Alaska Cruisetours - What were your highlights or regrets?

[lucky cal]

My only regret is when we started the tundra wilderness tour, the bus had to turn around due to the fact that it started snowing. However Princess did refund at least half of the money. I certainly did not blame Princess for the snow. It was just one of those things.

My favorite tour was while we were in Denali and did the Husky Homestead Tour. Now I am a dog lover and Jeff King grew up near where I live. He conducted the tour himself and it was fabulous. In case your not a follower of the Iditarod, Jeff King is a 4 time winner and came very close last year to winning again. But he did not want to push his dogs through some horrible weather conditions(a blizzard and extremely strong winds) that he dropped out after the last check point. That is why I loved his tour because you can see right away his dogs safety and happiness comes first. Anyways it is a wonderful tour and full of lots of info and includes free dog kisses, LOL

 

We are dog lovers, too. The Husky Homestead Tour sounds fantastic! Thanks for the tip.

 

Dawn

[lucky cal]

I'm obviously in the minority here, but I found coastal Alaska to be far more interesting than the interior. We did Denali post-cruise on our own, using Alaska Railroad and a B&B that had car rentals. Denali had an austere beauty and we did enjoy hiking there, and did see moose, bears and smaller wildlife up close and personal. There's a substantial amount of travel time involved in getting to/from the interior, however - we decided to skip the Tundra Tour because 8 hours on a bus, even in beautiful surroundings, wasn't appealing after a full day getting there. The greater Anchorage area had a lot more to offer than we'd expected. When we go back this summer, we'll spend more time around the coast, which I thought was visually spectacular and offered a lot of recreational and cultural things to do, with easier logistics for a "DIY" kind of traveler.

 

Cheers,

Kirsten

 

Kirsten,

 

You make good points. I have to admit I'm a little leery about the long travel times via train and motorcoach to get around the interior. But Alaska is an expensive trip and a long way from the East Coast. On the assumption that this could be our one and only trip to Alaska, we want to see as much as possible in a short amount of time. My husband has summers off, but I can't be away from work for much more than 2 weeks at a time.

 

We're thinking about starting the trip with a few days on our own in Anchorage and Seward, followed by an 11-night Denali Explorer cruisetour and possibly an extra post-cruise day in Vancouver at the end of the trip. I've been to Vancouver but my husband hasn't.

 

In any case, I appreciate the wealth of experience on these boards and all the suggestions.

 

Dawn

[tigerbeth]

We will be in a Denali 23 August next year , I was going to swap the Natural History tour for the Tundra Wilderness tour but the Tundra tour is not listed .There is a tour called wildlife Wilderness tour which goes 30 miles into the park . Is this far enough in ? iOr should I look at doing something else? Any advice welcome.

[caribill]

We will be in a Denali 23 August next year , I was going to swap the Natural History tour for the Tundra Wilderness tour but the Tundra tour is not listed .There is a tour called wildlife Wilderness tour which goes 30 miles into the park . Is this far enough in ? iOr should I look at doing something else? Any advice welcome.

 

Check with Princess to see if they just renamed the tour.

[HRPro]

We loved our cruise tours with Princess. did not especially care for Faribanks, and would have loved to spend some time in the Anchorage area. also would recommend taking the train as much as possible--we loved the train travel but the buses, not so much. We also preferred doing the land portion first and ending with the cruise rather than the other way around. Take the Tundra Wilderness tour for sure. enjoy Alaska--it's a beautiful place!