Our Dream Vacation: Alaska Cruisetour
Have You Always Wanted to Go Cruising?
My husband and I hadn't ever thought about cruising until some friends went to Alaska and came back raving about their wonderful time. Some friends from church wanted to go--so seven couples and my husband and I started to plan our trip! We got together and started reading everything we could on what was available, the different cruise lines, and the different tours available. We decided on a travel agent who deals only with cruising and followed her advice. We went late in May because we could get all of our cabins together and we got a little cheaper rate.
All Photo Credits: Gayle McLaughlin
Which Cruisetour?
One thing you have to decide is what kind of a cruisetour you would want. We chose six days on land and seven days on sea. We flew to Fairbanks, Alaska spent one day and night and started south.
We did the 6-night Land Tour featuring 2-nights Fairbanks, 2-nights Denali Princess Lodge, 2-nights Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge and a 7-day Voyage of the Glaciers cruise.
Fairbanks
Sightseeing this day includes a Riverboat Cruise on an authentic stern wheeler and a Gold Mine Tour with a hearty miner's lunch included.
How to Tour Alaska
Have you Ever cruised? Or would you like to someday?
A must-have for any Alaskan Vacation
Fairbanks to Denali
We traveled by motorcoach to Denali National Park. Check into the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge for a 2-night retreat. We took a wildlife excursion to see some of Denali National Park--we were unable to get on the longer tour which could have gone deeper into the Park. Next time we go, we will take that excursion.
The mountain makes its own weather and very few visitors get to see the top of the mountain. We signed up to be alerted if the top of the mountain became visible--It was daylight all night. But it remained clouded the entire time we were in Denali National Park.
The next day we traveled by Princess Rail to Talkeetna and onto to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge by motorcoach. It was a fun journey on a double decker train.
The highlight of the cruisetour was the excursion we took to the Kenai Peninsula. We saw more wildlife on that four hour excursion than we had up to that point.
One half of Cruisetour is on Land
The other half is on the ocean
This article is getting too long so I decided to make it two articles. Check out part two of this article.
