Anyone happy with RCCL land portion?

[atv girl]

Hi we`re already booked for next June on RCCL for our first Alaska trip, we booked the land with them also, but after reading here,I`m not getting alot of positive reviews. I really want to keep our cabin and our week so I`m trying to make the best of it.Thanks in advance.

shari

[Warrior1]

We did a cruise only with Royal to Alaska last summer(Vision of the Seas) and it was amazing. The passengers were chanting on the deck to turn the boat around on the last day. We have cruised with Royal on four different occasions(just once to Alaska) and have found no reason to switch. You may be getting less than stellar reviews from this summer because the weather has been horrible in many parts of Alaska. I was reading an article on line from the Fairbanks newspaper about the flooding that they have been getting. The train track is closed near Fairbanks and they are transporting people by bus. It has been a mess and cold too. Our experience to Tracy Arm Fjord, Juneau and Skagway last summer was good enough that we are flying to Anchorage next summer and renting an RV for a 10 day land trip. Alaska was going to be a once in a lifetime for us and that thinking was thrown out the window the first time we went through the Inside Passage. It doesn't get much better than that. Good luck, but I'm not the person to talk you out of Royal Caribbean.

[maren91]

Hi we`re already booked for next June on RCCL for our first Alaska trip, we booked the land with them also, but after reading here,I`m not getting alot of positive reviews. I really want to keep our cabin and our week so I`m trying to make the best of it.Thanks in advance.

shari

 

Hi - I was in the same boat as you, booked a land tour with a great cabin. After reading all of the reviews on Cruise Critic I realized that I could do a one-week land tour by myself and save money and go at our own pace and stay at the hotels I wanted to stay in, etc. I just called Royal and cancelled our land tour, you don't need to cancel the entire reservation. You keep the same reservation #, same cabin.

 

My advice is to write down all the stops you were going to go on your land tour and price what it would be to rent a car at the airport and do it yourself, I think you will be amazed at the cost savings and benefits to traveling on your own. That said, I have heard positive reviews of the Royal Caribbean/Celebrity land tours. I would price it out yourself using tousaver discounts and then compare the two and weigh the pro's and con's. For me, half the fun has been in the planning!

[SFAM]

I don't know about RCCL, but I do have a comment overall. Based on advice here from Budget Queen, Yukon and others, I've already decided to drop the land cruise portion I had from Carnival (starting in Whittier) and plan this myself. In addition to it being LOTS funner and more flexible, I was able to add a day, cost in all lunches and dinners, AND have two whale trips for the same price I was quoted for a three-day cruise tour.

 

I now have a far better sense of what I will be doing there, will have far more time to see what I want (Kanai Fjords and Denali without wasting time in Anchorage or Fairbanks) while saving big bucks. Now I haven't taken this yet (obviously), but I feel FAR better about the land portion of the trip now.

[PennyAgain]

I'm proud of you for taking the leap of faith and doing a land tour on your own!

 

You won't be sorry!

 

I love wool, but it is not good to be a sheep.

[Warrior1]

There is no question it will be cheaper and you will have more flexibility doing things on your own. You have to have the time and patience to make everything work. I plan all of our trips and excursions off of the cruise ship. Remember, it is better to be over prepared and have backup plans, especially in Alaska. Everyone traveling with you is depending on you to make things stress free and enjoyable. We are basically doing a ten day land tour next summer on our own. One thing is for sure, the internet makes planning much more easy than in the old days!

[stired]

I echo the previous posters. Keep your cabin and cruise and do the land tour portion yourself. This is exactly what I did in 2007 and had the trip of a lifetime. (you can read my review from my 2007 trip if you click on the link below).

 

Not only will you be able to do what YOU want to do, you will most likely save money!

