Help! First-time Cruiser

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hopeful_cruiser

Guest
Hullo friends,

I am a first-time cruiser and earnestly request some advice from you
experienced folks. I have spent the last few hours/days browsing the
net learning abt cruising options for alaska -- and realized I needed
some help .

Introductions first! My name is Ashish - located in san franscisco and
I'm planning to visit Alaska for a 14-day vacation between 25th June - 9th July
flexible +/- one week - with my parents (senior citizens).

Here is what I am planning roughly - to fly into seattle and take a 6-7
day cruise aboard one of the smaller ships that takes me through the
inside passage. We are huge on sights and less on adventure/confirt-frills.
The comforts of cruise - dining, wining , roulette are complete non-issues for us -- we dont care abt that -- my only two concerns are : enjoying NATURAL BEAUTY and
COST.

The idea is to use the remaining week to rent a car/RV and view inland Alaska
by road. Denali/Fairbanks.. maybe use the train.

Here is the information I request your help with :

1. Instead of the 7-day cruise from seattle - juneau (or thereabouts) would you
recommend using the "Alaska Marine Highway" ? Does it offer similar sights ?
Would you suggest flying into mainland alaska and using local operators for
2-3 day cruises from ports in alaska that take us out to the glaciers and whale-watching ?
Frankly those are the two things we are REALLY interested in for the cruise!

2. If the one-way cruise is the thing to do - could you point me to URL's /
resources / maybe your recommendation for travel-agent / cruise-lines.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have been wanting to go to alaska for a long time and I am sure I'll
have a great time regardless of the choices I make. I just want to showcase
the beauty of the state to my parents ( who are flying in from Asia!!) and at
the same time not be easy meat to tour-operators who take multiple
thousands from me for frills that we are not interested in.

Eagerly hoping for a response.
Thanks,
Ashish
 
P

PEB

Guest
First off a cruise out of Seattle would be a round trip cruise and not get you to Alaska so you could start driving around. There are no cruises out of Juneau either. The only way in or out of Juneau is by boat or plane it is closed off to land by glaciers. For what you are looking for I would take a Gulf of Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. This would take you to Seward or Whittier depending on the cruise line. You would than go to Ankorage. From there you will be able to drive and see Denali, Fairbanks or any other place you wish to go to for the rest of your trip.

You ask for smaller ships and you are taking your parents and want to see the sites and not look for activities try checking with Holland America they sometimes have some good deals on short notice. Princess would also be good but go with the Sun Class ships if you do not want a mega ship. The Sun class are big but not as big as the newere Princess ships. Princess has some good deals this year also.
 
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halfdome86

Guest
I've never sailed with them however Cruisewest has small ship (boat) cruising that takes you really close to nature. They focus on the scenery and wildlife and have no casinos, formal dining, shows, etc. I believe they sail from Seattle and might even have round trips from Juneau.

I agree with the previous message however that if you take one of the bigger lines like Princess, you'll get more scenery leaving from Vancouver.

Try to visit Glacier bay no matter what route you choose. It's awsome and nature at it's finest.
 
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hopeful_cruiser

Guest
Hullo,

Thank you so much for responding to my message. I really
appreciate the information/help that you provide.

As it turns out, cruisewest has 8-day one-way cruises between
juneau / seattle - which is exactly what I was looking for.

Now I can plan to :
1. Fly into anchorage.
2. Do a 4-5 day on-land tour with denali etc.
3. Fly into juneau and do local sightseeing.
4. Take the cruise from juneau -> seattle.

I'll be sure to bug you guys for more information as I do more planning :)
Really excited about my trip !!

Btw, will I need to have a canadian visa to be on the cruise ( That was one
of the reasons that I did not want to cruise from Vancouver - as the visa will
be a problem for me) . Any info on that ?

Thanks,
Ashish
 
A

Alaskaborn

Guest
I see you are getting lots of help for your cruise and none for land. For help with your land package, consider a local Alaskan company. They did all of my mom's tour last year and we had a blast. Plus they go anywhere you want in Alaska. They book every tour. We went flgihtseeing, in Talkeetna, saw wildlife in Denali, and more.
http://www.1anchorsaway.com/alaska/alaska.htm
 
B

boatluvr

Guest
The requirements to enter Canada are: a certified birth certificate or a passport. If your passport is from a country from which Canada requires a visa--that might pose a problem.

The way to get around this is to fly into Alaska or take the Alaska Marine Highway (Ferry) from Bellingham, WA (just south of the Canadian Border). You could fly to Anchorage and take the ferry back. It's tempting to fly into Ketchikan and start out from there, but Alaska Airlines is the only air provider and the cost is around $700 RT per person unless you can find a web special. Try after 5 p.m. on Tuesday evenings for those.

A flight into Juneau is an acceptable alternative.

Smaller ships cost lots more - fewer passengers to share the expenses. Cruise West is a very reputable line - but is 3 times the cost of a trip on Holland America, Princess, Celebrity, Royal Carribean, Carnival, Norwegian or Radisson lines.

You do have lots of choices to choose from. My dream trip is to take the Alaska Marine Highway system from Bellingham, get a stateroom (it's 2 nights/3 days from Bellingham to Ketchikan - stay in local B & B's and either rent a car in each town/or hire a cab to provide a narration of what it is I'm seeing. The next town is Wrangel - 6 hours away by ferry so no stateroom is needed. I'd continue on - with the possibility of taking a bus trip from Skagway or Haines in to the interior (passport or birth certificate required in Canada) or continue up the Alaska coast to Anchorage. You can take a train or bus to Fairbanks if you want to see some of the interior.

I would eventually fly back to the US.
 
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