Alaska Sea/Land Tours and other HAL questions

[Tom O.]

I have cruised many times, but it has been a while. I have never been on a cruise that included a land tour. I am considering a Land / Sea tour to Alaska, so we can see Denali.

I have found the HAL web site to be very difficult to use. It has been completely redesigned since the last time I looked at it.

I am trying to find out what is included in the land portion of the trip, I cannot find that anywhere on the HAL web site. Does the cruise include a bus tour to Denali, or is that an excursion that is extra? I just want to have enough time in Denali for one of those all day bus tours through the park. I assume that I would need to book at least one of their "Double Denali" cruises, is that correct? 

Also, since my last cruise on HAL I find that all of their cruises (or maybe it is just the Sea/Land Tours) have numbers that I don't understand. For example D6C, is this just an arbitrary number or does it mean something?

Also which is better, starting the cruise/tour in Denali or ending it there?

I don't have any desire to visit Fairbanks, I just want to enjoy a nice cruise and be able to see Denali. I would appreciate any suggestions.

[dfilpus]

When we booked our Alaska cruise for 2019, we worked from the Holland America physical guide "2019 Alaska & the Yukon - Land+Sea Journeys". This has been the only place we found what land tours are included in which Land/Sea tour. We booked D5C  - 11 Day Double Denali, because we wanted to do the tour into Denali. On page 34 of that guide there is a chart of Journey Features cross referenced with Journey numbers. For example, the chart for D5 shows Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali and Riverboat Discovery in Fairbanks as included. The Tundra Wilderness Tour is shown as included in D1 through D6, which are the Double and Triple Denali Tours. D7 through D9 only have one night in Denali and do not include the tour.

 

The code D5C is made up of D for Denali, 5 is the Land itinerary number and C for Cruise first (Cruise, do the land itinerary, fly home from Alaska). D5L is Land first (Fly to Alaska; do the land itinerary in reverse; cruise).

 

Of the Double and Triple Denali Journeys, all of them except one end/begin in Fairbanks. That one is D6C/L. It has a long train day from Denali to/from Seward. You fly in/out of Anchorage. We wanted to visit Kenai Fjords National Park, which is accomplished by an excursion on debarkation day in Seward and transfer to Anchorage, which works with a D5C itinerary. We didn't have any strong desire to visit Fairbanks, but the itinerary worked best for us.

 

 

[rafinmd]

I think the HAL brochure is the place to start.  It isn't out yet for 2019 but the tours do not change much from year to year.  Here's the electronic version of the 2018 brochure:

 

https://digital.cenveomobile.com/publication/?i=416691#{"issue_id":416691,"page":0}

 

There's a chart starting around page 36 or so that shows itineraries for all the tours.  Only a couple of them start in Anchorage but I wouldn't worry about that too much.  There's no passenger air service to Denali so you will need to transfer either from Fairbanks or Anchorage and it doesn't really make a lot of difference which.

 

There is an included tour that goes probably about 60 miles into Denali; the actual end of the road is probably about a hundred miles and you can buy a tour (in prime season)  that goes all the way, I think with a lunch included at one of the lodges at the end of the road.

 

I think most people prefer to do the land tour first and then have time to relax on the ship at the end.

 

Roy

[pmjnh]

Just a thought from my experience. In 2012 we did a 7 night (Princess) cruise from Vancouver to Whittier. When we disembarked we rented a car and drove 10 days to see the interior including Denali. The best tour in Denali is the bus trip to Eielson. Here is the link : https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/the-eielson-visitor-center.htm

If you have the time, this is the tour you will want if you want to go deep into Denali and really see the unbelievable scenery and wildlife. It is an 11 hour round trip and totally worth the ride. In fact, we did this 2 days in a row, it was so worth it.

The other advantage to renting a car is that you can have the freedom of doing and seeing other things. The town of Talkeetna is worth the trip and you can take flightseeing tours to the top of Mt McKinley. Spectacular . We were lucky and had a cloudless day and pure delight in a small plane that seated 9 people.

Going on the land tour will limit your options. We were with another couple on a cruise tour and they were not able to experience all that we did, although they were able to do the Denali Eielson tour because of 2 nights at Denali.

 

So just my thoughts. I'm obviously a big fan of planning my own land tour  but its not for everyone.

 

Good luck!

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by pmjnh
spelling error

[Tom O.]

I appreciate the good advice. The links to brochures are very helpful. I think I understand all this a little more. Now I am leaning to a triple Denali tour. That will give us plenty of time to do the longer bus trips. pmjnh - I often book my own excursions, but for this trip I think we will just have Holland America take care of us.

