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This group was extremely helpful when I planned my last Caribbean cruise 3 years ago so here I am again. This time we are planning a trip with extended family so there may be 6-8 adults instead of just hubby & I. This was kind of last minute and we want to go next summer. I'm already overwhelmed. I reached out to MEI but haven't heard back yet.

I am looking to the one way cruises as I want to travel to the Fairbanks area and go home from there. Will figure that part out once we book. Opinions on if it's better to do 2-3 days on land before or after the cruise? Not sure if we should book North or Southbound.

Also, I'm directionally challenged so knowing what side of the ship is best for viewing the beauty of Alaska would be nice!

The one way ship is Radiance. We won't have any kids with us & hubby & I are the only ones who have cruised before so I'm hoping it will be fine.  I'm aware it's a smaller ship.

For those who weren't sure to book roundtrip or one way I'd love to know how you made your choice. 

I know balcony rooms seem to be going quick and we need to book soon. I'm afraid to do so directly through RC as each group needs travel insurance. 

As overwhelmed as I am, it's exciting to be planning a cruise again! Appreciate any advice 🙂

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10 minutes ago, NJCruisers said:

I am looking to the one way cruises as I want to travel to the Fairbanks area and go home from there. Will figure that part out once we book. Opinions on if it's better to do 2-3 days on land before or after the cruise? Not sure if we should book North or Southbound.

Are you looking to do the combined cruise tour with Royal or DIY the land part?

Either way, I highly recommend you do the land part first. That way once you hit the cruise you get to relax and not be packing up luggage again every day!

Remember if you're starting in Fairbanks, you have to make your way to either Vancouver or Seward to start your one way cruise from there.

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We are doing the cruise tour next year (our 3rd alaskan cruise and 2nd cruise tour).  We are doing the north bound on Radiance and then catching the train out of anchorage with stops in Talkeetna (beautiful little town), Denali, and it ends in Fairbanks.  A few years ago we did the bus tour and ended in Anchorage.  I highly recommend the cruise tour as arrangements are made for you.  If you do the DIY try the trains southbound route.  You can stay on the train the whole way or get off for a day and get back on.

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17 minutes ago, NJCruisers said:

@AshleyDilloThank so much for a quick reply!

The land tour would be DIY. If we do the Southbound we would fly into Fairbank Int'l, stay there 2-3 days then head to Seward to cruise then fly home from Vancouver. That's why I was leaning towards doing the land part afterwards. 

We did the cruise tour through Royal in 2014, which is where my experience is from. We did a lot of research with what we could find at the time to come up with the plan for our trip. We went the full 2 week experience since we treated it as the "once in a lifetime" visit.  Having been there once, I can easily see how easy it would be to DIY the land portion of it!  We flew into Fairbanks to pick up the land portion of the tour and did the southbound cruise on Radiance and ended in Vancouver.  We took Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle to fly home.

Keep in mind Fairbanks to Anchorage is about a 6 hour drive. Anchorage to Seward, where the ship sails, is another 2-2.5 hours from there by vehicle.  Is there a reason you are focusing on staying 2-3 days in the Fairbanks area?  If you are planning on visiting Denali National Park, that itself is can be an entire day's trip and it's 2 hours away from Fairbanks to begin with.  If you're only able to allow a few days for a land trip, you need to prioritize what you want to see/do to maximize your time!

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26 minutes ago, Shari said:

We are doing the cruise tour next year (our 3rd alaskan cruise and 2nd cruise tour).  We are doing the north bound on Radiance and then catching the train out of anchorage with stops in Talkeetna (beautiful little town), Denali, and it ends in Fairbanks.  A few years ago we did the bus tour and ended in Anchorage.  I highly recommend the cruise tour as arrangements are made for you.  If you do the DIY try the trains southbound route.  You can stay on the train the whole way or get off for a day and get back on.

