Alaska cruisetour, or land vacation on your own before cruise?

Hi all,

Thinking about an Alaska cruisetour with Princess. The cruisetours seem kind of pricey. Is it worthwhile to book a cruisetour, or are there good options for tours if you go a few days early before a cruise? What are the Princess lodges like - and are meals included there?:confused:

We booked our own post-cruise land tour to Denali using Alaska Railroad and a great B&B in Denali that we found online. Alaska Railroad does their own packages that are worth checking out. (alaskarailroad.com has all the info you'd need.) We had no issues booking, and were on the same train with several Princess and HAL cars. Didn't stay at the Princess lodges so can't comment on that. We were happy going the DIY route; better flexibility (we wanted to go direct to Denali and back) and as I recall it was a bit cheaper.

Cheers,

Kirsten

Hi all,

 

Thinking about an Alaska cruisetour with Princess. The cruisetours seem kind of pricey. Is it worthwhile to book a cruisetour, or are there good options for tours if you go a few days early before a cruise? What are the Princess lodges like - and are meals included there?:confused:

Meals are included with the more expensive Connoisseur cruise tours. I don't believe meals are included with any of the "regular" cruise tours.

No meals are included on cruisetour, unless specifically mentioned. Budget 50% more than you would at home for meals. The Princess Lodges are very nice properties.

The biggest issue i find is uninformed purchasers not knowing the details of what they are booking. So I suggest you find out those details to make an informed choice.

Basic- the Natural History tour is a waste of time. (my opinion) Be advised that the Direct to Denali option is 10 hours on a train, with a lot of so so scenery. The McKinley and Denali Lodges are 100 miles apart. The McKinley Lodge has little at the lodge and is a 2 hour round trip to/from Talkeetna. In my opinion, 2 nights are necessary at the Denali Princess. I suggest if short on time, don't be in a place where you have no interest, or have more interest elsewhere. Realize that under 5 day cruisetours- are going to be mostly transit and little time at destinations. Don't underestimate distances. Denali park is a highlight, but way too many of Princess cruisetours do NOT get into the park. Ask yourself, if you are OK with this? (would you go to Disneyland and not get past Main Street?)

A cruisetour is 'worthwhile' if it supports your interests and priorities: if it takes you where you want to go, allows time at each location to do what you want to do, and is within your budget.

There are a number of trip reports on Princess cruisetours in the STICKY above if you want to read about other travellers experiences on Princess. There's an excellent photojournal by MVPinBoynton altho it maybe more time that you have. There are also trip reports on DIY travel where you can find recommendations on lodging, activities, etc

It's quite easy to plan a DIY .... fjgure out where you want to go, reserve lodging and either travel by car, bus or train. Or rent an RV. Just takes a little research and planning. Cruisetours require research too; you need to be very mindful of the details.

My husband and I are in our mid-50's and we are going to Alaska for the first time next June. We were originally traveling with another couple a little older but very active. So, we planned on doing a DIY tour before our southbound Celebrity cruise.

But, when the other couple backed out we decided to go with the Celebrity cruise tour. It stops where we want, etc. We thought being just 2 of us we would enjoy the tour, being around all the people... Instead of doing all the map reading traveling ourselves.

Just my 2 cents!

Hi all,

 

Thinking about an Alaska cruisetour with Princess. The cruisetours seem kind of pricey. Is it worthwhile to book a cruisetour, or are there good options for tours if you go a few days early before a cruise? What are the Princess lodges like - and are meals included there?:confused:

Obviously you haven't read many if any threads on the Alaska forum here. So many threads on here about cruisetours vs. DIY. Especailly look at the posts by Budget Queen, donaldsc and agabbymama. It is a never-ending topic of discussion!

As frugaltravel states, this topic is discussed a lot on this board. There are those that advocate independent travel but I am one that loves cruisetours. I'm an older lady with mobility issues, so for me coach tours are the only way to go. Tell me where to be and what time to be there, I will sit back and enjoy the scenery (and let the driver schlep my luggage).

Go to your library and check out some travel guides (Frommer's, Fodor's, etc) and find out what Alaska is all about. What is there that you want to see. Anything special you want to do?

