Cruise Talk: Alaska Cruises

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Topic: Alaska Cruises

AGT
Just Boarded
Member # 1546

posted 04-25-2001 01:15 PM

Any ideas as to which cruise lines have the best Alaskan cruise? I am also interested to hear about the shore excursion pros/cons everyone has had. I love cruising, but am wondering if this is really the way to see Alaska. Some thoughts would be great!

Posts: 6 | From: St. Paul. MN USA | Registered: Aug 2000 | IP: Logged

Malcolm @ cruisepage
Cruise Director
Member # 301

posted 04-25-2001 03:31 PM

agt, Alaska is a great place to cruise, however in my opinion the main ports are all rather commercial. You get to see the 'real' Alaska when you take an excursion into the wilderness.

There is a wonderful choice of excursions on offer to all the cruise lines (but they are all rather expensive in my opinion). My favourite was Skagway's 'White Pass Mountain railway' - don't miss it!

I think that a great thing to do would be a Cruise combined with a land tour. Princess do a range of these, but they such a combination is expensive.

I had a good time with Celebrity, but why not look at the deals offered by all the major cruise lines and compare?

Posts: 19210 | From: Essex (Just Outside London) | Registered: A Long Time Ago! | IP: Logged

bubbles
First Class Passenger
Member # 1415

posted 04-26-2001 04:56 AM

Princess; HAL and RCI have very popular Alaska routes and I do not think there is much to choose between them. All the Alaska destinations are overwhelmed every day when the ships arrive in these small towns and boost local populations to 100x their normal levels then leave. You are best to take trips which allow you to experience the areas best qualities for wildlife and scenery. When we took the tour much of our budget went on trips and they were well worth it althought they were expensive. The rail trip is excellent but we also took helicopter to glacier trip and canoeing and white water rafting trips, we might only go that way once and we wanted to make the most of it. Caribbean next year!

Posts: 133 | From: England | Registered: Jul 2000 | IP: Logged

Green
First Class Passenger
Member # 171

posted 04-26-2001 02:53 PM

quote:
Originally posted by AGT:
Any ideas as to which cruise lines have the best Alaskan cruise? I am also interested to hear about the shore excursion pros/cons everyone has had. I love cruising, but am wondering if this is really the way to see Alaska. Some thoughts would be great!

To see Alaska you really should, if at all possible, add a tour. I did the land portion first - flew to Anchorage, land to Denali, on to Fairbanks, short plane hop to Eagle to connect with river boat to Dawson City - overland to Whitehorse, Fraser and joined the ship in Juneau for the cruise to Vancouver. If you pick up a HAL Alaska Brochure a very similar tour is described on Page 47 - Alaska & Klondike Explorer.

At various stops we met up with Princess cruisers - they always seemed to be standing around waiting for something or other.

It is pricey but if you can swing it, you will not regret it. Book the cheapest cabin - on the cruise portion - you spend most of your time on deck. Bubbles said it - "YOU ONLY GO THIS WAY ONCE"

Cheers

Posts: 2913 | From: Markham, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jul 99 | IP: Logged

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