Young kids--cruise excursions & postcruise tour

[rachel0]

We're booking Alaska for July '12 (Princess, southbound) and thinking of doing a land portion. We're a family of 4, 2 boys that will be 3 and 6 . And may have my inlaws (parents and siblings).

As both the kids and inlaws huge nature and animal lovers (the turning 3 yo has already logged 4 whale watching trips in his young lifetime!) I kinda know what direction to go in for the port excursions! Anyone have any tips re: particular good or bad experiences for young children? They'll want to see humpbacks and orcas, bears and wolves. I think they'd all enjoy seeing the salmon running.

 

 

 

My other question: book Princess land/lodges separately & do our own thing, or go completely on our own. I know cruisetour is both the most expensive option and most inflexible in terms of how many days at what lodge, so it's out. So really, do I do Princess or skip it altogether. So if we decide just to do other hotels, do we need to rent cars, don't need a car and just use hotel shuttles to get around (are they adequate?) and the rail to get to the hotels? That equation has some variables since we don't know for sure yet if any of my in laws are joining us. It'll be difficult to rent something to fit more than just the 4 of us since we'd need car seats/boosters.

 

 

Also, where to go and what to do? I was thinking Denali seems to be important and originally thought we wanted Kenai but maybe Fairbanks is a better kid choice? Again, they're huge animal lovers but ultimately they are little boys so their patience will only stretch so much:eek:! Also, are there nice shorter hikes we can do on our own like around the lodges? Help!

I'm sure I'm missing some questions or information, so just let it go and tell me everything :)

TIA!!!

Rachel