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OT: Alaska cruise advice?

CornerTavern

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Hello Scarlet nation friends, once again I humbly call upon all of you for travel advice...

In September my girlfriend and I are going on a weeklong cruise to Alaska, the inside passage. The port is Seattle. The stops are, Juno, Skagway, and Victoria. The cruise line is Royal Caribbean.

Can anyone offer advice about the ports of call, and excursions in particular?

Or general advice about the cruise ship? It's the explorer of the seas.

Thanks!

- Corner Tavern
 
Hello Scarlet nation friends, once again I humbly call upon all of you for travel advice...

In September my girlfriend and I are going on a weeklong cruise to Alaska, the inside passage. The port is Seattle. The stops are, Juno, Skagway, and Victoria. The cruise line is Royal Caribbean.

Can anyone offer advice about the ports of call, and excursions in particular?

Or general advice about the cruise ship? It's the explorer of the seas.

Thanks!

- Corner Tavern

I went around the same time as you will.

First off if you are sports fans and are staying in Seattle for a day or 2 catch a Seattle Sounders game if they are in town. Soccer is enormous up there with 45,000 people attending home games on average and it is like European Soccer Atmosphere. Also Check out the EMP Museum which is an pretty amazing pop culture/90's music/hands on Music experience.

In Juno go to Mendenhall Glacier, outside of that there isn't much but the port shops are a plenty and the Beer is tasty :)

In Skagway take the longest tour you possibly can ( Likely the 8 hour one that takes you all the way up into Carcross, Yukon) Some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my life was up there.

The one I did was a tour all the way out with a train ride back on the old White Pass rail line well worth the long day. (Fyi These are not stock photos, I took these with my Phone in 2013)

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Hello Scarlet nation friends, once again I humbly call upon all of you for travel advice...

In September my girlfriend and I are going on a weeklong cruise to Alaska, the inside passage. The port is Seattle. The stops are, Juno, Skagway, and Victoria. The cruise line is Royal Caribbean.

Can anyone offer advice about the ports of call, and excursions in particular?

Or general advice about the cruise ship? It's the explorer of the seas.

Thanks!

- Corner Tavern

I didn't go on a cruise to alaska but flew into Anchorage rented a car and spend a 1 day in Anchorage, 7 days on Kenai Penninsula and 5 days at up by Denali. Took a boat ride from Seward that saw wildlife, and glaciers. It was pretty wild. Took a water Taxi from Homer to some Islands and went backpacking. Both are on Kenail Penninsula.

An hour and half south of Denali area is a town called Takeetna. Took a flight out of Takeetna that landed on a glacier near Mt. McKinley. Also, toook tour of Denali.

Alaska was one of the best vacations wife and I ever went on.
 
take a day and fly into the interior and do some bear hunting
Just remember, they hunt back in those parts.

My father-in-law has done a number of Alaska hunts. I mean DEEP Alaska. Two plane rides in and a "hope to see you when I come back" from the pilot. Crazy stories that man has from those trips. He still hasn't gotten his Grizzly.
 
Just got back from almost a 3 week tour (June 28-July17). Started in Seattle for 3 nights, then took Amtrak to Vancouver for two nights there. Got on NCL Sun for and cruised for 7 days, stopping in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Seward. We left the ship at Seward for a 7 day inland bus tour, going to Homer, Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks. Took a 6 passenger plane ride tour from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, then a bus to Wiseman (above arctic circle).

Bucket list trip, it was really beautiful up there. Weather was amazing, in 60s-70s the whole trip.

Highlights of the trip were (Mendenhall glacier dog sled trip was realyyyy good):

Brunch on top of Seattle needle, visit to Boeing factory, stopping at Pike Place for lunch.
Capilano suspension bridge in Vancouver.
Helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier while docked in Juneau, dog sled ride on the glacier (expensive, but worth it).
Tracys Crab Shack in Juneau (great king crab, but $$$).
Misty Fjords seaplane ride (Island Winds with Michelle) from Ketchikan - landed in Fjord...
Train ride and Glass blowing in Skagway.
Ship going up and cruising Glacier Bay.
Full day of Halibut and Salmon fishing in Homer (Halibut fishing capital of the world).
Listening to Hobo Jim sing in a restaurant in Homer (official balladeer of Alaska).
Husky Homestead sled dog tour and talk with Jeff King (4 time Iditarod Champion) in Denali
Touring Denali (no moose, but did see caribou, sheep and grizzly bears)
Alaska pipeline in Fairbanks (and saw a moose!)

Have fun!!!
 
