Your Favorite Ship for Alaska Cruise-Tour

[FrogCruiser]

Planning an Alaska Cruise - Tour.... what is your favorite ship and itinerary for this type of trip and Why? Wanted to go Summer of 07 but will be walking down the aisle with daughter -- so looks like '08!

[DukeFamily]

I see that most of your cruises are with RCI (as are mine), but the one cruise/tour I took to Alaska was with Princess and it was absolutely fabulous. They really have their game face on! :p We were taken care of like royalty from the moment we got on the plane in Dallas. As much as I love me some Royal Caribbean, when I take my boys to Alaska (hopefully sooner rather than later :rolleyes: ) I won't hesitate to use Princess again. Oh, and we did the tour part first (I recommend doing it that way) from Fairbanks to Denali, then on to Anchorage. Took a tour bus from Anchorage to Seward where we boarded the ship and flew home from Vancouver. Every minute was great and I'd do it all again just the same!

[irisheileen]

Planning an Alaska Cruise - Tour.... what is your favorite ship and itinerary for this type of trip and Why? Wanted to go Summer of 07 but will be walking down the aisle with daughter -- so looks like '08!

We just cruised with Princess this August and had TWO daughter's married in 2005! June and December!!! Alot of overtime, let me tell ya!

Both daughter's are Travel Agents and recommend Princess or Holland America for their itineraries and ships in Alaska.

I've just started an extensive review of the Island Princess (which we loved), currently on the front page of this board. You may find it helpful.

My best suggestion is to lurk on this board and follow Budget Queen and Yukon's advice! Then pick your itinerary and chose the line that matched your ports desires.

Eileen

[all saints]

I see that most of your cruises are with RCI (as are mine), but the one cruise/tour I took to Alaska was with Princess and it was absolutely fabulous. They really have their game face on! :p We were taken care of like royalty from the moment we got on the plane in Dallas. As much as I love me some Royal Caribbean, when I take my boys to Alaska (hopefully sooner rather than later :rolleyes: ) I won't hesitate to use Princess again. Oh, and we did the tour part first (I recommend doing it that way) from Fairbanks to Denali, then on to Anchorage. Took a tour bus from Anchorage to Seward where we boarded the ship and flew home from Vancouver. Every minute was great and I'd do it all again just the same!

 

I'm looking to do something very similar next summer. Why better that way round? Did you do it all through Princess? Am tempted to try to do the land tour independently. Any thoughts on how easy/diff that might be? (Must confess my Mum is less keen on the DIY bit!) Any advice GREATLY appreciated. I may well post my own question too.

 

all saints

[NancyIL]

I'm looking to do something very similar next summer. Why better that way round? Did you do it all through Princess? Am tempted to try to do the land tour independently. Any thoughts on how easy/diff that might be? (Must confess my Mum is less keen on the DIY bit!) Any advice GREATLY appreciated. I may well post my own question too.

 

all saints

 

We are going on our first Alaska cruise in June 2007, with a northbound sailing on the Pacific Princess followed by a one-week independent land tour. I originally booked a southbound cruise on Radiance of the Seas, but when Princess finally released their schedules/prices for 2007, I liked the PP's northbound itinerary better. (The PP's southbound itinerary is identical to all other Princess one-way cruises.)

 

I've already reserved our Hertz rental car for the week, with a downtown Anchorage pick-up and airport return. I've also made a number of lodging reservations - some of which will eventually have to cancelled because I'm double booked in a few places! Now - if I could just decide on ONE itinerary - I'd be fine!

 

I don't think planning an independent land trip to Alaska is any more difficult than planning a vacation to another unknown destination in the US. You read all you can about your destination, make some plans, do some "tweaking" of your plans - and then you have a great vacation! Buy or borrow a good guidebook - my favorite is Frommer's Alaska by Charles Wohlforth. It will be a great help in planning your land trip.

[Budget Queen]

I'm looking to do something very similar next summer. Why better that way round? Did you do it all through Princess? Am tempted to try to do the land tour independently. Any thoughts on how easy/diff that might be? (Must confess my Mum is less keen on the DIY bit!) Any advice GREATLY appreciated. I may well post my own question too.

 

all saints

 

 

My suggestion is to do your homework, no matter how you go, cruisetour or independent. There are significant unknown "problems" people can run into on cruisetours. So it pays to learn and understand as much as possible.

 

Time is a factor, many cruisetours do not allow enough, add the "wait" time with a tour, it can be less than what you think it will be. I suggest going on the longest cruisetour you can afford. If doing a one way, add at least a day in Fairbanks, otherwise you see little of the city. Have 2 nights at Denali park, the activities are so excellent, enjoy all the time you can there.

 

Independent is simple to arrange, plenty of accurate help on this board, if you care to take advantage. :)

[DukeFamily]

I'm looking to do something very similar next summer. Why better that way round? Did you do it all through Princess? Am tempted to try to do the land tour independently. Any thoughts on how easy/diff that might be? (Must confess my Mum is less keen on the DIY bit!) Any advice GREATLY appreciated. I may well post my own question too.

 

all saints

 

Sorry for the delay - I forgot to check in here yesterday! I always recommend the land tour first simply because you are on the go the whole 3 or 4 days. It's so much fun, but exhausting fun. I know on our first day, we didn't get to our hotel in Fairbanks until midnight or later and beat our luggage to the room by a good hour, so we didn't get to sleep till really really late. Then had to be up and in the lobby at about 6:30 a.m. to start the first leg of the train trip. You're excited as all get out and it's just incredible, but like I said, exhausting. It was so nice to do all that, then get on the ship and decompress! So that's the whole reason I say do the land portion first.