I normally research like crazy but I haven't had the time to do that yet that's why the land would be DIY so we can tailor it to our needs & for those that are able to stay longer can do so. I know it's a touristy place but we want to do the Santa Claus House. Was also looking into Dog sledding there (Black Spruce I think?) There's also a hot springs and ice bar that looks cool & a brewery that looked nice.

Denali is definitely on the list as well & it might make sense to do that before Fairbanks. I'm all over the place, I realize that.  

33 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

We did the cruise tour through Royal in 2014, which is where my experience is from. We did a lot of research with what we could find at the time to come up with the plan for our trip. We went the full 2 week experience since we treated it as the "once in a lifetime" visit.  Having been there once, I can easily see how easy it would be to DIY the land portion of it!  We flew into Fairbanks to pick up the land portion of the tour and did the southbound cruise on Radiance and ended in Vancouver.  We took Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle to fly home.

Keep in mind Fairbanks to Anchorage is about a 6 hour drive. Anchorage to Seward, where the ship sails, is another 2-2.5 hours from there by vehicle.  Is there a reason you are focusing on staying 2-3 days in the Fairbanks area?  If you are planning on visiting Denali National Park, that itself is can be an entire day's trip and it's 2 hours away from Fairbanks to begin with.  If you're only able to allow a few days for a land trip, you need to prioritize what you want to see/do to maximize your time!

I don't enjoy bus tours, I tend to get nauseas on them so that's why I was hoping to get a car or a train most of the way. I don't even know if Uber is a thing out there! I'm NEVER this unprepared but we don't want to delay this a full year so we are hoping to book the cruise portion & then get to planning the rest once we research and get everyone's must do lists. 

We would have to fly home from Fairbanks to New Jersey. Since it's an International airport I figured that would be our best bet. 

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10 minutes ago, NJCruisers said:

don't enjoy bus tours, I tend to get nauseas on them so that's why I was hoping to get a car or a train most of the way

That's why we chose the cruisetour that we did through Royal. It had the most segments on the train out of all the tour options. We diverted and did the train for the only long bus portion the tour had!

Research the Alaska Railroad (https://www.alaskarailroad.com/).  The cruisetours you book through the cruise lines effectively just hook up a car to their trains.  The train was a fantastic experience.  We did the optional segment from Anchorage to Seward where the southbound cruise left from the morning before the cruise. I would highly, highly recommend that if you do the southbound cruise and leave out of Seward.  Conversely, you could take the train when you arrive on the northbound sailing and get to Anchorage, but that means you're starting the cruise in Vancouver.  

I'm not sure about Ubers. I know it exists in the Anchorage area. The benefit of being on the cruisetour is all those logistics were taken care of. We didn't have to worry about getting to the train stops or excursions or finding hotels. It made it really, really easy and convenient.  Of course it's not as flexible and you're definitely paying for the convenience.

I would imagine flights out of Anchorage or Vancouver would be easier than Fairbanks.  Fairbanks is a TINY airport and we had very limited flight options.  It's definitely the closer airport to Denali, though.

I don't envy you planning this for multiple groups of people potentially with different timelines and agendas.  It's going to be like herding cats 😆

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16 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

That's why we chose the cruisetour that we did through Royal. It had the most segments on the train out of all the tour options. We diverted and did the train for the only long bus portion the tour had!

Research the Alaska Railroad (https://www.alaskarailroad.com/).  The cruisetours you book through the cruise lines effectively just hook up a car to their trains.  The train was a fantastic experience.  We did the optional segment from Anchorage to Seward where the southbound cruise left from the morning before the cruise. I would highly, highly recommend that if you do the southbound cruise and leave out of Seward.  Conversely, you could take the train when you arrive on the northbound sailing and get to Anchorage, but that means you're starting the cruise in Vancouver.  

I'm not sure about Ubers. I know it exists in the Anchorage area. The benefit of being on the cruisetour is all those logistics were taken care of. We didn't have to worry about getting to the train stops or excursions or finding hotels. It made it really, really easy and convenient.  Of course it's not as flexible and you're definitely paying for the convenience.

