NCL vs Princess Alaska Cruise Tour

[onisteyez]

Looking at doing an Alaska cruise tour with either Princess or NCL next august/September. We've sailed Alaska with Princess a few years back which was beautiful but we want to do the tour as well. Looking for advice from anyone who has done the cruise tour part with either cruise line - what you liked, what you didn't, etc. I know Princess has their own wilderness lodges, so what hotels does NCL use during the land tour? Also, is food included during the land tour? For some reason, I remember seeing that food was not included in the land tour with Princess. Is this true? Is it the same with NCL?

 

Thanks for your help :-)

[AKStafford]

Does it have to be a cruisetour through the cruiseline? Would you be open to renting a car and doing your own trip? That way you can choose where you want to stay, where you want to eat and what you want to do. There's nothing the cruiseline offers that can't be booked independently.

 

Travel in Alaska is pretty straight forward and you can get a lot of help from experienced travelers here on the Cruise Critic forums or the TripAdvisor forums for Alaska.

[Budget Queen]

You may want to shift the priority to itinerary? Far more important than the "hotels" is you being in a place that is of interest to you. Each line is different, Time in transit is significant , be certain you KNOW what this involves. As example, NCL has tours that have Denali /Seward in a single day- do you really want to be 10 hours on a bus??? Princess has "Direct to Denali", you are 10 hours on a train. Many wrongly assume that they have time at destinations for activities, definitely not on these days. Do you also want to miss Whittier or Seward? I suggest you take a look at each of these areas and make sure you don't want to take advantage of being there.

 

Tour descriptions are vague and it's common for very inaccurate assumption to be made. Avoid with your planning. No meals are not included with Cruise tour, unless specifically mentioned. Budget 50% more that you would at home.

 

Lastly- Denali is you major attraction on a cruise tour. KNOW what you are booking. :)

[jwatford]

I am currently on a NCL Cruisetour (14-day Southbound). I am doing a live review. You can view it here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2657989

 

I am on our last day of the land portion. Now that I have experienced it, I would definitely do the land portion on my own. When we decided to do this, we thought it would be nice to not have to deal with the details of doing it ourselves. We were totally wrong. When doing the Cruisetour, you are at the mercy of the Cruisetour operated. For us, we spent most of the time on a bus that is not very comfortable. We would see either bear or moose on the side of the road and we were unable to pull over to get a better look since we were in a bus. Also, we had times were we spent time doing things we really did not have interest in because the cruise director wanted to show us the airports with the float planes. Personally, I did the Cruisetour so I could see more of the Wildlife. In the end I could have just did it myself and saved money, see more wildlife, and stayed in better hotels.

 

I urge you to really think about doing this yourself!!!

 

 

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[AKStafford]

We would see either bear or moose on the side of the road and we were unable to pull over to get a better look since we were in a bus.

I drove tour bus for Holland America for two years here in Alaska. We were very limited by our safety department on where we could stop. I would have passengers get mad that I wouldn't pull off the on the limited shoulder so they could get off to get a picture, but I just couldn't do it.

It is based on my experience over those two summers that personally recommend people rent a car and do the trip themselves.

 

jwatford: now that you gotten a taste of Alaska, come on back and do your next trip DIY!

[InternetAgeTraveler]

We did our first land tour on our own this year following sailing on NCL Jewel and found it to our liking. As others noted, when we saw something we wanted to see, we had no issues turning around. There were 4 of us to divide the cost and it came out a LOT less and we did what we wanted to do. We chose B&B over hotel. You can read it about starting on page 2 of our review in my signature.d

[Budget Queen]

I am currently on a NCL Cruisetour (14-day Southbound). I am doing a live review. You can view it here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2657989

 

I am on our last day of the land portion. Now that I have experienced it, I would definitely do the land portion on my own. When we decided to do this, we thought it would be nice to not have to deal with the details of doing it ourselves. We were totally wrong. When doing the Cruisetour, you are at the mercy of the Cruisetour operated. For us, we spent most of the time on a bus that is not very comfortable. We would see either bear or moose on the side of the road and we were unable to pull over to get a better look since we were in a bus. Also, we had times were we spent time doing things we really did not have interest in because the cruise director wanted to show us the airports with the float planes. Personally, I did the Cruisetour so I could see more of the Wildlife. In the end I could have just did it myself and saved money, see more wildlife, and stayed in better hotels.

 

I urge you to really think about doing this yourself!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

This is a warning that is frequently made by many experienced Alaska posters. I'm sorry, it was your choice to make a tour plan. I know, that sometimes- it's looked at , like "we" have some hidden agenda against crusietours, BUT, it's truly motivated by conveying the wonderful experiences and advantages we have had, independently. We've seen, countless- tour buses and know exactly what they are missing. It's an option on a message board to encourage superior opportunities. That's it.

 

I'm thinking you also may have missed one of the top wildlife tours- Kenai Fjords which most cruise tours do not include. Hands down- Denali and Kenai Fjords are top choices for wildlife.

[onisteyez]

Thank you so much for the information, folks. Once we really dived into itineraries and googling how far it is between destinations (the cruisetour sites conveniently leave out the duration of the bus rides and rail time) we decided to book the cruise (princess was about $1000 cheaper - very unusual so we jumped on it) and we are going to spend an extra 2 or 3 days in anchorage on our own. What we save on skipping the "planned" land portion through the cruise line we are going to use to do an awesome plane excursion and hopefully some guided hiking in the area. We may not make it into the heart of Denali but we are going to get to do what we want!

[AKStafford]

we are going to spend an extra 2 or 3 days in anchorage on our own. What we save on skipping the "planned" land portion through the cruise line we are going to use to do an awesome plane excursion and hopefully some guided hiking in the area. We may not make it into the heart of Denali but we are going to get to do what we want!

The more time you can add after your cruise the better. If you can do at least 5 days, you can get into Denali National Park. But regardless, don't spend 2 -3 days in Anchorage... Anchorage works as an overnight stop or departure point, but it's just a jumping off point for the rest of Alaska.

When you know how much time you do have, swing back by here or the TripAdvisor forum for Alaska and you'll get a lot of great help to put together an unforgettable trip.