Any Alaska Cruise/Land travelers?

[DektolMan]

Planning a trip next year to Alaska and want to start out with a land tour then cruise back to Vancouver. We have looked at Princess and Holland America but willing to look at independent tours also.

Does anyone have any experience taking this trip, what time of the year etc.

Thanks!

 

[braumeister]

We had a fantastic time a few years ago with an inside passage cruise followed by a week in Denali. We could have done it in the reverse order if we wanted.

That was with Lindblad/NatGeo, which is pricy but worth it. Other companies offer similar trips.

June through September seems to be the season for that. Any time during those months should be great.

Lots of info here if you do some searching. For example:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f46/alaskan-cruise-76955.html

 

[DektolMan]

Thank you for the link & Information. I'll look into Lindblad/NatGeo.

 

[gerntz]

Seeing Denali is a crap shoot with clouds. I'd suggest earlier in summer before humidity & rainfall amounts builds, like late-May to June.

 

[Backpacker]

Two years ago we did cruise on Norwegian from Vancouver, then 2 weeks in a motor home. Had more fun in the RV than the cruise. It was self planned no set itinerary. Enjoyed the slow travel.very easy to just stop and camp at any roadside pull off. Did manage to get a full view of Denali, I was Backcountry hiking in Denali NP, and was up at 430 and got a great view. We liked Wrangell st. Elias area better than Denali.

 

[Freedom56]

Planning a trip next year to Alaska and want to start out with a land tour then cruise back to Vancouver. We have looked at Princess and Holland America but willing to look at independent tours also.

Does anyone have any experience taking this trip, what time of the year etc.

Thanks!

We are leaving in June for Alaska. We are flying LAX to ANC direct and renting a car for 7 days. We are spending 2 nights in Girdwood (Alyeska Resort), 2 Nights in Seward, 2 Nights in Palmer, and the final night in Anchorage. We are then flying back to LAX. We plan to do a lot of hiking, climbing, kayaking, and if the weather is okay a day cruise from Seward. We are going to finalize our activities a few days before departure when the weather forecast is available.

 

[ocean view]

In 2015 we did the Princess inside passage cruise with 5 days of land excursion after the cruise. 2 nights in Denali, 2 nights in Talkeetna, 1 night in Anchorage, all stays at Princess owned properties. We enjoyed the cruise and excursions quite a bit, but were less impressed with the land portion.

In Denali, two nights was not really enough time to see more than the bus ride tour into the park and a short hike between the park and our hotel (shuttles were available but we like to walk when possible). We were there on the summer solstice and so that was a cool experience. At midnight the sky was just dusk.

In Talkeetna, you really are at the mercy of the cruise line for entertainment. If you want to go off the property, you have to take an excursion. We wanted to explore a nearby (10 miles away) state park, but our only option to get there was the overpriced guided “excursion”. With a group of 9 people this would have been $1000+. I checked for Uber/Lyft and private transport too. We also didn’t feel we needed a guide to share Alaska facts to us (by day 10 we had heard it all). We just wanted to hike at our pace. We ended up spending a lot of time out on their deck staring in the direction of Denali, hoping for a sighting.

The other part that was disappointing on the land portion was the food. ALL of the restaurants served the exact same menu (or a subset there of). It didn’t matter if it was on the train from the port to Denali or the fancy or casual restaurant at either lodge, it was the same menu. And since we were captive, by day 4, I was ready for something different.

So my advice would be to plan your land based portion independently from the cruise portion. The cruise lines are great at cruises, the land part is just provided as a convenience to their customers, it is not their forte.

 

[folivier]

We're planning an RV trip next year. Leave after Mother's Day and return late Sept. or Oct. The only things we're planning is a week camping inside Denali and a fly-in bear photo trip. Everything else will just be as we come across it. That is a 10,000 mile round trip not counting driving around in Alaska!

 

[Teacher Terry]

We took the Princess Alaskan cruise and it was terrible. Cold food, rude staff, ship leaking in hallways through the electrical sockets, some rooms flooded and they set up big dryers but would not give people another room, by middle of cruise half of the bathrooms were out of order and the tether boats leaked from the roof when it was raining. I wrote to Princess to complain and never got a response. You would have to pay me to take another cruise with them.

 

[braumeister]

Seeing Denali is a crap shoot with clouds. I'd suggest earlier in summer before humidity & rainfall amounts builds, like late-May to June.

I think we were just lucky, but the air was crystal clear when we were there in late June. This was from about 25 miles away.

 

[OldShooter]

We abhor cruises, so I can't help you there, but we did spend some very pleasant time on land in Alaska a few years ago.

