JBeaty0507

We are doing this in about 6 weeks. I can let you know how it went afterwards. There are 6 of us as well. We started planning about this time last year so I'll give you a little bit of the details on what we are planning. (We are 3 couples so all of our costs were split in 3)

We will be flying in on Tuesday afternoon to Anchorage. We ended up renting a Suburban from Midnight Sun Car rental. We did this so we could guarantee we get a Suburban and not a Tahoe (we'll probably have a lot of luggage as well as groceries at one point so we just wanted to be sure). They have an additional fee you can tack on to actually drop the car off in Whittier instead of Anchorage. Since there were six of us, the drop off fee came out cheaper than all of us getting transportation to the port from Anchorage. In addition, this will give us a leisurely drive down to the port so we can check out all the sights on Turnigan Arm. People say this area is beautiful so we didnt' want to miss it!

For lodging near Denali, we booked a 3 bedroom house on VRBO for 3 nights. We figured overall this would just work better for us so we could fix our own meals and it seems to be much better lodging than what they offer right at Denali. We will be staying near Cantwell and from the reviews, people act like it is an easy drive to the park.

If I remember, I'll let you know if any of these plans work out like we're hoping they do! LOL

Thanks so much for this post! Having never been to Alaska, I'm still hoping to avoid some of this ignorance when we arrive in August. This is why my favorite stop on the internet right now is right here. I find this to be true of visitors at all places. One of my favorite places to visit is Disney World and it always upsets me when people have a subpar time there due to their lack of planning and research. I find that it just makes things so much easier when you get somewhere to visit. My husband likes to kid right now that he doesn't know where he's going to eat lunch today, but he can tell you where he is eating in August!! LOL

Loving this! We have a cruise planned on Star in late summer and are planning on doing the ATV's in Ketchikan and a private boat in Juneau! So glad to hear that you enjoyed them:)

Thanks so much for the review! We are taking this same cruise later this summer and are very excited about it!

I would love to have them too! JBeaty0507@gmail.com

Thanks so much!

Me too JBeaty. I stalk the board for the 2017 trip report every day. :) We go at the end of August and it can't come soon enough.

Awesome! It looks like we may be going on the same cruise! Are you on the Star leaving Southbound on September 2???

Awesome!! I've been waiting for an Alaska trip report. We go late summer. Can't wait to read [emoji5]

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I've been waiting on someone to go to Alaska this year! Have an awesome time! We can't wait to go later this summer:)

We booked last June for our cruise in EARLY SEPTEMBER this year! We are absolutely dying and so ready to go at this point! Especially since we have paid for everything it's just waiting for it to get here!! I also am anxiously waiting for people to start writing new trip reports! For all of you going on the Star Princess before us, we can't wait to hear about how it was!!

Yay! I'm so glad you posted this review! We are die hard Disney cruisers (mostly on the Dream), but we are headed to Alaska this year on the Star Princess. I'm not going to lie, I was a little hesitant to book with someone other than Disney, mainly because the cleanliness on the Disney ships just can't be beat and that's a big deal for us. However, after reading on here for a while, we decided that the Princess cruise itineraries were much more suited for Alaska than the Disney Alaskan cruise (And about $4,000 cheaper!!!). I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed it:)

We just booked Harv and Marv for next September. It will be our first time in Alaska and we decided that we wanted to be the only ones on the boat. They currently have a 10%off discount running which put it cheaper for us per person than what we could book through the ship anyways (there are 6 of us)

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When we're on a ship we can't help but miss some good Mexican Food! Our small East Tennessee town has about 15 local Mexican restaurants....so it's something we eat quite often at home. It's always one of our first stops when we get back!

I am loving reading your trip report! I am about half way through it right now. I do have a question regarding the train. I am working on planning a cruise and land tour for 6 of us next August. I had thought about doing basically the same itinerary: Fly into Fairbanks and take the train down to Anchorage. What I'm wondering is, if we want to make an overnight or two stop in Denali would we have to purchase 2 different train tickets: Fairbanks to Denali and then Denali to Anchorage? Or can we just purchase the Fairbanks to Anchorage ticket and have an overnight stay without voiding the rest of the ticket?

It looks like you all had a great time and I can't wait to continue reading!

I'm from Tennessee as well and we are looking into going to Alaska next August. I've been watching airfare for this August to kind of get an idea and we ended up getting Delta cards when the bonus offer was 50,000 miles to sign up. This is more than enough miles to get us to Alaska. You may want to look into it!

After looking at a couple videos of the room, I dont think there is enough room for 2 different families. If it was all one big family then I would go for it but really the second couple would be stuck on the couch in the living room. That wouldnt be cool.

 

Maybe you could get like a grad suite and an inside for the kids and still get your perks. Not sure if the cost would equal out tho

Actually, my husband and I are the other couple and we would probably end up with the master bedroom. The 2nd bedroom is the one with the pull down beds and so the other family thought that would work better for them so the 7 year old could sleep in the room with her mom and dad. The twin boys would end up on the pull out couch.....or on the floor.....or in a chair. They're 17, they aren't too picky. For us, I feel like it's not a problem at all. The other family is the one who is worried about them having to be too close to each other!! :p. I believe that we would end up with plenty of room. The suite perks are really what's grabbing me in. Otherwise, it would be a no brainer.

So excited to read more! We've never sailed with Royal Caribbean and we will be sailing with 17 year old twin boys next May! I have a feeling we're in for an interesting cruise :)

We have 7 people traveling together. 1 family of 5 and then another couple. The family of 5 includes 2 twin 17 year old boys and 1 7 year old girl. We have priced getting 3 Balcony ocean view rooms as well as getting 1 Royal Family Suite. The prices are within $1,000 for a 7 night Caribbean cruise on the Oasis of the Seas. Which would you go with, if given the option? On one had, we think we might all like to be separated out more, but on the other hand you get sky class amenities with the suite. We've never done concierge, so we're not sure what all is included with that and whether it would be worth it for us to move. Any insight or personal experiences would be appreciated!

Hey! This is my first thread on cruise critic and so feel free to direct me in the right direction if this has been discussed somewhere else. We are starting to look into going to Hawaii in May of 2017. The Pride of America seems like a good way to get around to all the Islands and get a little taste of what each of them has to offer. Even though I have read some negative reviews, I feel like we will use it more as a floating hotel and so we think we will be okay with the service.

That being said, we're trying to find the most cost effective way for us to go. There will be 7 of us traveling with only 1 being a small child. Would we all fit in the 1 Bedroom Obstructed View Family Suite? If so, how comfortable are we all going to be there? I'm having a hard time finding actual pictures anywhere of this room. If anyone has ever stayed in these suites, I would greatly appreciate any input that you have! Also, do these suites qualify for the normal suite perks? Just any information in general would be great! Thanks so much!