Alaska with the In-laws that dont fly

[Sccrkeepr]

Hi there!

 

looking for some advice, but first a little background

 

Me and my partner have decided to take both sets of parents on a cruise, to celebrate their 70th Birthdays. While me and my family have always been travelers, flying, driving, cruising, we've done it all. Meanwhile, my partner's parents are small-town midwesterners, who are afraid to fly. Their only travels are in a car from Minnesota to Iowa to visit family and they take the amtrak 3 times a year from Iowa to visit us and the grandkids in SF Bay.  My mother in law really only wants to go to places where there are people she knows, she doesnt think travel is important, but we've talked her into Alaska. We've told her seeing nature/glaciers/whales in their natural habitats are must sees in life. She's agreed. So here we are! 

 

We're looking at late July, early August and we'll have 10 people, including 3 kids under 8. I have personally been on over 50 cruises, I do like newer ships, but we really don't care, we just want to enjoy Alaska. With their aversion to flying, I see we are really limited to the 10 day out of SF on princess or the Vancouver/Seattle RT (which i'm leaning toward on celebrity eclipse, because we'd like to spend a few days in vancouver).  I really like the Celebrity Millennium's itinerary, but I don't see a way for them to get home from Seward or to get to Seward without flying. Am I missing something? Anyone have any ideas, that I am not seeing?

 

Thanks,

 

Michelle

[martincath]

... what about booking 2 one-way cruises B2B? I'm assuming that the fact they are willing to travel over this far on Amtrak means they do have time available, so assuming you can also score enough time off work you could all go Vancouver-AK and back (heck, they could sandwich a land tour of AK in there too). Even if you can't but they can, nothing to stop you all doing a one-way and some of you flying home while leaving the cruiseline to bring your in-laws back down to 'civilization' again;-)

 

But more realistically, since they're already used to regular Amtrak trains taking them up to Vancouver on the Cascades should be considered - you would have to take a regular train from SF (well, Oakland IIRC) partway as the Cascades only starts in Eugene OR, and for a Seattle cruise you could just stay on the Coast Starlight all the way, but since it sounds like they're used to Amtrakking by themselves already the obvious thing is to have them take the Empire Builder and meet you in Portland or Seattle (sounds like they live in Minnesota, but drive to Iowa where they have family and I guess leave their car there when they come across to SF on the Zephyr?) unless they are going to come stay with you for an extended time and the cruise is only a part of the whole period.

 

If they would travel to meet you, personally I'd recommend Portland for the precruise meetup and then the Cascades up to Vancouver to cruise - but I am biased toward both those cities;-) You flying and them Amtrakking to Seattle then sharing an RT cruise is probably the simplest way to get a choice of cruises other than the 10day SF one (especially if, as non-flyers, they have no passports and will resist acquiring them due to the low chance of leaving the country again in the future... although come to think of it, Minnesota issues Enhanced Driving Licenses so they could absolutely use those to get over the Canadian border by land, making a cruise from Vancouver quite possible even without passports).

[Sccrkeepr]

27 minutes ago, martincath said:

... what about booking 2 one-way cruises B2B? I'm assuming that the fact they are willing to travel over this far on Amtrak means they do have time available, so assuming you can also score enough time off work you could all go Vancouver-AK and back (heck, they could sandwich a land tour of AK in there too). Even if you can't but they can, nothing to stop you all doing a one-way and some of you flying home while leaving the cruiseline to bring your in-laws back down to 'civilization' again;-)

 

But more realistically, since they're already used to regular Amtrak trains taking them up to Vancouver on the Cascades should be considered - you would have to take a regular train from SF (well, Oakland IIRC) partway as the Cascades only starts in Eugene OR, and for a Seattle cruise you could just stay on the Coast Starlight all the way, but since it sounds like they're used to Amtrakking by themselves already the obvious thing is to have them take the Empire Builder and meet you in Portland or Seattle (sounds like they live in Minnesota, but drive to Iowa where they have family and I guess leave their car there when they come across to SF on the Zephyr?) unless they are going to come stay with you for an extended time and the cruise is only a part of the whole period.

 

If they would travel to meet you, personally I'd recommend Portland for the precruise meetup and then the Cascades up to Vancouver to cruise - but I am biased toward both those cities;-) You flying and them Amtrakking to Seattle then sharing an RT cruise is probably the simplest way to get a choice of cruises other than the 10day SF one (especially if, as non-flyers, they have no passports and will resist acquiring them due to the low chance of leaving the country again in the future... although come to think of it, Minnesota issues Enhanced Driving Licenses so they could absolutely use those to get over the Canadian border by land, making a cruise from Vancouver quite possible even without passports).

