Alaska Pre Cruisetour Advice

[sarahirschman]

Hi-

 

We are headed to Alaska for 15 nights in July 2015. We have 6 days on land before a 7 night southbound cruise from Seward to Vancouver. If anyone has taken this cruisetour before and could help me understand the land portion schedule it would be greatly appreciated. I am huge planner and would like to have things planned out (excursions booked if time) but was not provided much detail in the itinerary (listed below).

 

Specifically I am looking for advice on: 1. How long to plan on each of these excursions included below, including train/bus ride; 2. any tips you have for these excursions (which side of the bus/train to sit on, etc.)

 

Any information will help!

Thanks

 

11 JUL FAIRBANKS HOTEL

12 JUL RIVERBOAT DISCOVERY TOUR

12 JUL TRANSFER FAI TO DNL

12 JUL DENALI DISCOVERY PROGRAM

12 JUL DENALI HOTEL

13 JUL DENALI NATURAL HISTORY TOUR (will upgrade to Tundra Wilderness)

13 JUL DENALI HOTEL

14 JUL RAIL PM - DNL TO TLK

14 JUL TALKEETNA ALASKAN LODGE

15 JUL RAIL PM - TLK TO ANC

15 JUL ANCHORAGE MARRIOTT

16 JUL MOTORCOACH ANC TO SWD

16 JUL SEWARD WIND SONG LODGE

17 JUL RESURRECTION BAY CRUISE

17 JUL TRANSFER TO SHIP IN SWD

[mapleleaves]

which cruiseline? Can't they provide you with the specifics?

On some days you listed train as the transportation. If you don't say train, does that mean bus?

 

As a big planner myself, the lack of itinerary details on a cruisetour is a huge red flag to me. How can you plan when you don't know when you arrive or depart?

 

If you look at the STICKY near the top of the page, you'll find lots of trip reports and photo journals from last summer. The first line usually indicates the cruiseline, date, itinerary and if a cruisetour. You'll find lots of helpful info there.

[mapleleaves]

This was the only cruisetour I could think of that included windsong lodge so perhaps it's the same one you're looking at.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=43971668&posted=1#post43971668

Edited February 25, 2015 by mapleleaves

[nanakatandpop]

Hi Sarah, we took a similar cruisetour in October. On day 2 in Fairbanks we had breakfast in the hotel and departed by bus to see the Alaskan pipeline and then a couple of hours at the Musuem of the North. After lunch we took the Riverboat discovery tour. This took 2-3 hours best I remember. The blueberry doughnuts were great! Day 3 we boarded the train about 8 a.m., had breakfast onboard and arrived in Denali around lunch time. We did not do the Denali Discovery Program. Day 4 the tundra wilderness tour will be a pretty full day. Ours was cut short because a mudslide closed the road.Day 4 We took an optional excursion to Husky Homestead for the morning then boarded the train for the the trip to Talkeetna -about 3-4 hours. We had lunch on board. BTW, the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge was our favorite of the trip. Laundry available here. Also great views of Mt McKinley and we saw the northern lights here. Day 5- we took an optional flight seeing tour with a glacier landing. This was the highlight of the trip for DH and me. I think you will find your tour director very helpful in booking any optional excursions for your free time. Like you I was concerned about planning and the timing. We opted to preplan for the ports of call and just wait and book as we went for the land tour part. Hope this helps. Kathy

[Budget Queen]

Hi-

 

We are headed to Alaska for 15 nights in July 2015. We have 6 days on land before a 7 night southbound cruise from Seward to Vancouver. If anyone has taken this cruisetour before and could help me understand the land portion schedule it would be greatly appreciated. I am huge planner and would like to have things planned out (excursions booked if time) but was not provided much detail in the itinerary (listed below).

 

Specifically I am looking for advice on: 1. How long to plan on each of these excursions included below, including train/bus ride; 2. any tips you have for these excursions (which side of the bus/train to sit on, etc.)

 

Any information will help!

Thanks

 

11 JUL FAIRBANKS HOTEL

12 JUL RIVERBOAT DISCOVERY TOUR

12 JUL TRANSFER FAI TO DNL

12 JUL DENALI DISCOVERY PROGRAM

12 JUL DENALI HOTEL

13 JUL DENALI NATURAL HISTORY TOUR (will upgrade to Tundra Wilderness)

13 JUL DENALI HOTEL

14 JUL RAIL PM - DNL TO TLK

14 JUL TALKEETNA ALASKAN LODGE

15 JUL RAIL PM - TLK TO ANC

15 JUL ANCHORAGE MARRIOTT

16 JUL MOTORCOACH ANC TO SWD

16 JUL SEWARD WIND SONG LODGE

17 JUL RESURRECTION BAY CRUISE

17 JUL TRANSFER TO SHIP IN SWD

 

I will give you some details. You have very little time in Fairbanks, it's always better to have a least a couple overnights in advance of your tour start, with a rental car. Your boat tour is in the morning and 3 hours. It is a 2 1/4 hour ride to Denali. Denali Discovery program is at the Visitor Center. Depending on your cruiseline, verify you can pay the difference to upgrade your tour. IF they don't change, you can pay a small fee and change this ticket yourself at the Access Center - big if, IF you get the actual ticket? If it's held until you take the tour, you won't have any time to change it. The benefit of having the actual ticket is the option of not paying any additional money and getting to Eielson.

 

The train leaves Denali Park 12:30p, gets into Talkeetna 4:40pm leaves the next day at 4:55p gets into Anchorage 8pm.

 

Bus from Anchorage will take about 4hours. Many times, in my opinion, the timing is poor, since it can leave Anchorage too early and arrive too late in Seward for a lot of activities, if a late morning departure timeframe.