I would imagine flights out of Anchorage or Vancouver would be easier than Fairbanks.  Fairbanks is a TINY airport and we had very limited flight options.  It's definitely the closer airport to Denali, though.

I don't envy you planning this for multiple groups of people potentially with different timelines and agendas.  It's going to be like herding cats 😆

Yes, I have a bunch of info on the Alaska Railroad that I haven't had the chance to read through yet. Would rather do diy for land portion like I said because there's a possibility some may not be able to do it at all, and some may want to stay more days. Definitely need flexibility.

Not sure why I thought Fairbanks was the larger airport, totally overwhelmed I tell ya!

Luckily we are all easy going and we know we don't plan to do everything together the entire trip. I'll be on here daily now I'm sure! 

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In 2018 my wife and I did 10-days DIY* on land traveling from Fairbanks down to Seward, all by train, followed by a 7-night Southbound cruise to Vancouver.

*An outside company spent a year planning the trip with my wife and our final itinerary was revision #57 or something.

Granted this was an over the top trip (length and budget-wise for us) for our 40th birthdays but I will give my general opinion to spend as much time on land as possible and do it before the cruise. I have nothing against the cruise ports but our biggest highlights came during the 10 days on land.

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We did a 6 day DIY before our cruise out of Seward in May. Landed in Anchorage, took a Uber to a BNB (recommend you stay as close to downtown as possible), Did a Princess Train the next day to Denali, stayed two nights in a Princess Hotel there. Then train back to Anchorage, Uber to Girdwood for two days. Then train to Seward the day before cruise. Train fare was @$600 total. Did not go up to Fairbanks, but the train does go there.

P.S. Girdwood was my favorite. Best restaurant I've ever been to and the Alyeska Ski Tram is incredible. We stayed in BNBs and not the resort there.

https://doublemuskyinn.com/

https://www.alyeskaresort.com/

https://girdwood.com/

 

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24 minutes ago, Swar said:

We did a 6 day DIY before our cruise out of Seward in May. Landed in Anchorage, took a Uber to a BNB (recommend you stay as close to downtown as possible), Did a Princess Train the next day to Denali, stayed two nights in a Princess Hotel there. Then train back to Anchorage, Uber to Girdwood for two days. Then train to Seward the day before cruise. Train fare was @$600 total. Did not go up to Fairbanks, but the train does go there.

P.S. Girdwood was my favorite. Best restaurant I've ever been to and the Alyeska Ski Tram is incredible. We stayed in BNBs and not the resort there.

https://doublemuskyinn.com/

https://www.alyeskaresort.com/

https://girdwood.com/

 

 

We stayed in the Alyeska resort, it was indeed beautiful.

Went into the actual town of Girdwood twice, that place is a trip! Our glacier hike guide called it "Weirdwood" and we immediately understood. We actually did our laundry at a laundromat there that was attached to a marijuana dispensary, lol (it was roughly halfway through our 18-day trip). Some of the the locals we met were, ummmm, let's say interesting. 🤣

Staying in the lodge in the very back of Denali (end of the road, 93 miles in or whatever) was a huge highlight. It's very cool back there (albeit pricey) and flying around Mt. Denali was amazing.

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14 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Staying in the lodge in the very back of Denali (end of the road, 93 miles in or whatever) was a huge highlight. It's very cool back there (albeit pricey) and flying around Mt. Denali was amazing.

Denali was incredible. Saw a moose deliver twins. The Ranger dog area was pretty neat also. The road to the cabins has been washed out and it may be a couple of years to repair it. Flying to the cabins is the only known option. We had clear views of Mt. Denali for a lot of the train ride up - beautiful.

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We have done the Alaska north bound cruise tour twice...Once in 2017 and again last June and both on the Radiance of the Seas.  We like the cruise tours because everything is taken care of for us...Don't have to carry your luggage all over the place...It's delivered to your room and you just set it outside the next mourning.   We like the four trips/days on the train and the beautifully scenery.  The food on the train was excellent this year and the hotels are awesome!!!  The Denali park visit was included and is a must see and do.  

