Princess Best Pre Cruise Land Tours

[cusematt4]

Hi all,

 

We are planning a first time trip to Alaska for 4 people - 2 adult kids and 2 parents.

 

We're planning to start the cruise with Princess in Alaska and end in Vancouver.  There are over 50 Princess land tours to choose from, and of those around 20 3 and 4 night Princess land tours.

 

Does anyone have any experience with Princess land tours?  We are trying to narrow down the 3 and 4 night tours to a few that would allow us to see the most.  We have no preference on rail, bus or both.  We'd like to see some highlights in the 3 or 4 days and not be on our own / have a guided tour.

 

If anyone has any experience or advise for Princess 3 or 4 night land tours they'd recommend for first timer's to Alaska, we'd appreciate it.

 

Thank you.

[cusematt4]

To followup for 3 night 4 day tours these seem to be the options.  Does anyone know what the differences are and what may be best for first timers to Alaska?

[AKStafford]

5 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

not be on our own / have a guided tour.

Are you sure? I live here in Alaska and drove tour bus for two summer for the cruise lines. Based on that, in my opinion, putting the trip together yourself, using a rental car is the better way to go.

[portiemom]

@AKStaffordis right. DIY is a superior option. I will add that I think the reason you're struggling with your cruise tour itinerary is that you haven't put in time to research the locations and what you want to see and do on the land. If you are going with the cruise tour, at least look at the excursions offered at each stop on the land tour and see what interests you. Then you can determine how long you want to be in any one place. For example, back when I was planning, I saw that Fairbanks was not a priority for me. Denali was my biggest priority. Knowing that every time you change locations on the land you will lose a big chunk of time to do anything there, you will realize that unless you have 2 nights in one location, you won't see much. And there's not much to see when you're riding the bus or train, except the Hurricane Gulch bridge, between Talkeetna and Denali, or Turnagain Arm on the way to the ship in Whittier. So when you say you want "to see the most" what do you mean? The most scenery while staring out the window of your bus, or do you want to have the experiences you will get from tours and excursions by being in one place long enough to do them? It's your trip. To help, we need you to clarify what you want.

[joydisney]

For my family, we did the Princess land tour that included starting in Fairbanks - 2 nights, then 1 night in Denali, then on to the cruise.  Once we got off ship in Vancouver, we stayed 2 nights on our on there to tour, then took Amtrak to Seattle and stayed 2 nights to tour Seattle.  We then flew home from Seattle.  I think most all of the land portions includes one train ride, then the rest are on motorcoach.  We enjoyed both the train and the motorcoach rides for comfort and viewing. I agree to look at all land portions and decide what your family would want to do.  We took the train ride excursion in Skagway, so we had three different train ride experiences.  

[AKJonesy]

Consider an RV rental for your family.  I just can't imagine having kids on a bus for that long.  Trust me, RV rental is a very popular option and your family would probably like the flexibility of stopping at places that would also interest your kids.  I'd stick to the Kenai Peninsula instead of driving up to the park which is a lot of driving to and from Anchorage since you are limiting your time to 4 days.  You can access the Kenai Peninsula quickly from Anchorage and start the adventure immediately.  IMHO.

[donaldsc]

On 7/25/2023 at 3:51 PM, joydisney said:

For my family, we did the Princess land tour that included starting in Fairbanks - 2 nights, then 1 night in Denali, then on to the cruise.  Once we got off ship in Vancouver, we stayed 2 nights on our on there to tour, then took Amtrak to Seattle and stayed 2 nights to tour Seattle.  We then flew home from Seattle.  I think most all of the land portions includes one train ride, then the rest are on motorcoach.  We enjoyed both the train and the motorcoach rides for comfort and viewing. I agree to look at all land portions and decide what your family would want to do.  We took the train ride excursion in Skagway, so we had three different train ride experiences.  

 

I can't figure why the 1 night in Denali option is any good.  This means that you get to Denali around noonish on day one, sleep there and leave around noonish on day 2.  In my book Denali derves more than a 24 hour stay even with the current road closure.  This was not a good itinerary.  Any trip that visits Denali should have 2 nights in Denali and not 1.  

 

I am sure that someone else will make more comments on this itinerary but a 3 night AK land tour with 2 nights in Fairbanks and 1 night Denali and then on to your cruise meant that you spent as much time on buses than you spent seeing things.  Using Google maps which understates travel time in AK and also ignores stops for meals, breaks, etc you spent about 9 or 10 hours of the 3 day land tour on buses.

 

I make these comments not to denigrate joydisney's cruise but to give cruisematt4 some things to think about before they make a decision about what land tour to book.  

 

DON