rjac Posted July 25, 2023 Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 Finally getting to ALASKA! Had this trip all planned out and paid for in 2019 for a land and sea cruise in August of 2020. Well, that didn't happen and I'm sure you know why. This past June my wife says let's go to Alaska, this year. Nothing like waiting util the last minute. So, I go online and the same trip we had planned before is booking 29 August to September 8 at a price I couldn't refuse and an aft cabin to further sweeten the deal. I called Michelle, she still had the trip in her computer and we booked it. Oh. one other thing, Aug 29 is my wife's birthday. Nice. Here's my question. After the land portion (Denali) we end up in Seward to Board the Radiance for the south passageway. The Radiance will be coming from Vancouver on the north passageway to Seward for debarkation of those on board. Where do those folks go/do once they are off the ship? Thanks. Sharla and JohnK6404 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan79 Posted July 25, 2023 Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 Most will get on the train (or other transportation) to Anchorage and fly back home from there. The majority of the rest will complete their “land” portion of their trip after the cruise….doing the reverse of what you will be doing. There will be a number who will stay on the ship as a B2B sailing and go back to Vancouver to conclude their trip. OCSC Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted July 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 Thanks Ryan, that's what I thought. Ryan79 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 You will love this trip. My wife and I did this trip back in July of 2019. If you stay up in Talkeetna consider doing a white water rafting excursion. It was a ton of fun! Hopefully you will get to see the top of Denali quite a bit. We saw it all 3 days of our trip, but they said many people come and never see the top because of clouds. rjac 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carotthat Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 ...and Denali Park has some problems with the Pretty Rock Landslide. Everything after MM 43 is closed. WAAAYTOOO and rjac 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baltodave Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 We took the reverse in June and loved it (7 night Radiance northbound Vancouver to Seward). We booked a 4 day land tour with a different company (Alaska Tour & Travel) afterwards and it was great. If your TA is the great Michelle C. from MEI, that's who we use, and she's wonderful. Anyway, to answer your question, Alaska Tour & Travel arranged for us to pick up a bus at Seward that took us to Anchorage (long ride). When we arrived in Seward, we were surprised that there wasn't anyone there yet to board the ship for the next cruise. We were told they were either still on buses or the train. Have a great time and hope the weather is a great as it was for us. Radiance was a great ship for Alaska! rjac 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 6 hours ago, baltodave said: We took the reverse in June and loved it (7 night Radiance northbound Vancouver to Seward). We booked a 4 day land tour with a different company (Alaska Tour & Travel) afterwards and it was great. If your TA is the great Michelle C. from MEI, that's who we use, and she's wonderful. Anyway, to answer your question, Alaska Tour & Travel arranged for us to pick up a bus at Seward that took us to Anchorage (long ride). When we arrived in Seward, we were surprised that there wasn't anyone there yet to board the ship for the next cruise. We were told they were either still on buses or the train. Have a great time and hope the weather is a great as it was for us. Radiance was a great ship for Alaska! I love the idea of using a different company besides RC for the land portion. We had just booked it through RC and it was good, nothing wrong with it, but probably can get cheaper and maybe better options through someone else. At the time I had just booked that cruise through next cruise, but now use Michelle at MEI. Hoping to go back to Alaska in 2025 so will have Michelle help hook me up! OCSC Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shari Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 20 hours ago, rjac said: Finally getting to ALASKA! Had this trip all planned out and paid for in 2019 for a land and sea cruise in August of 2020. Well, that didn't happen and I'm sure you know why. This past June my wife says let's go to Alaska, this year. Nothing like waiting util the last minute. So, I go online and the same trip we had planned before is booking 29 August to September 8 at a price I couldn't refuse and an aft cabin to further sweeten the deal. I called Michelle, she still had the trip in her computer and we booked it. Oh. one other thing, Aug 29 is my wife's birthday. Nice. Here's my question. After the land portion (Denali) we end up in Seward to Board the Radiance for the south passageway. The Radiance will be coming from Vancouver on the north passageway to Seward for debarkation of those on board. Where do those folks go/do once they are off the ship? Thanks. We will be waving at you as we get off! We will be doing a land tour. There is a FB group for this cruise. Some are staying on for a B2B, some are doing a tour like us, some are doing their own tour, and some are heading to the airport. Enjoy your cruise, you will love it (this is our 3rd Alaska cruise). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCSC Mike Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 10 hours ago, Carotthat said: ...and Denali Park has some problems with the Pretty Rock Landslide. Everything after MM 43 is closed. So sad that it's been like that for quite a while. Back in 2018, spending two nights in the very back of the park at the Denali Backcountry Lodge (along with the bus rides in and back out) was one of the highlights (amongst many) of our 10 days on land before we cruised Radiance southbound. You can still get back there via the air at least. It was a huge splurge for us but so was the entire trip and it was well worth it. And fwiw, this is coming from a very frugal cruiser who is back to booking interiors from PC (an hour's drive for us) to just sail around the Caribbean over and over. Carotthat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCSC Mike Posted July 26, 2023 Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 1 hour ago, LandstromCruise said: I love the idea of using a different company besides RC for the land portion. That's what we did and I highly recommend it (as well as spending as much time on land as your time and budget allow). My wife spent a year planning the trip with an outside company and our final itinerary was revised like 60 times, lol. We spent 10 days on land going from Fairbanks all the way down to Seward with several stops in between before our Southbound cruise. LandstromCruise 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baltodave Posted July 27, 2023 Report Share Posted July 27, 2023 16 hours ago, LandstromCruise said: I love the idea of using a different company besides RC for the land portion. We had just booked it through RC and it was good, nothing wrong with it, but probably can get cheaper and maybe better options through someone else. At the time I had just booked that cruise through next cruise, but now use Michelle at MEI. Hoping to go back to Alaska in 2025 so will have Michelle help hook me up! To be honest, Alaska Tour & Travel was not cheap and Michelle was not familiar with them. That being said we had a great experience with them. 2 full days at Denali a wonderful "Wilderness Express" train to Anchorage. Alaska Tour & Travel arranged all the hotels. Since we had a night flight out of Anchorage, we just booked a separate one-day tour through Viator on the last day. OCSC Mike and LandstromCruise 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCSC Mike Posted July 27, 2023 Report Share Posted July 27, 2023 31 minutes ago, baltodave said: To be honest, Alaska Tour & Travel was not cheap and Michelle was not familiar with them. That being said we had a great experience with them. Sounds very similar to the company we used… Alaska Collection by Pursuit. Definitely not cheap but they own/partner with lodges & hotels throughout Alaska (including the Denali Backcountry Lodge at the very back of the park), they arranged all our train tickets as we took the train all the way from Fairbanks to Seward, set up excursions like driving to the Arctic circle & flying back, flying around Denali, a glacier hike, etc. And our planner there truly worked with my wife for a full year revising & revising this very special trip. Could not recommend them more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carotthat Posted July 27, 2023 Report Share Posted July 27, 2023 I don't wanna know how much you paid for this pre-cruise things OCSC Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCSC Mike Posted July 27, 2023 Report Share Posted July 27, 2023 52 minutes ago, Carotthat said: I don't wanna know how much you paid for this pre-cruise things I didn't want to know either; it was all my wife's idea, lol. It was a huge splurge for us as a one time special trip (our standard vacation is driving an hour to PC for a 7-night cruise in an interior). That said, I've been thanking her for it ever since. It was absolutely amazing and I wouldn't go back without a land portion... although we wouldn't have to do everything again so I'm sure we could make it a bit less pricey... but it will be expensive no matter what. WAAAYTOOO, Villageidiot and Carotthat 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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