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17 minutes ago, Swar said:

Denali was incredible. Saw a moose deliver twins. The Ranger dog area was pretty neat also. The road to the cabins has been washed out and it may be a couple of years to repair it. Flying to the cabins is the only known option. We had clear views of Mt. Denali for a lot of the train ride up - beautiful.

Your moose encounter beats mine. That's amazing. We stayed one night in the front of the park after two nights in the back. We took the shuttle into Glitter Gulch (I think that's what they call the town part with the lodges, stores, restaurants, etc.) and while talking to another couple on the way, our driver slammed on the brakes. By the time we could look up a mama moose and her baby were running away from us across the busy road. 🙈

It's a shame about the road being washed out. We enjoyed the bus ride, as long as it was. Saw tons of animals including a mama grizzly and her two cubs. On our way back out, in the early AM, we had an entire bus to ourselves plus one lodge employee who was hitching a ride into town for supplies, but he went to sleep in the back so it was just us and the driver. He was nice enough to ask us if we wanted to skip any stops and/or spend extra time at others to just let him know. We wound up with four free Denali travel mugs and that's what I bring on every cruise now for my extra large cappuccinos to go from the DL/SL.

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We did just a 10 day land tour last year and we used Pursuit Travel to help plan our trip. They are a travel group that will help you plan your own land tour. They will secure lodging and tickets to anything you desire to do. We used a combination of Alaskan buses and trains because it fit our schedule. You can choose differently. We flew in and out of Anchorage but Fairbanks is just as good an option. From Anchorage we went to Talkeetna and Denali where we hiked and fly fished. Talkeetna is a quirky fun town and shouldn’t be missed. We then went south to Seward which is gorgeous also. The train ride between Anchorage and Seward I’d one of the most scenic you’ll take! This is the link to pursuit. They have trips listed by days but they are not tours taken in groups. They are for you to do on your own. You can use these as a jumping off point and work with agent to do just what you want. 
https://www.alaskacollection.com/?vngagetrans=GdNFYRlVAZOV7se6nXny

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7 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

In 2018 my wife and I did 10-days DIY* on land traveling from Fairbanks down to Seward, all by train, followed by a 7-night Southbound cruise to Vancouver.

*An outside company spent a year planning the trip with my wife and our final itinerary was revision #57 or something.

Granted this was an over the top trip (length and budget-wise for us) for our 40th birthdays but I will give my general opinion to spend as much time on land as possible and do it before the cruise. I have nothing against the cruise ports but our biggest highlights came during the 10 days on land.

We decided as a group to do the land portion afterwards. We are all over the place as far as the other stuff goes. Once the cruise is actually booked I'll share what we are doing! I'm so excited. Wish MEI would get back to me. I reached out to someone else in the meantime just in case.

7 hours ago, dodgestang said:

Don't use Air Canada is my only advice I can offer

We will have to use whatever works best with our work schedules and airports.

6 hours ago, Swar said:

We did a 6 day DIY before our cruise out of Seward in May. Landed in Anchorage, took a Uber to a BNB (recommend you stay as close to downtown as possible), Did a Princess Train the next day to Denali, stayed two nights in a Princess Hotel there. Then train back to Anchorage, Uber to Girdwood for two days. Then train to Seward the day before cruise. Train fare was @$600 total. Did not go up to Fairbanks, but the train does go there.

P.S. Girdwood was my favorite. Best restaurant I've ever been to and the Alyeska Ski Tram is incredible. We stayed in BNBs and not the resort there.

https://doublemuskyinn.com/

https://www.alyeskaresort.com/

https://girdwood.com/

 

I will put these on my list to check out, thank you! We won't have that many days on land unfortunately.

6 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

We stayed in the Alyeska resort, it was indeed beautiful.

