Luggage on Cruisetours

First time to Alaska 1 July with RCL. We are starting with cruisetour to Denali followed by cruise to Vancouver. After day in Fairbanks we travel to Denali by train.

Someone told me we are limited in luggage we take to Denali - one small bag. This doesn't seem right to me. I would assume we take all luggage with us (since we are there two nights) and on return to Anchorage prior to cruise, they take our luggage to Seward to ship.

Anyone know the way things work?

Great Question I am on the same cruisetour as you I am going to call my TA tomorrow and see if they know

The rule of thumb is that you carry a small bag for the land tour. Your main bag will be stored and delivered to the ship. Sometimes they stay with the bus you travel but not easily accessible .

One bag and a carry on pp. Additional bags will be labeled to meet you on the ship. Carry on size limited because of space under seats on train. Large bag won't be available until each night of tour.

We went on an RCL cruisetour last summer, each of us had a suitcase and a daypack (backpack), one person had a second suitcase. Each morning we had to have our suitcases outside our hotel room by a certain time so that they could be collected and loaded on the bus, and then in the evening when we arrived at our next hotel the suitcases were delivered to our rooms. We carried our own backpacks with us which had the things that we might want during the day, like sweatshirts, waterproof shell, camera, binoculars, granola or chocolate bar, book, medication, etc.

If you had a piece of luggage that you did not need access to each evening, then it could be tagged differently and it would not be placed in your room each evening, it would stay securely locked on the bus (the person with the second suitcase did chose to do this with their extra bag). We could still get access to it, but needed to let the tour guide or bus driver know ahead of time because it was not part of the usual load/unload routine. On our last night on the cruise tour in Anchorage, all the luggage was delivered to our rooms so that we could place the cruise (cabin) tags on the luggage so that it would get delivered to our cabins once aboard the ship.

You will be on a different bus for your day tour in Denali National Park. These are more like school buses and have overhead racks but no real storage. We brought our backpacks with us, but with only the things we needed for those 8 hours, camera, binoculars, jacket, snack, extra water bottle (we left everything thing else that we had in the backpack back in the hotel room). This bus picked us up and dropped us off at the hotel.

Is it one Suitcase and carry on bag per person ? or is it one suitcase period ?

One regular sized suitcase per person and one carry-on each.

How does it work if you are on the ship first and then the land tour? What happens to your luggage as we will have several suitcases with us on the cruise?

Just like when you do the land tour first- they store the cruise ship suitcases for you and then get them to you at the end. For us the cruise tour was a "virgin" experience, but the cruise lines have been doing this for a long time. They send you luggage tags to indicate which cases join you on which part of the tour. We did the land part first and had tags that said "meet me on the ship".

You can take all the luggage you want but once you get to the hotel the tour director will ask you to put your clothes and items that you will need for the land portion in one smaller bag because they will be checking your larger luggage under the bus until you reach the ship. If you forget something to take out of the larger bag, just ask them and they will ask the bus driver to get your luggage out so you can get it. Just try to do it right the first time though because it does take extra time for them to get out the luggage and then put them back.

Now this is bothering me...we're on a 7 nite cruise and an 8 night land tour. For 8 nights it will be quite difficult to put all our clothes in a "small suitcase" because, obviously, we'll need more clothing on land than on the cruise portion (also, don't see any time during the tour to do laundry). Plus DD and I only planned on bringing 1 LLBean rolling duffel each (which, of course, will be holding our formal wear, too) equivalent of a 26" bag. We will have day packs for our daily touring needs. Will we get any "grief" for not having a "small suitcase" and can't they just haul our bags (1 large, each) to our rooms at each stop? I really don't want to have to travel with any more luggage than we have to.:confused:

Now this is bothering me...we're on a 7 nite cruise and an 8 night land tour. For 8 nights it will be quite difficult to put all our clothes in a "small suitcase" because, obviously, we'll need more clothing on land than on the cruise portion (also, don't see any time during the tour to do laundry). Plus DD and I only planned on bringing 1 LLBean rolling duffel each (which, of course, will be holding our formal wear, too) equivalent of a 26" bag. We will have day packs for our daily touring needs. Will we get any "grief" for not having a "small suitcase" and can't they just haul our bags (1 large, each) to our rooms at each stop? I really don't want to have to travel with any more luggage than we have to.:confused:

It's been a while since we last did Alaska but it seems to me that you have your bags with you except for the train ride and overnight at Denali.

Check with your TA.

Thank you all for your help good info here so 2 bags each they hold one most of the time keep the other with you and the camera good stuff..\

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182058&d=1296050024

Hopefully this will link to our cruisetour paperwork-it answers a lot of questions before you arrive, but remember that is is a couple of years old. When we went (ground, then cruise) there wasn't an emphasis on luggage size except for your carry-on while on the train & the reason is that there is really not storage space on board. Think airplane without overhead compartments! We each toted an average sized backpack with needs for the day-actually half of it was camera gear!

Your luggage will magically appear at your room daily-something you will come to love! We weren't told anything about size, just to separate the luggage you want on land and the cases you want to meet you on the ship (or vice-versa) Since there is no laundry available (?) it's nice to get that different case of clean stuff !

