Alaska cruise better to sail from Anchorage or Vancouver

[rocklinmom]

I am looking at Alaska cruises for summer 2018 out of either Anchorage or Vancouver. Aside from the differences of distance to the cruise port (Anchorage is apparently a long drive from the port in Whittier), are there any advantages or disadvantages of sailing out of one or the other? The itinerary is the same, and prices are similar. Just wondering about the logistics of embarking vs. disembarking in Canada, the distance of Whittier/Anchorage port to the airport to fly home, etc. Any info appreciated.

[stinsonm]

Not sure if it matters much if you're just doing the cruise. We decided to do a Princess cruisetour with a week ashore, and that was the deciding factor for us. Both directions offer train service directly from/to port in Alaska, but Northbound cruise disembarked at very inconvenient times (I recall 3am, but not certain) as compared to Southbound cruise, where you finish land portion and ride the train during the day to meet ship around 5-6p. We preferred that approach, so it made our decision for us.

 

 

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[AF-1]

I would guess do you want the longer drive at the beginning of your cruise or at the end. You airline to Anchorage and drive an hour south to get on ship. You airline to Vancouver and drive ten minutes to cruise port. Or you stay in hotel the day prior to your cruise; and then drive to cruise port.

[Colo Cruiser]

We would rather do S/B so we don't have to deal with long flights from ANC.

In Vancouver you have the option of taking the Princess transfer after the cruise to Sea-Tac which gives you many more flight options.

[4cats4me]

We prefer the southbound cruise so have a shorter flight home.

[rocklinmom]

Thanks all, can't afford the cruisetour with five of us so cruise only. I think we are leaning towards embarking in Vancouver and disembarking in Anchorage. We will be staying overnight in both ports.

[LEtue]

Thanks all, can't afford the cruisetour with five of us so cruise only. I think we are leaning towards embarking in Vancouver and disembarking in Anchorage. We will be staying overnight in both ports.

 

Then you may want to consider going SB from Anchorage so you get to both Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay ;)

[rocklinmom]

Thanks Linda, true with the Vancouver departure we would be doing College Fjord instead of Hubbard Glacier. I do like the idea of the scenic cruising days being at the end of the cruise instead of at the beginning though.

[LoriPhil]

We'd probably do the SB; flying into Anchorage is less tiring because it's the excitement at the beginning of the adventure (plus you'll hopefully fly in the day before), rather than the late-night flight home out of Anchorage at the end of the cruise which is our only option if we were NB: we love Hubbard Glacier, and also feel we also get to see more of the inside passage "close up" on the last day of cruising to Vancouver. However, if the ship or time you need is only NB I wouldn't hesitate to book it - Alaska is stellar!

[Colo Cruiser]

When we did the cruise/tour we prefer to do the land portion first.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Colo Cruiser

[Wishing on a star]

We chose SB from Whittier....

We enjoyed the itinerary!

Got to do an amazing tour of Prince Williams Sound and College Fjord before boarding. (HIGHLY recommend getting out there in a smaller boat, and not just the cruise ship!!!!)

Then we did get fairly close to Hubbard Glacier.

Plus Glacier Bay and all of the other obligatory cruise ship port stops.

 

We hopped on the railway and just relaxed on the ride over to the ship at Whittier.

Nothing difficult about it at all.

You can use Princess Transfers if you do not want to get their early to take a Prince Williams Sound (or other) boat tour. The train will get you there early.

 

Enjoy!

[4cats4me]

We've been on four different itineraries to Alaska and by far the best was the southbound. Out of all the glaciers, we enjoyed Hubbard the most. The flight from SFO to ANC was around 5 hours plus a plane change in SEA, and only 2.5 hours home from YVR to SFO on United. RocklinMom, not sure if you are flying out of SFO, but it is really nice to get the longer travel day out of the way at the beginning of the cruise. [emoji4]

Also, we've enjoyed the Seattle round trip cruises that go to Glacier Bay. Easier for us to fly to SEA vs all the way to ANC ....

The only thing I don't like about Seattle cruises is the astronomical prices of the hotels up there, which in our case, almost cost as much as our inside cabin cruise fare $(499 pp)

And hotels were 300-450 per night when we last traveled in Aug/sept 2014. [emoji33][emoji33]

College Fjord is beautiful, but we really loved Hubbard.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Also, not sure which month you'd be going, but recently there have been a lot of complaints from those who embark in Vancouver, with very, very long waits to get onto the ship at Canada Place. I can't recall whether I read about it on the Princess board or the Celebrity board, but it has been extremely problematic. This occurs every year at the beginning of the cruise season, it seems, at Canada Place, but this year is the first time I've read about it occurring during the height of the cruise season.

Something to consider.

We've sailed out of Vancouver before with no problems, but that was a long time ago.

 

Update: found the thread, and although the OP is non-US citizen,

US citizens have had long waits as well. I would direct your attention to posts 24 and 30.

