Alaska info desired

[GeezerCouple]

Hi Lake Wini Mom, I am heading your direction for a cruise in about 140 days.

 

Currently Alaska Airlines offers a true non stop flight between Logan and SeaTac with reasonable fares. From Seattle it is a short 4hr hop to Vancouver BC via car, bus or train. Seattle is also the jumping off point for flights to Anchorage AK. This combo of flights and land travel would work well for either a NB or SB cruise.

 

As far as the land portion of your trip - you need to ask how much time do you have. AK is huge and travel times are long plus the scenery is fantastic. All cruise ships dock in either Whittier or Seward - both are several hours away from Anchorage where the main airport is. Anchorage is also about a day's drive from Denali so plan on at least three days to see Denali NP from Anchorage. There is also a lot to see around both Seward and Whittier, you could easily spend a day or two at either place. I believe the Sun now docks in Seward, so it would be interesting to visit Whittier and take a tour of the Valdez area. Again you can easily spend three to four days here.

 

Now we have spent a week and seen only two areas of interior AK. We have not even touched Fairbanks (which is just a few hours drive above Denali).

 

Here are a couple of web sites that can help you with your trip planning both for the cruise ports and the interior.

 

http://www.cruiseportinsider.com

http://www.travelalaska.com

http://www.alaskatravel.com

 

Enjoy you planning.

 

BTW we started planning our Canada and New England cruise on our last AK cruise in 12. We booked the cruise in 14 and started excursion planning last fall. Finally have all the pieces put together :)

 

Jet Blue also flies a true non-stop between Logan and SeaTac.

Also look into their "extra legroom", at a small extra fee.

Seats are exactly the same, however.

 

Enjoy!!

[LakeWinniMom]

Last year, we did the northbound aboard the Sun, then spent 9 days riding around on our own. We aren't ones for group tours, so we opted to do our own thing, which is really easy in AK. We spent 3 nights up around Denali with 2 full days in the park, plus white water rafting. We saw tons of wildlife everywhere. We also spent time around Eagle River/Chugiak, we did a glacier cruise out of Whittier. The Native American Cultural Center is not to be missed! We also made a stop at the Iditarod HQ, which was pretty cool. Easy trip to do on your own.

 

Thanks for the great advice. I have been looking at the land & sea trips with and without the cruise line. Considering much of the food is not included and we will have 4 people sharing one hotel room, I have to think that doing the land portion on our own (not as any part of an organized tour group) would be the way to go.

[LakeWinniMom]

Making a Land Tour pre or post cruise consider taking the Alaska Railroad between

Anchorage and Fairbanks an almost full day trip 12 hours covering 350

some miles. High Bridges (Hurricane) - swift current rivers - passage at the

edge of Denali Park - perhaps the mountain will be out for your viewing -

gorgeous views of gorges - some tunnels - wild life moose bear etc.

I am out of breath.

Airline flights to and from the lower 48 - either city - at that time of the year

the night flights are in the day time (well almost - you would not want to

visit during the winter time with little or no daylight) !

 

Put this visit to Alaska on your bucket list - there is so much to see that you

will never see it all in one trip let alone two three or more - BUT DO IT !

The season is about 4 months of prime time viewing Mid May to Mid September.

 

Pre & Post cruises can be part of ship positioning involving more than Alaska

touring - Pacific coast Astoria OR San Francisco Los Angeles San Diego CA

with embarking and disembarking at Vancouver Seattle with a port call at

Victoria.

Notable port calls varies by cruise line - Ketchikan - Juneau - Sitka - Icy Strait Point -

Skagway - Whittier or Seward - GLACIERS - Glacier Bay - College -

Hubbard - Sawyer these seen from the deck of the ship others viewed by

helicopter (Mendenhall etc.) or other means !

 

Alaska the "Last Frontier" but it should not be your Last Cruise !

 

Great info, Thanks!!