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Mendenhall Glacier is north of Juneau. I saw it 10 years ago, I;d be curious to know how much of it is left since then. Once you get beyond the touristy port, Juneau is a nice town. The state capitol building is very ordinary as far as state capitols go. Look like an office building and no dome.

The BC coast is amazing, fijords, ice capped mountains and all. Seen it from the air on Alaska airlines, hope you get that close to it.

Never been to Victoria but the Loonie is gaining on the US Dollar. The exchange rate is now 1.00 USD = 1.20 CDN. Up 5 cents from earlier in the summer.
 
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Note that Juneau is the only US capital not reachable by road. Only reached by boat/plane.
 
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I know Victoria pretty well from past business trips.

We're struggling with the excursion planning for Juneau and Skagway.

Juneau: mendenhall glacier "extended" hike excursion, including helicopter ride? Too much?
The national park "hike" sound like a mile-loop to a lookout point. Meh. We want the real deal.

Slagway: the cruise line excursions are all vague. Any specific tour guide / company recommendations?
 
Hello Scarlet nation friends, once again I humbly call upon all of you for travel advice...

In September my girlfriend and I are going on a weeklong cruise to Alaska, the inside passage. The port is Seattle. The stops are, Juno, Skagway, and Victoria. The cruise line is Royal Caribbean.

Can anyone offer advice about the ports of call, and excursions in particular?

Or general advice about the cruise ship? It's the explorer of the seas.

Thanks!

- Corner Tavern


You might find this thread from February on the same thing helpful:

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/ot-cruise-to-alaska.119730/
 
Another note - nobody has been born in Skagway for many years.... (I did like Cheers, by the way :) )
 
We went on an Alaska cruise last year after the RU-UW game in Seattle. First week of September. Norwegian Cruise was very good. My advice is to be prepared for rain. Temps were in the 60s. We did have a good day in Skagway and took the 4 hour White Pass railroad ride. Personally I felt bad for the people working up there. They pretty much shut down many of their retail operations when the cruise ships stop coming , which is in late September. Most of the Alaska merchandise was at least 50% off. Victoria is a very pretty place. We only had 6 hours there and wished we had more. Good luck on your journey.
 
If we did it over again, we would have done the land tour first (it was tiring getting up at 6 or so every morning and repacking almost every day). Get to relax more on the cruise part of the trip.....
 
Corner - My wife and I just came back from an Alaska Cruise with Royal - Radiance of the Seas - which went from Seward,Alaska to Vancouver. We had 4 ports - 2 of which you'll be at - Juneau and Skagway. We spent 2 days in interior Alaska as well - and loved every nano second of it. In all of your ports, do wildlife excursions - whale watchings; bear watchings etc. The scenery is just amazing. We saw about a dozen bear; a dozen moose ; humpback whales; orca whales; eagles; mountain goats etc. In Skagway, make sure to go on the railway tour (it's right outside port of call) - but definitely take advantage of all whale / bear etc excursions if possible. Both ports are really nice - especially Skagway.
 
Corner - My wife and I just came back from an Alaska Cruise with Royal - Radiance of the Seas - which went from Seward,Alaska to Vancouver. We had 4 ports - 2 of which you'll be at - Juneau and Skagway. We spent 2 days in interior Alaska as well - and loved every nano second of it. In all of your ports, do wildlife excursions - whale watchings; bear watchings etc. The scenery is just amazing. We saw about a dozen bear; a dozen moose ; humpback whales; orca whales; eagles; mountain goats etc. In Skagway, make sure to go on the railway tour (it's right outside port of call) - but definitely take advantage of all whale / bear etc excursions if possible. Both ports are really nice - especially Skagway.

The whale watching was really that good?

We thought about doing the hike into the glacier, or doing some other kind of small group guided tour.

We like to get out and move around, so the rail tour sounded kind of boring... what was it like?
 
If we did it over again, we would have done the land tour first (it was tiring getting up at 6 or so every morning and repacking almost every day). Get to relax more on the cruise part of the trip.....

I definitely want to get out on land early, the port days are nice & long!
 
The whale watching was really that good?

We thought about doing the hike into the glacier, or doing some other kind of small group guided tour.

We like to get out and move around, so the rail tour sounded kind of boring... what was it like?


The rail tour at Skagway wasn't boring - beautiful scenery (picture taking quality) all the way.
 
I learned that as I was driving to Honolulu.


I stand corrected:

From wiki -

"Juneau is rather unusual among U.S. capitals (except Honolulu, Hawaii) in that there are no roads connecting the city to the rest of Alaska or to the rest of North America (although ferry service is available for cars)"
 
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The rail tour at Skagway wasn't boring - beautiful scenery (picture taking quality) all the way.

I'm actually looking into taking a guided tour, and then having them drop us off to take the railway back!
 
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