For our first segment we rented a car in Anchorage and drove to the Denali entrance. At that point we were picked up by a bus that took us to Denali Backcountry Lodge, where we stayed for a few nights. This is like a 6 hour bus ride and wildlife viewing experience over a gravel road to the lodge, which is on an isolated piece of private land in the middle of the national park. Electricity is by generator, etc. https://www.alaskacollection.com/lodging/denali-backcountry-lodge/ They also offer the bus trip as a day excursion from the park entrance, leaving at 6 in the morning, lunch at the lodge, then returning. https://www.alaskacollection.com/day-tours/denali-backcountry-adventure/experience/

From there we returned to Anchorage and rented a 24' mini-motor home to head south to the Kenai peninsula. We were right at the end of the season, but everything was fairly solidly booked. We could have booked ahead, but didn't want to lock in a schedule, so the motor home was the ideal option. When we wanted to stop for the night, we did, ending up in Homer. There are many halibut fishing trip options there. We didn't do that but we did take a flight deep into bear country with Emerald AIr: Our Photo Album, Emerald Air Service, Inc. Bear photo We spend several hours on the ground with the bears, including a mom and two cubs. We kept a respectful distance and watched as the cubs played and mom ate fish after fish from the river. Truly amazing.

We typically ate breakfast in the motor home, but ate other meals in restaurants. It was not like driving your compact grocery-getter but it was not so clumsy that it wasn't useful transportation. The biggest hassle was leveling it when we stopped for the night.

One of our stops was Whittier, which sounded interesting when we read about it. Don't go there. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it is a dump.

 

[Freedom56]

One of our stops was Whittier, which sounded interesting when we read about it. Don't go there. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it is a dump.

I'm scratching that off our list. Any other places to avoid in Alaska? People we know who have been there told us that most towns in Alaska are "dumps" full of drunks.

 

[braumeister]

Not to avoid, but Sitka was one of our favorite towns in Alaska. That was before it became a stop for the big cruise ships, so I can't vouch for it now, but it was just delightful. It was the main city when Alaska was owned by Russia, and there are still a wonderful Russian Orthodox cathedral and the remnants of a Russian fort. there. And the Alaska Raptor Center there was amazing.

 

[kaudrey]

We did the Princess cruise from Vancouver in 2008. Then we picked up a rental car and toured around for a week - Seward, Talkeetna, up to Denali. We camped at Wonder Lake (way at the end of the bus route), and hiked the Exit Glacier in Seward. My aunt and uncle, who went on the cruise with us, did the land portion with Princess.


We loved the cruise - it's all about the view and the excursions. Food was good; the only issue we had was that everything shut down by 10pm. We were by far the minority, being in our 40s at the time. Aunt and uncle had many more peers....


My aunt said the land part was OK. Too much bus, not enough activity; they didn't see Denali - they only had one day up that way and it was cloudy. By having a car and spending a few days in the park, we were lucky enough to see Denali several times. YMMV.

 

[OldShooter]

Not to avoid, but Sitka was one of our favorite towns in Alaska. That was before it became a stop for the big cruise ships, so I can't vouch for it now ...

This reminds me, we have some friends who live in Sitka and I remember their commenting on some of the towns where the population triples when just one cruise ship disgorges its herds, at which point nearly every native in town is working to sell to the tourists. Pretty awful IMO.

I don't remember town names but this might be a reason to go for a small ship and to check for conflicts where more than one cruise ship is in town. The town tourist offices will have ships' schedules.

 

[chilkoot]

No experience with the land excursions so I can't help there. Here's my 2 cents on the sea portion:
Toured the Inside Passage a few years ago. I think it was Norwegian. No real complaints about anything (never saw so many walkers though).
Back in the 90's I covered the same territory aboard the Alaska Marine Ferry system, and I think I actually preferred this method. I hate being reminded that I'm part of a captive audience (and a cash cow) and the cruise lines seem to excel at this. The ferry system was much more casual, at least back then.

 

[Sunset]

We took the Princess Alaskan cruise and it was terrible. Cold food, rude staff, ship leaking in hallways through the electrical sockets, some rooms flooded and they set up big dryers but would not give people another room, by middle of cruise half of the bathrooms were out of order and the tether boats leaked from the roof when it was raining. I wrote to Princess to complain and never got a response. You would have to pay me to take another cruise with them.

Can you tell us which Princess ship it was ?

 

[Souschef]

I have attached 2 of our trip stories, one a land tour, and one a cruise.
We are always happy to answer any questions.

