Millenium or Radiance-cruise tour or on own

[wlfarm]

Planning on June and looking for advice to sail Millenium or Radiance of the Seas. Never sailed either line. Please share any high/low points you've experienced.

 

Also, thinking about cruise tour that will add Talkeetna, Denali and Anchorage. Would you recommend tour, or renting a car and doing it on our own?

 

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Lsimon]

We prefer the Millennium - better service and food.

 

We went to Alaska in 2005 and arrainged our own pre-cruise land trip before getting on a Princess ship in Whitier. The best advice is to carefully read through the comments and advice in the Alaska port of call forum. There are a lot of benefits to arrainging your own trip - you can see a lot more for not much more money, but it takes more effort to plan. We did a 5 day trip - mostly by rail and it was fantastic. I have a review of the land based portion of our trip here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=231529

 

Look into a trip that goes deep into Denali park, either on the park bus to Wonder Lake or a tour bus to Kantishna. To do this you'll need a minimum of two nights at Denali.

[jackdiamond]

We have sailed on both quite often; and,both are very nice. However, Millennium is quite superior.

[rebeccalouise]

First- Millenium is better than Radiance. The thing I really hated about Radiance is the glass on the outside decks. I felt very closed in. On Celebrity- there is just a railing on the top deck- so you look out at unobstructed views- very important in Alaska. I also felt the same claustrophobia on the rest of the ship. I just never felt like there was a great viewing spot.You feel the extra 500 passengers on Radiance and there are far more children. Millenium has sleek clean lines and lots of places to go to enjoy the scenery.Definitely book a balcony stateroom. You will be glad to wake up in the AM and be able to sit on the balcony in your robe.I did the land tour. It was fine but way to scheduled. You had to be up by 6AM and on the bus by 7AM- that sort of thing. I suspect Celebrity is the same. Rent a car and do your own thing.

[Cruising Carol]

Unless you do not want to drive in Alaska, plan your own land tour. Definitely use the Alaska port board for information. We took a land tour in 2006 with HAL. It made us do a lot of hurry up and meet the group and then wait and wait for your bus group to be called. For example, in Anchorage we skipped breakfast since we were told to meet at 7 am. Our bus was one of the last and we left for the train at 8 am. Then a wait for the train to leave at 8:30. We missed the first breakfast seating -- not agile enough to beat the crowd that rushed the stairs! So breakfast was at 10 am. For our bus trip into Denali, it was the same -- early time to meet, much later bus time. When we were waiting to go to train station to go to Fairbanks, again the crush of people waiting and waiting for buses. Alaska has so much to see that it is a poor use of time to watch people in a crowded waiting area!

[Lsimon]

Unless you do not want to drive in Alaska, plan your own land tour.

 

We didn't want to drive and still planned our own land tour. I know that when I'm driving I don't enjoy the scenery as much. We took the train to and from Denali and other places and found it was easy to arrange other transportation when needed (cans or vans) - these were provided by the places we arranged overnight accommodations in some places. For a real treat take the first class train car to/from Denali

[wlfarm]

Thank you for these great tips.

 

Anyone else?