[Dan16]

Like many of the other posters I cancelled our land tour portion of RCCL cruise and made my own arraingements once we hit Seward. I couldn't imagine myself having a good time being herded from one stop to the next without the freedom to stop and see something that caught my eye. Between CC and Tripadvisor the planning was a piece of cake. We returned from our NB trip with no regrets for going it on our own. For me I found the cost to be about a wash (saved about $200 for 2) but that's was a small price to pay to be able to stay where I wanted or stop and take pictures of two moose feeding in a swamp. If you book the land yourself remember the advice echoed here often. Book lodging and rental cars early for the best rates.:)

[atv girl]

Thank you all so much I appreciate your honest thoughts, I`m going to call the travel agent tommorow,If we fly into anchorage how far of a road trip is to Denali,and is it like anywhere else I can rent in anchorage and return in Seward,any help is greatly appreciated, kind of directionally challenged.

[snuggles]

Hi atvgirl

:D We are booked for June 2009 NB on Radiance also, - going with a group. Since this will definately be the one and only time we will be able to go to Alaska, we are doing the cruisetour through RCCL. I have talked to several from our area who did this and they were more than pleased with their land trip through RCCL. Those who went with other lines weren't so pleased. I don't like being herded, but if this is the only option I have right now, I'll do it. :(

I would prefer doing the land part first, but that's not possible. Maybe in my other life- ;)

After reading all the posts here, if I weren't going with a group and time permitted, I would do my own land part before the cruise for a week.

Enjoy your cruise. When are you going? Maybe we are on the same one?

[atv girl]

Linda it looks like you`ll be getting on when we get off the ship,I have mixed feelings on the land i really like someone planning it all out but did`nt realize I was missing a few things. I just tried to check on the hotels we were already booked in thru the ship, and 2 are not avail.So we`ll see I feel like I need a week off just to have enough time on the boards to try and plan.

[snuggles]

I know how you feel. I like to have things planned out in advance to the exact time. I am so anal about that. I have been trying very hard to go with the flow lately though and just live each minute as it comes. I liked the idea of having it planned out until I checked the board and found out we are going to miss some things. But, I guess ya have to give a little to get a little. :rolleyes:

Keep the ship in good shape for me and wave as ya get off. I'll wave back! :D

We have decided we're going to go and have a wonderful time no matter what! (Especially, since I was the one to talk DH into doing the cruisetour)

[vbmom87]

Thank you all so much I appreciate your honest thoughts, I`m going to call the travel agent tommorow,If we fly into anchorage how far of a road trip is to Denali,and is it like anywhere else I can rent in anchorage and return in Seward,any help is greatly appreciated, kind of directionally challenged.

 

Denali is about a 5-6 hour drive from Anchorage. Hertz is the only car rental in Seward, so you would have to go with them, if you want to drive to Seward. However, many people take the VERY SCENIC train from Anchorage to Seward. It leaves at 6:45 am. and you arrive in Seward at 11:00 a.m. It is recommended you take an 11:30 Kenai Fjords Boat trip, and then board your cruiseship. Or you could come in to Seward a day early and take in even more of the area.

 

The train ride is so scenic. It is considered the most scenic stretch of the Alaska railroad in the interior of Alaska. We were in awe on this trip. We went from Seward to Anchorage and didn't know which way to look. There was always such beautiful scenery on both sides of the train. We loved it!!!

 

Driving around Alaska is so easy. There really is only one road between destinations. You can't get lost. We, too, enjoyed being able to stop where we wanted and to get up when we wanted. One thing about bus tours is your days always start early.

 

There is no need for you to book the same hotels you would have stayed in with the cruise line. They are probably showing booked because the rooms are blocked out for the cruisetours. I booked my lodgings last fall for this past June. We chose to stay in B&Bs and loved it!!!! You really get more of a flavor of the real Alaska when you stay in a B&B setting. We had no trouble finding openings. If you start reading back a few pages, you will find threads on hotels.

