In the first of a 5 part bonus series about planning your 2024 Alaska trip, Jennie shares the two most important things to decide first before booking your cruise.
Support us on Patreon as a free or paid subscriber
Get Jennie’s Alaska Cruise Planner
Jennie's How to Book a cruise on your own without a travel agent workshop
Book a trip planning session with Jennie
Get Jennie’s weekly Alaska Travel tips in your inbox
Let Jennie plan your trip for you!
Music credits: Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.
In the first of a 5 part bonus series about planning your 2024 Alaska trip, Jennie shares the two most important things to decide first before booking your cruise.
Support us on Patreon as a free or paid subscriber
Get Jennie’s Alaska Cruise Planner
Jennie's How to Book a cruise on your own without a travel agent workshop
Book a trip planning session with Jennie
Get Jennie’s weekly Alaska Travel tips in your inbox
Let Jennie plan your trip for you!
Music credits: Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.
Are you planning a cruise to Alaska in 2024? Welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me your host, Jennie flaming, I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska travel, and life in Alaska. Today's episode is the first of a five part bonus mini episode series that I am doing every Monday in January 2024. To help you get your 2024 trip planned and finalized. So today we are talking about cruising on my goal with this episode is to break through the overwhelm so that you can take action, it's really important if you want to take a cruise in 2024. to Alaska, you need to get that book to don't put it off any longer. And what I have found is that a lot of my clients come to me because they've gotten very overwhelmed with the many different options and choices. So this is the time to break through that. And if you need help, my planner, my Alaska cruise planner, and workbook will guide you through every single step so you don't miss a thing. So you can make decisions efficiently. That's what it's all about. So the link to that is in the show notes, I really encourage you to pick it up, it's only $24. And it is going to make your planning so much easier. And of course, you can also contact me through the show notes, if you through my link in the show notes if you want to have me plan and book your cruise for you because I can also do that. So the purpose today is we're going to hit a couple of highlights, this is going to be a very short episode that will get you started. Okay, there's really only two choices that you need to make to book an Alaska cruise or cruise tour. Now, of course, there's more choices than that. But really, there's only two that matter. And once you've made those choices, you're the rest of it is smooth sailing. So in this episode, I'm going to briefly talk about what they are. The first one is what kind of ship and this and that goes along with what cruise line. And the second is whether or not you're doing a land tour. So specifically whether or not you want to go to Denali on your trip. So those are the two things that really matter in making your decision. That's what I'm going to talk about on this episode. A lot of people get very hung up on which ports they're going to and I want to encourage you to not worry about that so much because the ports you go to are largely determined by those first two things. And don't don't obsess too much over itineraries that go to say Skagway versus Sitka, right? There are differences between those two. Some people may like one port more than the other. But I want to encourage you to keep your eyes on the prize, which is picking your itinerary. You're not going to go to every port in one cruise anyway. So make the best decision overall, and then have fun in the ports that you're going to that is my biggest piece of advice. Okay. So number one, he said, there's two big decisions to make. The first one is the kind of ship and this one is really personal. So people often ask me, which cruise line do I like best? I do have some, some personal favorites, I won't lie. But for you, that might not be the same. So what I want to talk about is how to figure out which one is best for you. So first thing is are you going to go on a big ship, a small ship, or a what I call a middle sized ship, which is not a real name that's used in the cruise industry. But I use that term to describe the more luxurious cruise line experiences that are on much smaller ships than the biggest cruise lines. But they are much bigger ships than what is a true small ship. And they generally go to the same ports as the big ships. So those are that would include Windstar that would include reagent, a and some others, that seaborne that really focus on luxury and have incredible service and have some of the amenities still that a bigger ship does and go to some of the same ports. And then there's the big ship cruises, which is the ones that generally come to people's minds first when they're thinking about cruising. So that would include Princess Hollander. Erica, Royal Caribbean, celebrity, Norwegian and carnival, I think I hit all of them. And for big ships, you know, you're going to have similar amenities on board, they will be at a similar price points. I think the biggest difference between them is sort of the vibe that they have on board. How many if you're traveling with younger children, you could they have very