Talk to me about cruising to Alaska

Hi

My dream is to go to Alaska via RC. Any info is great regarding where to go, what kind of cabin/ where and what excursions you’ve done and when is the best time to go

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My brother did it two years ago land and sea and he said just not enough time to see what was there when you got to port. This is one trip on my bucket list but as he told me fly there rent a RV and take your time to see everything you want.

If at all possible, definitely do a cruise tour and add a land portion. We’ve been on some fantastic cruises but Alaska is still my favorite.

We did Alaska this past September, Explorer OTS out of Seattle. I’m glad we did, but do agree that there’s not much time for sightseeing. We had 1688 (corner aft balcony, deck 10) that offered spectacular views (just rained a lot, so didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked). Only booked excursion was the Skagway train thru White Pass, but due to engine problems it was cancelled. If you sail end of season, you need to be okay with plans being changed at the last second, but I’m glad we did it and would like to go back.

A cruise to Alaska is very complex. There are so many things to consider. i.e. one way or round trip? early spring or Sept is a little cheaper but weather can be iffy? Summer days are longer and price is more. Land tour with RCL or DIY?

The Alaska port of call message board is very active and has a wealth of information. There are local and those that cruise there often. They will bring up things you never thought of. I wish I had read there more before I booked my cruise-tour.

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

Since everyone has opinions I will give you a couple of mine, ;p

Do a one-way cruise. A RT has cheaper airfare. But you see only a small portion of Alaska. Why go that far to see so little?

After the cruise [or before do the land tour DIY] There are not that many roads in AK. It is hard to get lost.

We took the last Northbound Radiance of the Seas cruise a few years ago. We booked it online through an agency that put together a land tour for us. [not through the cruise line] It turned out to be with Grayline of Alaska which is owned by Holland America [or associated with them somehow].

We found that the timing for excursions was not the best with the cruise tours. [i.e. they get you to Denali and include the Natural History tour. this goes only a short distance into the park. We upgraded to the Tundra Wilderness tour. However, we could have gone farther into the park and saved a BIG amount of money by taking a park shuttle. There is only 1 road into the park. The tours and the shuttles make the same restroom stops, etc. Here is a link to a thread on the three options for the park. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2518039&highlight=tundra

After our organized tour ended we stayed 2 more days in Anchorage. We rented a car and visited Girdwood, drove to the Matanuska glacier, drove along the Turn Again Arm. It was so easy to do this.

YMMV

A cruise to Alaska is very complex. There are so many things to consider. i.e. one way or round trip? early spring or Sept is a little cheaper but weather can be iffy? Summer days are longer and price is more. Land tour with RCL or DIY?

 

The Alaska port of call message board is very active and has a wealth of information. There are local and those that cruise there often. They will bring up things you never thought of. I wish I had read there more before I booked my cruise-tour.

 

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

 

Since everyone has opinions I will give you a couple of mine, ;p

 

Do a one-way cruise. A RT has cheaper airfare. But you see only a small portion of Alaska. Why go that far to see so little?

 

After the cruise [or before] do the land tour DIY. There are not that many roads in AK. It is hard to get lost. You can book the Alaska RR yourself. Book a shuttle direct from park service vendor.

 

We took the last Northbound Radiance of the Seas cruise a few years ago. We booked it online through an agency that put together a land tour for us. [not through the cruise line] It turned out to be with Grayline of Alaska which is owned by Holland America [or associated with them somehow].

 

We found that the timing for excursions was not the best with the cruise tours. [i.e. they get you to Denali and include the Natural History tour. this goes only a short distance into the park. We upgraded to the Tundra Wilderness tour. However, we could have gone farther into the park and saved a BIG amount of money by taking a park shuttle. There is only 1 road into the park. The tours and the shuttles make the same restroom stops, etc. Here is a link to a thread on the three options for the park. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2518039&highlight=tundra

 

After our organized tour ended we stayed 2 more days in Anchorage. We rented a car and visited Girdwood, drove to the Matanuska glacier, drove along the Turn Again Arm. It was so easy to do this.

 

 

YMMV

Sorry--I meant to add that you need to look at port times and when you see things. For example, on a NB cruise you get to the Hubbatrd glacier VERY early in the AM--around 7 am and are finished by around noon. On a SB cruise you get there around 2 pm. that is a better hour to be up and it is warmer. It was raining and freezing the morning we were there. You really need to be out on the open decks to get a good view.

Alaska is our next cruise and we have been researching for the last couple of years. What we have found is that there is no one way to see Alaska. You will find many posts in the Alaska forum that will tell you not to cruise Royal Caribbean to Alaska because they don't do Glacier Bay and why bother doing Alaska if you aren't going there. There are those who find the cruisetours to be a waste of money and feel that everyone should do a DIY tour instead. There are strong opinions on excursions and also time of year, like do not do Denali before June 1st.

Do your research and then decide what works for you and ignore the know it alls. It is your time and money. Just because something is a "must do" for someone, does not make it a must do for me. Be careful which cruisetour you take as not all do the same things and you might think you are going on one tour in Denali and in fact, it is the shorter tour as Dragonoftheseas pointed out.