Went into the actual town of Girdwood twice, that place is a trip! Our glacier hike guide called it "Weirdwood" and we immediately understood. We actually did our laundry at a laundromat there that was attached to a marijuana dispensary, lol (it was roughly halfway through our 18-day trip). Some of the the locals we met were, ummmm, let's say interesting. 🤣

Staying in the lodge in the very back of Denali (end of the road, 93 miles in or whatever) was a huge highlight. It's very cool back there (albeit pricey) and flying around Mt. Denali was amazing.

I live in NJ, weed is legal here. I'm all for people to be able to smoke what they want, but boy it smells so bad here sometimes because of it. 

6 hours ago, Psycho and Barb said:

We have done the Alaska north bound cruise tour twice...Once in 2017 and again last June and both on the Radiance of the Seas.  We like the cruise tours because everything is taken care of for us...Don't have to carry your luggage all over the place...It's delivered to your room and you just set it outside the next mourning.   We like the four trips/days on the train and the beautifully scenery.  The food on the train was excellent this year and the hotels are awesome!!!  The Denali park visit was included and is a must see and do.  

We can't book them together, at this time we aren't guaranteed to have those days off yet. Too many other things up in the air. I'm thinking we have 2-4 days on land tops.

3 hours ago, Kathleen said:

We did just a 10 day land tour last year and we used Pursuit Travel to help plan our trip. They are a travel group that will help you plan your own land tour. They will secure lodging and tickets to anything you desire to do. We used a combination of Alaskan buses and trains because it fit our schedule. You can choose differently. We flew in and out of Anchorage but Fairbanks is just as good an option. From Anchorage we went to Talkeetna and Denali where we hiked and fly fished. Talkeetna is a quirky fun town and shouldn’t be missed. We then went south to Seward which is gorgeous also. The train ride between Anchorage and Seward I’d one of the most scenic you’ll take! This is the link to pursuit. They have trips listed by days but they are not tours taken in groups. They are for you to do on your own. You can use these as a jumping off point and work with agent to do just what you want. 
https://www.alaskacollection.com/?vngagetrans=GdNFYRlVAZOV7se6nXny

That sounds awesome! I will definitely look into them. Thank you for including the link as well.

I'm so excited to get this cruise booked and researching EVERYTHING. I live for this stuff. Thanks for everyone for your advice.

Currently there's not many rooms left on the Starboard side, is Port side really that bad for a balcony? 

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We are right now planning the DIY tour (6 nights) before the southbound cruise next august. 

Trains and buses are absolutely worth a consideration, but they are way expensive for a family with two kids. Train from ANC to Seward would be in the 300s for us.

Fairbanks can be reached with Alaska Airlines (and for sure an AA feeder flight).

My real problem now is the rental car, as no company is pricing or showing them for august 2023. Any advice here?

btw: Uber is often not available in some regions of Alaska...

 

Carotthat

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1 hour ago, Bob_KY said:

One reinforcing comment to @Swar and @OCSC Mike - Girdwood was fantastic.  A must is dinner at 7 Glaciers Restaurant. 

I had read about 7 Glaciers. We're not fine dining people except for special occasions but I know it's highly regarded. We actually ate at 2 inexpensive local places in the downtown area. Once was very good, the other not so much. It was fun and interesting to be amongst the locals though. As I mentioned, it's a very "interesting" place beyond the tourists.

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9 hours ago, NJCruisers said:

 

Currently there's not many rooms left on the Starboard side, is Port side really that bad for a balcony? 

If you are northbound, the starboard side of the ship will be facing land while port will be facing water when you are in open water. We took a southbound cruise on Radiance this summer, and because the ship sailed a lot of the inside passage, there was land on both side a good portion of the time.

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17 hours ago, NJCruisers said:

I don't enjoy bus tours, I tend to get nauseas on them so that's why I was hoping to get a car or a train most of the way. I don't even know if Uber is a thing out there! I'm NEVER this unprepared but we don't want to delay this a full year so we are hoping to book the cruise portion & then get to planning the rest once we research and get everyone's must do lists. 

We would have to fly home from Fairbanks to New Jersey. Since it's an International airport I figured that would be our best bet. 

