Seward-Whittier: Is this itinerary doable?
 

We arrive in Seward via the train at 11am. Check into the hotel and then tour the Alaska Sea Life Center then on to Exit Glacier. Somewhere in that time frame also have some dinner.
Next morning check out of hotel and take a Kenai cruise tour. Then hire a car to take us to Whittier in order to board our cruise ship which leaves at 9:30pm. Does this schedule seem doable? Also, where would a person store his luggage after checking out of the hotel and while on the Kenai tour? We are traveling independently.

Your visit to the Sea Life Center may only take a couple of hours. Some people breeze right thru. It's small but I enjoyed it very much since it wasn't crowded and I could watch things. Since it's right in the downtown area you will also have time to browse shops. You might want to have lunch after arriving in Seward and then go right to Exit Glacier. Check hours for Sea Life Center. It may be open into the early evening.
I would check with your hotel about storing your luggage while you're on the day cruise. Many hotels will do this as a courtesy for their guests. You will have plenty of time to get to Whittier but your timing will have to be based on when the one way tunnel is open to traffic. We did a short hike while we were there but Whittier is a former secret military base and lacked the charm of other towns.

"Hire a car" - not sure what you mean by that. Renting a car? Can you drop off in Whittier - not sure you can.
The town of Whittier is a lot less interesting than Seward - personally, I wouldn't plan on doing anything there other than getting on board your ship.

We have been advised by our travel agent to allow plenty of time to get from Anchorage to Whittier - transportation options are limited and the tunnel handles train and car traffic, sometimes with delays. ?Princess cruiselines - since they leave at 9:30. We are going 6/16 one way to Vancouver. We ended up booking transfer offered by cruiseline since train only runs once/day in AM. They run last transfer leaving Anchorage at about 5 PM. We were unable to find workable car drop-off in Whittier solution, as we will be on land on our own prior to cruise.

tigerman99515

Brits (and Aussies too, I believe) use the term "hire" in lieu of "rent", particularly when referring to a car.

Thanks to all for your input. We are doing a "on our own" six day land tour prior to boarding a southbound cruise ship to Vancouver. The land part of our trip cumulates with taking the train from Anchorage to Seward where we'll do the Sea Life tour, Exit Glacier, and Kenai tour then on to Whittier to board the ship. We are planning on hiring a car and driver through Alaska Transportation Group to take us from Seward to Whittier and don't expect that we'd have time to see anything in Whittier even if there was something to see. Thanks again for the information.

Your driver with the car will probably know what time you have leave Seward by, but do take into consideration that the tunnel to get to Whittier from the Seward Hwy is only open to traffic one way at a time, each half hour it switches directions (east to west, and then west to east) On top of this, there is no car traffic allowed during the time the train goes through it, as I understand it.

There is shuttle service from Seward to Whitter. Listings www.seward.com Your Kenai Fjords boat operator will store your luggage. Your list is doable.

As for the above TA information, it's inaccurate. If you allow 3 hours Seward/Whittier, no problem.