Alaska cruise tour?

We're thinking of doing an Alaskan cruise and land tour in 2007.

For several reasons, we're looking at either going in late May or
early September (lower costs, less kids on board, etc.) If anyone
has cruised Alaska during these months, I'd like some advice
concerning the weather, "rainy seasons", etc.

Peter

We cruised late August and found few kids on board. Weather was great, few
mosquitoes, (better than few kids).
" Uncle Peter" wrote in message
news:wpxef.60$1x.26@fed1read06...
We're thinking of doing an Alaskan cruise and land tour in 2007.

For several reasons, we're looking at either going in late May or
early September (lower costs, less kids on board, etc.) If anyone
has cruised Alaska during these months, I'd like some advice
concerning the weather, "rainy seasons", etc.

Peter

Uncle Peter wrote:
We're thinking of doing an Alaskan cruise and land tour in 2007.

For several reasons, we're looking at either going in late May or
early September (lower costs, less kids on board, etc.) If anyone
has cruised Alaska during these months, I'd like some advice
concerning the weather, "rainy seasons", etc.

We went in early-mid June, having done a similar 'when to go?'

What we found is that September runs a pretty good chance of an early
cold snap (including snow) in the uppper interior, although you can
have beautiful fall colors (but this can be very hit-or-miss for most
time-constrained travellers). For example, at McKinley Park (near
Denali entrance), the *average* amount of snowfall received in
September each year is 4.7 inches:

http://www.alaska.com/places/parks/d...-4721833c.html

It was in part based on this climate stuff that we also decided against
July and August, because they had higher rainfall amounts which
generally mean clouds which would block viewing of Denali. I don't
recall anymore who told us this statistic, but for July and Augusts,
visitors only have a 30% chance of success per day of seeing the High
One. Apparently, the long summer days (20+ hours of daylight) also
mean 20+ hours worth of sunlight which evaporates surface water to
create clouds.

What this generally suggests is that going earlier (May/June) is better
than high summer. This can also be good in that if you're inland
before the summer solstice, you have a pretty decent chance of missing
the first mosquito hatch.

The downside is that the humpback whale migration won't be as far north
this early in the year if you're looking at a cruise in Prince William
Sound. In general, you would need to wait until after the Summer
Solstice this far north, but you do have flexibility in schedule (maybe
do your land before your cruise), plus choosing a more southern cruise
in the Juneau area is more typically where companies such as Cruise
West have their "Whales are Guaranteed" cruises, which as per their
website, start as early as 14 May in 2006.

Hope this helps,

-hh

Went in early June (6th) a few years ago and saw snow flurries on our way up
there ..... otherwise the weather was good .... it warmed up into the 60s
...... sunny .... you never know ....
"Jim Gemmill" wrote in message
...
We cruised late August and found few kids on board. Weather was great, few
mosquitoes, (better than few kids).
" Uncle Peter" wrote in message
news:wpxef.60$1x.26@fed1read06...
We're thinking of doing an Alaskan cruise and land tour in 2007.

For several reasons, we're looking at either going in late May or
early September (lower costs, less kids on board, etc.) If anyone
has cruised Alaska during these months, I'd like some advice
concerning the weather, "rainy seasons", etc.

Peter

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name of the town is Puerto Colombia. You can find in the web. The price
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email.
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We took the 12 day Norwegian Dream Alaska cruise this past Sept 1-12.
Plenty of sun, only about 3-5 hours of daylight-time rain during the whole
trip, and the max winds crossing the Gulf of Alaska barely hit 20 knots. My
brother, who fished Alaska for more many years said the conditions we met in
early Sept were much better than his experiences...


" Uncle Peter" wrote in message
news:wpxef.60$1x.26@fed1read06...
We're thinking of doing an Alaskan cruise and land tour in 2007.

For several reasons, we're looking at either going in late May or
early September (lower costs, less kids on board, etc.) If anyone
has cruised Alaska during these months, I'd like some advice
concerning the weather, "rainy seasons", etc.

Peter

We have made two cruises to Alaska, both
in Mid / Late May and had wonderful
weather. A few Mosquitos in late May,
but they hadn't grown large enough to
carry of small children yet. We never
needed our heavy sweaters, etc.
Would definitely recommend earlier.
Cheers, and have a great cruise,
John

Uncle Peter wrote:
We're thinking of doing an Alaskan cruise and land tour in 2007.

For several reasons, we're looking at either going in late May or
early September (lower costs, less kids on board, etc.) If anyone
has cruised Alaska during these months, I'd like some advice
concerning the weather, "rainy seasons", etc.

Peter