Question on Princess cruise and rail tour in Alaska

We've done four Carnival cruises in the Caribbean and are looking at
an Alaskan one on Princess. New destination and new cruise line for
us, just for the sake of trying some new things.

We are considering adding a rail tour and lodge stay at one of the
National Parks but I have a few questions for those who have been
there and done that.

While I love going on cruises, I have to say that my least favorite
part is dealing with all the luggage and standing in line for
embarkation and debarkation. It seems like debarking the ship to get
on a train, and then get to a lodge, get resettled in another room
where I will stay for only a few days... You get the idea. I assume
that Princess and other cruise lines have made this process as
painless as possible, but how does it work? Do you waste a whole day
changing locations?

Thanks,
Christopher

wrote:
We've done four Carnival cruises in the Caribbean and are looking at
an Alaskan one on Princess. New destination and new cruise line for
us, just for the sake of trying some new things.

We are considering adding a rail tour and lodge stay at one of the
National Parks but I have a few questions for those who have been
there and done that.

While I love going on cruises, I have to say that my least favorite
part is dealing with all the luggage and standing in line for
embarkation and debarkation. It seems like debarking the ship to get
on a train, and then get to a lodge, get resettled in another room
where I will stay for only a few days... You get the idea. I assume
that Princess and other cruise lines have made this process as
painless as possible, but how does it work? Do you waste a whole day
changing locations?

Thanks,
Christopher

We've taken two Princess land tours and one HAL in Alaska/Canada. Of
the two vendors, Princess was far better about just about everything.
Your own handling of luggage is minimal for both. When on a motorcoach,
for instance, the luggage "appears" in your room in the evening and you
merely place it outside your door in the AM. This is also the way it
was done for train travel and boat travel. For anyone using a
wheelchair or scooter, it's particularly handy- the scooter "appears" at
the steps of the motorcoach when you arrive somewhere, or at an
attraction, from one of the storage compartments beneath the motorcoach.

Yes, there are lines, but we never felt that they were nearly as bad as
embarkation or disembarkation of a cruise liner.

It's been several years, but Alaska is HOT in the summer and there is
little air conditioning. Hot and dry, combined with mostly gravel roads
and lots of daylight does not always equal comfort- particularly at
night in a hotel. The last time we were in Anchorage, at the Hilton, it
was hotter than hades and all we had in the way of cooling was a
portable fan propped in a window. Beware, if heat or dust is an issue.

--
Nonny
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

- P.J. O'Rourke

wrote in message
...
We've done four Carnival cruises in the Caribbean and are looking at
an Alaskan one on Princess. New destination and new cruise line for
us, just for the sake of trying some new things.

We are considering adding a rail tour and lodge stay at one of the
National Parks but I have a few questions for those who have been
there and done that.

While I love going on cruises, I have to say that my least favorite
part is dealing with all the luggage and standing in line for
embarkation and debarkation. It seems like debarking the ship to get
on a train, and then get to a lodge, get resettled in another room
where I will stay for only a few days... You get the idea. I assume
that Princess and other cruise lines have made this process as
painless as possible, but how does it work? Do you waste a whole day
changing locations?

Christopher,
I don't know how important it is for you to have a lodge stay that is
offered by both Princess and Holland America, and how much time you have to
take a cruise, but after just completing our fifth cruise to Alaska and
first on Princess, I think the cruise that we best saw the most scenery of
Alaska were the ones that we took on the Holland America ships, Statendam
and Ryndam. We flew to Anchorage, spent a few days there...it is a
beautiful city filled with prolific floral blooms...all the city light poles
had hanging baskets of blue forget me-nots and yellow flowers (we went in
July both times). We rented a car and took our time driving to Denali,
stayed a lodge for a day, then drove to Fairbanks, stayed the night;
returning to Denali and spending a few days during which we went to the
Denali National Park , took their bus and saw the most awesome scenery with
caribou, eagles, white mountain goats, a bear with cubs on the mountainside
as well as a single brown bear close by the road along with many other
species of birds. The drive back to Anchorage was wonderful as we could pull
off the road whenever we wanted, to take pictures. The cruise tour buses
have some stops but not nearly as many as we did. Getting off and on the bus
of many passengers is time consuming while we could do it at leisure by
driving ourselves. We returned to Anchorage and stayed overnight at a hotel
close to the railroad station and left early the next morning taking a very
scenic trip on the Alaskan Railroad to Seward on which we saw more animals
and glaciers enroute to Seward. There is a fairly new Holiday Inn (at that
time, July 2005)where we stayed the rest of the day and night, waking up to
see the Ryndam in its majesty from our window waiting for us. What a
view!..with the snow capped mountains behind it and the many sailing vessels
in the bay in front of the hotel. Wonderful memories...and it was walking
distance to the ship (no cabs required) with one of the easiest boarding
times that I can remember ever having had. Then to top that, we were
greeted by our very dear Canadian friends, Tobie & Barb, who had taken a
back to back on the ship and were waiting for us to join them. If you
choose HAL, choose one of their smaller ships, the Statendam, Ryndam, or
Veendam...you can get the info on their sizes on the HAL site and choose the
ship going through Glacier Bay. Although Tracy Arm is beautiful, Glacier Bay
far exceeds it in beauty and the smaller HAL ships can get closer to the
glaciers and animal life on the floating ice or mountain sides...

