who do I cruise tour to alaska with?

[corkyhead]

We are planning a cruise tour to Alaska and we are torn between Princess and holland America's cruise tours. Can anyone tell me which is better? Or should it be a whole different cruise line. Help me I am soooo confused.

Corkyhead

[Budget Queen]

Dissect the itineraries and do your homework. Factor in all the time in transit and time at destinations. With Denali park the usual highlight, perhaps focus there and get 2 nights with the Tundra Wilderness tour. Then, make a list of your other interests and get a tour that includes them. Go for as long as you can afford. :)

 

Murray lists some private land tours you may also want to consider??? Then you can pick your ship independently?? http://www.explorenorth.com

 

I give a big edge to Seward- HAL, to take advantage of a boat tour to Kenai Fjords. A must do in my opinion. With a private land tour, you could include that then have your tour begin after?? You generally have no time for it with HAL cruisetours, or Prince Wm Sound glacier boat tours out of Whittier with Princess. Two top boat tour areas.

[Toyz711]

you have to start with 1 step and go from there.

we decided what port we wanted to go out of (seattle, family there), what day we wanted to leave (saturday so hubby misses only 1 weekend of sales). then cost...made serveral calls and searched the internet for the best price. took us 2 months to research before we booked.

 

we wanted to do a round trip, just to make things easier for the other family members we hoped would go with us.

we did NCL star, out of seattle..with our family..the "freestyle" dining (no set seating for meals) worked well.

start making a list of what you want see/do and do your research. every port/town has a website. the more you research and more fun you will have planning the whole thing.

[agabbymama]

My husband I have done the Inside Passage 7 day cruise, so this time I wanted to see more of inland Alaska and from movies, etc. I wanted to see the Yukon. HAL is the only one that does the Yukon in depth. We leave out of Vancouver North to Tracey Arm on to Juneau then to Skagway. Only three days on the ship, then we go overland to Whitehorse, Dawson City, Eagle, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali Park and to Anchorage. We don't go to the Arctic, Kenai, or Nome, but I think we will see a good sampling of rural/small town Alaska.

 

Make a graph, with the things you want to see and do across the top, then down the side put the cruiselines. Put an X. See which one does more of what you want to do, for a price you want to pay. Northbound ended up being about $400-500 dollars pp cheaper than Southbound, even though both are HAL. We are doing Cruisetour # 1.

 

Budget Queen advocates touring on your own, but with my husband and I, a single female and a single male, it wasn't so easy getting everyone to agree on sleeping arrangements, hotels, car/RV or whatever. Everyone had a different idea, so I we settled for the Cruisetour. I wasn't into the hassle of cooking and cleaning an RV or doing all the planning. It was easier to let HAL do the planning.

 

Have fun planning then have a great cruise.:p