jwatford

I have three cruises coming up. The first one is in a couple of weeks on the Breakaway. Received the free airfare for $0 from Madison, WI to New Orleans. Received my booking information and it was through American Airlines and I own the tickets (in my name and I was able to pick my seat). 

2nd Cruise is in March 2019 on the Escape. Received free airfare for $99 from Madison, WI to New York City. 

3rd Cruise is in September 2019 on the Escape. Did not receive the free airfare as it was around $320 and I can book my own for less. 

Due to the above, I do not think it matters what airport you are using. 

Did any one have any tips for the free day in Homer? We aren’t very fond of fishing and the bear excursions do seems like quite a lot of £££’s.

Not much to do in Homer outside of fishing or bear excursions. Some people did some hiking in the woods. They said it was great! They did run into a bear and two cubs while hiking.

When we were there we just went down to the spit and had dinner and did some shopping.

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Day 7 daily

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Day 6 daily

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Day 5 daily

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Day 4 daily

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Day 3 daily

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Today (Tuesday) is Hubbard Glacier. Day 2 daily is below.

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We are finally on the ship! Just was able to get internet today as the ships WiFi signal interferes with the Seward communication signal so internet was basically not available. We did not get to the ship until 5:00 yesterday so embarking was pretty seamless since most people were already on the ship.

Below is the day 1 daily.

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Thanks for this, am on the same trip in September and have been looking for something like this. However I did think that breakfast was inclusive at the hotels, can you remember how much they were in each place? I thought it was just lunch and evening meals you had to pay for.

We ended up paying for all our meals as breakfast was not complimentary in the hotels we stayed in. I believe the only location that had breakfast included is the Best Western in Birdirka (which we did not stay in). We paid about $20-$25 per person for every breakfast. We stayed as cheap as possible when it came to food and we still ended up paying on average $30 per person per meal. I thought it was super expensive!!!

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Looking forward to more.....I am still trying to decide which land tour we want and your review is a great help.

Honestly, if I had to do this all over again I would choose to do it on my own. I thought it would be nice not to have to figure out all the details for the land portion, but now that I have been on the Cruisetour I would have been able to see more and probably saved some money by doing it myself.

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I am currently on a NCL Cruisetour (14-day Southbound). I am doing a live review. You can view it here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2657989

I am on our last day of the land portion. Now that I have experienced it, I would definitely do the land portion on my own. When we decided to do this, we thought it would be nice to not have to deal with the details of doing it ourselves. We were totally wrong. When doing the Cruisetour, you are at the mercy of the Cruisetour operated. For us, we spent most of the time on a bus that is not very comfortable. We would see either bear or moose on the side of the road and we were unable to pull over to get a better look since we were in a bus. Also, we had times were we spent time doing things we really did not have interest in because the cruise director wanted to show us the airports with the float planes. Personally, I did the Cruisetour so I could see more of the Wildlife. In the end I could have just did it myself and saved money, see more wildlife, and stayed in better hotels.

I urge you to really think about doing this yourself!!!

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This morning we left the Marriott in Anchorage around 8:00 am. We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservatory at around 9:00. We saw tons of animals. Bear, Moose, Wolves, plus many more! We then got on the road to Homer. On the way we stopped for lunch in Soldotna. We finally got to Homer and checked into The Ocean Shores. This place has a great view of Katchemek Bay, but that is all it has. No air conditioning, microwaveable coffee (no coffee maker), and no place to put your clothes. We are here for the next two days, and then off to the boat!

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Today was a mishmash of excursions. We left the hotel (Denali Park Village) at around 8:00 and went to Husky Homestead. Home of Iditarod champion, Jeff King. We got to play with puppies[emoji190][emoji190] and then we learned a little about the Iditarod. I have been to a few mushing camps and this was bar far the best one. Jeff was awesome and super funny!

Next we boarded the dome rail train from Denali to Talkeetna. The train is very nice and has very comfortable seats. A little slow, but it was good. We saw two black bears, a wolf and a couple of swans. The bartender on the train was great and kept the drinks flowing. Lunch was also great. You have to pay for your drinks and food. It is not too expensive.

We finally arrived in Talkeetna at around 5:00 and proceeded to our coach bus to take us to Anchorage for the night. We are staying at the Anchorage Marriott.

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Today was the Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour. This is an 8 hour tour that goes 60 miles into the park. We started at 12:30. We were about 15 minutes into the tour and saw a Caribou ( I aptly named him Casper the Caribou)!

The scenery was just beautiful and we saw a couple of mama moose with a calf. We also saw two sets of Grizzlies. The first was a Sow with to little cubs. The second was a Sow with a couple of two year olds. We even got a picture of the mom nursing the cubs. The pictures are not the best as they were really far away.

The bus you take is an old school bus that has been refurbished with coach seats. Make sure if you go on this to bring a sandwich or snacks. You get hungry and the little snack box they give you does not do the job.

We returned back to the hotel at around 8:00 at night. Tomorrow is the train and the sled dog camp.

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If you can, please post the dailies for the cruise portion.

Will do! Let me know if you would like anything else??