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful time in the beautiful state of Alaska
....We just did!
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

--Jean

wrote in message
...
We've done four Carnival cruises in the Caribbean and are looking at
an Alaskan one on Princess. New destination and new cruise line for
us, just for the sake of trying some new things.

We are considering adding a rail tour and lodge stay at one of the
National Parks but I have a few questions for those who have been
there and done that.

While I love going on cruises, I have to say that my least favorite
part is dealing with all the luggage and standing in line for
embarkation and debarkation. It seems like debarking the ship to get
on a train, and then get to a lodge, get resettled in another room
where I will stay for only a few days... You get the idea. I assume
that Princess and other cruise lines have made this process as
painless as possible, but how does it work? Do you waste a whole day
changing locations?

Thanks,
Christopher



Christopher

Not to be accused of advertising and/or spamming, of which I probably will
be anyway, you might want to check out the Princess: Direct to the
Wilderness CruiseTours. Just click on the following link for the information
http://www.princess.com/learn/cruise...trades/adw.jsp.

These combined cruise and land tours give you the Alaska that visitors most
want to see. A Voyage of the Glaciers cruise combined with rail travel and
more time to enjoy the wilderness of Denali National Park. Exclusive rail
service takes you right from the ship to a Princess wilderness lodge the
same day for more time exactly where you want to be and less time getting
there. You'll have up to 3 nights at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge or
Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge or a combination of both.

http://www.princess.com/learn/cruise...trades/adw.jsp

Smooth sailing to all...
John

"Nonnymus" wrote in message
...
We've taken two Princess land tours and one HAL in Alaska/Canada. Of the
two vendors, Princess was far better about just about everything. Your own
handling of luggage is minimal for both. When on a motorcoach, for
instance, the luggage "appears" in your room in the evening and you merely
place it outside your door in the AM. This is also the way it was done
for train travel and boat travel. For anyone using a wheelchair or
scooter, it's particularly handy- the scooter "appears" at the steps of
the motorcoach when you arrive somewhere, or at an attraction, from one of
the storage compartments beneath the motorcoach.

Yes, there are lines, but we never felt that they were nearly as bad as
embarkation or disembarkation of a cruise liner.

It's been several years, but Alaska is HOT in the summer and there is
little air conditioning. Hot and dry, combined with mostly gravel roads
and lots of daylight does not always equal comfort- particularly at night
in a hotel. The last time we were in Anchorage, at the Hilton, it was
hotter than hades and all we had in the way of cooling was a portable fan
propped in a window. Beware, if heat or dust is an issue.

LOL! Nonny! While I was typing my post, you sent yours with the opposite
view..which is fine..but you know what???
YOU and Vicki should have been on the cruise with Tobie, Barb and us!!! Then
you would have felt differently! ;-)
Seriously, with your needs of a scooter etc, I can see why you felt the land
tour with the cruise line was more feasible.
But in our case, taking two weeks and doing it at a leisurely pace made it
perfect. I hate the hectic pace and regimentation of having to put your
suitcase outside of the room in the morning at a certain time each morning
and traveling on a bus full of people, getting off to take photos WHEN the
bus driver decides and waiting for everyone to get back on...the bus is on a
schedule while we were on our own time making it very enjoyable. We have a
system while traveling on the road. We take out two days of clothes and put
them in a carry-on, taking them into the hotel while leaving the two larger
bags in the trunk. That saves struggling with suitcases every night.
Sometimes during summer and warm weather and shorts to wear, we put three
days worth in the carry-on....We have a laundry bag to put the worn clothing
in so it's that,our train case and carry-on to worry about the next morning.
Took us quite some time to figure it but as one gets older, you learn the
hard way how to improvise.
By the way, weren't the land included tours more expensive? Looking at
prices some time ago, I thought that they charged quite a bit more than what
we spent totally going the way that we did....And by the way, the hotels in
Anchorage that we used had A/C. I am surprised that the Hilton did not! It
was in the 90's two days and we had to go to JC Penney's to buy some short
sleeved shirts and shorts! What was hard for me to get used to was the 24
hour daylight even with the drapes closed tight!
Next time, come with Tobie, Barb and us!
When is your next cruise?

--Jean