 

US Immigration horrendous

 

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_fid=24703&share_tid=2526477&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboards%2Ecruisecritic%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D2526477&share_type=t

Edited August 6, 2017 by 4cats4me

[JimmyVWine]

I prefer the NB option. Coming from the east coast the flights are long both ways so I don't let that factor in. The reason why I prefer the northern direction is purely optics and emotion. Each day of my vacation I keep going deeper and deeper into Alaska with Glacier Bay being in front of me, chronologically. The trip crescendos with each day being better than the one before instead of decrescendo-ing with the views and ports getting weaker as the trip progresses. Sort of like climbing a mountain if you are an avid climber. Given the choice, would you rather climb the mountain and have a helicopter fly you back down to the base, or have the helicopter fly you to the summit so that you could hike down the mountain? If all you care about is the view from the summit, you might choose the latter. But if you truly love climbing, you would choose the former. I enjoy the trip into Alaska and prefer to go deeper each day, feeling like I am "arriving". By starting in Whittier, I feel as if each day I am "leaving". As I said at the start, this is purely optics and emotion.

[VibeGuy]

Absolutely go north - as pointed out, the scenery gets better day by day.

 

And if you want to avoid boarding delay at Vancouver, get Global Entry. It solves the security line and the CBP lines.

[Beachiekeen]

I wanted the SB to get the long flight to AK out of the way on the front end but was outvoted. My husband said Alaska was the destination and he wanted to end our trip there and also for the scenery that gets better as you cruise as mentioned above. Also the rougher seas are towards the end of the cruise when you have your sea legs and we were traveling with my ILs who had never cruised before.

 

Having done the cruise now, I can't say I disagree. We had a beautiful sail away from Vancouver and still had 3 nights in Alaska to look forward to at the end of the cruise, so the vacation wasn't over.

 

But it would also have been nice to do all of the hiking and activities we did in Alaska and then had a relaxing cruise to end the trip with. So I think there are good arguments for both itineraries so just pick what works best for you.

 

ETA: I had also read stories of long lines embarking at Canada Place but we had no problems. I believe those problems are more prevalent at the beginning of the season. We also only had two ships in port instead of three.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Beachiekeen

[rocklinmom]

Oh that's good to know about possible delays embarking at Canada Place. Hopefully with elite status it will be less.

Yes we would fly from SFO because we'd rather do direct flights (out of Sacramento we would have a layover). Another factor was that there are multiple direct flight options from SFO to Vancouver but only one direct flight to Anchorage.

 

 

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[Wishing on a star]

I would still recommend SB.

You get to see much more! Both Hubbard Glacier, and College Fjord if you do the boat tour, plus everything else.

Not only do you jump right into the spectacular scenery and glaciers... But, the views do not necessarily get better day-by-day when heading North... Just different. Glacier Bay is the thing to look forward to... And sailing back from your last port to Vancouver thru the gorgeous sound is a wonderful and relaxing way to bring the cruise to an end as you head back home.

 

Yes, different strokes for different folks...

But, for us, it really is no contest... Highly recommend SB.

[4cats4me]

Oh that's good to know about possible delays embarking at Canada Place. Hopefully with elite status it will be less.

Yes we would fly from SFO because we'd rather do direct flights (out of Sacramento we would have a layover). Another factor was that there are multiple direct flight options from SFO to Vancouver but only one direct flight to Anchorage.

 

 

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From my memory, Even those with priority boarding were forced to wait in one common line for hours, I think for metal detector or something, until they could even get to the priority check-in lines, unfortunately.

Hopefully the issues will be resolved by next cruise season.

[Coral]

I like Northbound for the longer day in Juneau (enough time for Adventure Bound excursion).

[VibeGuy]

Vancouver hasn't fixed their issues in 15 years and isn't going to magically figure it out tomorrow. There isn't enough space or CBP agents to efficiently process 5000 passengers - the facility is best suited for about 1200. So long as Alaska remains part of the US and Vancouver remains part of Canada and they only use a dozen positions for CBP and five metal detectors for 5000 people, it's going to suck.

 

At least now you queue upstairs, seated. Before that innovation it was cruel. Now it's merely inconvenient and time consuming.

 

Elite status will not help you. What helps is Global Entry or NEXUS from CBP. If an hour or two of your vacation time means anything, it's worth it, and the fee also grants you five years of PreCheck from TSA.

 

I LOVE Vancouver; I'm up every month or two

throughout the year. They run an amazing airport and a great transit system, the food scene is exceptional, everyone's friendly. But Canada Place was never designed for more than 1500 passengers/day and the CBP facility is both inadequate and understaffed for the passenger loads. Leave it to us Americans to screw up Canada.

[Wishing on a star]

OMG, Coral, you are right about Adventure Bound... That is the one trade-off!!!

Would def. have booked that!

 

We booked an independent whale watching tour. It was amazing!

[Liz Masterson]

Thank you! I've gone NB but am interested in returning to do SB!

 

 

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[Liz Masterson]

Also... wow had. It realized that about Juneau. We did NB this summer, our first ever cruise. We overdid Juneau. Enjoyed an extended helicopter tour to dog sleds and with a second landing where we got to walk around on Herbert Glacier. Then back to Princess Coral for a quick bite to eat and back out to find a small group whale watching tour.

 

But if we go again may try SB to mix things up.

 

 

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[easyboy]

Would prefer the SB. Would like to do the cruise tour before.

[nanabananna]

This past May we did the Southbound Whittier to Vancouver

I had friend that took the train from Anchorage to whittier. One could drive but the train is very nice.

You ask why SB verses NB

You get to board the ship earlier so your able to start the ad venture on enjoying all the fun on the ship early including eating , activities, etc.

i would not hesitate on the Whittier to Vancouver.

 

 

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