OK
we will be traveling --booking 3 cabins on a Regent cruise (Navigator)
Thoughts on
clothes/weather
swimming?? our boys will be 14 and 17
balconey suites..
we will travel as a 3 generation "trip of a lifetime"
All advice welcome...we are experienced travelers--
and experienced "newbie" cruisers (3 carribean cruise as long as 11 nights)
though my MiL has been to Alaska on 3 previous cruises...
...we are taking the Denali trip pre-cruise which is her "must do" for this trip
so please share thoughts on rooms, Regent, land excursions and so on..
Thanks so much ;o)
Alaska, balconey rooms, swimming and Regent
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fogfog - I am looking forward to some comments on your questions as we have just been invited to join 2 other couples on an Alaskan cruise! We have only ever been on a 3 day coastal cruise in the Indian Ocean and have NO idea what a cruise like this would be like.
What is the Denali trip 'pre-cruise'????? Please get your MIL to post her experiences PLEASE!
I'm in the early stages of thinking about an Alaskan cruise for next year so your post caught my eye...
I'm not sure but I think the answer may depend on your cruise dates.
RE Denali --we are taking the pre cruise tour of Denali park--I hear its a MUST DO --because its a chance to see the national park, animal sitings, flora and fauna etc...
We just completed our 8th Regent cruise, which was to the Baltics. It was incredible, though exhausting. We went on the Mariner to Alaska several years ago. I am not sure exactly what you want to know.
We did our own pre-cruise, which is far less expensive than using Regent and far more flexible. We rented a car at the Anchorage airport, stayed overnight in Anchorage, given our flight arrival time. The next day we headed for Denali. The weather was so beautiful we stopped in Talkeetna (where we planned to go after Denali) and took a flight around McKinley (using a 2-for-1 coupon from Toursaver.com). The we proceeded to Denali where we stayed in Healy at a B&B for one night. The next day we headed into Denali; we had purchased tickets ahead of time for the shuttle bus trip to Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66 in the Park. After the Park, we drove to Talkeetna where we stayed at the Alaskan Lodge for two nights. We toured around that area—Talkeetna was the model for the TV show “Northern Exposure”—and among other things took a riverboat safari (with Mahay’s Riverboat Service—again with a coupon—which was fun.
Then we drove back to the Anchorage airport where we dropped off the rental car. We took the Regent Grandview train directly from the airport—steps away from the car—down to Seward. The train ride was spectacular. Then we boarded the Mariner. During the cruise, we took a combination of our own and Regent excursions, but that was before "free" excursions were in the picture.
After the cruise, we spent a few days in Vancouver. If you want more details, feel free to drop me a line at dreps@comcast.net.
In planning this trip, I found information from the Alaska Cruise Critic board very helpful, especially posts by Budget Queen, with whom I even corresponded directly.
We did Alaska as one of our Regent cruises so here are some thoughts.
Regent is replacing Mariner with Navigator in Alaska next year. Navigator has some non-balcony rooms. This is a cruise where the balcony is worth it, especially as the captain, when there is great scenery, will stop the ship and spin on it's axis to allow everone on the balconies to get a 360 degree view. Navigator does have a vibration problem so you may want to be sure your suites are not too far aft.
If you are taking more than one suite and they will be adjacent there is the possibility of removing the raillings seperating the balconies. They are not really "removable" but, on our trip, we were next to a family with two suites and they asked to have it removed and a team of mechanics came up and spent quite some time unbolting the railing so the people could float betwen suites using the balcony doors. Most cruise lines will not do this but Regent tries to do anything you want if it's within reason.
We did our land tour by bus and would not do so again. However, time flew with the entertaining guide and I didn't realize until I later thought about it how long the drives were between places. I wouldn't be too eager to rent a car and concentrate on driving four and five hour legs not being able to concentrate on the scenery. I would check out Alaska Railroad's web site. They do tours to Denali. The trains are great with the gold service cars having upper level decks where you can go out and watch the scenery. Assuming you're able to ride a bus for 8 or 10 hours, take the long tour into the park. The shorter tours barely get into the park and you may not even see any wildlife on those.
So far as shore excursions, the highlight of our trip was the glacier helicopter tour in Juneau. The one we kick ourselves for missing is the Tracy Arm wildlife tour by boat which eveybody who was on it says it was tremendous.