Getting overwhelmed-please help

[SRJJ09]

I've been trying to plan this AK cruise/tour for 3 years but keep scratching it due to the overwhelming amount of info to plan. I"m almost at that point again. I know these questions have probably been addressed a million times on this board but please save me more frustrations and help me out. I promise I will search for the rest of my answers!! Hopefully these are all legal questions. I'm not a big cruise person but know that parts of AK can really only be seen this way, plus others going with us really enjoy cruising. I want to have some amount of time for land exploration, including some hiking. SO..

 

1. Cruisetour or cruise plus independent tour?

2. How do I find independent tour companies and do they coordinate with the cruise schedules? i.e. Can I get easily from the ship to the tour & vice versa. (I've considered renting a car but we really don't want to deal with driving, easy as it may be. Did it in Europe more than once, just don't want the effort this trip). Also not too into the bigger cities so don't really care about those choices

4. I've heard HAL is more geared towards seniors- T or F? We aren't big late night, party type people but don't want an all seniors type cruise either.

5. We are interested in some rail & tour bus (I guess) travel and at least 2 nights in Danali for some hiking & exploring not just around the camp grounds. Also where to stay in the park (Princess only?). Any suggestions?

6. Any things to consider when choosing a cruiseline. So many similarities, what are the differences?

 

I have so many more but if you help me get started with some of these I promise I will search & search for the rest.

Thanks in advance.

[neecee23]

If you are having this much trouble deciding for yourself, just decide what it is you really have to see, then find a cruiseline that offers the itinerary that you want. Do a cruisetour so you don't have so many decisions to make, let the cruiseline do it for you. I like Princess, but Royal Caribbean is great too. Have fun!

[knorrisb07]

first, you need to define your budget. Then, you need to decide whether you want to do RT or one-way cruise. So we can go from there to help you out.

[kenish]

I'm getting from your comments that you're active travelers with no mobility problems who like to be independent and don't want a "precanned" experience. If that's true, you should strongly consider independent. There were numerous times where we stopped to see something of interest to us or to take in an amazing view...and saw the cruisetour buses speed past on their way to the next "vanilla" venue. Also, getting around the Denali area and maximizing your time will be very difficult without a car.

 

HALarazzi are a somewhat older demographic, but Alaska cruises tend to attract all ages especially when school is out. Alaska cruises are very port-intensive so it's more about the ports than the ship. We are both very active and like nighlife, but turned in early due to long active days on land and early morning dock times. Definitely look at HAL and Princess, they both have a long history in Alaska and have the majority of permits to enter Glacier Bay.

 

My suggestion is decide which line has the schedule, itenerary, and prices that meet your needs. Put together a rough independent land itenerary and compare flexibility and prices to a cruisetour and choose one or the other. And feel free to ask lots of questions on these boards...as you've discovered there is no shortage of information or answers!

[tupper10]

If you want to do a very good but not cheap tour then contact "off the beaten path" a wonderful travel agency that specializes in trips to Alaska and out west. They planned out our entire trip for us. If you want to go it alone then what I would suggest is seeing Seward and taking the boat ride there as well as seeing the glacier - an easy walk. I don't recall the name of our hotel but I am sure you can go to trip advisor and find a good one. Then I would take the train or bus to Anchorage. We like the Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage though there are many other less expensive places to stay. We like the location of the hotel and the fact that we can walk everywhere or take the bus - which we have done. There are great restaurants in Anchorage. Our favorite is the Marx Brothers Cafe. To get to Denali you can take the train. The ride is very scenic and you are dropped off right at the park. You can stay outside the park or at lodges in the park. The lodges in the park are expensive. The places outside of the park are much less expensive. I am giving you the link to the lodge in the park that we stayed at. It was spectacular. All meals are included and the lodge bus meets you right at the train station and takes you back as well. The hiking is all guided hikes at three different levels, easy, moderate and hard. We did moderate. This is the link is: http://www.denalilodge.com/ We enjoyed not being on a cruise tour since we were able to do things at our own pace. Ironically since you eat family style at the lodge we ended up traveling with the people from the lodge the rest of our trip in Alaska which was quite fun. Though we went separately - they had rented cars - we did the train - we met for other tours as we went from city to city. I have to say that one of my friends did an extended trip with off the beaten path and saw much more of Alaska than we did. We just didn't have the time. Good luck and enjoy.

[Virgil]

We went on a HAL cruisetour 2 yrs ago.There were people of all ages. We had never been to Alaska and HAL made all the arrangements.After we went to the Atlanta airport, we never had to carry our luggage again. I love HAL. We were in Denali only one day, rode the train, had a day in Anchorage, Fairbanks but you can pick what you want to do, how long you want to be gone, and where to go. It was a great experience, we went in June and saw bears,eagles,moose,whales,sea lions,and seals. It was a real vacation because all we had to do is show up. We went back again this year-HAL again-and loved it even more. There is a web site that is very good to give you an idea what to do, TravelAlaska.com I think it is the Alaska tourism office but it is full of info. Take a deep breath and relax. If you are getting overwhelmed just let HAL do it for you. Don't miss out on such a wonderful experience- do it the easy way. Then next time you will have a better idea what you want to plan on your own. One thing about Alaska cities is they are carved out of the wilderness, the big cities are not that big. I hope you go and I know you will have a wonderful time and the beauty of Alaska will take your breath away!! :)

[rjscott]

SRJJ09,

You've already gotten some good advice from others, and I can only relate my experience with our first Alaskan cruise. Like you, I was overwhelmed with the choices, and the feeling that this was a one-time trip and so I needed to make the most of it. But, in retrospect, although we enjoyed all of our excursions, we would have been happy in at least a couple of the ports just wandering around and taking in the local sights. The beauty of the scenery is just amazing.