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/alaskaexplorer2011.pdf

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/northtoalaskajune2007.pdf

 

[SteveNU]

We've done this a few years back. End of August first part of September. We rented a car in Anchorage and spent a week driving around the kenai penninsula and then up to Denali. Dropped the car back in Anchorage and took the train to Whittier where you catch the cruise ship. It was one of our favorite trips!

 

[Sunset]

We've done this a few years back. End of August first part of September. We rented a car in Anchorage and spent a week driving around the kenai penninsula and then up to Denali. Dropped the car back in Anchorage and took the train to Whittier where you catch the cruise ship. It was one of our favorite trips!

Sounds interesting, can you provide a few more details. ?

Did you fly into Anchorage , and when driving around the penninsula, how desolate is it ?
Did you stay in hotels or camp along the side of the road ?

I've never been up there, so I have no clue what to expect.

 

[DrRoy]

DW and I did the Princess cruisetour in May 2007 and enjoyed it very much. I would have liked to spend more time in places but we saw a lot in the 2 weeks that we had. We started in Fairbanks and ended up in Vancouver. I felt like that was the better direction and it was for us.
.

 

[cathy63]

Planning a trip next year to Alaska and want to start out with a land tour then cruise back to Vancouver. We have looked at Princess and Holland America but willing to look at independent tours also.

Does anyone have any experience taking this trip, what time of the year etc.

Thanks!

We did a Princess tour back in 2009. We left the day after school got out in June (DD had just turned 16) and got back around the end of the month.

We flew into Anchorage, rented a car, and did a leisurely drive down to Seward where we spent the night. The next day we did an all-day whale watching trip in Kenai Fjords NP, which was just amazing. We still talk about how that was one of our best vacation days ever. Then we drove back to Anchorage, turned in the car and met up with the Princess land tour people at the airport.

With Princess, we did:
- 1 night in Anchorage at a hotel
- train to Denali
- 2 nights at Princess Denali Lodge
- bus to Fairbanks
- 1 night in Fairbanks at a hotel
- 2 days by bus to Prudhoe Bay, with overnights in Coldfoot and Deadhorse
- flight back to Anchorage, then bus to Whittier
- 7 day cruise to Vancouver with ports in Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and cruising in Glacier Bay

This was really a great tour for us. We wanted to get north of the arctic circle, and it worked out that we were actually at the Arctic Ocean on the day of the summer solstice, so we got to see the midnight sun. We also had enough time at Denali to do the long bus tour into the park, which gives an opportunity to see so much more wildlife than the shorter natural history tour.

Princess was great at handling luggage and getting us from point to point, and I felt like we had enough time at all the stops we made. The final two days of the land tour, when we were on the Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse, there were only about 30 of us, so there was room to spread out in the bus and we got to know our fellow travelers a bit. Rental car companies don't permit their vehicles to do that part of the trip, so the only way for us to get there was to use an organized tour.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Alaska on another Princess tour, though I'd probably pick a different itinerary as one trip up the Dalton is enough for me.

 

[audreyh1]

We had a lovely time cruising Prince William Sound with Cruise West on a small vessel - 110 passengers I think. Great wildlife watching. Also visited several towns and glaciers. Cruise West has been no more for a while.

Then we joined a photo tour group and spent several days at that lodge way back in Denali reachable by the long bus ride. OK - it must have been that Backcountry Lodge because Wonder Lake was not far. It was the first week of September but it was mostly clear, we saw Denali every day. We photographed wolves, grizzly bear, moose fighting, reindeer, grouse and lots of other birds. The lodge made a school bus and driver available to the photo group every day, so we went all over looking for wildlife. Beautiful fall color on the tundra that week - colors on the ground (as opposed to trees). Bright yellows and reds!

 

[SteveNU]

Sounds interesting, can you provide a few more details. ?

Did you fly into Anchorage , and when driving around the penninsula, how desolate is it ?
Did you stay in hotels or camp along the side of the road ?

I've never been up there, so I have no clue what to expect.

We flew into Anchorage and picked up a car. Then drive out to Homer and spent a night or two and then over to Seward for a few nights. Took a boat tour into the Kenai Fords national park from seward.

There's plenty of places to stay in and no it's not desolate.

From the Kenai peninsula we drove back up to Denali and spent a day or two. Caught the bus into Denali and enjoyed seeing lots of wildlife, wolves, and bears.

Then it was back to Anchorage and a train ride to Whittier where we boarded the Princess cruise ship. We enjoyed the cruise and the weather was nice for the most part.

We've been on several Princess cruises and enjoyed them all. Alaska was one of our favorites and I wouldn't mind going back again.