Planning a 2024 Alaska cruise and I *thought* doing a Princess cruisetour would make everything easier. Even though I'm a good DIYer on our travels. But, there are a bazillion options, and the more searching I do on the boards, the more other options I come up with. And I guess you can't book the cruise and add the land on later, so now I'm getting nervous the stateroom I want may disappear before I make the decisions. Sorry--rambling already--I'll blame it on the brain overload.
I (believe) I've settled on the Princess Sapphire southbound sailing leaving Whittier June 1. I know it's a little early in the season, but like I said, more stateroom availability. Also, it may allow for more traveling/touring days on the front end utilizing the long Memorial Day weekend. (Only so much vacation time.) So, that allows for up to a 12 day Princess Cruisetour, or a smidge shorter one paired with a bit of 'on our own' since we'll probably get to AK a couple days ahead of time, just in case.
I was thinking we'd need to focus on the ones leaving from Anchorage, because airfare to Fairbanks, while not released for our travel dates yet, looked like it could be pricey. But then through my research using similar dates this summer it looked like we could fly to Anchorage, then take a cheap, direct flight to Fairbanks if we decided to do one of the cruise tours up there. Or, I read about separate Princess land tours, which would at least help with my worry of staterooms booking up because I could book the cruise and continue to plan the land portion. And, of course, there's the completely DIY route. See why I feel like my head may explode? Ha!
Obviously, we've never been to Alaska. And I know we can't fit it all in during this one trip. And that the Denali Park Road won't be open yet when we go. But I still want it to be good. 😃 We're in our 50s, active, I love birds and wildlife, my hubby's a history buff. We both enjoy hiking and scenery.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.