titodewy Posted July 7 #1 Share Posted July 7 Hi all, We are first time cruisers. We are planning to book and cruise with land excursions. Some have land first and others have sea first. My husband may want to opt out on an included tour. Is there any advantages of doing either the Land or Sea first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 1025cruise Posted July 7 #2 Share Posted July 7 Are you referring to a tour, like in Alaska? Or just a cruise where you go ashore? Personally, I'd do the land tour first, then the cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olemissreb Posted July 7 #3 Share Posted July 7 If you are referring to Alaska, I did the land first because it was so filled with activities. By the time we got to the ship, it was nice to just relax more. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titodewy Posted July 7 Author #4 Share Posted July 7 3 hours ago, titodewy said: Hi all, We are first time cruisers. We are planning to book and cruise with land excursions. Some have land first and others have sea first. My husband may want to opt out on an included tour. Is there any advantages of doing either the Land or Sea first? Thanks for your input! Do know if there are other advantages to doing land first? I guess being able to fly in a few days early would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titodewy Posted July 7 Author #5 Share Posted July 7 Just now, titodewy said: Thanks for your input! Do know if there are other advantages to doing land first? I guess being able to fly in a few days early would be nice. Oh yes, I am referring to doing an Alaskan cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkster77 Posted July 7 #6 Share Posted July 7 We have an Alaska land/sea tour next June and we elected to do the Vancouver-Seward cruise first, followed by the 7-day land tour ending in Fairbanks. Our rationale was that we are coming from the east coast, so there will be jet lag involved. We plan on arriving in Vancouver one day early, day 2 is embarkation, and day 3 is a sea day. We hope that this will allow us to get the fog out of our brains. The other way, we'd be dealing with jet lab during the busy land tour, when relaxing on the ship might be more what we'd need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 1025cruise Posted July 7 #7 Share Posted July 7 For Alaska, I'd do the running around land first, then relax on the cruise 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldubs Posted July 7 #8 Share Posted July 7 It sometimes depends on the itinerary. For example, we have a cruise from Southampton to Rome. From there we will spend time in Sicily. In this case it works best to have the land portion last. You mentioned an Alaska cruise. So a similar itinerary situation would be Vancouver to Seward. If you want to do a land tour around BC, then do the land portion first. If you want a land tour in Alaska, then do it after. If itinerary is not an issue, then I would look at which flight arrangements work best, if any. If that doesn't matter, then flip a coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crystalspin Posted July 7 #9 Share Posted July 7 1 hour ago, titodewy said: Oh yes, I am referring to doing an Alaskan cruise. Welcome to posting on Cruise Critic! Many prefer land first for Alaska, as posted above. Our first trip to Alaska, my husband was still practicing as a very busy family physician, and we did cruise first (Vancouver seven days northbound) so he could relax before two-weeks' self-drive from Seward to Fairbanks. But our self-drive was paced out so not as draining as what I hear the Tour parts of Cruise-Tours are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titodewy Posted July 7 Author #10 Share Posted July 7 It helps to get feedback as there are so many cruises and itineraries to select from. I also read that doing your land potion on your own was less expensive and less time consuming??? But then, you have to coordinate that your self. If we do the land part ourselves we will fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks...any advice on which place would be better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titodewy Posted July 7 Author #11 Share Posted July 7 2 hours ago, sharkster77 said: We have an Alaska land/sea tour next June and we elected to do the Vancouver-Seward cruise first, followed by the 7-day land tour ending in Fairbanks. Our rationale was that we are coming from the east coast, so there will be jet lag involved. We plan on arriving in Vancouver one day early, day 2 is embarkation, and day 3 is a sea day. We hope that this will allow us to get the fog out of our brains. The other way, we'd be dealing with jet lab during the busy land tour, when relaxing on the ship might be more what we'd need. That makes sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldubs Posted July 7 #12 Share Posted July 7 4 hours ago, sharkster77 said: We have an Alaska land/sea tour next June and we elected to do the Vancouver-Seward cruise first, followed by the 7-day land tour ending in Fairbanks. Our rationale was that we are coming from the east coast, so there will be jet lag involved. We plan on arriving in Vancouver one day early, day 2 is embarkation, and day 3 is a sea day. We hope that this will allow us to get the fog out of our brains. The other way, we'd be dealing with jet lab during the busy land tour, when relaxing on the ship might be more what we'd need. Makes sense to me too. I have always found flying to the west coast to be more like staying up a few hours more than usual. But some folk will wake up according to the earlier east coast time zone -- no bueno! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 1025cruise Posted July 8 #13 Share Posted July 8 When we cruised round trip Alaska out of Seattle, thanks to the jet lag we were up extremely early. Ended up getting an early breakfast, checking out of the hotel, but storing our bags, and heading to the Needle. No lines. We then decided to visit the Chihuly museum (of course, had we realized we would do both, we would have bought the package) since we were there. At that point, we took the monorail back downtown got our bags and headed to the pier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olemissreb Posted July 8 #14 Share Posted July 8 16 hours ago, titodewy said: It helps to get feedback as there are so many cruises and itineraries to select from. I also read that doing your land potion on your own was less expensive and less time consuming??? But then, you have to coordinate that your self. If we do the land part ourselves we will fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks...any advice on which place would be better? Planning your own land trip can be intimidating as there is so much to see and do, but in doing so, you are in control of your time and you can see what you want to see. We flew in to Anchorage and rented a car downtown. After a 1 night stay, we took a leisurely drive up to Talkeetna and then on to Glitter Gulch where we spent 3 nights. Then we drove down toward the Matanuska Glacier and stayed 2 nights there before heading back to Anchorage. We walked around Talkeetna while my son took a flying lesson (thanks to Groupon), went white water rafting down the Nenana River, took an ATV ride in an area surrounded by Denali Park on 3 sides, went as fas as Mirror Lake in Denali Park, trekked on the Matanuska Glacier and went ziplining. Much of that (including hotel stays and car rental) were booked using coupons from the Northern Lights coupon book or Groupon plus hotel/car rental points. Check out the Alaska Ports of Call board for ideas. That board was super helpful when I did my planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leaveitallbehind Posted July 8 #15 Share Posted July 8 You don't mention which cruise line but IMO the places visited, the accommodations along the way, and the assistance of a dedicated tour guide with the excursion makes the cruise line sponsored tours well worth considering. They are pretty immersive and can be varied in length to fit different expectations and budgets. They also dovetail with the cruise portion and will include direct transfers with ease of transition. Far less individual planning and coordination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 8 #16 Share Posted July 8 If you worry about jet lag come in a few days early and do independent. Many of the ship excursions can be hired privately. I am glad I chose land first because the schedule is hectic - worth it but hectic. We are going back next year and doing a cruise first then doing an independent land trip at our own pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkster77 Posted July 8 #17 Share Posted July 8 3 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said: You don't mention which cruise line but IMO the places visited, the accommodations along the way, and the assistance of a dedicated tour guide with the excursion makes the cruise line sponsored tours well worth considering. They are pretty immersive and can be varied in length to fit different expectations and budgets. They also dovetail with the cruise portion and will include direct transfers with ease of transition. Far less individual planning and coordination. We compared Viking's 7 day post-cruise extension in Alaska to 7 day tours offered by other travel companies and Viking's price was comparable, so we booked post-cruise with Viking, for exactly the reasons you stated. We just figured that if we traveled from the east coast to Alaska, we should see and do all we can before heading back home, as we don't expect to get back to Alaska a second time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenquixote66 Posted July 14 #18 Share Posted July 14 We did an Alaskan vacation ,land first with non stop activities day and night.This was with HAL.They provided us with a Guide.The land tour was by Bus and Train.Followed by the cruise.It was a fantastic experience.One of the highlights was panning for gold. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare dna1990 Posted July 15 #19 Share Posted July 15 Land first. Just returned from a trip. Travel a day before (or more) if coming from an eastern time zone so you can get acclimated. The time change and summer sun until 11pm+, it took some getting used to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted July 20 #20 Share Posted July 20 We have done it both ways (before and after) and also done it with land-based trips before and after :). DW and I still debate whether we prefer one over the other and have never reached a consensus. I will only advise that we seldom to never fly-in to an embarkation port on the day of a cruise. Even if we were only planning a post cruise land adventure, we would fly-in 1 or 2 days early. Why? Luggage and airline cancelations/delays. And speaking of the airlines, we have a family member who was supposed to be off to Myrtle Beach, this morning. Last night they were notified that their flight (from NYC) had been cancelled due to the IT mess. They were rebooked on a morning flight out of Philadelphia. This morning, they are now on a train (from NYC to Phila) and just been notified that their flight (from Phila) has also been cancelled. I am going to assume this IT mess will also cause many Caribbean cruisers to miss their cruises today (and even tomorrow). I mention this to further emphasize that it is always wise to arrive at least 1 day (in this case it may not have been enough) early for any cruise. Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiationman Posted July 30 #21 Share Posted July 30 Depends. For Alaska we did land first. Were from the east coast and we decided longer flight out to Fairbanks, shorter flight home from Vancouver. We are cruising Japan in May starting in Tokyo and ending in Kobe. We chose to do the post cruise land package as we will get two days touring Kyoto and transportation on the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo we can then spend a few days in Tokyo on our own. Also consider that pre and post cruise tour packages may visit different sites this too could influence your decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickhorsley Posted August 22 #22 Share Posted August 22 We did a cruise with land excursions last year and found starting with the land part worked out really well. My husband was able to skip a couple of tours without it messing up the overall trip. Doing land first lets you get the big adventures out of the way and then you can just chill on the ship. It was nice to unwind and enjoy the sea after the busy land days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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