My travel agent recommended a company called "railbookers" to arrange the land potion of an Alaska trip I was considering.  I haven't booked it yet, so I can't really say much about them.  Their itineraries look great and are customizable. All transport is done by the Alaska Railroad and you had your choice of Adventure (cheapest) class and Gold Star (nicest class). 

On my most recent trip to Alaska, I extended my stay in Seward. It was the highlight of that trip.  We took the "Kenai Fjords National Park Tour with Dinner on Fox Island" tour from this company Multiple Cruise Options for Tours of Kenai Fjords National Park (alaskacollection.com). It was fantastic.

The next day, we took the Alaska Railroad Gold Leaf service to Anchorage.  It took 4 hours but was outstanding.  One word of warning though.  The train from Seward to Anchorage leaves at 6 pm.  This  means the whole trip is in daylight in June, but will be dark in September.

As far as which side of the ship to book, I think it is an overrated concern.  Ideally, you would want starboard for a northbound trip and port of southbound as you might see more land.  In reality, it doesn't make much difference as much of the trip is winding through islands, so they are visible on both sides of the ship.

Occasionally, you'll hear someone question if it even makes sense to purchase a balcony. You can put me in that category.  Don't get me wrong, on a sunny day, sitting on your balcony in Alaska is tough to beat.  However, Alaska is a chilly, rainy place and it is rare that sitting on your balcony is comfortable.  On my last cruise, the balcony was 3x the price of an interior.  I prefer taking 3 cruises on an interior to 1 cruise with a cold, damp balcony.

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11 hours ago, NJCruisers said:

We will have to use whatever works best with our work schedules and airports.

If you use air canada and/or connect through Toronto Airport....you will miss the cruise.  I literally watched Air Canada cancel a flight out of Philly the day before the cruise and tell passengers how they wouldn't get to Vancouver now until 2 days later (the day after the cruise left port) because of their inability to get flights in the air with crews or get ground crews in place to support the flights that were flying into/out of Toronto.

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1 hour ago, steverk said:

Occasionally, you'll hear someone question if it even makes sense to purchase a balcony. You can put me in that category.  Don't get me wrong, on a sunny day, sitting on your balcony in Alaska is tough to beat.  However, Alaska is a chilly, rainy place and it is rare that sitting on your balcony is comfortable.  On my last cruise, the balcony was 3x the price of an interior.  I prefer taking 3 cruises on an interior to 1 cruise with a cold, damp balcony.

We've had extremely different experiences in Alaska 😉

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, steverk said:

My travel agent recommended a company called "railbookers" to arrange the land potion of an Alaska trip I was considering.  I haven't booked it yet, so I can't really say much about them.  Their itineraries look great and are customizable. All transport is done by the Alaska Railroad and you had your choice of Adventure (cheapest) class and Gold Star (nicest class). 

On my most recent trip to Alaska, I extended my stay in Seward. It was the highlight of that trip.  We took the "Kenai Fjords National Park Tour with Dinner on Fox Island" tour from this company Multiple Cruise Options for Tours of Kenai Fjords National Park (alaskacollection.com). It was fantastic.

The next day, we took the Alaska Railroad Gold Leaf service to Anchorage.  It took 4 hours but was outstanding.  One word of warning though.  The train from Seward to Anchorage leaves at 6 pm.  This  means the whole trip is in daylight in June, but will be dark in September.

As far as which side of the ship to book, I think it is an overrated concern.  Ideally, you would want starboard for a northbound trip and port of southbound as you might see more land.  In reality, it doesn't make much difference as much of the trip is winding through islands, so they are visible on both sides of the ship.

Occasionally, you'll hear someone question if it even makes sense to purchase a balcony. You can put me in that category.  Don't get me wrong, on a sunny day, sitting on your balcony in Alaska is tough to beat.  However, Alaska is a chilly, rainy place and it is rare that sitting on your balcony is comfortable.  On my last cruise, the balcony was 3x the price of an interior.  I prefer taking 3 cruises on an interior to 1 cruise with a cold, damp balcony.

