Alaska cruise

[Deleted]

what cruise line have you used? what excursions did you do? where did you embark/disembark? did you stay extra days in those cities?

[phil5185]

1. Go to Denali, ride the Denali Shuttle Bus $25 ea, 6 hours, Toklat, 53 miles one way. Good views of McKinley, moose, grizzles, caribou, wolves, etc.
2. Ride the Flag Train from Talkeetna to Hurricane Gulch and back, about 60 miles one-way.
3. Take the Kenai Fjords Tour, calving glaciers & whales - 6 hrs, $150, in Seward.
4. Juneau has a Tram from Main street to a mountain top.
5. Skagway has bicycle tours to the Canadian border, they haul you out and you ride back to Skagway in a group. And they have a narrow-gage train that takes you to the top of the White Horse Pass and back.

Don't know how 'touristy' you are - but Skagway has 17 jewelry shops, Ketchikan & Juneau are similar (we tend to avoid them, lol). But when a cruise ship docks, the streets fill up with 1000's of pedestrians and the shops fill up quickly.

[tskeeter]

Mom, Phil made good suggestions.

We took Holland America out of Vancouver, BC. Mostly older folks.

Didn't spend extra time in Vancouver, but it looked like a city worth some extra time.

Excusions that we were interested in included, dog sled ride on glacier, helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier, Yukon and White Pass Railroad in Skagway, (cruise included Glacier Bay).

Would liked to have had time to check out Denali. Could have been done with a one-way cruise starting or ending in Anchorage, rather than round trip out of Vancouver.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2011 17:02:08 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Mom, Phil made good suggestions.

We took Holland America out of Vancouver, BC. Mostly older folks.

Didn't spend extra time in Vancouver, but it looked like a city worth some extra time.

Excusions that we were interested in included, dog sled ride on glacier, helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier, Yukon and White Pass Railroad in Skagway, (cruise included Glacier Bay).

Would liked to have had time to check out Denali. Could have been done with a one-way cruise starting or ending in Anchorage, rather than round trip out of Vancouver.

well I'm older so Holland America fits me LOL....I looked at HA, royal carib and princess and think HA looks the best....your excursions look exactly like what I want to do....did you walk on the glacier or just do the heli ride (I plan on doing the walk part too)? I think we'll do the roundtrip out of Vancouver and spend a day or 2 there (although could probably fill a week with stuff to do).

[tskeeter]

Unfortunately, neither. We went in October and ran into weather that prevented some excursions from taking place.

An FYI, we had a section both directions where we crossed a large expanse of open water. On the return leg, seas were high enough to splash water out of the pool. This meant that Dad, a confirmed land lubber, was a bit uncomfortable with the movement they felt in their forward, exterior cabin. You felt less motion in our interior cabin. DW's observation was that it finally felt like sailing. Of course, she is the one who is below making lunch while everyone else is hanging on the railing feeding the fish!

[Deleted]

This is the line we'll be taking in July.

www.innerseadiscoveries.com

It's very different from typical cruises. The ship holds 78 passengers and it's small enough to get in and out of the fjords easily. You can slide off a dock in the back in a kayak and explore, or catch fish on deck (which they'll serve for dinner). If a pod of whales is breaching, they'll park near them. (The whales don't seem to mind.) It's a bit of a budget-buster- we're in the cheapest rooms and the base price is $3K per person- but it's exactly what we wanted.

I had a discussion on Cruisecritic.com about why it's disproportionately expensive (not complaining, just the financial geek in me). Part is that they lack economies of scale, of course- but the income streams from photographers, casinos, rock-climbing walls, port excursions, kickbacks from port shops, art auctions, ad nauseum aren't there for the type of trip we're taking. (And that's why we chose it.)

[Small Biz Owner]

We flew into Alaska, then took the regional sight seeing cruises. Phil has listed some good ones. If you go in on a huge cruise ship you end up with all the rest of the crowds overwhelming the local facilities, which for me, distracts from the experience.

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2011 8:58:14 GMT -5 Small Biz Owner said:

We flew into Alaska, then took the regional sight seeing cruises. Phil has listed some good ones. If you go in on a huge cruise ship you end up with all the rest of the crowds overwhelming the local facilities, which for me, distracts from the experience.

unfortunately a huge cruise ship is what is in my friend's budget so we'll have to deal with it.

[phil5185]

Phil has listed some good ones. If you go in on a huge cruise ship you end up with all the rest of the crowds overwhelming the local facilities, which for me, distracts from the experience.

We've driven the AK Highway several times - IMO that's the way to really see stuff. The drive from Vancouver thru BC to the Yukon to White Horse, Skagway, Dawson City, Chicken, etc, is beautiful, some of the best scenery in North America.

Or drive to Skagway, ferry across to Haines, and drive up the Haines Hwy to the Alaskan Highway, a beautiful drive. Haines is a neat town, in August we saw 8 grizzly bears in the road at one time, several others along the way - it was the Second Salmon Run and dozens of bears were bulking up for winter. And 100s of Eagles joined the feasting.

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2011 13:48:14 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

Phil has listed some good ones. If you go in on a huge cruise ship you end up with all the rest of the crowds overwhelming the local facilities, which for me, distracts from the experience.

We've driven the AK Highway several times - IMO that's the way to really see stuff. The drive from Vancouver thru BC to the Yukon to White Horse, Skagway, Dawson City, Chicken, etc, is beautiful, some of the best scenery in North America.

Or drive to Skagway, ferry across to Haines, and drive up the Haines Hwy to the Alaskan Highway, a beautiful drive. Haines is a neat town, in August we saw 8 grizzly bears in the road at one time, several others along the way - it was the Second Salmon Run and dozens of bears were bulking up for winter. And 100s of Eagles joined the feasting.

I hate driving so that sounds like torture to me.

[galipemi]

Dec 19, 2011 9:58:06 GMT -5 @singlemominmd said:

what cruise line have you used? what excursions did you do? where did you embark/disembark? did you stay extra days in those cities?

I love cruising and I love cruising Alaska!

I actually worked onboard Holland America ships for two seasons up north. One season I was round trip from Vancouver and the second I cruised North/South - Vancouver to Seward and back over two weeks.

I realize budget is an issue. If you can carry it off - go for two weeks North/South. One week just never felt like enough - and that's coming from someone who spent 8 months there

If you can tell me some of the things you like to do and some of the options you're looking at - I can try to give you more pointed advice.

I wokred for HOlland and even though I'm only 29 now - I actually really enjoy cruising with them (they're typically considered the older cruise line). That's becuase I like to do as little as possible on vacation - I'm essentially a lazy person ;D So, when you consider your cruise options and your cruise line options you really have to think about what you want to get from the experience.