We sailed on the Sapphire Princess, which I enjoyed very much. We had sailed Princess before and liked them, but initially I wasn't keen on a ship as large as the Sapphire Princess. However, getting on/off the ship was not a problem and there were many little cozy areas to sit and visit with other passengers or just watch the scenery go by.

We booked all of our excursions independently, based on recommendations on CC. If you search under each port you'll be visiting, you'll find the top excursions favored in each port. We chose the Misty Fjords floatplane trip in Ketchikan, whale watching with Capt Larry (Orca Enterprises) and an independent trip to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, and the White Pass Railway in Skagway.

We did not do a cruisetour, but our friends did and, based on their feedback, as well as the recommendations I've read on CC, I would do one independently on our next Alaska cruise.

[Budget Queen]

For independent travel in Alaska, it is simple to plan this on your own, and you do NOT need an "agency" to do this for you. If this is an option for you, then you probably are not going to be entirely happy if you choose a cruisetour, with the limitations.

 

Train travel requires MORE time, and is far more limited in freedom. Bus would be my last choice. There really is not an advantage to train travel in terms of scenery Anchorage/Denali park, just about parallels the highway.

 

There are way more lodging options than Princess, for independent, I would avoid it. Having a car at Denali Park, greatly opens up lodging options. Without one you are way more limited.

 

How much time are you looking at??? IF you post this, then you can get more detailed trip planning information. Then decide which is best for you.

 

You CAN NOT place demographic details specific to cruiselines. Overall, the bulk of Alaska visitors are middle aged and above, including Carnival, HAL does not have the "market" on this. The age is getting younger, but you do not have the ages of the Caribbean in Alaska. I suggest, IF you are going to Alaska for Alaska, not to be concerned with this perhaps??

[Helabama]

In June of '06, our first trip to Alaska, we did a cruisetour with Celebrity. It was great and they took excellent care of us. But it made us want to see even more of Alaska.

 

When we started planning our Alaska trip for the summer of '07 we decided to try an independent land tour before our cruise. That's when I discovered this message board. I spent hours and hours on the internet reading reviews, going through the Frommers Alaska Guide and the Milepost. So when we landed in Fairbanks we knew exactly where we wanted to go and what to do. We had a fabulous time -- spent a week going from Fairbanks to Seward then to Whittier to board the Carnival Spirit. We had such a great time that we did the exact same itinerary this year but we did and saw different things at each stop, except for Denali Nat. Park. We took the same tour as last year and enjoyed it just as much as last year.

 

So you can plan an independent tour but it does take time and research, but considering the cost of a trip to Alaska, it is worth investing the time. Decide how much time you want to spend and which cities you want to go to, then decide what you want to do in each area. Read other people's reviews. I created a word document to which I copied and pasted info from these boards--I have many of BQ's posts--and I used them again this year. We stayed at several bed and breakfast lodges but I read comments from people here on the boards and checked them out on other travel sites like tripadvisor.com. Every place we stayed was very nice, very clean and we enjoyed every one of them, so the research paid off.

 

I enjoyed doing the research because I enjoyed learning so much about Alaska and it helped make the trip even more interesting. As far as traveling around on your own in Alaska, as an Alaska native told me: "It's almost like America." ;)

[SRJJ09]

Well I guess if I just decide I won't go wrong it should work out. Our main goal is to see Alaska, we can't see it all in 2 weeks & I imagine whichever parts we do see we'll love. From what I read, there are big fans of driving yourself & doing the cruisetour thing. I guess I"ll have to do a little more research & then just choose. I've gotten so out of doing months of research for trips like I used to love & now I just feel too tired to figure it all out! I'll look up some of your suggestions. Thanks

[Helabama]

You have a right to feel overwhelmed -- Alaska is a big state and there is so much to see and do. To start I recommend that you pick up a copy of Frommer's Alaska and read about the different areas and what they offer in the way of sight-seeing and activities. Then get on this message board and read reviews and comments posted by other travelers.

 

You need to decide what time of year you plan to travel. Our first trip was in early June. It was very nice, the long, long days were quite a novelty for us, and so many beautiful spring flowers -- the prettiest lilacs I've ever seen.

 

Our last two trips were in late August/early Sept and we have decided that we like that time of year best because we enjoy the fall colors which we don't usually have here where we live. Denali Nat Pk was glorious this year. All the ground-cover vegetation had turned shades of red, the birches and aspens were yellow with evergreens scattered among them, just beautiful. (Also by late August the mosquitos are gone.)

 

I think that once you get into the research you will find it so interesting that it will be fun. If you decide to rent a car and drive, you'll want to get a copy of the Milepost which gives a mile-by-mile description of the roads in Alaska. I have seen the Milepost in book stores like Barnes & Noble. It is a great help in planning a road trip.

 

So good luck. If you can't find answers by doing a search on CC, don't hesitate to post a question. Everyone here as always been so generous with info and advice and they'll be glad to help you.

[dhmom99]

When I started my Alaska cruise planning, I spent quite some time on this forum and learnt a lot from many experienced cruisers. It may sound a daunting task. But if you spend more time on it, it becomes less challenging to plan the trip.