Thank you! I will look into them. I have Kenai Fjords on my list of places to research. I'm reading now Denali is only reached by helicopter and that's definitely not something I'm able to do. I need Xanax just to get on a plane. I've never flown as far as I will have to for this cruise so I'm trying to block that out for now, lol.

We are hoping to go in July, waiting on MEI to get back to me, if that doesn't work out then it will be June. We didn't have a balcony last trip and honestly we didn't miss it because we spent a good amount of time enjoying the ship. At home we like to sleep with the windows open so we thought it would be nice to be able to hopefully keep the door open a bit at night. I could never do an interior without natural light at some point but that's just me. Maybe for a short weekend cruise or something. 

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6 hours ago, Carotthat said:

We are right now planning the DIY tour (6 nights) before the southbound cruise next august. 

Trains and buses are absolutely worth a consideration, but they are way expensive for a family with two kids. Train from ANC to Seward would be in the 300s for us.

Fairbanks can be reached with Alaska Airlines (and for sure an AA feeder flight).

My real problem now is the rental car, as no company is pricing or showing them for august 2023. Any advice here?

btw: Uber is often not available in some regions of Alaska...

 

Carotthat

Thanks. We are a group of 6, but 3 couples.  Unfortunately we don't have 6 days to do land, those pesky jobs just keep getting in the way! 

I have a lot to figure out as well. 

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28 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

If you use air canada and/or connect through Toronto Airport....you will miss the cruise.  I literally watched Air Canada cancel a flight out of Philly the day before the cruise and tell passengers how they wouldn't get to Vancouver now until 2 days later (the day after the cruise left port) because of their inability to get flights in the air with crews or get ground crews in place to support the flights that were flying into/out of Toronto.

Yikes! I honestly think every airline has a horror story. United screwed my son big time last month. Our cruise leaves Friday, I think the plan was to try to get a flight out Wednesday night sometime that way if it gets delayed we still have Thursday. I normally use Jet Blue and haven't had any problems but they don't fly there. We are coming from NJ, NY & PA so once we get the cruise booked we will work on everything else. Thank you for the heads up though, it's good info to have.

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43 minutes ago, NJCruisers said:

Yeah, that cabin is definitely out of our price range but good for you! 🙂

Just pointing out the weather....sitting outside, drinking wine, soaking in the sun.  It had rained the day before, but even then, kids were out on the balcony whale spotting.  I wouldn't let the threat of rain dissuade someone from getting a room with a view.  That's what I meant by different experiences 😉

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27 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

Just pointing out the weather....sitting outside, drinking wine, soaking in the sun.  It had rained the day before, but even then, kids were out on the balcony whale spotting.  I wouldn't let the threat of rain dissuade someone from getting a room with a room.  That's what I meant by different experiences 😉

Ha! My husband wears shorts all winter long here in NJ, he'll be outside in shorts and I'll be bundled up, lol. 

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1 hour ago, NJCruisers said:

Thank you! I will look into them. I have Kenai Fjords on my list of places to research. I'm reading now Denali is only reached by helicopter and that's definitely not something I'm able to do. I need Xanax just to get on a plane. I've never flown as far as I will have to for this cruise so I'm trying to block that out for now, lol.

We are hoping to go in July, waiting on MEI to get back to me, if that doesn't work out then it will be June. We didn't have a balcony last trip and honestly we didn't miss it because we spent a good amount of time enjoying the ship. At home we like to sleep with the windows open so we thought it would be nice to be able to hopefully keep the door open a bit at night. I could never do an interior without natural light at some point but that's just me. Maybe for a short weekend cruise or something. 

I hope you have a great trip!  

I've never been to Denali, but my research says that the mountain top is hidden by clouds about 75% of the time, so seeing it can be tough.  Enjoy it if you get lucky!

I also understand that most Denali excursions take a bus to a visitor center, where you change to a national park bus. (the pictures look like a school bus).  from there, they take you in to the park on a dirt road.  It takes several hours, but is supposed to be incredible.

