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Land-Cruise tours


wmjivey
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I totally agree with AKStafford. Rent a car and go DIY. A car gives you the ability to stop at other points of interest and for wildlife sightings along the way. And you'll have access to other lodging options besides the large cruisetour hotels, like cabins, inns, lodges. And you can travel on your own schedule instead of 'luggage in the hallway by 6am'. The hwys are 2 lanes once you get out of Anchorage so it's very straight-forward and easy to get around.

 

But if you insist on a cruisetour, be very mindful of the details, especially with the short ones of 3 or 4 days. The short tours try to cover too much territory so in the end you spend most of your day travelling, with little time to enjoy your destination. ie Denali is 240 miles north of Anchorage and it takes 8 hrs to get there by train or 5 by car/bus. Cruises don't end in Anchorage, they end in Seward which is 3 hrs south, or Whittier about 1 1/2 hrs away.

 

Look thru past trip reports posted in the STICKYS near the top of the page. The first line usually indicates the ship, itinerary and date. There are a number of cruisetour there, some good ones. DIY tours as well. Many of the reports are detailed photo journals with lots of helpful details.

 

As for your cruiseline, most people will tell you to choose based on the itinerary. Make sure your ship is in port long enough and at the right time of day for planned activities. Lots of whining on this board about 7am - 1pm in Ketchikan or 2pm - 10pm in Juneau, or 7pm -midnight in Victoria. Consider what other things are important to yout ..... covered pool, naturalist, more glacier viewing opportunities.

Again, look at the trip reports. There's one currently in the works by jelund about Ruby Princess and if you look down the page you'll find 2 more.

 

Whether you go DIY or cruisetour, you need to do your research to determine the best cruiseline for YOU. Have fun with your research and planning !

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I suggest you back up even further. :) Find out about Alaska.

Looking over a guide book and a map are comprehensive. There are only 6 Alaska inside passage ports. I suggest you look at each one of these= especially the activities offered and determine what would be your interests and choice. Rank these, then at least when looking at itineraries- you at least have an idea of a better one for you. Details- very important that a lot of people simply miss. Ask yourself, how often you are going to get to Alaska, how long did it take you to get here this time? Take advantage. :) I find the "oh well, gives me a reason to come back" excuses sometimes pitiful.

 

With mainland= go for as long as you can afford. Time is essential. Don't underestimate distances and IF going with a tour, be certain you are going to places YOU want to go to and see. Don't just accept places you're going to be eating up time at. Especially bad when at the expense of other areas. McKinley Princess can fit this claim sometimes. as example.

 

Take you time, don't jump into bookings, that aren't fully refundable. The more you read the more you will find out and improve upon your planning. It's not uncommon to change plans multiple times. Don't get caught up in following the "must" claims. In some cases that isn't the right choice for you, and with that thinking, you are potentially eliminating the perfect trip for you because you'd enjoy something else? Keep an open mind initially.

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We had a wonderful cruise tour with Holland America. It was the Denali/Yukon trip. We flew to Anchorage to start, took train to Denali and motorcoach to Fairbanks. From there we flew to Dawson City which we loved!

Next, it's following the Yukon River to Whitehorse where you spend the night before boarding the Whitpass RR into Skagway the next day. It's a trip walking around Skagway in the evening after the cruise ships leave. Like a ghost town. From Skagway, we boarded the New Amsterdam ( a beautiful ship) and sailed to Glacier Bay, Ketchikan and the inside passage to Vancouver.

It was like 9 days land and 4 days cruise.

 

For us, it was a trip of a lifetime.:)

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  • 2 weeks later...
...There are only 6 Alaska inside passage ports.

 

What are the 6? Is it:

Ketchican

Juneau

Skagway

Sitka

Icy Straight

Haines

 

or since Haines and Skagway are kind of a pair (45-minute ferry ride between them), is there another that you consider the 6th?

 

To the OP, the 7 or 8-day cruises usually have at least one "glacier day" with scenic cruising to observe tidewater glaciers. Some visit two of the glaciers. Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier and Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm. The last one sometimes is combined with a half day in Juneau and the option to transfer from the ship to a boat excursion that gets closer to the glaciers and returns you to Juneau to rejoin the ship.

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What are the 6? Is it:

Ketchican

Juneau

Skagway

Sitka

Icy Straight

Haines

 

or since Haines and Skagway are kind of a pair (45-minute ferry ride between them), is there another that you consider the 6th?

 

To the OP, the 7 or 8-day cruises usually have at least one "glacier day" with scenic cruising to observe tidewater glaciers. Some visit two of the glaciers. Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier and Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm. The last one sometimes is combined with a half day in Juneau and the option to transfer from the ship to a boat excursion that gets closer to the glaciers and returns you to Juneau to rejoin the ship.

 

There is no "Icy Straight (Striat)" Icy Striat is the waterway, the community is Hoonah. Not sure why the "pair" comment? They are 2 VERY different ports, with proximity to each other meaning nothing.

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There is no "Icy Straight (Striat)" Icy Striat is the waterway, the community is Hoonah. Not sure why the "pair" comment? They are 2 VERY different ports, with proximity to each other meaning nothing.

 

I realize that Hoonah is the community, but itineraries list it as Icy Strait Point (without any elaboration - I've seen that on HAL) or Icy Strait Point (Hoonah). Cruise Critic's Cruise Finder Popular Ports list has Icy Strait but not Hoonah. So I used the designation that the cruise lines often do. Unfortunately, my finger processing brought up the wrong spelling for Strait - even now thinking about it I had to backspace once to spell it right because once my fingers have typed S t r a i, they want to roll on with g h t instead of just t. :).

 

The proximity thing is that if there is an activity you really want to do at Haines or Skagway, you can do it from either port if able to put in an hour and a half of extra port time and $70. I wasn't sure because there is also Wrangell. It is on a number of the luxury line trips - perhaps it doesn't work for the larger ships.

 

Almost all (possibly all) mainstream cruise line Alaska cruise visit Juneau and Ketchican, the only thing that differs is whether you get a pretty full day or a half day in each one.

 

Almost all visit one of Skagway (most common), Haines or Sitka

 

So the variations are usually, which of those 3 do you want to visit, which glacier scenic cruising, port times and do you get Icy Strait (Hoonah) added in.

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