Alaska Cruise tour

[cruisue]

We've never done an Alaska cruise or cruise tour. When you do the tour and stay in the "lodge", are your meals included as though you were on the ship or do you pay for each meal for each of the days of your tour?

[4cats,1dog]

You didn't say which cruise line you are booking with.

If it's Royal Caribbean- the land portion you pay for all meals. You have a variety of where you want to eat and how much you want to spend.

There are some tours included such as: Tram ride up Mt. Alyeska at the resort, the Denali Natural History tour- but you can upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. Highly recommend upgrade. Fairbanks has a riverboat tour and Gold dredge 8.

There are some optional tours that are xtra, all very good.

 

Have a great time.

We loved our cruise tour. Hotels were all A-1. They do the driving and handle all the luggage and room keys.

[Shmoo here]

We've never done an Alaska cruise or cruise tour. When you do the tour and stay in the "lodge", are your meals included as though you were on the ship or do you pay for each meal for each of the days of your tour?

 

Holland America you also must pay for your meals on the land portion of the trip. There are a couple of included meals, but most of them aren't.

[Budget Queen]

On ALL cruisetours, you must pay for the meals on the land portion- UNLESS it is specifically mentioned they are included.

 

I strongly suggest you do your homework and find out about Alaska and what the various tours include and where they take you. It is not enough- since you seem to want more information, to just read the vague brief descriptions. The wrong assumptions are made frequently. Determine, the transit times, most people don't have any idea. It is poor planning, in my opinion, to spend all day getting somewhere, and then not having enough time to enjoy it.

 

Contrary to an above post. It is NOT always possible to upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness tour.

 

Understand fully, the Denali Park options. I was on the Sun, last week, and spoke with many people- not ONE I spoke to going to Denali Park, had any clue where they were going. Several- seemed to think, that just "going" there, was "going" to Denali Park. WRONG- you have to get IN to the park. Again, my opinion- there is NO remote reason to even go there, if you don't. So, first take a look at the detail of transit INTO Denali Park, on the Park Road. http://www.nps.gov/dena My trips only include the shuttle bus to at least Eielson, never anything less. :)

 

Take a close look at the areas, and be certain, they are where you want to go. Most cruisetours miss out significantly on the port towns of Seward or Whittle. Both have some excellent tour available. Don't just pass through, IF you don't want to compromise.

 

Finally, this isn't the place to skimp on time, go for as long as you can afford. Just about all the short cruisetours, are poor plans, in my opinion.

[Ginger Pepper]

Princess Connoisseur cruisetour (we leave very soon!) includes almost all meals on the land portion in the lodges. You get a voucher for free choice of meals at the lodge restaurant plus 15% gratuity. The Connoisseur also includes the Tundra Wilderness Tour at Denali with two nights at the park.

[MVPinBoynton]

Heed Budget Queen's advice. I did and am grateful for it. We used Princess and were able to get a refund on the basically worthless Natural History Tour. We then purchased tickets on line well in advance for the Eielson Shuttle at a cost less than our refund for the NHT. We saw where the furthest point the NHT went. It really didn't even get into the park.

 

We made sure that we had at least two nights at Denali so that we could have the full day for the Eielson Shuttle. Only having one night there won't cut it.

 

As far as food cost, I was pleasantly surprised that it was more reasonable at the Princess Lodges than I expected. Plus the food, for the most part was excellent and in large portion sizes. You can see the menus and prices on my recent review on my website, www.thepreismans.com.

 

Good luck and do lots of research before you lock into anything.

[agabbymama]

HAL also sometimes provides a "Meal Plan" that you have to purchase separately from the cruisetour price. We didn't purchase the meal plan (thinking we could eat cheaper on our own, NOT THE CASE). There were only 3 lunches provided by HAL. We ended up spending just as much in food costs as the meal plan would have been. Even went to the grocery store in Skagway and purchased sandwich fixings (meat, cheese, bread, mustard, mayo), chips, water, etc. and was astounded at the price. Didn't repeat that fiasco. We ended up usually eating at the hotel restaurants (where the vouchers would have been used).

 

As others have said, be sure you research and know just what your cruisetour includes, where it goes and what you get as excursions, meals, etc.

 

Everything in Alaska is expensive, most of it is shipped in from the Lower 48.

Have fun planning, then taking your cruise/cruisetour to Alaska, it is an awesome destination.