Alaskan Cruise vs. Cruisetour

[Tiffany]

We are going to do an Alaskan Cruise and land vacation for my husband's 50th the end of May into June of 2011 and I have done a bunch of research and now I am torned between doing a full Cruisetour through Princess Cruises or do a cruise of the Inside Passage out of Seattle R/T on NCL and then fly up to Anchorage and do Denali and Whitter on our own.

Has anyone cruised Alaska or better yet actually done a curisetour? All types of feedback wanted/needed.

 

[bumbershoot]

What if you did two backtoback cruises? And toured in between? The one-week inside passage cruise is so so so great...but it's so short, too.

On the other hand, you'd be seeing the same ports both ways (doing the r/t you stop at some on the way up and others on the way back). Then again, on the way down if you didn't want to stop somewhere, you could just stay onboard and have an empty ship (we did that on the Ketchikan day, we jsut did NOT like that place and were done wandering inside an hour, sorry Ketchikan people!).

We had heavily considered doing one cruise up and one cruise back, but felt stupid for doing it...of course later on I realized that plenty of people do that sort of thing.


Anyway, you could take a week up, roam around for a week, take a week back...could be a lovely time!

 

[binny]

Its going to depend on how active you want to be. I spent 2 years working on the cruise tours in Alaska for Holland America and am now a TA. The biggest complaint we hear about cruisetours is that you spend a LOT of time sitting on the bus. Its a big area, if youre going on land, especially by bus, its going to take some time to get to your destination.

Cruisetours are wonderful and have their good points, you can see a lot more if youre not driving yourself. OTOH you cant pull over and linger if there is something else you want to look at.


SO it depends on what type of traveller you are really.

 

[Wishing on a star]

A R/T out of Seattle will most likely miss some of the best ocean destinations/glaciers etc...
The one-way itineraries will be able to cover the more northern destinations and sites.

Plus, one would probably have to pay me to take NCL.
Their Alaskan cruise gets horrid reviews.
I also know some folks, personally, who did this... they didn't like the NCL cruise either.
In fact, we could have chosen to join this group, but I didn't even consider it after research and reviews of the NCL ship.

I personally would do Princess. (or RCCL Radiance might be another good option)
I would make sure to pick an itinerary that hits the best destinations (Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier, Tracey Arm or College Fjord, etc....)

Then, I would do the land portion on our own.

Can you tell I have done a little research into an Alaskan Cruise myself????
I would love to be able to cruise Alaska, but it is just not financially feasible right how... The additional airfare is a real kicker!

Happy Planning!!!

 

[MM27]

I've done two Alaska cruises. The first was cruise only from Vancouver. I loved it so much that a couple of years later I booked a cruisetour through Royal Caribbean. My suggestion is, do the cruise part last. I'm glad I did.

We flew into Fairbanks and did some things in that area first. Yes there is a lot of area to cover between places, but they are some of the most beautiful views you will ever see. We did a combo of motorcoach and train on the land portion. We visited Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Girdwood (Alyeska) and finally arrived at Seward for the cruise portion.

There were a lot of activities on the land portion. Some were with the whole group, but others were booked (and paid for) on your own. We went white water rafting in Denali, did a rafting trip in Talkeetna, and did a guided hike in Girdwood.

 

[crjack]

We just returned a few weeks ago from an Alaskan Cruise. We did r/t out of Seattle on the NCL Pearl. I have to disagree with a pp about NCL's itinerary because only a few ships get to go into Glacier Bay and the Pearl is one of them.

I would recommend checking out www.cruisecritic.com. It is the DIS of cruises and you will get a lot of good info there.

We had a fantastic time on our cruise and although I would have loved to have spent time in Anchorage and Denali a r/t cruise was enough for a first trip. We also enjoyed spending time in Seattle.

Glacier Bay was definitely the highlight of our itinerary. Many of the ships will stop in the same ports such as Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.

My bil recently did the Princess line and a cruise tour. They wished they had done the land portion first and although they loved their cruise they weren't thrilled with the tour portion....ok but not outstanding.

Best of luck. We hope to go back to Alaska in the future.

 

[Tiffany]

What if you did two backtoback cruises? And toured in between? The one-week inside passage cruise is so so so great...but it's so short, too.

On the other hand, you'd be seeing the same ports both ways (doing the r/t you stop at some on the way up and others on the way back). Then again, on the way down if you didn't want to stop somewhere, you could just stay onboard and have an empty ship (we did that on the Ketchikan day, we jsut did NOT like that place and were done wandering inside an hour, sorry Ketchikan people!).