 

I can understand people wanting to go with a cruisetour. The planning is all done for them. My DH wanted us to do that too in Alaska. We had taken a bus tour in Europe and we both loved it. However, I did not want to take a land tour in ALaska. Once I read CC and Trip Advisor, I could not find a land tour that did everything I wanted. They all missed something I felt was important. So, with the help of CC and TA we planned a wonderful trip and did not regret it. When I wasn't feeling well we were able to adjust what we had planned and still have a great time.

 

Whatever, you end up doing, I am sure you will have a great trip. We know many people who did land tours with HAL and loved them.

 

One thing to be aware of with cruisetours is the Denali experience. Make sure you are getting two nights in Denali. Don't even consider a cruisetour that only gives you the Natural History Tour in Denali. You want the TWT minimally. WHen you have a full day in Denali, you can often cancel the cruiseline Denali tour and book your own tour. Many recommend the shuttles to Eilson or Wonder Lake. Do some searches adn you will find volumes of information.

 

Happy Planning!!!

[atv girl]

VBmom87, thank you so much for taking the time to help me understand, the ropes,I`m going to try and work on this today, but I thought about it last night and even if I decide not to change,I`m going to make the best of it and realize how lucky I am to be going,and if we don`t get everything in we want oh well we`ll have to go back. thanks again

[bjksgk]

atvgirl, I'm not sure where you are reading bad reviews of the RCCL/Celebrity land tours, or more importantly, WHICH land tours are getting bad reviews. I am happy to say I can give a very positive review of the land tour offered by RCCL/Celebrity and tell you that I never felt "herded" once in the 7 days I was with my tour. I have read that comment over and over again here and I have to wonder where people are seeing these herds because other than the 45 people on the 2 buses in my tour group we were never around other people on any of our stops, and on some they timed it so one bus would stop first then the other bus would go etc so we would not be too many people at one time. It was very well organized.

 

As other posters have already said, most people on the board prefer independent land tours. This was not an option for my family this year, so we booked the longest land tour offered by Celebrity, that included all the cities I wanted to visit. You have to know what you are booking - that is the key to it all and then you can work around it. I booked tour 17, which gave me 2 nights in Denali which included the TWT. Having a full day there gave me the option to ditch the TWT and book my own shuttle to Wonder Lake if I wanted to do that. I ended up not doing that after all, and I was more than pleased with the TWT as we saw every single animal possible in Denali - the only thing we didn't see was the mountain itself. We had a night in Talkeetna, which allowed me to go flightseeing at McKinley, and we had a day in Seward that included a Resurrection Bay cruise which I ditched for the Kenai Fjords 6 hr National Park tour.

 

The tour was wonderful, everything was handled for us and was top notch all the way. There were one or two things that I was not thrilled with but they were so minor that I would hestitate to say it was well worth it.

 

If you have any questions I'd be more happy to answer them for you, but I would not second guess yourself about booking a tour if you are worried about doing the land portion on your own.

[atv girl]

Bjksjk, I think my mistake, was booking tour 7 it does`nt include the TWT it does the natural history tour, which I believe I`ve heard only1 good thing about. I only have 11 days and I`m pushing that, I work independantly so no work no pay.I contacted the travel agent and his assistent called royal and they said I could`nt get a refund on NHT if I wanted the TWT I`d need to change tours I really wanted to do the land first so I was pretty limited, I only had 3 choices.I also heard about hearding people like cattle, but its nice to hear something positive, because I like all the places where staying,and I really want to go to Talkeetna,which there is only 2 tour choices for there.I`m going to call RCCL today and see if they have a time schedule yet for next june this way, I`m willing to loose the money on NHT if I have time to do the TWT on my own. by the time I pay the fee for the change its not that much difference. thanks for letting me sound out my plans.shari

[Budget Queen]

It isn't a matter of cruisetours not being a good choice. They most certainly are for some people. The problems are the itinerary and people's uninformed choices that are not what they thing they are. It constantly happens, over and over and over, evidenced by reading this board. I think, it is best to do your homework, no matter how you book. IF you are a booking a cruisetour, because you think, "everything is taken care of". It probably will offer you some negative surprises.