HI Martincath,

 

Thanks for responding! You have pegged them, they live in Minnesota and they drop their car in Osceola after seeing relatives and hop on the zephyr out to see us. While we do have the time to do a B2B, i had a hard enough time convincing them to be on a boat for 7 days, I don't think 14 is gonna fly, no pun intended. My FIL has a passport, as he likes to go ice fishing in canada with his friends, but they drive over several days. My MIL has a passport card, JIC she might ever want to go to canada.....

 

unfortunately or fortunately however you want to see it, vancouver to vancouver is going to have to be the journey. I was hoping others had seen a route from Seward/anchorage that could get them home by train, that I wasn't seeing. I guess it doesn't really exist.....But i do appreciate your excellent Amtrak knowledge! 

 

 

[kennicott]

It doesn't have to be a B to B on the same ship or the same line either. Do Seattle to Seward or Whittier,  then tour around a bit of South Central by renting a car or taking advantage of the many shore excursions available. That accomplishes a number of things. They can take the opportunity to visit Denali National Park in the interior. It breaks up the cruise so they won't feel so confined to a ship for so long. For instance, on the return southern voyage pick a cruise with ports and sightseeing cruising different from the ones you did north bound. Maybe even consider embarkation at Seattle and disembarkation at Vancouver or the reverse. Doing both the Canadian (east of Vancouver Island) and Alaska inside passages both north and south well also help them forget they are on the ocean.  

 

About 65% of cruisers only do the Southeast round-robins, as a result they really don't experience much of Alaska.    

[Northern Aurora]

19 minutes ago, Sccrkeepr said:

.......

 

unfortunately or fortunately however you want to see it, vancouver to vancouver is going to have to be the journey. I was hoping others had seen a route from Seward/anchorage that could get them home by train, that I wasn't seeing. I guess it doesn't really exist.....But i do appreciate your excellent Amtrak knowledge! 

 

 

 

When I read the first post my response also was to consider a B2B to get them back to Seattle or Vancouver without flying (and that B2B wouldn't even need to be on the same cruise line).  

 

There is a surprisingly common misconception that the Alaska Railroad somehow goes through Canada from somewhere in the contiguous 48 states to Alaska.  The Alaska Railroad track is only within Alaska.  The daughter of good friends worked several summers while in college for the ARR, and it was really surprising how many times they would receive e-mails and phone calls complaining about the ARR website as the person could see the in-state schedule but not the route through Canada.  Some callers were rather nasty when they were told that there is no route through Canada, while others were just surprised about their misperception.

[martincath]

20 minutes ago, Sccrkeepr said:

...While we do have the time to do a B2B, i had a hard enough time convincing them to be on a boat for 7 days, I don't think 14 is gonna fly, no pun intended. My FIL has a passport ... My MIL has a passport card...

 

unfortunately or fortunately however you want to see it, vancouver to vancouver is going to have to be the journey.

Boohoo, you just HAVE to come to Vancouver then, sniffle;-) Unless they want to drive from Seward back home (which they could - it's over 3000 miles but in a surprisingly-straight line!!!)

 

Since they're both tooled up with land-and-sea-border documentation and at least FIL has experience crossing the border, taking the train all the way here by themselves should hopefully be within their comfort zone (I know Amtrak cross-country routes tend to have major delays at times, much more so than our lovely short coastal Cascades route, but that does mean Amtrak are used to having to deal with passengers who miss connections - but I'd definitely pad their pre-cruise time by at least a full day in case they end up overnighting in a Seattle hotel as there are only 2 Cascades a day to Vancouver and less than a handful of thruway buses). The rest of you can fly up here in advance and just go meet them at Pacific Central station when they arrive so they're not wandering a foreign land by themselves!

[Sccrkeepr]

3 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

When I read the first post my response also was to consider a B2B to get them back to Seattle or Vancouver without flying (and that B2B wouldn't even need to be on the same cruise line).  

 

There is a surprisingly common misconception that the Alaska Railroad somehow goes through Canada from somewhere in the contiguous 48 states to Alaska.  The Alaska Railroad track is only within Alaska.  The daughter of good friends worked several summers while in college for the ARR, and it was really surprising how many times they would receive e-mails and phone calls complaining about the ARR website as the person could see the in-state schedule but not the route through Canada.  Some callers were rather nasty when they were told that there is no route through Canada, while others were just surprised about their misperception.