We had heavily considered doing one cruise up and one cruise back, but felt stupid for doing it...of course later on I realized that plenty of people do that sort of thing.


Anyway, you could take a week up, roam around for a week, take a week back...could be a lovely time!

If we had three weeks I would consider doing that but the most time my hubby can take off in a row is two weeks.

 

[Tiffany]

Its going to depend on how active you want to be. I spent 2 years working on the cruise tours in Alaska for Holland America and am now a TA. The biggest complaint we hear about cruisetours is that you spend a LOT of time sitting on the bus. Its a big area, if youre going on land, especially by bus, its going to take some time to get to your destination.

Cruisetours are wonderful and have their good points, you can see a lot more if youre not driving yourself. OTOH you cant pull over and linger if there is something else you want to look at.


SO it depends on what type of traveller you are really.

Thanks. The land part would be by rail mostly and some by motorcoach but if we did the land part on our own we would also use rail or motorcoach for us it would not be a factor.

 

[Tiffany]

A R/T out of Seattle will most likely miss some of the best ocean destinations/glaciers etc...
The one-way itineraries will be able to cover the more northern destinations and sites.

Plus, one would probably have to pay me to take NCL.
Their Alaskan cruise gets horrid reviews.
I also know some folks, personally, who did this... they didn't like the NCL cruise either.
In fact, we could have chosen to join this group, but I didn't even consider it after research and reviews of the NCL ship.

I personally would do Princess. (or RCCL Radiance might be another good option)
I would make sure to pick an itinerary that hits the best destinations (Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier, Tracey Arm or College Fjord, etc....)

Then, I would do the land portion on our own.

Can you tell I have done a little research into an Alaskan Cruise myself????
I would love to be able to cruise Alaska, but it is just not financially feasible right how... The additional airfare is a real kicker!

Happy Planning!!!

Thanks for the feedback on NCL most of the sites I have been on have been positive about NCL so it is good to hear another side. The more I am leaning to a Princess cruise tour going from Vancouver to Whitter and then over to Denali by rail for two nights then over to Mt. Mickinly for a night before heading to Anchorage by rail to wrap up the trip.

Flights are going to be interesting but owe well.

 

[Tiffany]

I've done two Alaska cruises. The first was cruise only from Vancouver. I loved it so much that a couple of years later I booked a cruisetour through Royal Caribbean. My suggestion is, do the cruise part last. I'm glad I did.

We flew into Fairbanks and did some things in that area first. Yes there is a lot of area to cover between places, but they are some of the most beautiful views you will ever see. We did a combo of motorcoach and train on the land portion. We visited Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Girdwood (Alyeska) and finally arrived at Seward for the cruise portion.

There were a lot of activities on the land portion. Some were with the whole group, but others were booked (and paid for) on your own. We went white water rafting in Denali, did a rafting trip in Talkeetna, and did a guided hike in Girdwood.

Sounds like you had a great time. Did you use RoyalCaribbean for both trips? I have not looked into their offerings yet.

 

[binny]

Well is thats the case then I would go with the Princess package, fly into Fairbanks, South Denali, and cruise southbound.


I rarely reccommend cruising North if youre doing any tours. You want that Southbound time to relax.


I wouldnt do NCL to Alaska. IMHO the best cruises to Alaska are Holland America, Princess and RCCL. Of course which one will depend on the client but those are the best Alaska cruise providers as far as Im concerned. NCL has a great niche market but I think they are best suited to the Caribbean.


Of course YMMV LOL

 

[sparkyboy]

DH and I along with 3 other couples did Holland America several years ago--land and cruise. We flew into Fairbanks and spend week doing the land exploration and then picked up the cruise ship at Seward which then put us back into Vancouver. Felt like we had the best of both worlds as we were able to see a great deal within a short period of time. As PP has indicated, there is some down time to being on the bus and train, but we really enjoyed time with our friends. The other factor for us was that we were not as exhausted at the end of the trip by moving hotels and locations but had the final week with the ship as our base. We'd love to do a rail tour of Alaska next. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Tiffany]

We just returned a few weeks ago from an Alaskan Cruise. We did r/t out of Seattle on the NCL Pearl. I have to disagree with a pp about NCL's itinerary because only a few ships get to go into Glacier Bay and the Pearl is one of them.