 

As for the "herding" comments, it does take more time, to load and unload a bus. You do have far more wait time involved, fixed schedules. You have no option for any stops other than those scheduled. These would be big negatives to some people.

 

Key with cruisetours, go for as long as you can afford. Avoid the short cruisetours.

[bjksgk]

Bjksjk, I think my mistake, was booking tour 7 it does`nt include the TWT it does the natural history tour, which I believe I`ve heard only1 good thing about. I only have 11 days and I`m pushing that, I work independantly so no work no pay.I contacted the travel agent and his assistent called royal and they said I could`nt get a refund on NHT if I wanted the TWT I`d need to change tours I really wanted to do the land first so I was pretty limited, I only had 3 choices.I also heard about hearding people like cattle, but its nice to hear something positive, because I like all the places where staying,and I really want to go to Talkeetna,which there is only 2 tour choices for there.I`m going to call RCCL today and see if they have a time schedule yet for next june this way, I`m willing to loose the money on NHT if I have time to do the TWT on my own. by the time I pay the fee for the change its not that much difference. thanks for letting me sound out my plans.shari

atvgirl - I can understand about the issue of taking time off as my husband is in the same boat. But we decided that since this trip was something we were not going to repeat for a long time, we wanted to do it right and not shortcut ourselves so we bit the bullet and took off the extra time without pay. Yes it hurt but it was worth it to see everything we wanted.

 

Do not take a tour that only includes the Natural History tour. You absolutely need the Tundra Wilderness tour. And Celebrity will not refund you for anything that is included in your tour package that you do not choose to do - I have read that Princess will refund for that but not Celebrity. All the things I ditched were just lost money, but that was fine because I got to do what I wanted to do. If you are dead set on 11 nights you might want to scope out some of the other land tours. Also look at the amount of travel time you have because you're going to be spending alot of time in buses and trains.

[cardfans]

Bjksjk, I think my mistake, was booking tour 7 it does`nt include the TWT it does the natural history tour, which I believe I`ve heard only1 good thing about. I only have 11 days and I`m pushing that, I work independantly so no work no pay.I contacted the travel agent and his assistent called royal and they said I could`nt get a refund on NHT if I wanted the TWT I`d need to change tours I really wanted to do the land first so I was pretty limited, I only had 3 choices.I also heard about hearding people like cattle, but its nice to hear something positive, because I like all the places where staying,and I really want to go to Talkeetna,which there is only 2 tour choices for there.I`m going to call RCCL today and see if they have a time schedule yet for next june this way, I`m willing to loose the money on NHT if I have time to do the TWT on my own. by the time I pay the fee for the change its not that much difference. thanks for letting me sound out my plans.shari

 

We did a land tour with RCCL this year in June after our 7 day northbound cruise at the end of May. We loved it and so did everyone in our group of 8. The lodging was good, the train rides spectacular, and we actually enjoyed the NHT, but I posted that before, so I am probably the one person you mentioned. We did not feel like we were herded like cattle, and it was great to not have to worry about luggage, hotels and transportation once we were off of the ship. Also, my husband did not have to drive and miss half of the scenery. You are the only ones who can decide what is best for you, but we were very pleased with the land tour we took with RCCL.

[atv girl]

Bjksgk, I know what you mean about biting the bullet with no pay,I`m exploring someother options, to maybe add another day. thank you again

when did you get your schedule for the land portion, do you remember?

[atv girl]

Cardfan, can you tell me which one you took,and do you know of a difference into flying into anchorage or fairbanks?some tours do Anc, some FB.Thanks for the response, I`m taking it all in good and bad.

Also did you do the TWT also or just the NHT.I love the idea of not worrying about luggage and driving and one of us missing something.

