Alaskan Cruise

[Fitnessmaniac]

If you were doing a Alaskan cruise..which would you do..or which have you done? :confused: We are thinking about booking one while on our next cruise.

There are several to choose and we don't know what the difference is.

Thanks for any help. :)

[wrp96]

If at all possible (time wise and money wise) I would book a northbound or southbound cruise, so that you can add on days on land so you can see the interior of Alaska, which is a totally different experience than the cruise itself.

 

After that I'd choose the roundtrip out of Vancouver.

 

But seeing as I'm on the roundtrip out of Seattle, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.:p

[GMoney]

Here are some comments which may help organize your thoughts. You can also read my AK review at http://web.mac.com/mellicon/My_Voyage_to_Adventure/Blog/Entries/2007/10/2_Alaska_Review_files/alaska.pdf. Just keep in mind it long and takes awhile to download, but some have found it helpful.

 

My experience of an independent land tour + a SB cruise to Vancouver was great. Best of luck with your planning.

 

 

>Do you want to just do a cruise, or do cruise + land tour?

 

> If you choose the latter, you’ll need to decide if you want to do the land portion independently, or do a cruisetour through the cruiseline.

 

> If you do a cruisetour, you will do an open jaw cruise. Determine if you want to do northbound (generally from Vancouver / Seattle to Seward / Whittier) or southbound.

 

> Decide what to do first - the tour or the cruise.

 

> Decide what land stops are important to you. There are lots of combinations, but time in Seward (to see Kenai Fjords) and Denali (you'll need at least 2 nights here) are most popular. My favorite stop was Valdez as a gateway to Prince William Sound.

 

> Pick a cruiseline. RCI and X combine to form Royal Celebrity Tours (RCT) in Alaska; they do a very nice job. However, HAL and Princess have been in Alaska for much longer, have more ships and more varied itinerary choices, and have a very strong land presence. HAL, for example, owns Grayline. Some people will avoid X due to the past problems some of their ships have had with propulsion systems.

 

> Determine what (if any) glacier stops on your cruise are important. RCI cruises by Hubbard; HAL and Princess mostly cruise through Glacier Bay. Some people have preferences; both are very nice for slightly different reasons.

 

> Decide when in the May - Sept season to go. Since you will be on land, you may want to avoid going too early, as the road into Denali may not be all the way open, bears may not be about, etc. June of course gets lots of daylight, July has more mosquitoes on land, etc.

 

> Plan excursions to take advantage of your time in Alaska. Excursions are varied and can be very pricey, but will really enhance your trip. Determine what you like, what you want to do, what port is best for those activities and reserve early.

 

> Research Cruise Critic feedback. There are some great experts on the Alaska Port of Call board. Stop by and ask there.

[Murphy]

I just returned this week from the 14 night repo cruise that left out of Vancouver, then spend 8 nights doing Alaska, then continued to Seattle, Astoria and San Fran before completing in LA. We hadn't been to Alaska before and this was a FANTASTIC trip! We lucked out with the weather and really liked that we hit the 80s in most of the mainland ports after being in the 50-60 range in Alaska. This was a great cruise and I can't say enough about it! If you have specific questions, please ask and I'll try to answer.

[gnparend]

I would do the Northbound with a landtour like 13 dyas total (7 cruise 6 land) b/c the cruise is like the appetizer for Alaska. You get to see some amazing sites on the way and you get to rest. When you do the land tour those alaskains do not sleep. We where there in June and at 10 Pm we where still sightseeing and then saying "Guess we should eat dinner" In mid June the Sun is out an average of 20 + hours so at 11 PM it's still sunny and the people are still up and going.

 

The lodges and tours RCI thru there land divison RCT Royal Celebrity Tours are in the best lodges new buses and newest train cars. Mostly b/c they just started about 5 years ago where Princess & HAL still have the original 20 year old stuff.

 

Pic's in iur signature on the Radiance.

[GMoney]

The lodges and tours RCI thru there land divison RCT Royal Celebrity Tours are in the best lodges new buses and newest train cars. Mostly b/c they just started about 5 years ago where Princess & HAL still have the original 20 year old stuff.

 

I was on a HAL dome car this summer and it was just 2 years old.

[cardfans]

I would do the Northbound with a landtour like 13 dyas total (7 cruise 6 land) b/c the cruise is like the appetizer for Alaska. You get to see some amazing sites on the way and you get to rest. When you do the land tour those alaskains do not sleep. We where there in June and at 10 Pm we where still sightseeing and then saying "Guess we should eat dinner" In mid June the Sun is out an average of 20 + hours so at 11 PM it's still sunny and the people are still up and going.

 

The lodges and tours RCI thru there land divison RCT Royal Celebrity Tours are in the best lodges new buses and newest train cars. Mostly b/c they just started about 5 years ago where Princess & HAL still have the original 20 year old stuff.

 

Pic's in iur signature on the Radiance.

 

We are booked on RCI cruisetour #9 for May 23,2008. Although I know all of the cruisetours are different, can you give me some idea about how early you needed to be ready to leave for each day of your land portion?