Yup, i don't doubt it. I obviously thought that there was maybe a train that went to the border and then possibly a bus transfer or something....Actually, I'm quite surprised something like that doesn't exist. I get that there are a lot of miles to be covered, but there have to be other people who don't fly or who prefer train travel. Oh well! 

[Northern Aurora]

1 minute ago, Sccrkeepr said:

Yup, i don't doubt it. I obviously thought that there was maybe a train that went to the border and then possibly a bus transfer or something....Actually, I'm quite surprised something like that doesn't exist. I get that there are a lot of miles to be covered, but there have to be other people who don't fly or who prefer train travel. Oh well! 

 

There just isn't a Greyhound bus type service, and I doubt an attempt would be economically viable.  There are escorted motor coach tours, with some actually out of the upper midwest.  But even those escorted motor coach tours generally include air travel (i.e., flying into Anchorage or Fairbanks to pick up the tour, or flying out of Anchorage or Fairbanks at the end of the tour).  As someone who lives in Alaska we fly everywhere.  There are few roads in this state, and there isn't even a highway to our state capital (you fly or go in by sea).  I am always amazed when we periodically meet non-flyers and find them rather curious oddities.

[Sccrkeepr]

5 minutes ago, martincath said:

Boohoo, you just HAVE to come to Vancouver then, sniffle;-) Unless they want to drive from Seward back home (which they could - it's over 3000 miles but in a surprisingly-straight line!!!)

 

Since they're both tooled up with land-and-sea-border documentation and at least FIL has experience crossing the border, taking the train all the way here by themselves should hopefully be within their comfort zone (I know Amtrak cross-country routes tend to have major delays at times, much more so than our lovely short coastal Cascades route, but that does mean Amtrak are used to having to deal with passengers who miss connections - but I'd definitely pad their pre-cruise time by at least a full day in case they end up overnighting in a Seattle hotel as there are only 2 Cascades a day to Vancouver and less than a handful of thruway buses). The rest of you can fly up here in advance and just go meet them at Pacific Central station when they arrive so they're not wandering a foreign land by themselves!

Ha! No offense intended. I have actually never been to Vancouver and I am VERY excited to see that amazing city, finally. I have been to tiny countries in remote parts of the world, but not to Vancouver, whistler, alaska or Hawaii.

 

With that being said, I think we are going to  do the Eclipse out of Vancouver leaving on a friday. Just in rudimentary planning stages, but i think we'll all arrive in seattle on sunday and spend the day there, since they have never been. Then all take the Cascades to Vancouver either late monday evening or the early tuesday morning. Spend late tues - through friday exploring Vancouver. Possibility of staying one or two more days in Vancouver after the cruise too. 

 

I see you might also live in PDX, that is quite possibly one of my favorite cities in this country. I have nearly moved there 3 separate times, but the jobs fell through.....so bay area, i stay! 

[Sccrkeepr]

3 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

There just isn't a Greyhound bus type service, and I doubt an attempt would be economically viable.  There are escorted motor coach tours, with some actually out of the upper midwest.  But even those escorted motor coach tours generally include air travel (i.e., flying into Anchorage or Fairbanks to pick up the tour, or flying out of Anchorage or Fairbanks at the end of the tour).  As someone who lives in Alaska we fly everywhere.  There are few roads in this state, and there isn't even a highway to our state capital (you fly or go in by sea).  I am always amazed when we periodically meet non-flyers and find them rather curious oddities.

I find my in-laws to be quite odd and not just because of the non-flying...LOL. I seriously google mapped a route and it basically told me to take a cruise or swim......

 

Thanks for your help, everyone!

[kennicott]

For many years, HAL booked cruise guests to Skagway, then by coach and train up through the Yukon, Dawson City, Klondike, Whitehorse, etc and then over to Fairbanks. From Fairbanks they could travel south by train or coach through Denali to Anchorage or Seward or Whittier then catch another vessel south. But I believe due to negative reviews concerning so much coach travel and the Whitepass Yukon Railroad only goes half way to Whitehorse now, meaning more coach travel, they now fly them with a chartered Yukon Territory based aircraft over to Fairbanks.    

Edited January 16, 2019 by kennicott

[Sccrkeepr]

1 minute ago, kennicott said:

For many years, HAL booked cruise guests to Skagway, then by coach and train up through the Yukon, Dawson City, Klondike, Whitehorse, etc and then over to Fairbanks. From Fairbanks they could travel south by train or coach through Denali to Anchorage or Seward or Whittier then catch another vessel south. But I believe due to negative reviews concerning so much coach travel they now fly them with a chartered Yukon aircraft over to Fairbanks.    