[cardfans]

We did Cruisetour #9 which was northbound, so we flew into Vancouver. We disembarked in Seward, took a motorcoach to Anchorage, flew to Fairbanks (part of the land tour) and then took motorcoach to Denali, train to Talkeetna, and train back to Anchorage and flew home from Anchorage. The security people at the Anchorage airport were the friendliest and most helpful we have ever encountered. And flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Alaska Air was like a flight seeing tour of Mt. Mckinley. The pilot was going around the mountain and giving us an ongoing narrative of what we were seeing. The reason we chose this particular land tour was because it cost more to fly home from Fairbanks than from Anchorage, and we wanted to get more train than motorcoach. We did only have one day in Denali and we did do the NHT, but we saw caribou, and moose and snowshoe hare. I will be glad to answer any other questions. Good luck on your decision. Alaska was unbelievable and we went with the attitude that we were going to enjoy it regardless of weather, tours etc. But everything including the great weather surpassed our expectations.

[atv girl]

Cardfans, Thanks for the info,I called RCCL just to see about changing and I can keep my cruise portion and change land for 200 and it add TWT, then I called back to check on another tour and they would`nt give me a price told me I needed to call my TA so I`m waiting on his call. thank you all so much for the help its appreciated.

[greatam]

IMHO, one thing you have to think about:

 

People who post satisfactory experiences with a cruise line land tour generally have NO other experience to base their experience on. They have NO idea what is out there or what they missed out on.

 

Try to find posts with people who have taken a cruise line tour AND THEN went on their own tour. You will find the experiences VASTLY different and I don't think I have ever read one post that stated they had a BETTER experience on the cruise line tour.

 

The lady who keeps posting that the cruise tour to Prudhoe is a fantastic tour is a perfect example. It may well be, with her limited experience. She has NO other experiences to base her finding on.

 

But as someone who has been to Prudhoe quite a few times by various methods-driving myself, flying and on a tour, the self guided experiences were FAR superior to being on a BIG bus with 30-40 other people. If for no other reason, the time it takes to get everyone rounded up, loaded on the bus and then off the bus again wastes A LOT of valuable time. And you ALWAYS have ONE that just can't seem to make it to the bus on time. So you waste even more time waiting for that one group/couple/individual.

 

Alaska is EASY. No foreign language, no foreign currency, US cell phones work all over (well, most of them). With only a few days, you are really limited to Denali and Seward. Take your time in Denali if that is what you choose to do. Go flightseeing, go to Jeff King's kennel, take the time to see the sled dogs at the Park Service and TAKE the shuttle bus. You can take the train to Denali or drive yourself. There is even the Park Connection bus which goes between ANC and Denali daily. Lots of choices. And an easy itinerary to plan.

[Vacationahead]

To answer the OP's question, we did a Cruistour with RCCL this summer (#13) and we had a good time. As Greatam might point out, it was our first trip to Alaska, so we don't have a lot to compare it to, but we felt it worked well for us. I agree with Cardfans, it was great to be able to sit on the train and take in the scenery without worrying about driving. For that reason, even if I were booking my own trip, I would try to take the Alaska Railroad when possible. We used their Goldstar service to get from Anchorage (where our tour ended) to Fairbanks in order to fly home, and it was very nice. The seats weren't nearly as comfortable as Royalcelebrity's were, but they are still the domed cars.

 

We never felt rushed or herded anywhere on our tour. The hotels were okay--not great, but I'm not sure there are a lot of great hotels in Alaska. The buses and trains were comfortable (and I'm 6'7" tall) and our driver and guide were great. They were probably the best part of the trip.

 

So, we might have saved some money by doing it ourselves, and it would have been nice to have left a few places later in the morning, but it was also great to walk into our hotel room each night and see the luggage waiting on us, and in the morning have someone pick it up (I assume at least some of the hotels had bellmen who could have done the same thing.). We certainly don't regret taking the cruisetour. We met some great folks on the bus that we have been in contact with since returning home.