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Well, I woke up this morning without any water! The entire complex had zero running water. I tried calling the front desk several times but they never answered. The water finally came back on a couple hours later! Off to view some bear and moose now. Wish me luck!!!

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So today we did the Riverboat Discovery tour. This is included with your land tour. You get on a quadruple deck river boat cruise. This three-hour cruise takes down the river and it stops along the way. They introduce you to a family who has made the rivers of Alaska a way of life for five generations. You will see a bush floatplane takeoff alongside the boat, visit the home and kennels of the late four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher and see her champion sled dogs in action. You then get taken to an ancient Athabascan Indian village. This tour is okay in my opinion. It is mostly a tourist setup and you really do not get to see anything authentic.

Once we got off the Riverboat cruise, we were taken to see the pipeline in Fairbanks. Nothing big to see on this. It was only a 15 minute stop. We then were taken downtown Fairbanks for lunch on our own. It is near impossible to find anywhere to eat for less than $20-25 per person.

After a short stop at Fred Meyer for a quick shopping trip, we were off to Denali! The bus ride is about 2 1/2 hour ride. The coach bus for the tour is completely full. The tour director narrates almost the entire time. Some good information here and there.

We finally arrived in Denali at about 6:30 tonight. We are staying at the Denali Park Village. Some pictures of the room are below. The entire complex has no air conditioning. Usually, this may not be a problem, however it was 86 degrees in Denali today and the room felt like an oven. WiFi is super spotty and goes in and out.

Tomorrow is the Tundra Wilderness Tour! I am ready to see some Bear and moose!!

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First Day of Land tour - We stayed at the Bear Lodge in Fairbanks the first night. The hotel room is okay. Nothing special. You do have a fridge in your room along with free WiFi. When you check in, you get two packets of information. The first one is from Bear Lodge (nothing of interest here, just your room key and information regarding the free shuttle), the second packet is a folder containing all your information regarding the land tour.

In the land tour folder you get your name tags, a sheet showing the additional excursions you can book on the land tour, luggage tags and you get a daily schedule sheet ( you get this sheet everyday and it shows you the itinerary for that day). I have included some pictures of the land tour folder below.

We woke up around 5:00 this morning to get ready. Breakfast starts at 6:00 and you have to have your luggage outside your room door by 7:00. We had to be on the bus and ready to go by 8:00.

The only option for breakfast at the Bear Lodge is the restaurant in the hotel. It is a buffet, you get to choose from a hot buffet ($16.95) or a cold buffet ($10.95). The hot buffet gives you all of the cold options as well as bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, blueberry pancakes, eggs and biscuits. The cold option includes cereal, fruit, bagels, toast, yogurt, muffins and assorted breads.

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Okay, just landed in Fairbanks. Their are people from all the Cruise lines waiting to greet you as you get to the baggage area. Once you get your bags, NCL loads them onto a cart immediately and then takes them to the bus. Everything is very organized so far. On the way to the hotel now.

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Well, today is the day. My Southbound Cruisetour with NCL begins! I am currently at the airport waiting for my flight.

We are expecting to get into Fairbanks tonight around 8:30. Once we get our baggage we were instructed to look for the Cruisetour personal for our transport to the Bear Lodge in Fairbanks. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and we start this vacation out with a bang!✈️✈️[emoji902][emoji902]

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I am taking this trip with my 66 year old mother. This is on her bucket list. I am 41 and leaving the hubby home to take care of the dog!

We are only 3 days out from leaving and I have been completely packed for a week now! As you can tell, I am super excited.

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We will start this live review off with the basics. Please bare with me as this is my first live review. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will try to get you answers!!

I received my docs from NCL with hotel assignments about 25 days prior to departure. In the docs they details out where you will stay and and what excursions are included in the land part of the cruisetour.

I was really happy to find out that they do give you the option of storing your suitcases that you do not need until you get on the ship during the land portion. I was worried that I would have to lug two suitcases with me in and out of every hotel!

Stay tuned, more to come!!

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So I booked the 14-Day Southbound Alaska Cruisetour over a year ago and the time has finally come! I leave on Tuesday, July 24th!

This is my first land/sea tour ( I have done around 20 cruises - 7 of them to Alaska). As you can imagine I had dozens of questions and really could not find answers to all of them. So I thought I would write this “live” review for anyone out there like me who had dozens of questions.

So it begins....

My itinerary is as follows:

July 24 - fly into Fairbanks and stay overnight at the Bear Lodge

July 25-27- Denali, stay at the Denali Park Village

July 27 - Anchorage

July 28-29 - Homer

July 30 - Seward (board the Jewel)

July 31 - Cruise Hubbard Glacier

Aug 1 - Icy Strait Point

Aug 2 - Juneau/Cruise Sawyer Glacier

Aug 3 - Skagway

Aug 4 - Ketchikan

Aug 5 - Cruise Inside Passage

Aug 6 - Disembark in Vancouver

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I am doing the 14 day Southbound Tour on July 24th. I received the hotel assignments 25 days prior to departure. None of the hotels we are staying at have any continental breakfast. All meals are DIY. I am figuring we will be spending around $400 per person for food. I am actually going to do a live review while on the tour.

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