 

Ours was all through Princess and I'd do the same again. They were just so good at what they do. As soon as we got off the plane in Fairbanks the first person we saw was from Princess holding a sign with our name on it. They were so quick in doing their job and taking care of us - that's why we got to the hotel before our luggage! That was nice, too - taking care of our luggage was their job, not ours. Everyone was so friendly and excited - we felt like we were the very first customers they ever had and that this was as much fun for them as it was for us!

 

They accomodated our request to opt out of the planned excursion at Denali without any hesitation and helped us arrange to do something different. Necessary credits appeared on credit card statements without a hitch and without any dealings with customer service after the fact.

 

When we got to Seward, we could see the ship out in the bay and not coming any closer. There was some problem with the stabilizers and they could not come all the way into port. They had already tendered pax off from the prior cruise and other than being at the pier, the ship was ready for us. They were so good at changing plans on the fly, we couldn't tell there was a problem. We wouldn't be on the ship in time for lunch, so lunch was brought to the terminal bldg. It was only slightly chaotic (but really just crowded, not chaotic) with EVERYONE in the bldg checking in and getting lunch, but it went well enough you'd think they did it that way every week! We were also all given free passes to the Aquarium which is right there (walking distance) and not normally included. They tendered everyone's luggage while we all visited the Aquarium and walked around outside. By the time we arrived back at the terminal bldg. the problems had been fixed and the ship was at the pier waiting our arrival.

 

Sorry to have gone on so long, but it was one of those special trips you never forget and are happy to share!

[Budget Queen]

Sorry for the delay - I forgot to check in here yesterday! I always recommend the land tour first simply because you are on the go the whole 3 or 4 days. It's so much fun, but exhausting fun. I know on our first day, we didn't get to our hotel in Fairbanks until midnight or later and beat our luggage to the room by a good hour, so we didn't get to sleep till really really late. Then had to be up and in the lobby at about 6:30 a.m. to start the first leg of the train trip. You're excited as all get out and it's just incredible, but like I said, exhausting. It was so nice to do all that, then get on the ship and decompress! So that's the whole reason I say do the land portion first.

 

Ours was all through Princess and I'd do the same again. They were just so good at what they do. As soon as we got off the plane in Fairbanks the first person we saw was from Princess holding a sign with our name on it. They were so quick in doing their job and taking care of us - that's why we got to the hotel before our luggage! That was nice, too - taking care of our luggage was their job, not ours. Everyone was so friendly and excited - we felt like we were the very first customers they ever had and that this was as much fun for them as it was for us!

 

They accomodated our request to opt out of the planned excursion at Denali without any hesitation and helped us arrange to do something different. Necessary credits appeared on credit card statements without a hitch and without any dealings with customer service after the fact.

 

When we got to Seward, we could see the ship out in the bay and not coming any closer. There was some problem with the stabilizers and they could not come all the way into port. They had already tendered pax off from the prior cruise and other than being at the pier, the ship was ready for us. They were so good at changing plans on the fly, we couldn't tell there was a problem. We wouldn't be on the ship in time for lunch, so lunch was brought to the terminal bldg. It was only slightly chaotic (but really just crowded, not chaotic) with EVERYONE in the bldg checking in and getting lunch, but it went well enough you'd think they did it that way every week! We were also all given free passes to the Aquarium which is right there (walking distance) and not normally included. They tendered everyone's luggage while we all visited the Aquarium and walked around outside. By the time we arrived back at the terminal bldg. the problems had been fixed and the ship was at the pier waiting our arrival.

 

Sorry to have gone on so long, but it was one of those special trips you never forget and are happy to share!

 

 

Princess no longer goes out of Seward, this must have been at least 3 years ago.

[daisymae253]

I have sailed on Carnival 7 times...in fact that was the only cruise-line I had been on until my cruise to Alaska last week on the Mercury...I loved everything about it...The service...the food and the shows...All of this was much better than Carnival..The next cruise I plan will be with Celebrity..:o

[DukeFamily]

Princess no longer goes out of Seward, this must have been at least 3 years ago.

 

It was. I knew Princess didn't do the exact same itinerary any more, but of course it's the only one I could comment on. Based on our experience, I would recommend Princess to anyone, whatever the itinerary, just so long as you do the land portion first!

[gottagetout]

Hi, I'm just back from the Aug.19 sailing of RCI Radiance of the Seas Curisetour 17. That is a six night land tour. My DH and I absolutely loved it. The Radiance is an awesome ship. We just got back 2 days ago, I will be writing a review soon. OUr land tour was post cruise. I had read a lot about the popularity of doing the land tour first, but we wanted to spend the extra money(pre-cruise is usually more costly) on excursions. I must say that while on the land tour I had a hard time figuring out why anyone would want to do it the other way around. I found the land tour much more relaxing and it was a great way to just enjoy the sights of Alaska versus the ship. I found the ship entirely draining. I was exhausted. We had the late seating and then either saw a show or some other entertainment. Then you have to get up in the morning early to get to see the port and make any excursion times. We did tours in all of our land tour stops and still had a nice relaxing evening.

I loved cruisetour 17: 2 nights in Denali(a must!!), Tundra tour, Talkeetna - a wonderful, "real" alaskan town, 2 train rides.

Also, as opposed to other posts, I loved the dining room for dinner. The appetizers, salads, and main courses were delightful. Of course, I am not someone who usually eats at 5 star restaurants. We were going to go to CHOPS one night because of the good reviews but we never made it because what the dining room was offering was always great.

Let me know if you have any questions.