[LakeWinniMom]

We did the SB cruise from Seward because we wanted to visit Denali before the cruise and relax during the cruise. Here is my review on our visit to Denali and the cruise from Seward to Vancouver.

 

It is a great cruise.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2231881

 

Thanks jmele999, I will check it out!

[bonvoyagie]

Thanks for all of the great info! You will love New England, it really is beautiful here. Will you have time in Boston before or after your cruise? PM me and I can try to steer you in the right direction for some good sight-seeing. Have a great trip!

 

we are going to have a day prior to the cruise, we have booked a tour through Grey Lines that goes out to Concord and then back to Boston.

 

We are also going to take NCL's tour around Boston ending at the airport.

 

Good luck with your AK planning - like our NE trip - you will find that you need to plan and book tours well in advance. I started with airfare ( got a great deal in Jan - it started going up in Feb and has not stopped) I then started looking at tour operators and also found that some of the most recommended ones were already booked. Now for AK there are only a few tours that you must do through the cruise line - otherwise you will find that independent operators will do better job with fewer people on the tour for the same price. They will also pick you up just outside the port areas.

[olemissreb]

While we didn't sail on NCL, we did a Southbound cruise in 2013 and did our own land cruise prior. You can check out my review here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1877023

 

A few things I learned from these boards:

 

1 - book your car rental early and use any and all points that you can if you are a member of a frequent renter club. And by all means, price out whether it's cheaper to rent at the airport or off-site. For us, we got an SUV for a week and it was about $200 cheaper renting in downtown Anchorage, using my now ex's Avis Wizard account. It wasn't a hassle to get there either - we took the Embassy Suites shuttle to downtown and then my oldest son and the now ex walked over to the rental site (couple blocks) and picked up the car. This brings me to a word of warning though - one way rentals are probably NOT the way to go. There are HUGE drop off fees and places like Seward only have a Hertz (IIRC) facility.

 

2 - use those hotel points! We stayed 2 nights at the Embassy Suites for free!

 

3 - While the drive to Denali is about 5 hours, give yourself a full day to get there. Stop along the way and take in the sights - Talkeetna was a cute little town and there are so many turnouts that you can stop and get pictures of the mountain (if it's out) and other gorgeous scenery. Take advantage! Also - go to Amazon and get a copy of the Milepost travel book (doesn't really matter what year - only thing that would change would be construction areas) and just follow along as it points out various sights along the roads you travel.

 

4 - there are 2 coupon books that could save you some big bucks TourSaver Alaska and one other that I can't remember the name of (check out the Alaska boards here on CC). Because there were 5 in our group, I ended up getting 2 books (many of the coupons are 2 for 1) and the savings more than paid for the cost of the books. You can check out the coupons that are available in the books on their websites so you can decide if one is better than the other.

 

5 - as someone else mentioned, it's a long flight from the east coast to Anchorage, so we used our FF miles and went first class the whole way there and on the way home from Seattle.

 

6 - if you decide to take the train, I recommend upgrading to Gold Class service. We had assigned seats in a dome car with dining below us and bar service at the back of the car. The scenery between Anchorage and Seward was spectacular! 3 years ago, you were able to check your bags all the way through to certain hotels in Seward so that you could take advantage of the Kenai Fjords tours, that left shortly after the trains arrival in Seward, and not have to lug your luggage around.

 

7 - my biggest timing mistake was a midnight ATV ride the night before our tour into Denali National Park. We didn't get back to our hotel until about 1am and had to shower off the DEET and by the time we all crawled into bed, it was about 2am only to get up again at 6 to drive over to the Welcome Center and catch our bus to Wonder Lake. Next time, I'll reverse those 2 days!

 

8 - take 100% DEET with you to Denali. The mosquitoes are HUGE and they swarm you. We saw people trying to use the OFF wipes or the things you hook on your belt - those didn't even faze the skeeters. Only thing that worked was 100% DEET (the ATV guys even verified it).

