Alaska Land + Sea questions

[angelmomma530]

Trying to plan a land/sea trip for 2 couples...my parents and their friends. Mom and the other wife do not want to do the land portion, just want to stay at a hotel for those days. Is this possible with any cruise lines? Could they just travel the different hotels and not do the excursions? All of them are close to 70 or over.

[mapleleaves]

When you say land/sea trip, do you mean a cruisetour? If so, excursions are an extra chg, so if the women choose to sit in their hotel rather than go on an excursion, that's fine.

[angelmomma530]

If that is what they call it...certain # of days on land (Fairbanks, Denali, etc) and certain # of cruise days.

[mapleleaves]

yes, that would be a cruisetour. If you look in past Trip Reports posted above you'll find some cruisetours . A few are detailed photojournals which will help you get a better idea of what to expect.

Here are 2 examples:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2371972

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2243510

 

I think all the cruiselines have a cruisetour. They can vary from 10 days to 15 days. You can travel by train or land or both. Some tours are better than others, so be very mindful of the details.

[roseoftx]

If you book your own airfare, it would be possible to book different itineraries. When I read your post, I assumed they wanted to stay in Anchorage and not go anywhere. In this case, they would just book the cruise and the rest book the cruise tour. The land tours and cruisers all end up on the same ship.

[angelmomma530]

Thanks everyone. I told Mom worst case scenario, they would have to travel to each land hotel but didnt have to do any excursions.

[bunny1954]

We did a 10 day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line that left out of Seattle and returned to Vancouver. We visited Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, Icy Strait Point, Glacier Bay, and Victoria BC. We saw a lot of Alaska on this trip. Maybe this might be a better alternative than a land and sea tour? At the very least, if the party wants to stay together, then as you said, your mom will have to travel to each land hotel. We are doing a cruisetour next month. We have 2 nights in Fairbanks, a motor coach to one Princess Lodge in Denali for one night, another motor coach to another Princess Lodge in Denali/Talkeetna for one night, train from Talkeetna to Anchorage for one night and then motor coach from Anchorage to Whitter to board our 7 night cruise. That might be more traveling than she would want to do.

[mapleleaves]

I think picking a cruisetour takes just as much research as a DIY (or it should). With both segments, be sure that you're visiting ports/destinations of interest, and that you'll be there long enough for planned activities. Alaska is huge and with some of the short cruisetours, you spend most of your day in transit with little time to enjoy the location. This is esp true of denali wnere you need at least 2 night if you want to get into the park.

 

There are a few books specific to Alaska cruises. Check your library, or buy, Ann Vipond's 'Alaska by Cruiseship' or Fodor's 'Alaska Ports of Call'.

[angelmomma530]

Thank you mapleleaves. We have cruised to AK in Aug 2015 on Ruby Princess Inside Passage. Dad wants to go back and do some land touring this time, specifically the gold dredges. The gold mining thing interests him -he's a retired farmer. Trying to find the best cruise line and itineraries now.

[diane.in.ny]

The excursions on the land part of a cruise/tour are not extra. At least they weren't on the one we took with Princess. We started in Fairbanks and finished on the ship. Everything was taken care of. Transportation. Luggage handling. Our meals. And we stayed at lodges in beautiful locations.

 

Sure, they can fly in early and just sit at a hotel for a few days. But I would want to know why before making any suggestions.

 

And there are plenty of people 70 and older. Generally passengers on Holland America are older and that may be a cruise line to look at if they want to be among people their age.

[mapleleaves]

The excursions on the land part of a cruise/tour are not extra. At least they weren't on the one we took with Princess.

 

Thanks for catching my error .. yes, many of the excursions are included on the LAND portion !

[mapleleaves]

I did the gold mining excursion in Fairbanks but it has since been moved to the Gold Dredge location. It was seeded but we still had fun.

This info is from the Alaska forum of tripadvisor. Your father might find more authentic experiences within that link, esp at the BLM site.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g28923-i349-k4139215-Pan_for_gold-Alaska.html

[angelmomma530]

Dad read somewhere (but does not remember where) that there were still working gold dredges operating in AK. All of my google searches have come up empty. One the Princess (and some of the other lines) land tour in Fairbanks there is a visit to Gold Dredge No 8 and that may have to do. ;) We did gold panning in Skagway on our last trip. Not real exciting. Being a farmer, Dad is interested in the BIG dredging, machinery. There is a working gold mine (pit) at Ft Knox near Fairbanks but they no longer offer tours.

[mapleleaves]

Ask about gold dredges on the Alaska forum of tripadvisor. There are quite a few locals who participate and they could probably direct you to some sites or else resources to find sites. Good luck.

[angelmomma530]

I will do that mapleleaves, thank you!

[rvorcruise]

Dad read somewhere (but does not remember where) that there were still working gold dredges operating in AK. All of my google searches have come up empty. One the Princess (and some of the other lines) land tour in Fairbanks there is a visit to Gold Dredge No 8 and that may have to do. ;) We did gold panning in Skagway on our last trip. Not real exciting. Being a farmer, Dad is interested in the BIG dredging, machinery. There is a working gold mine (pit) at Ft Knox near Fairbanks but they no longer offer tours.

 

There are no more operating gold dredges in Alaska - the last one shut down 40-odd years ago. Dredge No. 8 in Fairbanks gives a brief look at one, the Klondike Gold Dredge in Skagway is another that's open for tours. A dredge has recently started working again in the Yukon, but isn't accessible to visitors.

 

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