Alaska cruise tours

Joanandjoe · September 10, 2007

We're trying to plan for an Alaska trip next year. From our perspective, the cruise line should be HAL, Princess, or something more upscale than either. We will not consider a ship with more than 2,000 PAX: ships such as the Coral Princess and Island Princess, with about 1,950 PAX, are much bigger than what we like, but maybe we can tolerate that size. That gives us four choices: 14 days Vancouver round trip on the 690 PAX Tahitian Princess; cruise only on the 700 PAX, all balcony Regent Seven Seas Mariner; and cruise tours on Holland America or Princess that include a seven day Alaska to Vancouver (south bound) or Vancouver to Alaska (north bound) itinerary.

We don't need any help with Regent (our favorite line, but at the high end of our price scale) or the Tahitian Princess; but we could use your help on the HAL and Princess cruise tours. Any thoughts and experiences that you share would be appreciated. However, if you've taken other lines, you still may have thoughts on some of the items, such as the trip between the ship and Denali, or whether it's worth while to go to Kenai.

In particular:

1) Which is better, starting with the tour, then taking a south bound cruise; or starting with the north bound cruise, then taking the tour? Our TA suggests the first alternative, saying that the cruise gives you a change to relax after an exhausting tour.

2) How bad is the trip between the Alaska pier and Denali? It looks like about a 7 or eight hour bus trip, which sounds pretty awful.

3) How are the hotels? For Denali-Fairbanks itineraries, I can't figure out what the HAL hotels are. For Princess, Trip Advisor contributors seem to love the McKinley Princess Hotel, hate the Denali Wilderness Princess, and are so-so about the Princess hotel in Fairbanks. You may have different views.

4) Should we consider something other than Fairbanks and Denali, such as Kenai?

(If you're wondering why we don't have Celebrity on our list, we want to see Glacier National Park, which we didn't see on our 1998 Alaska cruise and to which X does not go. Regent is on our list, despite not going to Glacier, because the Regent experience is so fantastic.)

We must have a few Crazies who have taken an Alaska cruise tour.

zebra · September 10, 2007

Are you asking about the cruise (ship) or tour? I'm going to answer on the tour side. We've been to Alaska 3 times - once on a cruisetour. We did it with Princess. You will see in Alaska that Princess has the largest section of the market... their own lodges etc and we loved the 2 story glass domes train.

One thing is for SURE!!! Do the tour first and then the cruise!! The tour is much more regimented... up at 6 to have breakfast before you leave - kind of stuff. Consequently, we always feel tours are anything but relaxing. By ending with a cruise, you can unpack once, unwind and relax. Everyone we spoke to who had done the cruise first, all said that they wish they had booked their trip in reverse.

In Anchorage we stayed at the Captain Hook - an OUTSTANDING hotel!! Princess as I said also has beautiful lodges, at Denali, McKinley, Copper River and Kenai. The Denali one is brand new. We loved the Kenai - our own log cabin with fireplace and jacuzzi bath and we used their outdoor hot tub after dinner....wonderful. Fairbanks is OK... don't know which hotel they are using these days.

I don't understand the comment about the 8 hour drive between Denali and the pier? I thought that's why people come to Alaska - to see the unbelievably beautiful scenery???????????????

We flew into Fairbanks, stayed 2 nights and did quite a few excursions, then traveled to Denali Princess Lodge by train, stayed 2 nights so that we could do the 8 hour bus excursion into Denali National Park, from there the next day we went to Mt. McKinley Lodge by train, stayed the night then got back on the train the next day and stayed in Anchorage for the night. In Anchorage we boarded a bus and then went to Kenai Princess Lodge for a night and lastly did the 2 hour trip to the pier, which in our case was Seward. The trip of a lifetime!!!!!! We have traveled all over the world, but have lost our hearts to Alaska.

Get yourself a suite on Princess.... you won't be sorry!!

hazelson · September 11, 2007

The best way to start would be calling us a soon as you get to Vancouver and letting us show you around !!!!!!

Joanandjoe · September 11, 2007

Thanks to all of you for your insights. We have had some terrible bus trips and I MUST ask: ARE THERE BATHROOMS ON THE BUSES? We went all through the Med. area on buses with NO BATHROOMS. Past 50, the bus with no bathroom is as bad as the PUB WITH NO BEER. Are the buses comfortable for short people? Many thanks again for your insights, especially the offer of a tour of Vancouver. Thanks again, Joan

jacketwatch · September 11, 2007

Congratulations! Alaska is fantastic. We cruised the Sapphire Princess there and though its too big for you I can comment on the Princess tours which we took in every port. All in all I was very impressed with their quality and organization. I must say they did a very nice job. The only glitch was in Juneau. All the pier spots were taken by the time we arrived so we had to tender in and its tense as there were basically two gals going frantic trying to coordinate this arduous task of getting off 2K + passengers. We did get off but had just enough time to do our tour (A Mendenhall glacier tour via copter) and see downtown Juneau for 30 mins. we were on the TP last yr. and honestly on a ship that small you do feel the motion alot more. Hopefully that won't be an issue with you. Cheers, Larry and avoid the reindeeer sausage. :biggrin:

rogue · September 11, 2007

We did Princess a few years ago on the Island Princess. I really love that ship. Well layed out so you rarely feel crowded. We spent lots of time on our verrandah just looking at the scenery. Glacier Bay is one of the highlights. We did the trip from south to north. I would recommend doing it the other direction, but the 3 ports on the cruise can be pretty tiring also.

Princess's accomodations on the land tour are great. I found that they were all fine. We did not have any 7-hour bus trips. When we disembarked in Whittier, we took a bus to Anchorage which was less than 2 hours, as I remember. The train ride is great.

zebra · September 11, 2007

J & J... the busses are American luxury busses (with toilets) - so no problem there. But on the cruise tour that we did we were not on a bus longer than 2 hours, most of our stops entailed the sightseeing glass domed luxury train. It should tell you in the brochure what your mode of transport would be for that day. I'm with you.... I need bathrooms wherever I go, you won't have any problem in Alaska... it's America!!!!!