different offerings as far as what they have for kids. Some cruise lines, like especially Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian have more things like go kart racing and climbing walls and things like that. Princesses in Holland, America don't have as many of those whiz bang features. But some people don't want those, you know. So that kind of depends. And I will also tell you that Princess and Holland America have a very long history in Alaska, and some access to some things that not everybody does. They bring local folks on board, they bring a lot of local food on board. So it is something that is worth paying attention to which of those things you care about when you're picking a cruise line. And then finally, small ship cruising, which is a very different experience. small ship cruising will typically be on a ship with less than 150 people on board, sometimes much less than that, sometimes only 70, or even fewer. So that includes cruise lines, like UnCruise Lindblad Expeditions, which is the National Geographic ships, and Alaska dream cruises. And there are some others that are super, super tiny. But those are sort of the bigger, smallest ships, and seaborne is one that can kind of go into the middle or small ship category, I usually put it in the middle ship category because of the luxury experience. But there are, there are different ways to look at that. Okay, if you want to know more about which of those might be for you. We do have an Episode Episode Eight, which was one of our very first episodes in April of 2023. That was with John Martin, who has worked in the small ship cruising industry for over 20 years. And if you're interested in a small ship and figuring out if that's right for you, I'd really encourage you to go back and listen to that episode. And also in September of 2023. We had an episode with Alana Shaw tower from life well cruised, she is a cruise experts on recently did a cruise in 2023, she did her first cruise to Alaska. So she talked in depth about the large ship experience in Alaska cruising. And that was episode 27, which aired at the end of September 2023. So those would be good ones to go back and listen to. Alright, so what's the difference between those, it's really about the price point and experience, right. So the smaller the ship, the more it costs, because you're going to have the cost of everything related to the trip spread out over a smaller number of people. And also it's a more personal experience, have the smallest ships really focus on going to places that aren't in ports that aren't in towns, where you might stop in a bay and go kayaking for a little bit or go for a guided hike. And you do go to ports also. But there is a lot of time that is spelled spent away from the ports. And then so those can be really good for people who want that smaller experience want to spend most of the time in the wilderness, don't need to be connected to the Internet or their cell phone. Don't care as much about going into ports. Although that still happens on a small ship. Middle, those middle ships are best for people who really want a luxury experience. There's a lot that goes into that. But that's what I'd say about that. And big ships are what most people are on just by a matter of volume. So probably if you're listening and planning a cruise, there's a good chance that's what you're considering. And I would just say that even if you are on a big ship, there are lots of ways to make that into a really personal and intimate experience even on a big ship. So that is the way to go. That's the easiest way to do a land tour, including Denali, is to go through one of the big cruise ships, cruise lines, and they're also the ones that have the most amenities as far as lots of different dining options, shows casinos, all that kind of thing. So, um, that's my advice about figuring out the kinds of ship so you're gonna subside, you're gonna decide which size ship which type of experience and then pick a cruise line from there. So the second thing I said I was going to talk about today is whether or not to do a land tour. So deciding what type of ship and picking a cruise line is the first thing. The second thing is whether or not you're doing a land tour. Once you have that figured out, you're it's smooth sailing from there. So how do you decide whether you want to include a land tour, most people who want to do that or doing that because they want to visit Denali National Park. And just so you know, a cruise ship does not go to Denali National Park, because it is a couple 100 miles inland. And so you do have to add on a land tour, or book a land tour on your own, if you want to go to Denali while taking a cruise. So if you do want to go to Denali, then you want to do a land tour, if you just want to experience Alaska, and that isn't as important to you, then just the cruise is great. The other thing I will say is that if you are on the West Coast of the United States, if you're in Western Canada, or Washington, Oregon, California, it's it's not a big deal to get to Alaska. So I would really, I really encourage people on the west coast of North America to consider splitting that into two trips, doing a cruise, and then in a separate trip going to Denali, just to kind of keep things simple. But if you are traveling a longer distance than often people want to combine that into sort of one big bucket list trip. So once you've decided whether you're