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Best way to combine a land tour with small ship cruise in Alaska

Best way to combine a land tour with small ship cruise in Alaska

Old Jul 18th, 2022, 07:53 AM
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Best way to combine a land tour with small ship cruise in Alaska

Good morning,
I apologize in advance if this is a redundant set of questions. My husband and I are looking for a land tour to Denali followed by a small ship (under 400 passengers) cruise from Anchorage/Seward to either Vancouver or San Francisco. We've never cruised before but know that a large ship with 3000 passengers or more is not our cup of tea. Windstar and Silver Seas seem to have the smaller ships but don't offer the land piece. Is it advisable to book those as two separate segments? If so, what is a good land tour company. Our budget is flexible and we understand that the smaller ships will be more costly. We're planning a 14 day total trip for Late June/early July 2023.

Thank you!
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Old Jul 18th, 2022, 08:37 AM
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You're really better off doing the land tour portion on your own. Besides Denali, what other destinations (if any) or activities in southcentral or interior Alaska interest you? One important thing to note is that the interior of Denali National Park is currently inaccessible by road, owing to major construction efforts needed to keep the current road open (or to build a bypass around the trouble area.) Nobody is saying if this will be resolved by next summer, and if you plan to come in June or July, i.e. early in the summer season given it's Denali we're talking about, I'd think the odds that it won't be resolved are high enough that I'd reconsider that part of the trip.

If the road situation is resolved, and/or if there are other things you'd like to see (for example the Kenai Fjords, or Homer and Kachemak Bay) then I'd book a car and drive yourself, rather than relying on a guided tour. Be prepared for sticker shock on the car front (prices are very high everywhere) but it's really the best way to see things.

One note about the small-ship cruises. Many of them visit the same ports of call as the major cruise lines, often Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. Don't underestimate the impact this can have on these small towns. It's not uncommon that Skagway, population 800 counting dogs, is visited by four or even five cruise ships, each carrying 2000+ passengers and 1000+ crew (as well as any "small ship" boats) on a given day. Do the math. So while the small ship experience can be terrific (or so I'm told) remember that you'll be part of mass market tourism when you hit the shore. Just sayin'.
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Old Jul 18th, 2022, 04:53 PM
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Ditto Gardyloo. We just got back. The first part of our trip was flying to Fairbanks where we rented a car. We did Denali by booking one of the bus tours offered by the contractor for the NPS and stayed in Healy. On down the road to Seward and Homer both and finally back to Anchorage where we flew to Seattle and then boarded a round trip cruise with Oceania to do the other spots typically done by cruise.

Driving gave us a lot of flexibility. Saw sights when we wanted to and of course more than mentioned here.

As mentioned several ships in a port at one time but still doable.
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Old Jul 19th, 2022, 06:45 AM
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You can still get into Denali, just not as far as in 2021 when I went. The only way in is on a bus, even the tour companies will have to book a bus seat for you and they are not supposed to do "guiding" while on the bus. If you go in June, that is a good wildlife month and much of the wildlife is seen before you get to the landslide closure. We were lucky that the guide who normally runs one of the narrated tour buses decided to drive the regular "transit" bus that we were on.

https://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm

https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvis...ing-denali.htm

For details see here: If you want more narration then book the more expensive TWT tours.

https://www.reservedenali.com/

I recommend that you order a copy of the Mile Post

https://themilepost.com/


I went on a guided birding tour in 2021, our lodgings are here:

Alaska Lodgings and Restaurants June 2021

I do recommend doing one of the Kenai Fjords cruises. I like the company Major Marine.

Car rentals were indeed hard to come by, speakin to some independent travelers they had to fly into Fairbanks to even find a car.

BTW, it is not all of that stressful to drive from Anchorage to Denali, despite what some 'experts' like to tell you. We stayed in Cantwell rather than Healy.

I really enjoyed the gravel Denali Highway between Cantwell and Paxson.

https://www.alaska.org/guide/denali-highway

Moose are abundant in June, even around Anchorage. We ran into a mom and two babies near our cabins in Cantwell.

As far as cruising, I do like Holland America in Alaska. Their ships such as Noordam don't feel that crowded. Don't listen to anyone who tells you not to include Glacier Bay, I would book only a oneway cruise (eg Whittier to Vancouver). I prefer southbound since it is so easy to leave from Vancouver. The major ports such as Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan are going to be slammed but you can book excursions with small numbers of people.

Note, that you can also book your own train seats, and the trains do come with narration.

Last edited by mlgb; Jul 19th, 2022 at 06:58 AM.
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Old Jul 19th, 2022, 12:54 PM
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We spent two weeks in a rental car exploring Denali,Talkeetna, Homer, stayed at a fishing camp on Kenai River, took a float plane from Homer over to Kenai National Park to see the beats catching salmon in the waterfalls and walking about. This independent travel was no different than in the lower 48 states.
Then we flews south from Anchorage to Juneau where we boarded a Lindblad( now affiliated with National Geographic)expeditionary ship, about 85 passengers. We toured all around that area and only saw one big cruise ship as they couldn’t go where we were. We had constant whale sightings, hikes in the rain forest, kayaking in the bays. I would never go on one those huge ships. There are several small ship companies that explore Alaska. The big cruise ships also offer packaged land tours which we didn’t want.
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Old Jul 19th, 2022, 01:03 PM
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If you do a day cruise from Seward such as Major Marine, or from Whittier, especially in June, you will see whales, (humpbacks and Orca), seals and glaciers. You can hike in the rainforests on the Kenai Peninsula. So you don't need to go to Juneau etc to see that. I probably wouldn't even include Juneau on any non-cruise itinerary, myself. My favorite cruise port was Haines. The town can only take one ship at a time. Unfortunately it looks like HAL doesn't go there anymore. There are still a few that do. You would have to wait for the 2023 schedule, not sure when it posts. My favorite part of the cruise experience was Glacier Bay. Look for a ship that opens up the bow for viewing. Some of the big ones like Majestic Princess and NCL Bliss don't do that. I thought that was where HAL excelled.

https://www.visithaines.com/cruise-s...ship-schedule/


As far as Denali views, you probably want a few more nights in the area to have a chance. The day after we were there, we drove the Denali Hwy and the view of the Alaska Range from the McLaren River was magnificent.

Last edited by mlgb; Jul 19th, 2022 at 01:19 PM.
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Old Jul 21st, 2022, 05:06 AM
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Not sure how "small" you were thinking but we had a wonderful trip on one of the ships that is now run by this company.

​​​​​​https://uncruise.com/pages/alaskan-adventures

It was easy to fly to the beginning of cruise and fly from the end.
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