Make you decisions and don't be pressured by posts that you read saying that what you are doing doesn't make sense.

Hi

My dream is to go to Alaska via RC. Any info is great regarding where to go, what kind of cabin/ where and what excursions you’ve done and when is the best time to go

I would take the Radiance cruise southbound and do a cruise tour before the cruise. That way you get the longer flight out of the way first, and get more relaxing time at the end of the trip.

We did an Alaskan cruise on Princess in July/August 2016, with a DIY 10 Day Land Tour first. The Land Tour was the best choice for us....we could customize our itinerary and truly enjoyed being on our own. Sailed out of Whittier to Vancouver...Glacier Bay was one of the highlights of our cruise!

I had to talk my husband into an Alaskan cruise and we planned at least a year ahead. We both enjoyed it so much that we will definitely return again some day! As everyone is recommending, there's lots of information on the Alaska board and I learned so much from previous cruisers. We cruised last June on the southbound Radiance. We flew into Anchorage and stayed overnight. The next morning we took the Alaska Railroad glass domed train and enjoyed the vast wilderness and incredible views. Summer solstice was just beginning and we would watch the scenery go by while we were sitting in the Schooner or Champagne lounges until 11:30 at night! It was just beautiful and awesome. Our favorite excursion was flying in a float plane in Ketchikan. More untouched wilderness to view! It was a fantastic cruise and we wouldn't hesitate to do it again :)

Do the helicopter tour and land on one of the glaciers. Yes, expensive but well worth it.

Consider doing a Bed & Breakfast tour in Alaska. We did this a few years ago and loved it. We stayed in some really unique places. We flew into Anchorage and took a train to Fairbanks, stopping in Denali for two nights on our way north. We then flew from Fairbanks back to Anchorage and picked up a rental car to continue our tour. We flew home from Anchorage but you could work this in with a cruise. We've done two Alaska cruises so on this trip, we spent 10 days doing B&B's. I put this together, myself, without using a TA. I think one of the books I used was Alaska Planner. You can get it from the State of Alaska.

We did our cruise with Celebrity, northbound from Vancouver to Seward mostly because the dates worked best for us. The itinerary is similar to RCL so I thought I would add my 2 cents here. Do the one way and see more. Make it your business to get up and out each day in each port because there is a lot to see. Just doing an RV tour will make you miss a lot. One of the reasons Alaska cruises are so popular is a lot of the stops are on islands that are not connected to the mainland. Hoona, Ketchikan, Juneau, and some other places you can only get to by boat or airplane. The Hubbard Glacier is amazing and again, you cannot drive there. Our captain got us within 1/2 mile of the glaicer, cruise ships cannot go any closer, and it was just amazing to see and hear it. We were there for over an hour and it was COLD but we sat out of our balcony most of the time coming in to warm up every now and then. We knew our scheduled time was going to be over around 9am so we had ordered room service breakfast for 9am and it was perfect. We did 3 days on our own after the cruise using 907 tours to get us from Seward to Anchorage. It was an all day tour that included lots of sightseeing along the Kenai Peninsula, a stop at the wildlife preserve and visits to some small towns along the way to see more of Alaska. Overnighted in Anchorage and picked up our rental car the next day and drove out to Denali for two nights. That was a mistake, we needed more time but having our own car was great. It gave us the freedom do stop and see things when we wanted. Water falls, bathroom stops, meals, sightseeing all when we wanted rather then when the bus was going to stop. We are now in the talking stage of taking our grandchildren in 2020..so they can see it too. Great trip but you need more than an RV.

We are doing SB trip in June. Have arranged the land portion ourselves.

What could possibly go wrong, ... driving on the wrong side of the road with bears.....LOL!

6.1 fly from England to Seattle

6.2 Seattle Pike market and Chiluly and then fly to Anchorage - staying at the Ramada

6.3 rent a car (Enterprise) and drive to Girdwood for lunch

6.4 drive to Denali - staying at Home Dome

6.5 Denali

6.6 drive back to Anchorage and stay at Ramada

6.7 train at 0645 to Seward - stay at Harbor 360

6.8 morning whale watching tour with Northern Latitudes and board the ship

6.9 Hubbard Glacier

6.10 Juneau - share a taxi to Mendenhall

6.11 Skagway - Chilkoot train

6.12 ISP - Hoonah Wilderness tour and Brown bear search

6.13 Ketchikan - catch local bus to the totems

6.14 Inside Passage

6.15 Vancouver

6.16 Fly back to England

Hope this helps!

One thing I have found is that hotels are very very expensive , and you have to get booked as soon as things open otherwise you could miss out.

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If you can, go in September and avoid mid-June through mid-August. Far fewer ships in port and sales in shops. And it is kind of fun on land portion where they are closing the hotels for the winter right after your stay.

Take twice the cash you think you will need. Food and excursions are very expensive.

For those of you who have been... if we do the land on our own is a budget of $500 per day reasonable for hotel, car rental, meals and things to do. Can we do it for less? We are trying to decide on what cruise to take June 2019. I had already planned land on our own pre cruise and southbound on Radiance if we go. However I don’t have a feel for expenses on our own. No fancy meals, can eat a sandwich for lunch but hotels can’t be a dive. Cheapest car.