Check with your hotels when you find out where you're staying-if I'd known that one had self serve laundry, we'd have been able to ship one fewer bag-no small thing these days! But...laundry facilities break down or are mobbed...balance your choices!

If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to share my experience

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182058&d=1296050024

 

Hopefully this will link to our cruisetour paperwork-it answers a lot of questions before you arrive, but remember that is is a couple of years old. When we went (ground, then cruise) there wasn't an emphasis on luggage size except for your carry-on while on the train & the reason is that there is really not storage space on board. Think airplane without overhead compartments! We each toted an average sized backpack with needs for the day-actually half of it was camera gear!

 

Your luggage will magically appear at your room daily-something you will come to love! We weren't told anything about size, just to separate the luggage you want on land and the cases you want to meet you on the ship (or vice-versa) Since there is no laundry available (?) it's nice to get that different case of clean stuff !

 

Check with your hotels when you find out where you're staying-if I'd known that one had self serve laundry, we'd have been able to ship one fewer bag-no small thing these days! But...laundry facilities break down or are mobbed...balance your choices!

 

If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to share my experience

How long before your cruise tour did you get this info Thanks

Before we left, we had the list of hotels, but we didn't get the schedule that I attached until we arrived at the first hotel & met with our guide

First time to Alaska 1 July with RCL. We are starting with cruisetour to Denali followed by cruise to Vancouver. After day in Fairbanks we travel to Denali by train.

 

Someone told me we are limited in luggage we take to Denali - one small bag. This doesn't seem right to me. I would assume we take all luggage with us (since we are there two nights) and on return to Anchorage prior to cruise, they take our luggage to Seward to ship.

 

Anyone know the way things work?

I was on this exact same cruisetour in July. It is a fabulous time and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

What the person is trying to tell you about Denali is when you are on the train you will only be able to have a small bag because there simply no room for anything large.

The morning you leave for the train your bus driver will put your bags under the bus and drive you to the train station. When you leave on the train, the bus driver will drive to Denali and will be there, with your bags waiting for the train to arrive. While you do the tour / presentation that first day in Denali, he will take your bags to the lodge and deliver them to your room for you.

It's really incredible how easy the entire process is. The driver and tour guide work very, very hard to make the experience seamless. They deserve every penny of tip they get.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

we are planning to do this trip in 2015 so this info is a great help to us

I was on this exact same cruisetour in July. It is a fabulous time and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

 

What the person is trying to tell you about Denali is when you are on the train you will only be able to have a small bag because there simply no room for anything large.

 

The morning you leave for the train your bus driver will put your bags under the bus and drive you to the train station. When you leave on the train, the bus driver will drive to Denali and will be there, with your bags waiting for the train to arrive. While you do the tour / presentation that first day in Denali, he will take your bags to the lodge and deliver them to your room for you.

 

It's really incredible how easy the entire process is. The driver and tour guide work very, very hard to make the experience seamless. They deserve every penny of tip they get.

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

We are doing our cruise first. Then we have a 5 day land tour thru Alaska Tour & Travel. We stay overnight at Seward then on to Talkeetna lodge for a overnight stay then to Denali for two nights all by bus except when we come back to Anchorage it is by train ! Is it right we can't take our luggage on train back to Anchorage on train ? :)

We are doing our cruise first. Then we have a 5 day land tour thru Alaska Tour & Travel. We stay overnight at Seward then on to Talkeetna lodge for a overnight stay then to Denali for two nights all by bus except when we come back to Anchorage it is by train ! Is it right we can't take our luggage on train back to Anchorage on train ? :)

Yes, you will be able to on the way back. The cruise line train cars are built more like first class airline cabins, except instead of overhead storage, you have a glass domed roof. They don't have luggage space because you simply don't need it. Those cars are built for short rides.

The standard train cars have room for luggage.

Here's a couple of pics of the inside....plus one of their ridiculously good Bloody Mary's. They are worth the price!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Thank you for the link and valuable info. We are on cruise tour 13 in July and was wondering the same thing about luggage. I agree dont need the luggage during the day but was getting worried about having to carry overnight items around with us, now we know that we will see our luggage in the evening so is a great load off of our minds.

Thanks again

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182058&d=1296050024

 

Hopefully this will link to our cruisetour paperwork-it answers a lot of questions before you arrive, but remember that is is a couple of years old. When we went (ground, then cruise) there wasn't an emphasis on luggage size except for your carry-on while on the train & the reason is that there is really not storage space on board. Think airplane without overhead compartments! We each toted an average sized backpack with needs for the day-actually half of it was camera gear!

 

Your luggage will magically appear at your room daily-something you will come to love! We weren't told anything about size, just to separate the luggage you want on land and the cases you want to meet you on the ship (or vice-versa) Since there is no laundry available (?) it's nice to get that different case of clean stuff !

 

Check with your hotels when you find out where you're staying-if I'd known that one had self serve laundry, we'd have been able to ship one fewer bag-no small thing these days! But...laundry facilities break down or are mobbed...balance your choices!

 

If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to share my experience

Has anyone done cruisetour #9? It involves a flight from anchorage to Fairbanks and then the train/bus back to Anchorage. What happens with your luggage after departing the ship to fly to Fairbanks?

Fran