Cruise Tour or DIY

[Doitforlove]

Hello,

 

My partner (whose name is Denali 😊) and I are planning to go on an Alaskan trip for roughly two weeks in August 2020 to celebrate his 32nd Birthday and us paying off all our debt! This might also turn into a honeymoon trip but that has not been set in stone yet 😄

 

We are generally very frugal but since this is a large celebratory trip we are not necessarily looking for the "cheaper" option. 

 

As of now our plan is to cruise NCL for one week and then add on a week exploring the interior of the state. I wanted to see if anyone had any perspective on going on a cruise tour vs planning your own itinerary. We are in our late 20s/early 30s so I'm mostly concerned that we will be the youngest people on the tour by several decades. Nothing inherently wrong with that but we aren't sure what the pace/vibe is like on an Alaskan cruise tour so was hoping to get someone's experience who has done one. When visiting Denali National Park how much quality time is actually spent there?

 

For people who have done an interior experience on their own - was it easy to plan and navigate? We are specifically interested in spending a decent amount of time hiking in Denali National Park but haven't really done any other research on other places we'd like to see. We know we want to spend at least one day doing white water rafting as well. 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Doitforlove

[mapleleaves]

Look at the attached map. 

http://www.alaska.org/assets/content/maps/Transportation_Map.pdf

 

There is only one highway heading north out of Anchorage to Denali.  Pretty hard to get lost, woudn't you say?   (The only way you can go wrong is if you turn onto the Glenn Hwy about 30 miles north of Anchorage and that hwy goes EAST )

  

If you prefer not to drive, you can take the Alaska Railroad to Denali, and/or the Park Connection Bus.

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/

https://www.alaskacoach.com/

 

I understand that cruisetours work well for some, but it's not an option for me.  I don't want to be up at 6am with my suitcase outside the door by 7am, then herded around with 50 other pax who have a different understanding of being on time.   I prefer to choose MY itinerary,  visit places I want to see, travel at my own pace.  Takes a little more research but well worth it.   My preferred way to travel in Alaska is with an RV rental.  I'm 65, solo female and have no concerns about DIY travel. 

 

There are 100+ trip reports posted at the top of the page.  There are cruises, cruisetours, and DIY land.  Read thru them to get an idea of each.   For land travel, the Alaska forum of tripadvisor is a far superior site for information.

 

If you look back several pages, you;ll find a thread called  '2019 resources for planning your visit to Alaska'.   

 

[Doitforlove]

Thanks mapleleaves! That’s very helpful!

[AKStafford]

The cruise ship is a great way to see Southeast Alaska. But for Southcentral and Interior Alaska, I think DIY with a rental is the way to do. See what you  want to see, stay where you want to stay and eat what you want to eat.

[masterdrago]

We just completed planning for our 16 day DIY + cruise vacation starting in a few weeks. In the beginning,when we booked the cruise back in June 2018, we signed up for one of the cruise line cruisetours. When we got home and started breathing, and looking at the options, we cancelled the cruisetour. We spent the remainder of the summer putting together our DIY land tour. It ended up costing several hundred more but the incredible freedom and better places to stay, along with the better excursions, made it a no brainer. We had never done anything like plan a DIY land tour, so we were a bit apprehensive in the beginning. It did not take long to get over that feeling. You can read out thoughts -

 

[mapleleaves]

With cruises AND cruisetours, pay attention to the details.  With the cruise, check the port times.  You need to be in port long enough and at the right time of day for planned activities. ie 7am - 1pm is pretty useless.

 

With cruisetours, esp the short ones, you may spend most of your day in transit, leaving little time to enjoy a destination when you arrive.  Cruisetours that only have ONE night in Denali don't provide enough time for you to get into the park to enjoy the wildlife and scenery.  They usually arrive mid day on day 1 and leave at noon on day 2.  There is almost 90 miles of park road;  plan to reach the Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66. 

 

This chart will give you a good idea of travel times between popular destinations.

http://www.alaska.org/advice/mileage-chart

[mlmalone3]

We did two cruise tours, one with RC and one with Princess, then I told my hubby that I could plan our next trip. I've planned 2 after that. Do your research, make your plan,  and go explore. It's not difficult and you are on your own time schedule. Enjoy your tirp!

[katrina915]

Cruisetours are great for people who want to leave the planning to others but planning is half the fun. Age isn't your issue on cruise tour but the level of activity and inflexibility.  Do you want to hike? Pick your own itinerary? Stop on the side of the road to see wildlife? Then DIY. If you find a cruisetour that you like, then great but there are usually a lot of compromises.  Not enough time in Denali,  going to places that dont have high interest to you, etc. An Alaska DIY is easy. Few roads and many trip reports on this forum.  Alaska is great but make sure you are seeing the Alaska that you want to see!