 

The Resurrection Bay cruise is a waste of time, in my opinion and far inferior compared to the longer boat tours, that go to Kenai Fjords.

 

Seats are assigned on the train. Doesn't matter what side of buses. Scenery on both sides.

[sarahirschman]

Thanks for the advice.

 

We are booked through Royal Caribbean. The cruisetour is booked through them as well. I was told by a few other cruisers that we won't get a detailed itinerary until we land in Fairbanks. We are flying in the day before. We are spending a few extra days in Vancouver on the other end of the trip, so due to vacation days available, we weren't able to spend any more time in Fairbanks.

 

Regarding the Denali discovery tour--should we try to schedule something else during that time or is there not enough time to do anything that night?

 

Same with the Resurrection Bay Cruise--should we try to do a different cruise? Do you recommend one?

 

Thanks!

[sarahirschman]

 

If you look at the STICKY near the top of the page, you'll find lots of trip reports and photo journals from last summer. The first line usually indicates the cruiseline, date, itinerary and if a cruisetour. You'll find lots of helpful info there.

 

Can you help me understand what the STICKY is? I'm new to this sight and don't know what you mean? Thanks!

[rockdoctor]

I wonder if it has anything to do with Royal Caribean using vendors rather than in house lodging and transportation. Both HAL and Princess provide detailed itineraries in advance. RC people seem to never know in advance. Maybe it's a way of forcing them to use company excursions. Just rambling.

[agabbymama]

Check out RCI website to see what tours are offered, that might let you know the timing of your stop. HAL doesn't let you book something that you don't have time for, hopefully RCI will do likewise.

 

There were no times listed on our HAL itinerary. Just a general description, "... morning departure from Fairbanks, train to Denali, afternoon arrival in Denali". Our Tour Guide passed out sheets each morning telling the days stops/events/tours available upon arrival, etc.

 

We generally left around 7:00-7:30 in the morning and arrived at the next stop around 5:30-6:00 in the evening. If I were to go again, I'd do two nights at each stop, as we really didn't have a lot of time to explore each stop. We did have two nights in Dawson City and that was ample time to really get to see Dawson City.

 

We were very happy with our 11 day HAL Yukon Wilderness Cruisetour, the only additional excursion we booked was Jeff King's Husky Homestead tour at Denali.

 

Have fun planning, then taking your cruisetour to Alaska!

[mapleleaves]

Can you help me understand what the STICKY is? I'm new to this sight and don't know what you mean? Thanks!

 

When you're on the home page of the Alaska forum there are ANNOUNCEMENTS at the top of the page, and then there are STICKYS and then the threads. There is a STICKY for 2014 trip reports and photojournals and another STICKY for 2013. (for 2013 go to reply #45 where the reports are sorted by cruiseline)

[mlmc424]

We have this itinerary booked for 2016 but we took a similar Cruisetour with RCI last August. The RCI documentation we received prior to the Cruisetour contained very detailed information about departure and arrival times, hotels and included tours at each stop. I used the Shore Excursion Brochure downloaded from the website to find out what optional tours would be available at each stop and already knew what I wanted when we arrived in Fairbanks. Our tour director arranged everything we wanted. We were easily able to upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour also - our tour director was able to charge our credit card for anything extra that we booked.

[Budget Queen]

We have this itinerary booked for 2016 but we took a similar Cruisetour with RCI last August. The RCI documentation we received prior to the Cruisetour contained very detailed information about departure and arrival times, hotels and included tours at each stop. I used the Shore Excursion Brochure downloaded from the website to find out what optional tours would be available at each stop and already knew what I wanted when we arrived in Fairbanks. Our tour director arranged everything we wanted. We were easily able to upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour also - our tour director was able to charge our credit card for anything extra that we booked.

 

Were you given your Denali Park tour tickets in advance?? did the guide have them?

Edited February 26, 2015 by Budget Queen

[mlmc424]

We were given our tickets for any of our excursions before the event - not all at the beginning of the trip.

[Budget Queen]

We were given our tickets for any of our excursions before the event - not all at the beginning of the trip.

 

When were these tickets given to you? I need to know when, since there may be other options I can suggest.

 

Was this given to you when you got to Denali your first day there?

[mlmc424]

First thing in the morning on the day of the specific excursion.

[travgurl]

We are going a day early in July also to begin our cruise tour in Fairbanks. After doing some research in Fairbanks we plan to tour either the Morris Thomas Cultural center (free admission) or the Museum of the North (fee)

and I found the name of the an interesting park called Pioneer Park. There is also the pipeline tour and a gold mine tour you can check out. Check out these suggestions. I have done the planning and booking our excursions for our group already. So now we can just relax knowing that the things we want to do are booked. The river boat is part of your scheduled tour beginning the next day. Hope you have a great time.

[Budget Queen]

We are going a day early in July also to begin our cruise tour in Fairbanks. After doing some research in Fairbanks we plan to tour either the Morris Thomas Cultural center (free admission) or the Museum of the North (fee)

and I found the name of the an interesting park called Pioneer Park. There is also the pipeline tour and a gold mine tour you can check out. Check out these suggestions. I have done the planning and booking our excursions for our group already. So now we can just relax knowing that the things we want to do are booked. The river boat is part of your scheduled tour beginning the next day. Hope you have a great time.

 

There is a whole lot more. http://www.explorefairbanks.com

[Victrola]

We are doing a similar trip as OP in June 2015, with an extra day on front and 2 days at the end in Vancouver. Have read all the reviews I can find and booked 2 excursions beside planned ones so any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated.