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Radiance of the Seas Alaska July 11,2014


pmp941

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We are traveling to Alaska July 11, 2014 have booked cruise and land pkg traveling northern route. Vancouver to Seward then land to Fairbanks.

Question is...Is it better to book land pkg thru the cruise company or to plan on own. There are 3 couples traveling together. we are in rooms 7520/7522/7524

any input will be greatly appreciated, first time to Alaska.

Pam

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I still haven't done a land tour of Alaska, but I keep looking at them. If you arrange it yourself, there are a couple of big hurdles. One of them is transportation. Rental cars are expensive as there is no competition, and you generally want a one way rental. The other is arranging a hotel in Denali. Even looking many months out, there seems to be no availability as the cruise tours have them all booked.

 

An alternative is the tours by Alaska Railroad. Still not cheap, but they seem to be less expensive than the cruiseline's offerings. http://www.alaskarailroad.com/travel/Vacations/tabid/121/Default.aspx

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yes I guess I was thinking cheaper and seeing more than just what the cruise chooses. but was not considering the one way car rental, was thinking the train would take us from one city to the next. we were starting in Anchorage and ending in Denali or Fairbanks.

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Your Roll Call is here -- great place to meet others on your cruise and maybe get to do private tours together:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1873835

As to whether you should do your own land tour or do RCI's -- ask your question on the Alaska board as many people have done it both ways -- here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

 

 

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We did a short DIY land tour (3 and a half days) before a southbound Radiance cruise in June this year.

 

We chose to do the land portion on our own because we like making our own schedule and stopping where we want, etc.

 

Since we only had a few days, we could not have done the cruisetour anyway, but even if we had longer we still would have done it ourselves. That is just more our style. And it's the US after all, not as if we had a language barrier or other cultural obstacles.

 

We rented a car in Anchorage and used that the first day and a half to tour around. Then we took the train to Seward and did not need a car to tour around there for the next couple days. There is a free shuttle and most things are walkable.

 

There is a ton of information on these boards, especially the Alaska board, as Krazy noted. For 6 people, a cruisetour just may be the way to go, considering that you would need a rather large vehicle for 6 people and luggage.

 

We absolutely loved our trip - lots of photos and info are linked in my signature, if you are interested.

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