Do it yourself Alaska cruisetour

[Budget Queen]

How have I not read this thread in all of these months...we have most of our 5/2018 cruise/land tour planned:

5.14 or 15 fly into Vancouver. We have reservations both nights at Weston Bayshore (friends and fam rate because our daughter works for the co.)

5.16 25th anniversary

5.17 on board Island Princess

5.18 Sea

5.19 Icy Straight Cooking Demo and ?

5.20 Jeneau Tram up and hiking. Then out to Mendenhall and more hiking. Then whatever comes our way.

5.21 Skagway Rental Car to Emerald Lake, etc.

5.22 Glacier Bay

5.23 More glaciers

5.24 Bus to Anchorage to pick up Rental Car at airport. Off to Palmer and a night at Knik River.

5.25 Helicopter to dog sled. Night at Alpenglo Luxury Tent Camping. Probably Mantunska Glacier so I can go on it.

5.26 Mantunska Glacier Ice Climbing for the husband and another night Lux Camping.

5.27 Anchorage, not sure of what we will do this day yet, night at Marriott (daughter) unless we get to use hotel points from husband's work- too early to try and book).

5.27 o dark 30 fly home with the holiday the next day to sleep.....

 

 

You might want to rethink Juneau. The trails on Mt Roberts are not very likely to be ope and what is open will probably not be groomed with a lot of mud and snow. You are too early in the season overall. I've been up in early June and it's been still snow.

[tjcletzgo]

Katie could u please send me spreadsheet to please

 

 

Katie, could I please get your spreadsheet?

 

tjcletzgo@hotmail.com

 

Thank you!

[kpd21880]

Ok, sorry for the delay! I think I got everyone who asked - emails should be in your inboxes. If you have questions, please just email me back - I don't check CC that often now that we aren't in trip planning mode :) No cruises booked for 2018 at the moment - we have to fix that soon! LOL

[parentsof5]

You might want to rethink Juneau. The trails on Mt Roberts are not very likely to be ope and what is open will probably not be groomed with a lot of mud and snow. You are too early in the season overall. I've been up in early June and it's been still snow.

 

Good to know about Mt Roberts. We were planning go with the flow for that already, so will defiantly have back up. What did you mean by "you are too early in the season overall"?

[gbcruise]

Katie, would love your trip file. Where can I find your trip report as well? Your valuable information is much appreciated! Thank you! Briansappliance@yahoo.com

 

 

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[SnowBird Cruzer]

Ok, I'm posting my info here as attachments. They are not as expansive as Katie's spreadsheets. Those were something. And I hope you had a great trip! Thank you so much for sharing.

Do it Yourself Tour list.docx

Do it Yourself Tour info.xls

[SnowBird Cruzer]

What is the point of being a the train with scenery going by if you are napping through it?

 

DON

Well, it was kind of a joke. I'm sure I'll be too excited to sleep on any train ride.

[cinfromsyr]

Ok, sorry for the delay! I think I got everyone who asked - emails should be in your inboxes. If you have questions, please just email me back - I don't check CC that often now that we aren't in trip planning mode :) No cruises booked for 2018 at the moment - we have to fix that soon! LOL

 

Hi Katie,

I too would like to have a look at your famous spreadsheets. We are planning a trip this summer and would like to do a precruise adventure.

 

Thank you in advance,

Cindie

 

cindie@kurtzfam.com

[SnowBird Cruzer]

I thought I'd provide an update on the costs of the things I've confirmed for my Do it Yourself Alaska Cruise tour so far.

2 tickets for the "self guided" Denali tour buses, $60.00 each (looks like current price is $70 each). We booked the full distance but probably won't do it all. That is a 13 hr round trip. We can shorten it by about 2 hours, and we'll have only overpaid by $10.00pp.

 

Lodging for 3 nights at Carlo Creek Lodge. We are staying in a private cabin, with a private bath, for about $124/night. It is a 15 minute drive to Denali entrance. We booked this in October as soon as they opened and only had to pay a 15% deposit, I believe.

 

The other two days will be spent hiking on trails near the entrance to Denali (so, no $$$) and the other day we want to do a river raft trip and I haven't priced that yet.

 

We are flying in to Anchorage on Sunday and driving up to Denali on Monday. And, we'll be staying in Anchorage on Thursday night before taking the train to Seward Friday Morning.

We splurged on the two hotels a bit. The Lakeshore Anchorage is about $250 and the Clarion Suites Downtown will be about $200. (the last one has a free airport shuttle. I hope we can talk them into taking us the the train depot Friday morning)

 

Train tickets could be as low as about $100 each but we splurged (again) for the Gold star service, $200pp. We get breakfast, 2 drinks, seats in the dome car and access to an outdoor viewing platform, as well as a naturalist/tour guide to explain what we'll see on the way.

 

The Rental car (probably an SUV just because) will run us about $650 with all fees. Man, Alaska sure knows how to charge tourists through the nose. I'm sure residents don't care, but it does leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. 20% of the rental car fee will be taxes and charges.

 

So that's about $1500 so far, and the only thing left to pay for is food and whatever we do in Seward on Friday. Thinking of going to the Aquarium, but it might depend on the day. A gloomy day will be the aquarium for sure, but a nice sunny day may result in a whale watching tour or a tour to the nearby national park.