I would recommend checking out www.cruisecritic.com. It is the DIS of cruises and you will get a lot of good info there.

We had a fantastic time on our cruise and although I would have loved to have spent time in Anchorage and Denali a r/t cruise was enough for a first trip. We also enjoyed spending time in Seattle.

Glacier Bay was definitely the highlight of our itinerary. Many of the ships will stop in the same ports such as Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.

My bil recently did the Princess line and a cruise tour. They wished they had done the land portion first and although they loved their cruise they weren't thrilled with the tour portion....ok but not outstanding.

Best of luck. We hope to go back to Alaska in the future.

Thanks so much for the information. I will checkout that message board. I will have to look into the dates to see if we can make a land first then cruise work for us.

Would you mind sharing any details of our time on the Pearl? Everything I had read seems to be very positive about the Pearl. The only negative I have come across outside of what a pp wrote was that their onboard alcohol prices were high but I am from the Boston area so 10 to 12 dollars for a Grey Goose and tonic is the norm.

 

[Tiffany]

Well is thats the case then I would go with the Princess package, fly into Fairbanks, South Denali, and cruise southbound.


I rarely reccommend cruising North if youre doing any tours. You want that Southbound time to relax.


I wouldnt do NCL to Alaska. IMHO the best cruises to Alaska are Holland America, Princess and RCCL. Of course which one will depend on the client but those are the best Alaska cruise providers as far as Im concerned. NCL has a great niche market but I think they are best suited to the Caribbean.


Of course YMMV LOL

Thanks so much. I am going to checkout the dates for the land first option and we really want to do Anchorage so I am thinking fly into Anchorage then train to Mt. McKinly and then Denali and then sail out of Whitter south to Vancouver.

The whole thing is very exciting and I want this to be special so I want to make it as good as possible.

 

[Tiffany]

DH and I along with 3 other couples did Holland America several years ago--land and cruise. We flew into Fairbanks and spend week doing the land exploration and then picked up the cruise ship at Seward which then put us back into Vancouver. Felt like we had the best of both worlds as we were able to see a great deal within a short period of time. As PP has indicated, there is some down time to being on the bus and train, but we really enjoyed time with our friends. The other factor for us was that we were not as exhausted at the end of the trip by moving hotels and locations but had the final week with the ship as our base. We'd love to do a rail tour of Alaska next. Good luck with your decision.

Thanks so much for your input. I am now really thinking long and hard about doing the land first.

 

[adkkev]

Thanks for the feedback on NCL most of the sites I have been on have been positive about NCL so it is good to hear another side. The more I am leaning to a Princess cruise tour going from Vancouver to Whitter and then over to Denali by rail for two nights then over to Mt. Mickinly for a night before heading to Anchorage by rail to wrap up the trip.

Flights are going to be interesting but owe well.

I'm a little curious about what you mean by "then over to Denali by rail for two nights then over to Mt. Mickinly for a night before heading to Anchorage by rail to wrap up the trip" ... are you planning on staying in the Kantishna area inside Denali NP when you say you're going over to Mt. McKinley? Unless you mean an overnight in Talkeetna with a flightseeing trip to see the mountain ...

Why not just fly to Anchorage, rent a car, and tour Alaska by car for two weeks, instead of cruising? You could take a glacier tour out of Seward and see glaciers, wildlife, etc., without going on a large cruiseship. Or if you want to try something different, take a ferry to Cordova and spend a day or two there ... definitely an authenic Alaskan fishing town.

And try to stay in B&Bs in Alaska ... definitely more of an experience than most of the sterile hotels.

Lastly, when visiting Denali, reserve a spot on one of the GREEN shuttle buses instead of the brown tour buses ... the shuttle buses are a lot more fun!

PM if you'd like some ideas.

 

[crjack]

Thanks so much for the information. I will checkout that message board. I will have to look into the dates to see if we can make a land first then cruise work for us.

Would you mind sharing any details of our time on the Pearl? Everything I had read seems to be very positive about the Pearl. The only negative I have come across outside of what a pp wrote was that their onboard alcohol prices were high but I am from the Boston area so 10 to 12 dollars for a Grey Goose and tonic is the norm.

We are from Boston too and although we liked the idea of doing the cruisetour with family the flights to Alaska were just too high when we planning our trip (family of four).

