Calling cruisers from the UK! Any advice

[all saints]

Can you help? Have some of you booked flights and organised independent landtour pre or post cruise? We're looking at a Princess cruise 07. From board postings I'm trying to convince my Mum (62) that it is easy(?) to sort and arguably a better experience to try and do the landtour yourself. We would be sailing Vancouver to Whittier...direction yet to be decided but prob NB unless advised otherwise. Any help re cheaper flights (into/out of where), general transport options welcome. Mum's biggest worry is that I'll have her lugging bags to train stations and bus stops!!! Denali and Kernai appear to be fav destinations.

Have any of you experienced the princess landtours...were they too rushed? Hope you can help? BIG thank you!:)

[Budget Queen]

Independent are simple to arrange and superior for allowing you the freedom to plan your own itinerary and have the ability to stop and go where and when you wish.

 

If you do go on a cruisetour, key is to go for as long as you can afford and avoid most under a week. Just too much time in transit on the shorter tours.

 

Significant is also to pack light, there is no need for large amounts of "stuff", one rolling bag should be it. Do some laundry, will greatly cut down on bulk.

[patnlcc]

We have booked an independent post-cruise tour for July 07, after reading all of the posts on CC. Booked 1st and 4th nights in Anchorage, 2nd and 3rd nights in Healy (apparently about 10 miles north of Denali Park entrance). Also booked a rental car in Anchorage. Got a great rate from uscars.co.uk (no, I have nothing to do with them, just found it on google). Only UK residents can book with this company. We will not be going as far as Fairbanks, we reckoned it would be too much driving. Booked Air Canada from Anchorage back to Vancouver - found them to be cheaper than Alaskan and also a bigger baggage allowance. (Our international flights will be round-trip UK/Vancouver) Hope it all works out, and did all the booking on the internet. We reckoned 'doing it ourselves' would give us a lot more flexibilty.

Hope this helps.

[CoupleUK]

Hi

 

We did Alaska last year - booked the cruise thru US travel agent (much cheaper) and the Air Canada flights thru Travelocity (I think it was them) and the pre-cruise/post cruise hotel thru Priceline.

 

We saved a fortune compared to booking everything as one package.

 

BE AWARE, that with increasing terrorist issues, you are better covered if booked as a package - I guess it's a chance you take.

 

We are now touring the USA and Canada for 18 months, in a 38ft RV we purchased in Florida.

 

We spent nearly 2 months in Alaska in May/June this year - FANTASTIC !!

 

Have you thought of renting an RV - you can get one with 2 fixed beds.

 

Why not take a look at http://www.bestofalaskatravel.com/al...ages/rates.htm for some ideas.

 

Paul