Then you can look at Princess cruisetours and see if it goes where you want and offers what you want to do. No trip to Alaska is good if it isn't what you want.

I chose HAL Northbound cruise from Vancouver to Skagway (only 3 days on the ship), then 8 days on land up the Whitepass Yukon Railway to Fraser, Whitehorse, Dawson City in the Yukon; then to Eagle, Chicken, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali and ending in Anchorage. I wanted to see some of the Yukon, so chose the tour I had time for that did the Yukon as well as some interior Alaska. We covered over 1800 miles on the land portion (and one of the roads we traveled on we only saw 17 cars all day). I wouldn't have wanted to be alone on that highway. We even traveled in tandem with a second coach to not be alone on that highway. The drivers have walkie talkies and are in communication with each other and the head office at all times. We never felt unsafe, although the driver and guide both warned us not to wander too far from the coach as there could be wildlife nearby.

I found Princess to be more expensive than HAL because they seem to all do a 7 day cruise, then the land added on, whereas HAL does 3 or 4 day cruise with the land add on. We paid $2750 for the 11 day cruisetour.

Have fun planning, then taking your trip. Alaska is an awesome destination!

DH, our daughter, 2 granddaughters and I rented a car for a week and had a blast. I did a lot of reading and research and planned our tour. We made all our hotel and B and B reservations online. We had a blast and did exactly what we wanted to do. We picked up the car in anchorage and dropped it off in Seward. Great week!

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I originally posted this on the Princess general forum, and it got moved here - which was appropriate. Lots of good ideas from everyone, and now I know where to look. I made a reservation for a cruise in May with Princess, but now I am having second thoughts as far as the itinerary, and also after reading the posts here. I thought all the meals would be included on the land portion, but it doesn't seem like that is the case. I wasn't very impressed with the agent that I spoke to on the phone when I reserved.

Thanks for all the helpful advice, and if anyone has more to add, please do so! :)

As frugaltravel states, this topic is discussed a lot on this board. There are those that advocate independent travel but I am one that loves cruisetours. I'm an older lady with mobility issues, so for me coach tours are the only way to go. Tell me where to be and what time to be there, I will sit back and enjoy the scenery (and let the driver schlep my luggage).

 

Go to your library and check out some travel guides (Frommer's, Fodor's, etc) and find out what Alaska is all about. What is there that you want to see. Anything special you want to do?

 

Then you can look at Princess cruisetours and see if it goes where you want and offers what you want to do. No trip to Alaska is good if it isn't what you want.

 

I chose HAL Northbound cruise from Vancouver to Skagway (only 3 days on the ship), then 8 days on land up the Whitepass Yukon Railway to Fraser, Whitehorse, Dawson City in the Yukon; then to Eagle, Chicken, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali and ending in Anchorage. I wanted to see some of the Yukon, so chose the tour I had time for that did the Yukon as well as some interior Alaska. We covered over 1800 miles on the land portion (and one of the roads we traveled on we only saw 17 cars all day). I wouldn't have wanted to be alone on that highway. We even traveled in tandem with a second coach to not be alone on that highway. The drivers have walkie talkies and are in communication with each other and the head office at all times. We never felt unsafe, although the driver and guide both warned us not to wander too far from the coach as there could be wildlife nearby.

 

I found Princess to be more expensive than HAL because they seem to all do a 7 day cruise, then the land added on, whereas HAL does 3 or 4 day cruise with the land add on. We paid $2750 for the 11 day cruisetour.

 

Have fun planning, then taking your trip. Alaska is an awesome destination!

Sadly the tour you are talking about has not been offered since the summer of 2010. Those of us who are fortunate enought to have taken the trip through Eagle and Chicken are numbered, especially with rental car companies not allowing people to travel gravel roads like the Taylor Highway. Last I saw Rika's Roadhouse was closed - too few tourists on the road from Fairbanks to Tok. Next summer HAL doesn't even drive the Top of the World Highway. We looked at driving car to Alaska from the lower 48 and it was ridiculously expensive. With rental car rules, you might as well take a cruise tour. You can't even drive the McCarthy Road without violating rental car company rules.