envirochick

Hello,

Can anyone who has sailed Sojourn nothbound and disembarked in Seward tell me what time disembarking is generally allowed?

The itinerary states we disembark at 7:00 am, yet when I called Seabourn they told me not to expect to leave the ship until 8:30 am due to customs boarding. This just doesn't sound right to me.

Just wanted to add something else...while this excursion causes some backtracking, and doesn’t make for a perfect itinerary, lack of perfection is one thing we’ve learned to live with on our vacations. Most often our journeys (and the kinks that come with them) lead to great adventures that we cherish.

Have you looked into car rentals? IF your flight vendor is out of Soldotna, then I'd suggest a round trip flight, and then you can add Homer, easily with a car. Rent a round trip car from Hertz, out of Seward. Then you can add touring Seward as well.

 

As mentioned above, "time" is more unpredictable. Bear tours, can and do get delayed for hours, another reason, I don't consider single days/nights. I've driven the Sterling when stopped and told the road would be closed for 4 hours due to blasting. :) I seem to always, miss pilot cars as well. :)

 

You mention, you can go either day on the bear tour? How is it you don't have time for 2 nights? If the case, I'd just work on the luggage issue.

 

You have 4 full days, with leaving the late evening of the 4th day?

 

You should be fine with the current trans, since the vendor is providing it. A final comment, you know where you are going? There are lessor peak areas, that I would not consider .

Hello,

So, we’ve made our reservations and are thankful for the help here.

The luggage lady was an excellent, affordable find. A car will pick us up and take us to Soldotna for the flight. We’ll stay one night and have the following day as a back up. Car rental isn’t an option since the return is to Anchorage (evidently a flight is already lined up with other passengers). If we make it out the first day, we’ll rent a car and have a couple more days to play before heading home.

And we do have 4 full days, leaving the 5th day, early in the morning from anchorage.

The car service from Seward to Soldotna is arranged by the lodge, as is the flight. Therefore, it is my understanding the plane waits for us.

On a bit different note I just, stupidly, googled “Alaska flightseeing plane crashes” and freaked myself out a little. [emoji50]

Wow. Thanks to both. Had no idea there might be any options. So the boat disembarks at 7. It’s a small ship so I anticipate less hassle factor. The lodge pegs drive time from Seward to Soldotna at just under 2 hours, getting there right around 9 am, which is the normal time for take off. (All based on lodge operators info). Is 2 hours not correct?

We came into this Alaska trip late, so these lodges are sold out and we feel lucky there was a cancellation. I’m following your advice BQueen: you need at least an overnight. We don’t have time for 2.

That said, before this came up we planned on spending a couple days on the Kenai, then heading towards anchorage. We have 4 full days, but need to bunk in anchorage on the last night.

We also have the option of leaving for bear country the day after we arrive in Seward. This is good and bad. We’d still need a place store luggage. Renting a car would be tough if we leave from Soldotna and fly back to anchorage. I’d still need the lodge to drive us to the plane, which would likely mean little time in Seward and staying in Soldotna overnight. If I’m going to blow a day, I’m thinking I’d rather do it driving from anchorage back to Kenai. At least the rental car will be reasonable and the drive would be scenic.

Anyway, I just off loaded a bunch...does it change anything?

Hello Everyone,

I'm hoping to get some suggestions for my dilemma. We end up in Seward after our cruise. We have an opportunity to do a brown bear fly and stay at a lodge in Lake Clark NP. They will shuttle us to the plane in Soldotna and we return to Anchorage the next day. We don't want to take all of our luggage with us (and might not be able to), instead we'd like to take 2 backpacks with a couple of days' clothes. Is there any type of service that would shuttle luggage to a hotel? Either in Anchorage or on the Kenai (as we may come back to better explore this area after landing in Anchorage)? I'm happy for the opportunity to take advantage of someone cancelling their trip to the lodge, yet, I'm not quite sure how to make it work. Thanks much for your help.

Yes I believe so. Although in another thread you could cancel onboard and then reboot using OBC

 

 

 

Given the spa and premium alcohol prices, as well as the fact you can use OBC for merchandise i’m sure you could still spend it

Oh yes, no doubt. Just would rather burn it on something we know we “need”. I thought we’d have more OBC, yet learned through this forum I’ll have to choose the higher of the referral OBC or the Signature Travel amenity OBC. Too bad there. Anyway, thank you for the info.

Hello,

Wondering if the only way to apply referral OBC to a SB shore excursion is to book once on the ship? If it isn’t yet applied to my account I’m assuming I’d be required to pay in full when reserving. Is this correct? Thanks.

Thanks, Newlkat. What seems so odd to me about this is that there are some very expensive fly in tours to Chichagof (just as there are to Admiralty) from Juneau. They are very interactive with time spent at the river and waterfall looking for bears that are fishing, observing them in the wilderness while you are also outside. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t do something similar for tourists who dock at ISP and don’t need to fly in. There are also self drive Artic Cat tours where they give you a map and bear spray and let you loose. I’d surely think there’d be something in between the two, right?

Okay, thanks for that info. I appreciate it.

I'm under the impression, based on another post, that you never leave the van on this tour. I'm interested in hearing from those going soon what it's actually like.

So, we are going this year, but I find there is availability probably because we’re on a smaller ship and are alone in many of the ports.

We don’t have time for whales and bears in Hoonah, thus we think Juneau should be our whale stop. Harv and Marv’s also has 6 passenger boats and they are available on our day.

I’ve heard bear watching on the Chilkoot in Haines could get really crowded considering folks are able to drive to this area. Is that the case? Is it still worthwhile?