Hmm, that is interesting. I bet the ride was beautiful, though. We live in an "on demand" society, they need to get somewhere or see something right away is apparently the norm. No one wants to stop, relax and smell the so-called roses, these days.

[martincath]

20 minutes ago, Sccrkeepr said:

Ha! No offense intended. I have actually never been to Vancouver and I am VERY excited to see that amazing city, finally. I have been to tiny countries in remote parts of the world, but not to Vancouver, whistler, alaska or Hawaii.

 

With that being said, I think we are going to  do the Eclipse out of Vancouver leaving on a friday. Just in rudimentary planning stages, but i think we'll all arrive in seattle on sunday and spend the day there, since they have never been. Then all take the Cascades to Vancouver either late monday evening or the early tuesday morning. Spend late tues - through friday exploring Vancouver. Possibility of staying one or two more days in Vancouver after the cruise too. 

 

I see you might also live in PDX, that is quite possibly one of my favorite cities in this country. I have nearly moved there 3 separate times, but the jobs fell through.....so bay area, i stay! 

It's hard not to love Vancouver - really, the outrageous cost of living here is the only downside (but I'm sure as a Bay Area person you're used to real estate being a smidgen on the pricey side). With what sounds like almost a full fortnight available you can certainly do justice to the highlights of Seattle before coming up here - and perhaps if the in-laws could be sent off back home after the cruise then the rest of you head up to Whistler (there are very few attractions up there that don't involve being high up in the air, dangling off mountain sides on various ziplines and gondolas and vias ferrata, so folks who don't fly might find it a REALLY poor spot to spend a couple of days if there's any element of fear of heights involved!!!)

 

One last bit of Amtrak advice - the morning train SEA to VAC is much more reliably on-time than the evening train. The former sits in Seattle overnight, so as long as the staff show up it almost always leaves on time. The evening train is the only one that goes the whole length of the line, from Eugene to Vancouver, and it's often already late by the time it hits Portland let alone Seattle. Too much freight being prioritized, and with a busy freight route once you slip out of the pocket between freight trains there tends to be a cascading series of delays as more and more freight trains catch up while the Amtrak is in each station - coming back from PDX we've generally found it relatively on-time 2 out of 3, but the 3rd time goes 2 or 3 hours late which really sucks for a service scheduled to arrive at ~11pm!!! We live within 5 mins walk from both stations (our 'cottage' is a condo in Portland) so at least for us a 2am arrival means bed by 2:30am even after customs/immigration, but folks expecting to take SkyTrain somewhere are hooped because it stops running well before that.

 

Hotel rates are pricey in both cities so which one you stay in on the Monday night is going to be about a wash - but if you do stay in Seattle then take the morning train, even if it is a bit late you just arrive closer to typical hotel check-in time of 2-4pm whereas the evening train would see you checked out of your hotel and stuck hanging around the station waiting.

 

Actually, speaking of hotels, now that we have legal AirBnBs in Vancouver a whole-home rental could be a huge bargain for a party of 10! Downside is that these are all going to be outside the downtown core - but Kitsilano or Commercial Drive could both be excellent 'hoods for a family with kids and fogeys and everything in-between, very walkable and safe with enough local shops & restos you wouldn't need a car to get to supermarkets etc. Other than that we have a couple of downtown suite hotels that offer at least 2-bedroom units (Rosedale on Robson and Times Square Suites) or the YWCA Hotel has family rooms with 5 beds as well as regular doubles/twins, including some with 'Jack & Jill' shared bathroom setups that could work well. Huge shared kitchens and laundry rooms in the Y too which makes for big savings on brekky and picnic-making, and of course the kiddos can eat their favourite cereal just like at home if they're picky.

 

You didn't actually say if it was this year, next or even further in the future you were planning unless I missed it somewhere above - if it is this year you definitely want to get a jump on booking ASAP, as popular excursions in ports sell out often. If all 10 of you want to do something at the same time you may already be too late for some stuff!!!

[nicoleinwi]

We live in WI and are taking Amtrak out to Glacier National Park this summer. Our train goes through Minneapolis and ends in Seattle so a nice, but long, train ride for them.  It’s comparable cost wise for our sleeper car for 2 vs airfare for 2.  

 

You coukd do do a round trip out of Seattle then and put them back on the train home. 

 

As as for ships, I like newer ships with the fun activities.  We’re looking at Norwegian Bliss rt Seattle in summer 2020.  That ship was launched in 2018.