[SuperCrewBear]

Do it yourself!  You won't be disappointed. As said above, in a tour group you'll be moved around at hours you might not like, zoom past things you might like to stop for, etc.  But don't underestimate how long it takes to get from point A to point B in Alaska.  I allow at least twice as much time as something like Google Maps might suggest.  It's probably not going to be from getting lost (only a few main highways) but because of unexpected road construction (summer is road work time), a wreck or possibly more traffic than expected.  Most of the highways outside of the larger cities are only two lanes so a snafu can set you back. You definitely need two nights in the Denali area to see as much of the park as possible.  I would allow a full day each direction from Anchorage to Denali so that you're not rushed - there's some interesting places to stop along the way.  Good luck!  You'll have a great time on your own!

[cruiseAZ]

We decided to do our own trip via car in the end of May.  We did go through Alaska Tour and Travel to book our hotels since they had better rates than I could book online.  The have preset tours but you can work with the agents there and get your own trip.  Here is a link to their website:  https://www.alaskatravel.com/alaska-travel.html

 

Our agent Brittany was super helpful and got us the hotels and tours we wanted.

[donaldsc]

On 4/26/2019 at 5:13 PM, Doitforlove said:

Hello,

 

My partner (whose name is Denali 😊) and I are planning to go on an Alaskan trip for roughly two weeks in August 2020 to celebrate his 32nd Birthday and us paying off all our debt! This might also turn into a honeymoon trip but that has not been set in stone yet 😄

 

We are generally very frugal but since this is a large celebratory trip we are not necessarily looking for the "cheaper" option. 

 

As of now our plan is to cruise NCL for one week and then add on a week exploring the interior of the state. I wanted to see if anyone had any perspective on going on a cruise tour vs planning your own itinerary. We are in our late 20s/early 30s so I'm mostly concerned that we will be the youngest people on the tour by several decades. Nothing inherently wrong with that but we aren't sure what the pace/vibe is like on an Alaskan cruise tour so was hoping to get someone's experience who has done one. When visiting Denali National Park how much quality time is actually spent there?

 

For people who have done an interior experience on their own - was it easy to plan and navigate? We are specifically interested in spending a decent amount of time hiking in Denali National Park but haven't really done any other research on other places we'd like to see. We know we want to spend at least one day doing white water rafting as well. 

 

If hiking in Denali is important to you and if you want to have the time to really see the park, a cruise tour is definitely not for you.  You have to spend several days in Denali to get the feel of the place.  You also have to spend several days there to increase the odds of actually seeing the mountain.  On a cruise tour, you will probably have less than 1 day in Denali regardless of what lies the cruise company tells you.  When they say that you have 2 days in Denali, they really mean that you get off the train or bus about noon on day 1 and you leave about 1 PM on day 2.  That does not give you enough time to see the park and definitely not enough time to hike. 

 

If you are really lucky  and take a cruise tour that claims to give you 3 days in Denali,  this means that you get there at noon on day 1, have a full day in Denali on day 2 and leave about noon on day 2.  This means essentially day 1 and day 3 is wasted.

 

Don't be a sucker.  Figure out how much time you really need in Denali to do what you want and not what Princess thinks that you want or what Princess makes the most money from and then do a DIY.

 

DON

[lynncarol]

We are senior citizens and easily confused but found Alaska incredibly easy to DIY for a week. There aren't that many roads so not very difficult to drive to destinations. Denali NP has a shuttle bus that takes you through the park (depending on what ticket you purchased) and we saw tons of wildlife on that bus, from grizzlies to a baby wolf.

Only suggestion: Make your arrangements for everything well in advance!  We got a super rental car deal by booking early and picking it up in downtown Anchorage instead of the airport. Accommodations in popular areas  don't last...make reservations early. Get on the National Park website and purchase your tickets for Denali shuttle well in advance. We did it several years ago, and they were having a special:  3 days for the price of two. People showing up at the last minute were having difficulty getting tickets.

[vozzie]

DoitforLove...why not ?

 

We are old Aussie codgers and we are heading to Alaska for our second DIY trip...after enjoying the cruise up there.

We have found Alaska pretty easy to plan and there is a lot of information out there.

If hiking is your go...two suggestions:

1. Go out to the end of the Denali Park road and stay at one of the lodges. They conduct guided hikes or you could do your own..all in sight of Denali. Done that and enjoyed it. Stayed at Kantishna Roadhouse.

2. You could have a look at Caribou Lodge (near Talkeetna). You have to fly in and they do guided day and multi-day hikes from there...doing that this year.

 

A mixture of train and hire car is a good way to get around.