 

9 - biggest thing - ENJOY EVERY SECOND and take TONS of pictures!

 

One of these days, I'll get back there and see and do the things I didn't get to do the first time around - or maybe repeat some of the things we did.

Edited May 17, 2016 by olemissreb

[GORDONCHICK]

Thanks for the great advice. I have been looking at the land & sea trips with and without the cruise line. Considering much of the food is not included and we will have 4 people sharing one hotel room, I have to think that doing the land portion on our own (not as any part of an organized tour group) would be the way to go.

 

IMO, it's the best way to go with kids. We were with our then 14yo son, who eats like a horse. Check out the white water rafting up around Denali if you have time. They have dry suits and it's really fun. Other benefits of doing it on your own besides cost would include having your own vehicle to be able to go when & where you want, flexibility, and being able to leave a place if it's too crowded or possibly boring.

[LakeWinniMom]

While we didn't sail on NCL, we did a Southbound cruise in 2013 and did our own land cruise prior. You can check out my review here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1877023

 

A few things I learned from these boards:

 

1 - book your car rental early and use any and all points that you can if you are a member of a frequent renter club. And by all means, price out whether it's cheaper to rent at the airport or off-site. For us, we got an SUV for a week and it was about $200 cheaper renting in downtown Anchorage, using my now ex's Avis Wizard account. It wasn't a hassle to get there either - we took the Embassy Suites shuttle to downtown and then my oldest son and the now ex walked over to the rental site (couple blocks) and picked up the car. This brings me to a word of warning though - one way rentals are probably NOT the way to go. There are HUGE drop off fees and places like Seward only have a Hertz (IIRC) facility.

 

2 - use those hotel points! We stayed 2 nights at the Embassy Suites for free!

 

3 - While the drive to Denali is about 5 hours, give yourself a full day to get there. Stop along the way and take in the sights - Talkeetna was a cute little town and there are so many turnouts that you can stop and get pictures of the mountain (if it's out) and other gorgeous scenery. Take advantage! Also - go to Amazon and get a copy of the Milepost travel book (doesn't really matter what year - only thing that would change would be construction areas) and just follow along as it points out various sights along the roads you travel.

 

4 - there are 2 coupon books that could save you some big bucks TourSaver Alaska and one other that I can't remember the name of (check out the Alaska boards here on CC). Because there were 5 in our group, I ended up getting 2 books (many of the coupons are 2 for 1) and the savings more than paid for the cost of the books. You can check out the coupons that are available in the books on their websites so you can decide if one is better than the other.

 

5 - as someone else mentioned, it's a long flight from the east coast to Anchorage, so we used our FF miles and went first class the whole way there and on the way home from Seattle.

 

6 - if you decide to take the train, I recommend upgrading to Gold Class service. We had assigned seats in a dome car with dining below us and bar service at the back of the car. The scenery between Anchorage and Seward was spectacular! 3 years ago, you were able to check your bags all the way through to certain hotels in Seward so that you could take advantage of the Kenai Fjords tours, that left shortly after the trains arrival in Seward, and not have to lug your luggage around.

 

7 - my biggest timing mistake was a midnight ATV ride the night before our tour into Denali National Park. We didn't get back to our hotel until about 1am and had to shower off the DEET and by the time we all crawled into bed, it was about 2am only to get up again at 6 to drive over to the Welcome Center and catch our bus to Wonder Lake. Next time, I'll reverse those 2 days!

 

8 - take 100% DEET with you to Denali. The mosquitoes are HUGE and they swarm you. We saw people trying to use the OFF wipes or the things you hook on your belt - those didn't even faze the skeeters. Only thing that worked was 100% DEET (the ATV guys even verified it).

 

9 - biggest thing - ENJOY EVERY SECOND and take TONS of pictures!

 

One of these days, I'll get back there and see and do the things I didn't get to do the first time around - or maybe repeat some of the things we did.

 

Thanks so much, this is such great information! Even though I am looking at 2018, it really seems like an Alaskan vacation could definitely take that long to plan!!

