tell me about your alaskan travel experience please.
 

my husband and i are retired, and we aren't getting any younger. in fact the husband is getting ready to turn 70 next month. and we have never been to alaska. we have an older motor home in very good condition and very well maintained. and i am exploring our choices right now. just saw that there were some good deals on crusies from seattle to alaska. but i hear, more wild life can be seen in june and the large ferries get closer to land. do i understand it correctly, that you can dis embark, and get back on. does that mean you can stay on land several days?
what has been your experience? we have never cruised. did you spend more for the outside cabin? were you glad you did. thanks ever so much. have any of you driven your motor home to alaska?

My DH & I did the Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska and we loved it. They stop in several ports and you can leave the ship but only for a period of time...they tell you how long. They offer various things to do while there...helicoptor trips to glaziers...train ride up a Mt. logger shows where they carve things with saws. You can go whale watching...lots of choices, but they all cost extra. You can just walk around on your own too. The ship was nice, good food, gambling, theater for entertainment, etc. If you want to see wild life then...this probably won't be the best choice. We saw eagles and whales, but that was about it.

I loved cruising, for me we were hardly in the cabin, so I can't see spending extra money for a place to sleep. I ahven't been to alaska, but when I did cruise they usually spent a day in each port, some port you got to stay longer depending on what time the ship left

I didn't think I would like the Alaskan cruise, but went because "the gang" was going. I loved it. You travel by night and stay for several hours in port each day. The cruise line has extra activities, some do cost a lot extra. Each port has things to do as well. When you get off the boat there are tour buses and carriages. We saw lots of animals, but you are seeing them from a large boat, so not up close. I would worry about taking an older RV up the Al/Can highway. Lots of area to cover where there might not be any way to get it fixed.

We enjoyed our cruise to Alaska in May 2000. The weather was gorgeous & we traveled with Holland America from Vancouver, B.C.. We took some day tours, my DH chose a helicopter tour of a glacier, I chose a catamaran tour where we were fortunate to get close enough to land to see bear and moose, and lots of eagles. We did the White Pass & Yukon Route train ride in Skagway, it was really interesting. We have also driven twice to Alaska and you will find alot of other motor homes of all sizes & shapes in your travels.

We drove our motor home all around Alaska in 2000. It was the best trip I have ever had. Drive where you want, when you want. Pull over and park and eat lunch while viewing all the beautiful mountains. See the glaciers up close. Accidentally spent the night at a park and listened to the loons and watched the water fowls. Pulled over when a moose peeked her head out of the forest, then one baby, then another one. Wonderful pictures. Parked in the Kenai while DH fished ... I walked to town and saw another moose in the woods. Saw bear along the roads. Mountain goats were lying by the road and just looked at us. Driving up there thru Canada was awesome. Depends if you want to travel on your own time or do what the travel coordinators have planned. If you drive your self, make sure you buy the Alaskan Bible ... sorry I can't think of the correct name right now. It is a book written by a person who made the trip last year. Has routes, restaurants, construction, entertainment ... everything you need to know to drive Alaska. PM me if you wish. You can also fly to Alaska and rent a RV. If you drive yourself, some reservations need to be made up to a year ahead of time ... like the ferry to Kodiak Island. Homer is a great place to shop.

Alaska is beautiful...fresh air and a special deal to it somehow. We took a Holland American cruise 2011 out of Seattle and I think Sika was the farthest port we went to then back to Vancouver and too bus back to Seattle. Next month we are flying to Anchorage staying for 2 day then off to Seward to get on Holland and cruise to Vancouver and bus to Seattle before flying back to Phoenix. My youngest sister lives in Seattle so we will spend a few day day with and hubby in beautiful green Bainbridge Island.

I think you would enjoy at trip to Alaska, I would say check it out. :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

I have done both an Alaskan cruise and a cruise tour (both Holland America). Loved both trips but really liked starting in Fairbanks, going to Denali and Anchorage before getting on the ship in Seward. Really enjoyed the trips. There are LOTS of quilt shops that you can accidently bump into if you scope them out in advance. There are some very nice fabrics that are Alaska specific -- I have some wonderful fabric memories (the fabric shops sent the fabric home for me in the priority boxes so when we picked up the held mail I had a wonderful time getting re-aquainted with the memories).

Our first cruise was in May and we had awesome weather -- but cruises on either side of us had awful weather. The cruise tour was in June -- and we had some good weather and some not so good. (I took a down jacket and was glad I did.)

If you do choice to take the Cruise , I strongly recommend the combination Cruise/Rail. Denali is spectacular.

thank you ladies. i was hoping some one would talk about the ferry trips from seattle to alaska, or coming back. saw it on a thread ages ago, but when i rechecked the thread. i just couldn't find it. yes, ordered the mile marker book on the alaska trip. it's coming from amazon.com.