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Hello Everyone,

We're cruising NB to Alaska late August and early to mid September, finishing with a 4 day DIY land trip then flying home out of Anchorage. Three of our must do tours are: whale watch, brown bear veiwing, and a salmon or salmon/halibut combo fishing.

There's so much overlap of tour types from port to port in Alaska, it's been tough to figure out which port is best for which tour type.

Anyway, I think we've come down to: Harv and Marv's (or similar) in Juneau for whales, Brown Bear Lodge for brown bear viewing on Chichagof Island out of Hoonah, and I think we'll ocean fish out of Seward for coho salmon which are making their second run through September (no supplier decided on yet). We'll also be in Haines, Wrangell, Ketchikan and Sitka.

Looking for some feedback from seasoned Alaska cruisers. Are these good choices, both place and vendor, that should reap decent results? What would you change?

Did you see bears? If so was it from the van, or did you get out of the van to view them? Also were they brown or black bears?

Hi there, We did an Alaska cruise in 2012 on the Coral Princess and LOVED the ship. It is a smaller ship as mentioned. You are right to include Glacier Bay. Hopefully you will have a cloudless day as we did. They had a naturalist on board from the Parks Service during the Glacier Bay tour. We did the 7 day cruise northbound from Vancouver. When we disembarked we picked up our car rental and drove for 10 days staying at various places that included Talkeetna (Mt McKinley flightseeing tour on another cloudless day was sooo worth the money), stayed in a nice B&B there. We then stayed a few days in Denali and took the bus into Eielson 2 days in a row..also worth the 11 hour journey. We then backtracked to the Kenai Peninsula and spent 3 rainy days in Seward. It was an awesome trip. Now that said, car rentals are cheapest when booked a year in advance, but check Costco for car rentals if you are a member, and also Enterprise. Enterprise met us at the Princess luggage depository in Anchorage and they took one look at our luggage and said this "you will be cramped in this car for 10 days" (a small SUV). They brought us back to their office and upgraded us to a larger vehicle at no extra charge.

 

We are booked on a Holland America cruise next summer that covers many more ports in Alaska ( 3 weeks RT from San Francisco). I am looking forward to going back to Alaska and seeing if HAL does Alaska as good as Princess did!

 

Have fun planning!

 

edited note: I see that you have decided on Seabourn. I love small ships, that sounds like a wonderful trip! Enjoy!

Yes, we’ve decided to have an intimate, small ship experience. We’re really excited and know we’ve made the right choice for us. I wanted to thank you for your helpful advice above. Enjoy your cruise next summer!

Thanks for this. Erroneously assumed the ship had only 110 plugs. Will bring a converter or two.

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Appreciate the lists! Thanks much.

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Sojourn, wow that a whole different animal then what you were looking at.quote].

 

Yes. Much different than the mainstream cruise lines. It just made sense this time. We’re really looking forward to it!

Sojourn, wow that a whole different animal then what you were looking at. quote]

 

 

Hi Jimbo,

 

Yes, it is different, yet I was watching the pricing from the beginning. Not far off from a set of B2B’s and a lot more included. Should be a fun trip!

Hello Everyone,

OP here...I wanted to thank each of you for giving me your honest opinions in this thread. We've decided to go in a completely different direction and have booked a Seabourn cruise that will give us the opportunity to see some very unique locations on a smaller ship, do some very special shore excursions and still visit a few of the more frequented places. If, like so many of you, we become enamored with Alaska and want to visit again, we'll certainly consider Princess, but we'll start looking much further in advance of our desired sailing date for the right cabin. Thanks, again.

Hello Everyone,

OP here...I wanted to thank each of you for giving me your honest opinions in this thread. The off-the-beaten-path advice was very helpful as was discussion about Noordam. We've decided to go in a completely different direction and have booked a Seabourn cruise that will give us the opportunity to see some very unique locations on a smaller ship, do some very special shore excursions and still visit a few of the more frequented places. If, like so many of you, we become enamored with Alaska and want to visit again, we'll certainly consider HAL. Thanks, again.

"There's little that is outrageously wrong with the Noordam, but it feels out of date. The crew were great, as usual."

Venn, appreciate the honesty. When you say out of date do you mean carpets, furnishings, etc? Worn and dirty? I can't imagine not being able to replace clunky TV's with interactive flat screens.

If you're interested in knowing about the onboard activities, I did a "live from" on my blog last month - NB on the Island and SB on the Golden.

Yes, thanks. Where do I find the blog?

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We have sailed to Alaska 4 times- the Golden is our FAVORITE ship!

 

IMHO, we enjoyed Hubbard Glacier more than Glacier Bay, but either

 

is a must.

 

 

If those Emerald aft balconies are still available, grab one!

Oh boy. It shouldn’t be so tough, right?

HAL is having a nice sale, making princess about the same price for an aft balcony vs. a suite with HAL.

There’s so little available on the 14 day cruises I’ve started pricing the legs separately. It’s about double the cost to do it that way. Same dates, just changing cabins after 7 days.

Bang for my buck is definitely a motivator. Especially when the itineraries are the same.

Does anyone know the interior size of a normal Princess balcony cabin?

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Thank you all for your advice. As I stated above there is a nice sale currently, making a B2B in suites quite affordable That said, I am considering the 14 day out of Seattle. So much for glacier bay being a must do, right?

I’m concerned about Noordam’s condition. In all my sailings with celebrity I’ve never needed to look at dry dock dates, etc... This is new to me. I always know what to expect with X.

Anyway Zaandam seems to get very good reviews, and except for the absence of GB, I love the unique itinerary. It would be about 2k more for a vista suite vs. the cost for the signature suite on the B2B for our preferred dates and perhaps it’s worth it. Feel free to weigh in.

Another question: Does the 14 day sail the inside passage?

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