Alaska-Land first or Cruise first?

[sijid]

I'm planning a cruisetour for 2008, and the question is: should we cruise first, then land or land first? Any ideas?

[constructiondude]

Always do the land portions of a trip first. Nothing on land will come close to the pampering you will receive on the ship and would be quite a shock to your system. Better to ruff it first knowing you will be rewarded in the end.

[Wini18]

There is also the stamina factor. We did the land portion first and met other post-cruise folks who stated that they were just very tired after the cruise to really enjoy the land trip. :confused:

[RuthC]

Land first, then cruise. The land portion of the trip is exhausting! You are up long before the dawn, and get to bed way past any decent hour. Your bags have to be ready to go and at the door before there's any chance of caffeine kicking in. :eek:

Remember, you are not "on vacation"; you are "on tour". Big difference.

After that you board your ship for relaxing and pampering. You can settle in to a comfortable deck chair and snooze in that delicious Alaska fresh air. :)

[sswitenki]

My husband and I don't agree. We flew into Anchorage and spent 10 days on our own, rented a car and traveled hard seeing as much as possible. We think if you have never seen Alaska, it is much more dramatic to go from Vancouver up to Seward cruising, each day more of a buildup to the end of the cruise - THEN get built up even more going to Denali and seeing all the specil extra sights after the cruise. Going the other way was kind of a let down. It started spectacular and although Vancouver is a beautiful city it would have been better to start in Vancouver and watch the scenery build into Alaska going home flying high. Just our opinion - just going is the big thing. :)

[Gary & Judy]

Definitly Land first. Then you can rest up on the cruise...

[Lurker1]

So now you have two different opinions, but other factors have to be looked at. We did the cruise first, but what decided it for us was how it fit into my work schedule. Another factor was we got to spend two days in Denali with our choice.

Something we didn't think about at the time, but there was only one flight out of Fairbanks that would get us back to the East Coast on the same day. there are more flights from Vancouver.

But whichever way you choose, you're going to have a great time!

[jtl513]

We chose land first because we want to get the "pre-lim" of Fairbanks out of the way first, and then have the "main events" of Denali, the fjords, the glaciers, and the Inside Passage as the finale. And then have the shortest possible flight home. :)

[wandb]

Another vote for "land first". We loved the relaxing cruise after the more strenuous land portion, also liked getting the "living out of a suitcase" portion over with before unpacking once for the whole week on the ship. Besides, as we relaxed in our deck chairs, we had a whole extra week to remember the sight of Denali from the Denali to Anchorage train. Unforgettable!!:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

And one more vote for doing the land tour first.

 

This way you can sit back and relax on the cruise after several days of getting up early, spending hours on buses and trains.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Several people have posted in the past that they were completely exhausted after doing the land tour, then flying home, and trying to go to work right away.