[LakeWinniMom]

We did the SB cruise from Seward because we wanted to visit Denali before the cruise and relax during the cruise. Here is my review on our visit to Denali and the cruise from Seward to Vancouver.

 

It is a great cruise.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2231881

 

That was a great review! Now I need to get the hubby to sit down and read it! I may definitely take some of your travel itinerary ideas!

[LakeWinniMom]

Any idea how far in advance NCL will release the 2018 itineraries?

[olemissreb]

Thanks so much, this is such great information! Even though I am looking at 2018, it really seems like an Alaskan vacation could definitely take that long to plan!!

 

It took me 2 years to plan. Lots of things to do, places to see and just not enough time for it all! I recommend start with the cruise portion - one day at a time - and knock out those ports. Then go to your land based trip. Start with your priorities - what do you most want to see/do and build around that - again one day at a time.

 

I'm doing the same thing with our Hawaii trip - one island, one day at a time.

[olemissreb]

Any idea how far in advance NCL will release the 2018 itineraries?

 

Not sure about NCL, but Celebrity opened their in mid-March 2012 for the 2013 bookings. Maybe NCL is about the same?

[bonvoyagie]

You will probably see the 2018 itineraries around Nov or Dec of this year.

 

I seriously doubt if there will be any changes - it has been the same three ships doing the same three routes for at least the past 4-5 yrs - if not more.

 

I don't remember exactly when NCL started offering cruisetours in AK - I know that we last sailed the Pearl in 2012 and they were doing them then.

 

I found that most of the private tour companies close down over the winter and won't accept reservations for the next season until the current season is over - or until the following spring. Most have to wait until the cruise lines announce their schedules. :D

 

That said, it does not hurt to contact them early to find out their exact policy.

 

Have you decided on how much time you are going to take for your vacation?

That should be the determining factor on how much you are going to be able to see. IMO the only way I would do a one way is if I had at least a week on the interior to tour north to Denali/Fairbanks as well as south along the Kenai Peninsula before or after the cruise. If you only have one week I would do a RT out of either Seattle or Vancouver and save the interior for another trip - maybe without a cruise.

[LakeWinniMom]

You will probably see the 2018 itineraries around Nov or Dec of this year.

 

I seriously doubt if there will be any changes - it has been the same three ships doing the same three routes for at least the past 4-5 yrs - if not more.

 

I don't remember exactly when NCL started offering cruisetours in AK - I know that we last sailed the Pearl in 2012 and they were doing them then.

 

I found that most of the private tour companies close down over the winter and won't accept reservations for the next season until the current season is over - or until the following spring. Most have to wait until the cruise lines announce their schedules. :D

 

That said, it does not hurt to contact them early to find out their exact policy.

 

Have you decided on how much time you are going to take for your vacation?

That should be the determining factor on how much you are going to be able to see. IMO the only way I would do a one way is if I had at least a week on the interior to tour north to Denali/Fairbanks as well as south along the Kenai Peninsula before or after the cruise. If you only have one week I would do a RT out of either Seattle or Vancouver and save the interior for another trip - maybe without a cruise.

 

I am hoping we can do 2 full weeks for the trip. I haven't gotten too into the planning, but I do know we want to go to Denali for at least a couple of days. We are definitely going to do a 1-way cruise, but I am not sure of NB or SB. I was thinking Southbound and doing the land portion before, but the airline rates seem more contusive to the opposite. I really just need to make sure we can keep everyone motivated for the land travel after the cruise if we choose to go NB. The kids will be 10 and 15 by the time of sailing.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Unlike bonvoyagie I do a one-way even if I have only a few extra days. Of course I'd rather have at least a week, but even three days gives you time to go either to Denali for a time or spend some time south of Anchorage. It's worth it to me. I've done RT out of Seattle and it was a great cruise, but I'd rather to one-way so I can spend at least a few days pre- or post-cruise.