If you could only do one...?

[CaribQween]

My husband and I will be taking our first cruise to Alaska in 2012. We'll be doing a one-way and then a land portion. My biggest problem is that we want to do SO MUCH and we don't have enough time. I'm sure we'll go back to Alaska again and again so we'll just have to pick what we can do this time and then keep the rest for future cruises. So, my question now is if you could only do one boat tour to view glaciers and sealife would you do Kenai Fjords in Seward or Prince William Sound in Whittier? I would appreciate any opinions. Thanks in advance.

[bqkali]

My husband and I will be taking our first cruise to Alaska in 2012. We'll be doing a one-way and then a land portion. My biggest problem is that we want to do SO MUCH and we don't have enough time. I'm sure we'll go back to Alaska again and again so we'll just have to pick what we can do this time and then keep the rest for future cruises. So, my question now is if you could only do one boat tour to view glaciers and sealife would you do Kenai Fjords in Seward or Prince William Sound in Whittier? I would appreciate any opinions. Thanks in advance.

 

Have you chosen a cruise ship yet? With limited time, and two great options, I'd pick the one that is logistically easier. In other words, if you embark in Seward (or disembark, depending on if you're heading northbound or southbound), choose the Kenai Fjords cruise. If you embark from Whittier, choose the Prince William Sound cruise.

 

To me it seems silly to add time and expense to travel from one town to another when there will be a perfectly good option where you'll be anyway.

[CaribQween]

Have you chosen a cruise ship yet? With limited time, and two great options, I'd pick the one that is logistically easier. In other words, if you embark in Seward (or disembark, depending on if you're heading northbound or southbound), choose the Kenai Fjords cruise. If you embark from Whittier, choose the Prince William Sound cruise.

 

To me it seems silly to add time and expense to travel from one town to another when there will be a perfectly good option where you'll be anyway.

 

We'll be cruising on the Radiance of the Seas which goes to Seward. There is so much we want to do in Seward, therefore if we decided to do the Prince William Sound tour, we would do something else in Seward other than a Kenai Fjords boat tour. It doesn't seem that Whittier is too far off the main highway that goes from Seward to Anchorage. We would rent a car which we would take up to Denali so there wouldn't be a huge added expense. However, if we decide not to go to Whittier, we may just stay in Seward, getting around by taxi, take the train from Seward to Anchorage, and then rent the car to drive up to Denali. We still have a lot of time for planning. But thanks for the input.

[Yukon]

Seward is a better choice for the tour because you're going to be there anyway, and the weather in Seward is dramatically better on average than in Whittier.

[Chenega]

However, the Seward trips are much more prone to cancellation or being shortened due to ocean and weather conditions in the Gulf of Alaska.

 

In general, Kenai Fjords trips are better for spotting wildlife while the Prince William Sound trips visit more active glaciers. The waters of Prince William Sound are much more protected as well and less prone to the rolling motions you get in the open ocean areas of the Kenai Fjords excursions.

 

Both are excellent and worth your time.

[Budget Queen]

Frankly you are way ahead of yourself. There really is NO reason to be on such a fixed itinerary at this point. You apparently are undecided. No one can do it for you. Why not just step back and find out more about the areas?? A LOT can happen in a year, and there is no need at this point to worry about which is "better". Are you FINAL on your number of days and time at this point? Is your budget determined?

 

Just my opinion, as I see why too many people jump into "plans" get segmented bookings with stuff not quite going to "together". Just thinking of saving people time in the end. :)

[CaribQween]

Frankly you are way ahead of yourself. There really is NO reason to be on such a fixed itinerary at this point. You apparently are undecided. No one can do it for you. Why not just step back and find out more about the areas?? A LOT can happen in a year, and there is no need at this point to worry about which is "better". Are you FINAL on your number of days and time at this point? Is your budget determined?

 

Just my opinion, as I see why too many people jump into "plans" get segmented bookings with stuff not quite going to "together". Just thinking of saving people time in the end. :)

 

I fully understand that your intent is to help everyone have the most enjoyable Alaska trip possible and I very much appreciate that :). Our biggest constraint will be the amount of time we can spend on our land portion due to responsibilities back home. We will be cruising into Seward and therefore we might better allocate our time if we were to eliminate Whittier from our itinerary. But, since we have so much time before our trip, we can thoroughly research everything and change our plans as necessary. I just wondered if one was significantly different than the other.

[Suzanne123]

I agree with the other posters. The tours are significantly different. IMO, If you have the time, by all means, take a Prince William Sound tour out of Whittier --Been there and done it four times. Very calm water, amazingly close to numerous glaciers, and on the Esther Passage tour at least, loads of sea otters, eagles, sea birds, and seals.

The one time I tried the Kenai Fjords tour, even with Bonine the night before and morning of the tour, I was miserable. Water was so rough they turned around and refunded half our money. If seasickness is a concern, go for Whittier.

I found a Youtube video of the Esther Passage tour we took.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEq3QqvLu7s