I think Princess has a nice cruise/cruisetour for Alaska and I know at least one of their ships go to Glacier Bay. For us, traveling with young teens, Holland America wasn't really a consideration. Also, Freestyle dining was great for us.

We really liked the Pearl. Honestly you will see Princess and Holland ships in the exact same ports at similar times so many Alaskan itineraries vary based on Glaciers. Glacier Bay is a true jewel and we were lucky enough to get up very close and see lots of calving. That is much less likely at Hubbard and Sawyer according to lots of trip reports on cruise critic.

On the Pearl we really liked the bowling and two of the shows we saw were fantastic. I dont think drink prices are any different from other cruise lines at all but like you I may just be used to them from living in Boston.

I think for a land/sea vacation your best bet is probably Princess and cruise critic has great boards. If you end up doing a round trip then you should consider the Pearl. Also, we loved Seattle so we spent extra days before and after our cruise there and really enjoyed it.

As far as excursions go, they can be expensive. In Juneau we went with a private tour for a whale watch that was fantastic. Small company that everyone raves about on cruise critic. You really need to factor that into your budget because the choices are endless but can be pricey too.

Best of luck with your planning. We loved Alaska and can't wait to go back someday.

 

[Tiffany]

I'm a little curious about what you mean by "then over to Denali by rail for two nights then over to Mt. Mickinly for a night before heading to Anchorage by rail to wrap up the trip" ... are you planning on staying in the Kantishna area inside Denali NP when you say you're going over to Mt. McKinley? Unless you mean an overnight in Talkeetna with a flightseeing trip to see the mountain ...

Why not just fly to Anchorage, rent a car, and tour Alaska by car for two weeks, instead of cruising? You could take a glacier tour out of Seward and see glaciers, wildlife, etc., without going on a large cruiseship. Or if you want to try something different, take a ferry to Cordova and spend a day or two there ... definitely an authenic Alaskan fishing town.

And try to stay in B&Bs in Alaska ... definitely more of an experience than most of the sterile hotels.

Lastly, when visiting Denali, reserve a spot on one of the GREEN shuttle buses instead of the brown tour buses ... the shuttle buses are a lot more fun!

PM if you'd like some ideas.

Thanks for the ideas. Princess has a lodge just outside the entrance to Denali that we would spend two nights at and then then have a lodge called Mt. McKinly that we would spend one night at before heading to Anchroage by rail.

Doing everything on our own by car might just be a little to adventourous for us but it is something to consider.

 

[Tiffany]

We are from Boston too and although we liked the idea of doing the cruisetour with family the flights to Alaska were just too high when we planning our trip (family of four).

I think Princess has a nice cruise/cruisetour for Alaska and I know at least one of their ships go to Glacier Bay. For us, traveling with young teens, Holland America wasn't really a consideration. Also, Freestyle dining was great for us.

We really liked the Pearl. Honestly you will see Princess and Holland ships in the exact same ports at similar times so many Alaskan itineraries vary based on Glaciers. Glacier Bay is a true jewel and we were lucky enough to get up very close and see lots of calving. That is much less likely at Hubbard and Sawyer according to lots of trip reports on cruise critic.

On the Pearl we really liked the bowling and two of the shows we saw were fantastic. I dont think drink prices are any different from other cruise lines at all but like you I may just be used to them from living in Boston.

I think for a land/sea vacation your best bet is probably Princess and cruise critic has great boards. If you end up doing a round trip then you should consider the Pearl. Also, we loved Seattle so we spent extra days before and after our cruise there and really enjoyed it.

As far as excursions go, they can be expensive. In Juneau we went with a private tour for a whale watch that was fantastic. Small company that everyone raves about on cruise critic. You really need to factor that into your budget because the choices are endless but can be pricey too.

Best of luck with your planning. We loved Alaska and can't wait to go back someday.

Thanks so much for the detailed information. I will have to go checkout cruise critic.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

For our 10th anniversary we took a land and sea cruise out of Glacier Bay. We spent 3 days at the lodge and four days on a very small cruise "ship". There were only 110 passengers and I don't know how many crew members. There was absolutely no luxury on this ship at all. When we were at the lodge there were organized things and just relaxing, and while we were on the ship we had a naturalist with us. We could go to many places that the big luxury ships couldn't go near. We even got to take a Zodiac up to one of the glaciers and walk around on it. We were right next to calving glaciers, and seals floating on ice blocks. We couldn't afford a luxury cruise, but I am so glad we did this..it was an amazing week.