afn10305

We're cruising out of BA, but it wasn't exactly what I would consider reasonable since it costs about the same amount as our entire 14-day cruise in a club balcony stateroom. Totally worth the upgrade to business class though, as we'll get to spend time in the airport lounge in Miami, as well as getting meals on the flights. YOLO! 😁👍

Yup, airfare is not cheap, but because of my husband's work we can only do BIG travel every other year (odd years). What we give up in even years, we make up for when we can. 👍 Eventually when he retires, we'll be able to take advantage of better times and prices for travel. The SA itinerary just appealed to us.

@Coral Okay, thank you. This deeper explanation makes more sense to me. 👍 We actually already booked an earlier cruise for next year for the eastern coast of South America (including the Falkland Islands and passing through the Antarctic) but had no issues deciding on our itinerary, with flights and lodging booked just on our own. We had been putting off Alaska for many reasons, but it was just time to to "get on board" since many friends and family members had gone and told us it was fabulous! Now that we have booked and have direction planned (with the help from our friendly AAA agent) we are not feeling so boggled. We even got in on their recent Memorial Day travel event, so received some more OBC, and lots more goodies included. 😍 We'll still be perusing the Alaska boards to get more info, but it's nice to make this decision and move forward. I also keep hearing people say "your first cruise to Alaska won't be your last one!" 😁

@Coral Coral, I also appreciate your perspective, but having never gotten TA help before it's just a new experience. Also, I would like to confirm what you mean by "I still use a TA. She is a real TA, not an order taker." It's difficult to tell which one of us you were replying to, me (afn10305), the OP (MtnSeaGirl), or Cruisin Karen? Are you implying that AAA agents are not "real" travel agents and just order takers, or something else? I just want your honest opinion besides what you have already stated, because we are also well-traveled cruisers, and have luckily never had issues booking on our own even cruising around Europe, the Mediterranean, and the east coast of Canada. HOWEVER, Alaska just had us mind-boggled, and what the AAA agent did for me was get me to focus on what would fit our needs and wants. I can see using a TA for more in-depth planning and travel to places when not cruising, but I'm also aware that TAs get "commissions" from recommending preferred service partners, and even some do charge small fees. Again, I just would like to have you confirm the meaning behind your statement. I have no skin in the game, either way. 👍

@MtnSeaGirl Well I have to be honest. This is the very first time I gave up control to someone else. I am so used to doing my own bookings, but like you, I didn't even know where to start. Also, the HA website is not the easiest to navigate. It was SO much easier when the AAA agent pulled out his paper catalog of Alaska sailings on both Holland America and Princess. Once we figured out that we wanted to include a land tour and at the beginning, it was simpler to narrow down the itineraries. The next step was picking the dates and ship. There were some very small issues along the way, mostly on the Holland America side, but I am happy that our agent was able to get it done. We also had a Mariner # from 20 years ago, so while it didn't initially show up on my login, it is there now! 👍 I should say we will be booking our own flights and hotels, and we still haven't yet decided if we'll fly into Seattle first or Fairbanks. There's already a roll call for our cruise, so hopefully we'll be able to collab with others there. 🤞

@MtnSeaGirl et al. Thanks to some good information here and from our AAA travel agent, we Florida folk finally booked our first Alaskan cruise for next May 2025 from Holland America. We haven't worked out all the travel logistics yet, but we're doing the 10-Day Signature Denali D0L on the Nieuw Amsterdam with the 7-Day Glacier Discovery Southbound from Whittier to Vancouver. We'll be flying into Fairbanks with a land tour and two nights pre-cruise at the McKinley Chalet Resort - Denali Park Hotel. We would have loved to do more, but my hubby still works, so we're trying to squeeze in what we can, and still maybe get over to Seattle too. The harder part is going to be determining the best excursions for us, so we'll still be researching more for sure. Thank you all for the input. Thank you MtnSeaGirl for starting the thread. 👍

@Duane S. We're having similar conversations and dilemmas in choosing. We are not novices to cruising by any means, but we're also looking at next May for our first-ever Alaskan cruise. My hubby is still working so as much as we'd like to do a 14-day, we're thinking more of like 9-11 days with a couple of days land tour included. We would really like to do a northbound to southbound itinerary with a land tour first, and somehow also spending at least a day or two in Seattle since we have some cruise buddies who live there and it's another destination on our bucket list. We're hoping to book something before this weekend. I'll be reading more on this thread too, and will be interested to see what folks reply to your request.

Thank you for this insight. 👍🏻

@MtnSeaGirl it seems like we have similar cruising sensibilities. 🥰 After so many cruises to the Caribbean we're now thinking like "you've seen one island, you've seen 'em all!" I mean how many monkeys or sloths can I hold, how many times do I want to hear "lady, lady-- let me braid your hair?!" 🤣 Don't get me wrong, cruising anywhere is still our vacay of choice, but we are now on the hunt for something different. We have some Europe/Mediterranean under our cruising belts, but the bucket list seems to be growing longer. Have even been dreaming about a transpacific or Asian cruises. While my husband is still working it's a little more challenging to plan any kind of travel and he doesn't have a job that allows for "summers off". We have some cruising buddies who live in Seattle, so they have done Alaska many times and we asked their opinions too. That's our other *kink* in the thought process of WHERE to cruise FROM since we've never been to Seattle either and we could potentially meet up with our friends there first. OH, the decisions... 🤔

My hubby is usually the one that likes to write reviews. I think we need to book one first! 🤣

I don't know what to ask. My hubby is still working so it's trying to fit something into a certain time frame (for him to take PTO) to start, and then figuring out from where to cruise and whether or not to add a land tour first. I've read a lot about how much time is spent on transport for the land tours so we're already reconsidering that. Obviously there is just too much in Alaska to do just one cruise. We had been shying away from Alaska for many years because for our money and time, it's about equal going to Europe from where we live. I much prefer Europe, but my hubs wants to visit cousins in Colorado for a couple of days either going or coming, and attaching a cruise trip to that made Alaska a natural choice. I guess I would appreciate it if you could come back here after your cruise and give some thoughts and opinions about how it went. 😊

Mary Lou, I would be interested to hear more about your upcoming NCL Jewel plans for the end of April and May. We just hit Sapphire for the Latitudes program and are open to any cruise line really that fits our time frame and itinerary, but have more CruiseNext deposits available.

Ditto for us Florida folks MtnSeaGirl! We are experienced cruisers, but first time considering Alaska, so are having trouble trying to figure out what will work best for us. We're planning for summer 2025 and want to maximize our travel there.

Thank you for this info oaktreerb. We're in the talking stages of our first-ever Alaska cruise and possible land tour for summer 2025, so will be following these forums as well.

Yup. That's why we've been considering. 👍🏻