Taking a helicopter sounds easier, but I can understand why that might not be an option.  Cost alone would keep it out of my list of things to do.

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19 minutes ago, steverk said:

I hope you have a great trip!  

I've never been to Denali, but my research says that the mountain top is hidden by clouds about 75% of the time, so seeing it can be tough.  Enjoy it if you get lucky!

I also understand that most Denali excursions take a bus to a visitor center, where you change to a national park bus. (the pictures look like a school bus).  from there, they take you in to the park on a dirt road.  It takes several hours, but is supposed to be incredible.

Taking a helicopter sounds easier, but I can understand why that might not be an option.  Cost alone would keep it out of my list of things to do.

Cost is definitely the 2nd factor! Between the cruise & airfare I'm going to be working all the overtime hours I can get!

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4 hours ago, NJCruisers said:

Yikes! I honestly think every airline has a horror story. United screwed my son big time last month. Our cruise leaves Friday, I think the plan was to try to get a flight out Wednesday night sometime that way if it gets delayed we still have Thursday. I normally use Jet Blue and haven't had any problems but they don't fly there. We are coming from NJ, NY & PA so once we get the cruise booked we will work on everything else. Thank you for the heads up though, it's good info to have.

Just here to agree that every airline has horror stories while plenty of planes go without problems all day long. I am just back from my honeymoon and had only amazing Air Canada experiences on all 4 legs. We were seveeeerely delayed leaving Athens and nearly missed our connection in Montreal, the gate was closed but the gate attendant called down and was able to reopen and let us board. 😍 No need to avoid if they work for you! 

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  • 3 months later...

Someone has an idea for car rental from ANC to Seward?

We have the individual planned land portion before the cruise, and plan to return the car in Seward.

Unfortunately, neither Hertz nor Thrifty (these two have offices in Seward) loaded their prices yet for end of july 23.

Train or bus is no option, would be in the low 400s for party of 4.

Right now, we plan to pick up the car in ANC, drive north to fairbanks and travel down with stops on the road (and Kenai Ford also) to Seward.

 

Carotthat.

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I tried Alaskatravel.com, they provide SUVs and OW-rentals. A small SUV is about 1,5k$ for 4 days - they work together with thrifty and overcharge every single item.

Called Hertz: They are quite astonished, as not even they can quote any car on any date in 2023 in Anchorage. Except this suspicious manager's special without any further information.
There's not even an eMail available for any of the two ANC stations.
They assume, the franchise is down.

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7 hours ago, Carotthat said:

I tried Alaskatravel.com, they provide SUVs and OW-rentals. A small SUV is about 1,5k$ for 4 days - they work together with thrifty and overcharge every single item.

Called Hertz: They are quite astonished, as not even they can quote any car on any date in 2023 in Anchorage. Except this suspicious manager's special without any further information.
There's not even an eMail available for any of the two ANC stations.
They assume, the franchise is down.

I currently have a car booked through Expedia, it's expensive but I wanted to reserve something just to have it until we figure things out.

I have a confirmation from Budget in Anchorage for a minivan. 3 days is $790.

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I've only done it once and it was the southbound with the land tour at the beginning. For me it worked out perfectly. Got the long flight out of the way at the beginning of the trip when you're all excited and fresh. Then used the cruise portion as the relaxing part on the way back to Vancouver and then spent a night in Vancouver which is just a beauty of a city before flying home. We booked the land portion through the cruise line so that the logistics were all taken care of. Went through Princess but they did a great job of meeting us in Fairbanks and making it super easy all along the way. 

As far as which side of the ship. I don't think it matters much. When you're in the inside passage you'll have scenery on both sides of the ship. On glacier viewing day the ship will rotate to give everyone a view. 

if you don't have a balcony and are doing an inside to save money, get as high on the ship as you can so you can run up to the outside deck and from there you're able to go to both sides easily to take in the views. 

Now that I've gone once, when I go back I'll most likely do a 7 day roundtrip unless I'm with someone who has never done it in which case I'm down to go another cruise-tour

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