Alaska cruising and land tour

[lindiloo65]

My sister and myself who are in our 70's and have mobility problems plus my sister is one oxygen 24/7 are thinking about taking a cruise/land tour to Alaska. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Looking for a cruise and than a train ride if available. Thanks for your help.

[1025cruise]

You might want to contact a travel agent who specializes in these packages. 

[SiliconCruiser]

On 3/11/2019 at 8:35 AM, lindiloo65 said:

My sister and myself who are in our 70's and have mobility problems plus my sister is one oxygen 24/7 are thinking about taking a cruise/land tour to Alaska. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Looking for a cruise and than a train ride if available. Thanks for your help.

 

The cruise lines that cover Alaska, mostly Carnival brands like Holland America, Princess, and Carnival are U.S. based businesses that must offer accessibility in compliance with ADA.  And they often own the lodgings in Alaskan land/cruise tours, and like any public lodging in the United States, they too must offer accessibility in compliance with ADA.  Train transportation must also be ADA compliant (after all, Alaska is part of the United States 😉.)

 

The one caveat would be the excursion operators at the Alaskan ports.  Many do not offer accessible vehicles and are not required to.  You'll want to check before you book any of them.  Same with the excursions offered by the cruise line (since many are through the same operators.)  If the excursion is accessible, it will usually be noted in their literature.

Edited March 15, 2019 by SiliconCruiser

[onelegcraig]

We have done Holland America Alaska twice with a wheelchair, first time cruise only - round trip Vancouver, second time land/sea (Triple Denali).  They were very accommodating to our needs.  The McKinley Explorer train had a lift to get to the dome car, all our hotel rooms were handicapped accessible (as we advised them of our needs in advance).  Our travel agent advised us to do the land portion first and cruise second, which was good advice.  The land portion is tiring (or we made it that way by trying to do and see everything 🙂. ) Then the cruise portion was a chance to relax.  With advance planning we were able to find tour operators that were able to work with our limitations.  My advice is to stay in Denali for as long as you can, it is beautiful.  We stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort, and did a few excursions from there.  Our luggage was picked up and transferred for us to/from each hotel, which was a big help, and then magically appeared in our ship stateroom.

[onelegcraig]

Couple pics of the train, and our first glimpse of Denali from the train.  We later got to see it up-close-and-personal from a small plane.