 

If I wanted to be cheap, I could knock off about $500. But I'm still well under what RCCL wants for a 5 day precruise tour. (I'm not sure they do a 5 day)

[Budget Queen]

 

naturalist/tour guide to explain what we'll see on the way.

 

A gloomy day will be the aquarium for sure, but a nice sunny day may result in a whale watching tour or a tour to the nearby national park.

)

 

 

Some clairfication- the commentary is for the entire train. The docents do a superb job. It's important, in my opinion to also perhaps, consider "migrating" earlier for superior space, if scenic highlights are a priority (of course they are with me :) ) Since when they "announce, or they appear, the limits of view are a given.

 

Overall, I would caution someone with a scenic priority to Never, make Seward decisions based on "gloomy". What you see in Seward, no way indicates anything. Can be completely different, as example in Aialk Bay. I've gone out of Seward in pouring rain and had sunshine with a spectacular Kenai Fjords boat trip. You ALWAYS have to be prepared and accepting of rough sailing. These are also not "whale watches" except in early season. (which you aren't going in since you mention Wonder Lake booking???) Whales are frequently seen but decent chances of not seeing any, and the time isn't huge for the viewing. In season boat tours, are varied wildlife tours- certainly a jackpot. :)

[lynncarol]

It was a September and pouring rain when we took a Kenai Fjords boat trip. Weather so bad we could barely see the surrounding scenery. However, we did run into a big pod of Orcas which the boat followed for 20 minutes. Totally made the whole trip.

[SnowBird Cruzer]

For those who are thinking of doing their own cruise tour, this is the itinerary that my DD and SIL we'll be doing starting next Saturday:

Fly into Fairbanks.

Sunday--Artic circle tour

Monday-- Drive to Denali, river rafting

Tuesday--Bus into Denali Park, the hop on/hop off on

Wednesday--drive to Anchorage with stops in Talkeetna and Wasilla

Thursday--more driving around Anchorage and other locations

Friday--train to Seward, and start of cruise.

 

They'll be seeing what they want on their own schedule.

 

 

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[CRZAHOLIC]

It is tasty. So is the Chili Rudy. That's chili over a reindeer sausage. Odd but tasty. :)

 

 

Where did you have this?

[masterdrago]

It's been awhile since I, or anyone, posted here. Almost time to close it and begin talking about the plans that have been made.

Come Monday, I can make my reservation at the place we will stay for three nights.

Hard to tell from a post, but I'm super excited

 

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"Super excited" almost doesn't cover it. We've been planning our cruise and pre tour since our last cruise June 3rd. Except for flights, rent car, reservations at 7 Glaciers, & a few loose ends, we are set. Joy, my wife and sidekick will be glad when I can step away from the keyboard. So far ours looks like this.....

Fly Seattle ovnt Hilton Seattle Airport

Fly Anchorage rent car, Bore tide 1:30-2:30 drv Talkeetna

2 nt Talkeetna Alaska Lodge Talkeetna Air Taxi w/glacier landing

2 nt Grand Denali Lodge maybe ATV tour

Denali Jeep Excursion

2 nt Alyeska Resort 7 Glaciers for dinner

Lazy Otter Glacier tour

drv Anchorage drop rent car Uber to museum 3pm bus to Seward Windsong

Shuttle to cruise ship these two days are a bit wasted with driving & bus ride

Cruise Hubbard Glacier onboard Radiance of the Seas

Juneau Harv & Marv's Whale Watch 10a 5 Glacier Sea Plane 3:30p

Skagway train "Best of Skagway"

Icy Strait Point Glacier Wind Charters Whale Watch

Ketchikan Island Wings Air - Misty Fjords Nat'l Mon. tour

Cruise Inside Passage

Vancouver debark bus to Seattle 1 nt Hilton Seattle Airport

Fly Seattle to home

One thing I discovered early on. The DIY turns out to be only slightly more $$$ than having the pre tour done by RCI and we have much, much more freedom to roam and discover. Another thing I did is to make a spreadsheet with the help of Joy that has a big list of alternate tours and excursions with phone numbers in case one of the planned get cancelled due to mechanical issue, weather or rough seas.

[2806]

Hi SnowBird! We are DIY-ing our 6 day pre-cruise land tour this July. I've received so much planning help both here on these boards and on TripAdvisor (a wealth of info for the Alaska interior, especially). If you send me back your email, I'd be happy to pass along our spreadsheets and research. We are sailing on Celebrity, and are saving around $2700 doing the land tour ourselves. Even more importantly to us, we are able to structure our time to our interests!

 

 

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I realize that you posted this awhile ago but I am starting to plan a DIY trip and wondered if you would be able to help me out with this if you still have your information?

[tjcletzgo]

I too would like your spreadsheet please :)

 

tjcletzgo@hotmail.com

 

Thank you!

[scrapcreator]

On 12/2/2017 at 1:44 PM, kpd21880 said:

Ok, sorry for the delay! I think I got everyone who asked - emails should be in your inboxes. If you have questions, please just email me back - I don't check CC that often now that we aren't in trip planning mode 🙂 No cruises booked for 2018 at the moment - we have to fix that soon! LOL

I know this is an older post but I’ve tried emailing and CC is saying I’m allowed to email 0 times even when I am logged in. Would you please send a copy of your spreadsheet to scrapcreator@verizon.net ?

 

Thank you!