Crowded ports-Edge in Alaska

[NMTraveller]

10 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Makes sense, not wanting the E-Class on a scenic cruise.  You’re on a river cruise I assume, how do you like them compared to ocean cruises?  We did Norway on carnival last summer but X does go to Norway.  I injected my opinion as folks may already be turned off by the Alaska congestion and looking for an alternative.  On our Alaska cruise we did love the crab boat tour, perhaps a top 3 tour of all time (I think only kids and those who live fishing would live it), but found the helicopter and dog sled tour just so-so

Ocean vs River

 

Ocean cruises have better entertainment and night life.  Better pools.

 

River cruises excel at everything else.  Better foods and better wines.  Luxury.  The wines and food are local to the countries.  They are all inclusive.  They include the excursions and wine in the price.  We have had 3 nights at the chefs table which would have cost us an additional 1500 on X.  Better and more personalized service on river cruises.

Edited May 23 by NMTraveller

[NMTraveller]

I thought that the best part of our Alaska cruise was the land tour.

[phoenix_dream]

8 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

I thought that the best part of our Alaska cruise was the land tour.

And it's even better if you book it yourself using an Alaska TA!  Years ago we saved $300pp doing our own, for a three day add on which included Denali and a stay at a Princess lodge.

[catspaw1]

We did AK on our own 30 years ago & plan to do the same next year. It's easy to do but a lot more traffic now. Be aware there are now hefty drop fees renting a car in AK so best to do a round-trip. It took us all day to transit to Seward as there is so much to see & we stopped at every lookout. Best to do this going southbound.  Seward has awesome boat tours into Kenai Fijords national park.  Denali is still one of my favorite national parks & we have been to many! We are going to CO, SD & WY on Tuesday & hitting more NP. We also just returned 2 weeks ago from another stay in great smokey natl Park. But AK was one of our favorite trips so we are returning. We are also staying at a bear/ fishing lodge in Lake clarke national park next year for several nights so look into that. The drive to Valdez is supposed to have great scenery so we are doing that next year also. Hope this helps!

[Fly and Sail]

On 5/22/2024 at 4:05 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

I just want to mention, that if someone is on the fence with an Alaskan cruise, strongly consider a Norway cruise instead.  Alaska was a one-and-done for us, perhaps when there's more to do in the ports we'll consider it again.  The Alaska Fjords were enjoyable, but the Norway Fjords were stunning in comparison plus you get 18 hours of daylight.  It was just magical to walk around the outside of the ship at 9 pm and it's still sunny out illuminating the Fjords.  In the Alaska ports, after you finish your tour there isn't a whole lot to do besides tourist shops, bars, and restaurants.  Much more to do in most Norway ports as they berth in major cities which are often several hundreds of years old.  Norway was occupied by Germany in WW2 so there's some interesting history in most ports

 

 

Agreed. I took one last year with Apex and another one three weeks ago with HAL Rotterdam. Definitely worthwhile!