doing that or not big factor is how much time so you need at least 10 days, not including travel, to add to nally onto your cruise because your cruise will be seven days. And you're going to spend then another day getting up there and a day getting back kind of no matter how you do it. So in order to have one full day in Denali National Park, you need at least 10 days for your trip. 11 or 12 is definitely more relaxing experience. But you can do it in 10. I usually tell people, if you this is my general advice, if you have five days or less for the land portion of your trip, you definitely want to book that through the cruise line if you're doing a cruise, right, so I'm talking about if your whole trip is 12 days or less, including the cruise, you're gonna want to book that through the cruise line, because doing it on your own is gonna get really complicated for a short period of time. It also doesn't really save money to do it on your own if you are booking something equivalent, right. So if you're going to do tent camping in Denali, then of course, that's going to be much less expensive than booking through the cruise line. But if you're going to book hotels on your own, the price is going to be about the same. And I've penciled this out for lots of clients, and it's going to be within $100. So that isn't a reason, in my opinion to make the decision. So if you have a shorter trip booked through the cruise line, if you have a longer trip, then if you have five days or more for the land portion, then you can decide whether you want to book through the cruise line or on your own. The way that I would make that decision is based on if you just want to go to Denali, and maybe Anchorage or Fairbanks. As part of that you're gonna go through one of those two places, or both, if you go to Denali, um, then you might as well just book it through the cruise line, because if you're not going somewhere more off the beaten track, it's just going to be kind of a hassle. And like, why do that. However, if you if there's a couple of situations where I would say that's different one is, if you want to go to some different places, or maybe you don't even want to go to Denali, maybe you want to go somewhere like Ringel, St. Elias national park or Valdez, or the Kenai Peninsula, something like that, um, then it, it makes more sense to do it on your own because you're doing something a little bit different. Another situation is if you're in a bigger group, and you don't mind renting a vacation rental, which means you're going to be further away. So like in Denali, if you do a vacation rental, you'll be at least half an hour from the park entrance or more. Because it's just hotels kind of right at the entrance area. But if you're a group of four or six, and you're cool without extra drive, and you can spread the cost of a car and a vacation rental out among the group, then that might be the way to go and probably will save you money. So those are some things to consider. Alright, so now that you've decided whether or not you're going to do a land tour, The reason that's so important is in my opinion, this is What determines the cruise that you pick. So if you are doing a land portion, if you're going to Denali, then you want to do a one way cruise. And that will be between Vancouver, and either Seward or Whittier, depending on what cruise line you're on. There aren't one way cruises that go from Seattle. So you'll be doing Vancouver. Um, that makes sense, if you're doing a land tour, because then you take the cruise ship one way instead of flying has better use of your time and money and that kind of thing. If you are not doing a land trip, then I would really encourage you to do a round trip cruise from either Seattle or Vancouver. Because my opinion is why add the complication of an extra one way flights that you don't need if you are not doing a land portion. And sure you see some things that are a little bit different if you do a one way cruise versus a round trip. But both of them are a wonderful experience. So I really encourage people who are doing the cruise only to go for a roundtrip cruise just to make things simpler for an equivalent experience. But of course, you do what you want. That's just my opinion. But hopefully, what I've shared with you today about choosing your ship and whether or not to do a land tour and how to follow from there will be enough to get you started and get you ready to book. So one more plug for the Alaska cruise planner and workbook. It's a fantastic tool. It's all the same things that I use with my clients to plan their trip. So pick that up if you are looking to get started. And I also just want to encourage you to book your cruise for 2024 or honestly 2025 As soon as you can. Because with Alaska cruises, they get more expensive as it gets closer and bookings are are very strong right now for Alaska. So there's not really a benefit to waiting unless you need to wait for some reason for other reasons. But if you know you want to go don't wait for it to get cheaper. It's not going to the price if anything is gonna go up from here. So definitely get on that right away. So thanks for joining me for this first of our five shorty January episodes about planning. And next Monday we'll have another mini episode like this. And of course throughout January we'll have our regular Wednesday episodes. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Alaska uncovered. Bye for now.