We spent a day at the Alaska State Fair and it was a lot of fun. If you are doing a DIY trip, it's easy to work it in. It lasts about 12 days, after the middle of August. It's held in Palmer, which is a short drive from Anchorage. We spent a night at a B&B in Palmer.

I found the B&B's to be very reasonable in price and you also get your breakfast. We had very good meals. Just thinking about it, makes me want to do it again.:D

For those of you who have been... if we do the land on our own is a budget of $500 per day reasonable for hotel, car rental, meals and things to do. Can we do it for less? We are trying to decide on what cruise to take June 2019. I had already planned land on our own pre cruise and southbound on Radiance if we go. However I don’t have a feel for expenses on our own. No fancy meals, can eat a sandwich for lunch but hotels can’t be a dive. Cheapest car.

Best place to ask this is on the Alaska forum, where there are experts who have done what you propose:

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

We did Explorer out of Seattle and loved it. Yes, it’s just a taste of Alaska but we really enjoyed it. We had a GS and really used the balcony quite a bit. Saw whales breaching and had amazing views.

We did the dog sled camp and White Pass train ride. Interesting but we were falling asleep at the end of the train portion. Hiked Mendenhall Glacier which was amazing. Would have loved to do the helicopter ride but felt it was too pricey. Also, they all ended up cancelled due to weather. Ziplined in BC at the request of my daughter. Super fun.

Overall I would definitely recommend the cruise. You can’t see it all but you can always return.

We loved our Alaskan cruise several years ago. We did just the 7 night cruise out of Seattle and sailed on the Rhapsody. We did the White Pass train excursion and I liked that because I had done some reading about the gold rush days. DH thought it was boring. We went whale watching in Juneau but really saw more from our balcony on the ship. The sled dog camp in Skagway was really a highlight. We took an airplane tour of the glaciers which was very interesting. It was good to do once. There is really no way to describe the beauty of Alaska. Our hope is that when we (I) retire in about 4 years to take a cruise tour to see more on land. I'll have time to do a lot of research before then and I'd love to leave right after my final work days in July 2022! If we can't do the cruise tour I would still take another 7 night cruise in a heart beat. Definitely would suggest at least an ocean view balcony stateroom.

We did 2 weeks in Alaska - 1 week our own land tour and 1 week on the Celebrity Millennium (only because the dates for the Radiance didn't work right). We went end of June and into July. We were actually on the ship on July 4th cruising the inside passage.

First - get some Alaska travel books. Anne Vipond's Alaska by Cruise Ship is highly recommended over on the Alaska Boards. I used Frommer's Alaska in helping plan the land based portion. Just go to your bookstore or library and peruse the Alaska travel books and see what appeals to you and then purchase or check it out. Personally, I like purchasing the books so I can highlight and dog ear pages that have things I'm interested in.

Second - and this is hard - decide your priorities. Do you want to see Denali? Wildlife? Walk on a glacier? Only you can decide these things.

Third - you have to decide whether you want to go North or South bound. Some say go North because the scenery gets better each day as you travel to Alaska. Others say go South and get the land based vacation over with and relax on the cruise. Look at port times. IIRC Northbound times were a little shorter than Southbound - at least when I was doing my research. Do dummy bookings for airfare. Since we were using airline points, it turned out it was cheaper in fees for us to fly to Anchorage and home from Seattle. So we ended up taking the train from Vancouver to Seattle and spending a couple extra days there rather than in Canada. Actually worked out cheaper for us - even with the rail fare and hotel (which I found a deal on Jetsetter).

Fourth - once you've decided what your priorities are and you've decided on either a North or South bound cruise, look at the TourSaver Alaska (and another one I can't remember the name of) coupon books. You can peruse them online before deciding to buy. I ended up purchasing both (and 2 of each since we were a party of 5) and saved money on a hotel near Denali, white water rafting, a Midnight ATV ride, walking on the Matanuska Glacier, tours in Juneau - saved enough that it more than paid for the books. Don't forget to check Groupon - it's how I got a flight lesson for my oldest son!

I did a review over on the Alaska boards. We went in 2013. It took me the better part of 2 years to plan it all, but it was so worth it. I want to go back and see/do things we didn't see/do the first time. Just remember, Alaska is HUGE - you will never see it all in only 2 weeks. You have to decide what you absolutely must see and plan for future visits to see everything else.

My brother did it two years ago land and sea and he said just not enough time to see what was there when you got to port. This is one trip on my bucket list but as he told me fly there rent a RV and take your time to see everything you want.

Your brother is a wise wise person. Exactly how Alaska is meant to be seen. Cruising just adds the water element up close if possible and enjoyable relaxation.

Hubby and I are booked on the Explorer out of Seattle for late August/1st wk in September. We're excited and I'm glad to know that there are folks here who did the 7day, roundtrip sailing. As a frequent Caribbean cruiser, we simply want to see some different scenery in a unique setting of the world. If I enjoy it as much as everybody here seems to have, I may do a land/cruse combo at a later time. :)