Alaska Cruisetour

[tinykygal]

Have completed 2 Carribean cruises because we enjoy the warmth.

Husband said "no" to Alaska until his brother mentioned it, now...

Has anyone take an Alaskan cruise and later an Alaskan Cruisetour? If so, which is the best?

Is it horribly cold and miserable in May? I can't imagine not being on the deck and using the pool!:mad:

Your comments on weather are greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[MichTraveler]

Have completed 2 Carribean cruises because we enjoy the warmth.

Husband said "no" to Alaska until his brother mentioned it, now...

Has anyone take an Alaskan cruise and later an Alaskan Cruisetour? If so, which is the best?

Is it horribly cold and miserable in May? I can't imagine not being on the deck and using the pool!:mad:

Your comments on weather are greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

My husband and I live in Michigan where it is cold, but we lived in Florida for over 10 years, so we do know what warm is. We did Alaska May/2002. We had such a wonderful time, we did it again May/2003. We did Caribbean again March/2004, but have booked Alaska again for May/2005. First, the pools are just about empty. We had 12 teens on one cruise and the group was in the pool, but not many adults. The hot tubs are used often. In May/2002 there weather was in the 70s on land, warmer than Michigan's 50s that week. Dress in layers because in can get cool, especially when viewing the glaciers -- breezy enough for gloves and a hat or scarf. As for the land tour: My husband and I did ours after the first cruise. I planned and booked it separate from the cruise. We rented a car a in Anchorage, drove to Denali and Fairbanks, and saw Moose (plural) and one bear. Mt. McKinley is fogged in often, I guess 2 out of 3 days. We saw it driving north, while at the lodge near there, and driving south again -- very fortunate. Denali park is not open early season so you can only see limited part of the park itself. Mount McKinley is awesome! I convinced my sister, a Floridian for 30 years to do the Alaska cruise instead of her usual Caribbean. She went in September/2003, which has similar weather to May. She also needed gloves and hat when in Glacier Bay, but other than that just a hooded sweatshirt. She did miss the pool though. She said she liked the land tour but could have done without the Fairbanks portion. I did the land tour the first time and loved it, but once was enough -- next time we will do Kenai penisula for something different on land. Hope you can convince the husband to try something new!

[greatam]

The cruise tours are really overpriced, IMHO. You can do a lot more on your own, save some money and not be hearded on and off busses, forced to eat in places you may not want to eat in, and hotels which may or may not be equal to what you can find on your own. My personal preference would be- do the touring first, then get on the cruise so you can relax. We always do it in that order-if things have gone badly on land or we overdid ourselves, at least we have a room we don't have to check out of every morning.

 

It will be probably be cold and rainy in May. Some of the tourist attractions and parts of Denali are not open until very late May-early June. Not a lot of swimming in the pools. High temps, even in July-August, do not encourage swimming except for the hardy. Now sitting on deck, watching the scenery and enjoying the hot tub, that's a different story. Check out the Alaska board. Lots of info there. Enjoy.