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Alaska 2022 itineraries are out..


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  • mattymay changed the title to Alaska 2022 itineraries are out..
1 hour ago, mworkman said:

Looks like there prices are up too. ? I'm referring to the Alaskan Cruise/Tour prices.

30 minutes ago, melmar02 said:

I noticed that too. Looks like the kids are going to eat a lot of Ramen over the next two years!

I guess the question is how these cruise/tour prices compare with booking just the cruise and then making your own similar / equivalent land tour. I was looking at the 12-night Katmai Bear Trek 12B on Radiance, and that 5-night pre-cruise tour is a flat $3,250 per person tacked on top of the base cruise fare.

I thought it was interesting that they don't charge more for the land portion to suite passengers. I would have thought someone booking a suite would also want an upgraded land tour package with hotel suites / higher-end travel accommodations (whichever ones are included, anyway).

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I put a deposit down this morning for radiance southbound. Got a JS aft balcony. Taking our youngest as a college graduation present. Hope I made the right decision! 
 

Do you have to book the land tour when you book the cruise? Or can you add it later? We wanted to do Denali land tour prior but I only booked cruise today. 

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7 minutes ago, Jill said:

Do you have to book the land tour when you book the cruise? Or can you add it later? We wanted to do Denali land tour prior but I only booked cruise today. 

Since the land tours seem to be getting listed now as combo land tour and cruise, I'm not sure on this. Could be that you'd have to cancel your existing booking and then rebook on the land tour + cruise sailing with the same embarkation date.

Gotta say, after talking with my TA about that Katmai Bear Trek land tour option ($3,250 pp on top of the cruise fare)... I'm not going to be booking one of those if I end up with an Alaska sailing for '22. I had a feeling the price pp wasn't justified, and after she talked with someone at Royal she agrees. Price does not include flight to/from Anchorage; only the hotels, transportation between tour locations, pre-planned activities, and transportation to the ship. And she said that even though doing anything in Alaska is more expensive than just about anywhere else, it ain't that much more for a 5-night trek like that one. She was going to ask around, but felt fairly sure she could find a tour group or other self-made land itinerary that had either an identical or very similar tour for about half that price per person.

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20 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I still don’t see the Honolulu to Vancouver April 22 leg.  Seems crazy to skip past that one and post the later, summer itin but I guess that’s what they did.

Is that usually longer that 7 days? Carnival have axed all cruises longer than 7 days through October 2021. I guess Royal Caribbean will probably follow. I understand you are talking about 2022, maybe it's related? Maybe not.

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@JLMoranI looked into doing just this, I priced the cruise and all the equivalent tours associated the 8A, I found that it adds up to the same price with the exception of transportation from the ship to hotels/train and airport not being added.  In the long run, I wouldn't like the headache of something falling out of the itinerary last minute and scrambling to find an alternative.

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50 minutes ago, mworkman said:

@JLMoranI looked into doing just this, I priced the cruise and all the equivalent tours associated the 8A, I found that it adds up to the same price with the exception of transportation from the ship to hotels/train and airport not being added.

Seriously, it came out to the same surcharge per person to create the equivalent land tour? That just seems nuts. How can a 5-day trip total over $6,500 for two / $13,000 for four when everyone is doing the same things and presumably getting group rates or other discounts, never mind sharing a room (per pair) in every hotel and no meals being covered?

I mean, I know everything in Alaska is more expensive for the tourists, but still...

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17 hours ago, JLMoran said:

 

Gotta say, after talking with my TA about that Katmai Bear Trek land tour option ($3,250 pp on top of the cruise fare)... I'm not going to be booking one of those if I end up with an Alaska sailing for '22. 

We are looking at this one too, and I hadn't thought about pricing the AK portion separately. I did check on some Canada rail packages that were similar to what RC offers, and everything I found was way more. I'm kind of with you...I would love to see the bears, but my zoo membership is a whole lot cheaper. 

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12 hours ago, mattymay said:

Is that usually longer that 7 days? Carnival have axed all cruises longer than 7 days through October 2021. I guess Royal Caribbean will probably follow. I understand you are talking about 2022, maybe it's related? Maybe not.

I will literally cry buckets if RC cancels my 9 night Odyssey Italy/Greece October 2021. It’s hopefully my 5 year official Remission trip from stage 4b cancer. I could handle knocking 2 nights off but oh please don’t cancel it. ?

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22 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Seriously, it came out to the same surcharge per person to create the equivalent land tour? That just seems nuts. How can a 5-day trip total over $6,500 for two / $13,000 for four when everyone is doing the same things and presumably getting group rates or other discounts, never mind sharing a room (per pair) in every hotel and no meals being covered?

It is pricey.  

FYI the land tour also doesn't include all excursions.  There are pockets of free time where they offer additional excursions if you choose or you can just explore the town on your own.  Honestly in most of the land tour towns the private excursions are few and far between and are priced the same as booking them through the land tour.  When we did it back in 2014 you couldn't book excursions in advance.  They provided the excursion list at the beginning of the land tour and you selected and paid for them at that point.  

Honestly though if I had to pick between the land or the cruise portion to go back and do again it's a toss up between the two for me.  The land portion was amazing.  We did the 8B Southbound one on Radiance.  I don't know much of what the specifics between 8A/B and 12A/B land tours are as they go to the same cities, but the pricing for the 8A/B for 2021 seems really reasonable.  I see that 12A/B includes a flightseeing experience and those run $400-$500 a piece easily.  That seems to be the most significant difference I see for the added cost.

If you book in a JS or up you will get double points for the land portion too, so that's something to consider if you are looking for a balcony at least and the price difference isn't that much more.

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On 11/10/2020 at 1:22 PM, Baked Alaska said:

Hoping Lift & Shift will be offered in the event summer 2021 doesn't happen. I wouldn't bet the house on this summer happening, especially with Quantum. . . my sailing. ?

I am hoping for this as well! 

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