Thanks again everybody, I am a little wiser now.

 

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, Tom O. said:

I appreciate the good advice. The links to brochures are very helpful. I think I understand all this a little more. Now I am leaning to a triple Denali tour. That will give us plenty of time to do the longer bus trips. pmjnh - I often book my own excursions, but for this trip I think we will just have Holland America take care of us.

Thanks again everybody, I am a little wiser now.

 

I enjoyed the triple Denali cruise tour in 2017 and will be repeating the same next June 2, 2019, Westerdam cruise first. 

 

The lunch enroute via bus to Denali from Seward and the snack box on the Tundra Wilderness Tour is included in the fare.  All other land meals are left up to the passengers. HAL offers a land-portion meal plan for $349 that is not cost effective unless you eat the most expensive item on the menu as well as most expensive dessert.  There is a Subway across the street from the McKinley Resort as well as two restaurants on the resort property.  FWIW the food on the train is amazing but a little cramped for seating.  The hotel in Anchorage at the end of the cruise with airport transfer is included in your fare. 

 

Flying home from Anchorage gives a lot more options than flying home from Fairbanks.

 

Here is a link to my photo review of my triple Denali that includes menus from the Resort restaurants:

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/place/alaska-2/denali

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by Crew News

[oaktreerb]

5 hours ago, rafinmd said:

I think the HAL brochure is the place to start.  It isn't out yet for 2019 but the tours do not change much from year to year.  Here's the electronic version of the 2018 brochure:

 

https://digital.cenveomobile.com/publication/?i=416691#{"issue_id":416691,"page":0}

 

There's a chart starting around page 36 or so that shows itineraries for all the tours.  Only a couple of them start in Anchorage but I wouldn't worry about that too much.  There's no passenger air service to Denali so you will need to transfer either from Fairbanks or Anchorage and it doesn't really make a lot of difference which.

 

There is an included tour that goes probably about 60 miles into Denali; the actual end of the road is probably about a hundred miles and you can buy a tour (in prime season)  that goes all the way, I think with a lunch included at one of the lodges at the end of the road.

 

I think most people prefer to do the land tour first and then have time to relax on the ship at the end.

 

Roy

The 2019 Alaska and the Yukon brochure is online as is the current Cruise Atlas.  It can be found by scrolling down to the bottom of the HAL page and select e-brochures.  I picked up my brochure on the Noordam in September.  There have been some changes for Alaska but the basic itineraries remain the same for 2019.

[wyobean]

We did the 3 day cruise then the 10 day land tour. We would do the cruise last if we were to do it again. I would not get their meal plan. It is expensive and most of the people we talked to said it was way too much food. We had no problem finding good places to eat. As noted there is a Subway across from the McKinley Resort. Just be sure and allow enough time...there was always a line. We would get breakfast sandwiches and take them on our tour for the day. There was a bus tour into the park that was included, but it only went about halfway. We were really glad that we had booked the full tour the next day. We saw more wildlife and Mt. McKinley. Some people complained about having to get up too early on some of the days. We are early risers and don’t want to miss anything while on vacation so we didn’t mind it. It was an awesome trip. You will have a great time!

[rafinmd]

3 hours ago, oaktreerb said:

The 2019 Alaska and the Yukon brochure is online as is the current Cruise Atlas.  It can be found by scrolling down to the bottom of the HAL page and select e-brochures.  I picked up my brochure on the Noordam in September.  There have been some changes for Alaska but the basic itineraries remain the same for 2019.

I see it now.  I think when I wrote that I was at my fire station computer and there was a blue band covering the bottom line that just wouldn't go away.

 

Roy

[terrydtx]

15 hours ago, Crew News said:

. 

 

Flying home from Anchorage gives a lot more options than flying home from Fairbanks.

 

 

We are on the D5C cruise next July and we fly home from Fairbanks, we had no idea how challenging it is to fly to or from Fairbanks or how much more expensive. Flying from Dallas TX we fly non stop on American to Vancouver. Flying home from Fairbanks the options are few mostly late in the day 5:00-7:00 pm with over night connections to DFW or 1:00-2:00 am departures. We found one option on Alaska Airlines leaving Fairbanks at 8:00 am but we fly to Anchorage, then Seattle and then DFW arriving at 11:30pm. This flight cost about $200 more pp than flying to Vancouver and home from Anchorage on American. Next time we do Alaska we will skip Fairbanks altogether.