10:04 PM, Maimour said:

Saaaaaaame! My spreadsheet for our July 2025 AK cruise has been active since March! 😂

I started my spreadsheet and planning on booking day, May 7 2024 for our September 12, 2025 cruise.  It is part of the vacation experience for me.

[trvlgirlmq]

Uber planner here too! I always have a trip spreadsheet to track budget, daily itinerary, etc. 

 

We will be in Alaska for the first time next year. No land only a RT cruise from Seattle. I still can’t talk my mom into trying a new cruise line.

[curry767]

10 hours ago, Coral said:

A lot of people do land and cruise combination. Heck, cruises even sell combination vacations 🙂 

I don’t understand what you are trying to convey. I was merely stating that it’s great they are doing both. 

Edited August 28 by curry767

[curry767]

Icy Straight Point (ISP) Deep Dive

 

The last of our two visit ports. On our Northbound cruise we have 3 ships in port with a possible maximum of 4,800 cruise guests in town. Southbound will only see 2 ships in port whilst we are there for 6,000 passengers, however we depart at 3pm and the second ship doesn’t arrive till 130pm – so we should have most of the port to just our cruise ship.

 

Based on this years data from MarineTraffic it looks like both cruises have used the Icy Strait Cruise Terminal which doesn’t need the gondola if we want to head into Hoonah.

 

On the Northbound cruise we are in port from 8am to 8pm, so quite a long one and means we will do two excursions. First up we will do the ZipRider to give the kids some thrills, personally I don’t reckon it’s worth the money, but hey, everything in Alaska is expensive. Probably walk to the Gondola base via the Nature trail. Looks like this excursion will have to be booked through the cruise line, so I’m currently watching prices for any sales. For the afternoon we will do a land tour with Gee Sta Hun tours. Greg the owner and guide is a local with serious history and I am sure it will be fascinating listening to him guide us around Chichagof Island in his van. It’s 3hr tour and has a maximum of 8 people on the tour. Being late June, I’m guessing the salmon aren’t running yet, so bear sightings might be unlikely, but this land tour should break up a water tours the day before and after ISP. This tour isn’t on sale yet and Greg advises it should be available to book in late September.

 

Southbound is a shorter day for us, between 7am and 3pm. Just one tour and that will be whale watching with Wooshkeetan Tours as recommended by Greg. Another small boat tour. It’s a 3hr tour starting at 8am. Billy the owner is another local and only takes 6 people on his cruise and I believe there is also a chance of bear sightings on the waters edge if we are lucky.

 

Both of these tours start at the Icy Straight excursion hub which is right next to the pier. I believe there is a shuttle bus into town for a cost, maybe $5 per person? I understand it is a 30 minute walk from Hoonah back to the pier so we may do that after whale watching if the weather is okay.

 

Obviously Hoonah is a very small town with around a thousand residents so there won’t be much to do, but we had hope to find somewhere for a feed and a drink. The two places that look interesting are The Fisherman’s Daughter and the Oso Gordito food truck. Will be aiming to get the some fresh fish. Icy Straight Brewing looks good but by the looks of it, no children due to liquor licence.

 

Does anyone have any food recommendations in Hoonah? I’m trying to keep away from the restaurants our near the cruise ship berths for obvious reasons.

[KellyCz]

I'm loving all the details, @curry767, and am looking into some of your recommendations for Ketchikan and Skagway. Thanks!

We did the Harv & Marv 6-person tour in July 2023. Just us and two other couples (who were traveling together). You won't be disappointed.

[peety3]

I am also an overplanner. We're doing a 2-night repositioning cruise in 16 days to get our 5yo son familiar with cruising, then doing a 7-night Alaska round-trip out of Seattle right after school ends.

We (I) chose the Seattle round-trip since we live in the Seattle area. I chose the Glacier Bay itinerary as it spreads out the four main activities (Glacier Bay NP, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan across four days) better than the Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm cruises (glacier viewing and Juneau usually on the same day, which makes for a LONG day, and then after Skagway it's ~48 hours of non-stop sailing to get to Vancouver).

I booked a full suite for this trip as we absolutely love the suite breakfast and it gives us a little more separation from the kiddo. Reserve Collection dining means we can show up whenever and likely get a window table or near a window without having to be tied to a TD schedule (we did love TD pre-kid).

I have a side hustle as a photographer, and that feeds into my overplanning behaviors. I'll address that in a separate reply. My wife has an interest in photography as well.

For Juneau, we're doing the JNU-700 excursion, which is the whale watching "photo safari". We've done it several times before, absolutely love the tour operator Gastineau Guiding, and feel that the boats are the best on the water for whale watching. Truly enough space for everyone to be front row on the same side of the boat. In theory this excursion finishes at 6:30pm, so we'll be back at the ship for dinner and that becomes one of my extra indulgences (going to a meal with all of my camera gear).

For Skagway, our son loves trains so we're obviously doing the train ride, and it'll be the longest one which is the Bennett Lake run. I think ours will be bus out and train back, given the timing and what the WP&YR shows on their website for this year's schedule. (We'll check again in December.)

For Ketchikan, we're doing KTN-610 which is the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour. We've done it before and loved it, with great pictures as a bonus. This time, I'm really debating whether to stick to a monopod for my big lens or take a tripod; the bigger debate is whether to bring a "large" flash to help out my wildlife photos. We're going to plan out our breakfast carefully as our tour is at 7:30 and I'm hoping the suite breakfast can start at 6:30 that day. We've also planned the Ultimate Balcony Dining for that night as we'll be underway with peaceful sea views (I hope).

We don't plan to do much if anything in Victoria. Probably a good night for Alfredo's Pizza and wipe away the tears of another cruise coming to an end.

[peety3]

I promised a second reply about my photography plans. I've always rented at least one item and sometimes many items to augment our regular gear for Alaska. I have to see how our budget is looking as our side hustle is finally picking up steam and I hope to be able to "spend freely". If so, I hope to set myself up with a new twist on my "cruising kit":

28-70 f/2 general-purpose lens on a Canon R5

100-300 f/2.8 telephoto (rented) on a rented Canon R5 Mark 2

600 f/4 supertelephoto (rented) with a rented 1.4x TC on a rented Canon R5 Mark 2

15-35 f/2.8 (rented) in a pouch for wider shots

I'm a little afraid that the 100-300 will be too heavy or bulky, or that the overall rental cost will exceed my comfort level. I may scale back to the 100-500 zoom and skip both the 100-300 and 600.

My wife will likely end up with:

24-240 or 24-105 on her Canon R6 Mark 2

100-500 or 200-800 (rented) on a rented R6 Mark 2

14-35/4 and 85/2 Macro in a lens bag

My son may end up with a Canon R50 with 18-135 lens. We shall see...that one in particular I will make sure I own so if he breaks it, I only have to cry to myself. 🙂