Alaska Cruisetour

Need help from my fellow cruise critics!

Looking for honeymoon cruise in alaska this summer and want to do the cruisetour as well. We are nature people so love hiking, seeing the scenery, etc.

We have been on Royal before and everything I have read says Radiance is a wonderful ship. Just deciding really if cruisetour is worth it and if so if Royal is the best option.

Would love feedback and any reviews as well.

Radiance is a gorgeous ship and is still one of my favorites. That being said, Alaska is all about the itinerary not the ship. None of the ships are really that much better than another one. Pick the itinerary you want first, then look at the ships.

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Interested in this too. We are planning the 3 day tour prior to 7 night southern route on Radiance in 2018.

Anxiously awaiting the release on the Alaska Summer 2018 sailings.

We did a pre cruise tour last year before our awesome southbound cruise on Radiance. The train ride was great. The tour guides and bus driver did a fabulous job. However, you are on there schedule and not your own.

If we do it again, we would rent a car and do the tour on our schedule or you can ride the train. We arrived 3 days earlier than the cruise tour started and did some things on our own. We took the train from Anchorage to Whittier and did a 26 glacier tour. That definitely was the highlight of the whole trip.

Also look into some of the Celebrity options for Alaska and cruisetour.

Can't wait till they open up the 2018 Alaska bookings :)

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IMO, no trip to Alaska is complete without a land tour accompanying your cruise. We have done both with Princess and Royal Caribbean and both were very good, but again, IMO, the RCI cruise tour outshone the one we took with Princess because the RCI tour included a tour guide and bus driver who were with us for the entire land trip, included the superior Tundra Wilderness tour in Denali as opposed to the shorter and less satisfying Natural History tour we got with Princess. To top it off, we were able to upgrade our transfer from Anchorage to Seward from a motor coach trip to the better train ride from Anchorage to the ship for a nominal ($25 pp) fee. Also preferred the seating arrangement on the RCI/Celebrity train cars to that on our Princess tour. Frankly, the absence of cruising Glacier Bay with RCI did not detract from our Alaska cruise experience as our visit to Hubbard Glacier was fabulous. We are going to Alaska this year with a group of friends, some of whom have never been to Alaska before, and can't wait to share the experience with them.:)

I'm trying to decide quickly on which land tour. I'm having trouble deciding between the 11 night wilderness and 11 night Mountain Valley. We're 49/51 so fairly active. My husband would love the opportunity to fish. Any input?

IMO, no trip to Alaska is complete without a land tour accompanying your cruise. We have done both with Princess and Royal Caribbean and both were very good, but again, IMO, the RCI cruise tour outshone the one we took with Princess because the RCI tour included a tour guide and bus driver who were with us for the entire land trip, included the superior Tundra Wilderness tour in Denali as opposed to the shorter and less satisfying Natural History tour we got with Princess. To top it off, we were able to upgrade our transfer from Anchorage to Seward from a motor coach trip to the better train ride from Anchorage to the ship for a nominal ($25 pp) fee. Also preferred the seating arrangement on the RCI/Celebrity train cars to that on our Princess tour. Frankly, the absence of cruising Glacier Bay with RCI did not detract from our Alaska cruise experience as our visit to Hubbard Glacier was fabulous. We are going to Alaska this year with a group of friends, some of whom have never been to Alaska before, and can't wait to share the experience with them.:)

When were you given the option to upgrade from motor coach to train? What type other options were you given? I have been told that there are several "options" during the cruisetour but that you don't find out about them until you get there or even the morning of. Any info, experience, or advice you can share on these "options" greatly appreciated!

We have done both a 7 night cruise only in Alaska and the 13 night cruisetour both thru RCCL. The cruisetour was awesome! You get to see and do so much more than just a regular cruise. There is a link in my signature to my blog. Just search Alaska and you can read all about it. I included train schedules & the upgrade tours offered (at the time) just to give you an idea.

Also, even though you are on the tour you can still plan and do things on your own by knowing the train schedule. Just let your tour guide know ahead of time that you will be leaving the group and will meet up with them before the bus/train/etc is to leave.

We did a class III/IV river raft ride, a Segway tour, a hike to a Glacier and the longer tour in to Denali all on our own plus we participated in all the included activities as well.

If you do the tour pack your bag for the ship separate so that it can stay on the bus and not have to be loaded and unloaded daily. Take a separate bag that will put in your hotel room at each stop before you even arrive.

The train ride is wonderful! Such beauty. The tour is narrated along the way and you can ask all the questions you want.

I did a live review here on CC also linked in my signature but it has all the comments along the way. If you would like to read a day by day for the entire trip the blog is the better choice. There are tons of pictures, menus, food prices, hotel pictures, excursion pictures, etc.

No matter what you choose, Alaska is magnificent.