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Most of our trips have been on a cruise but we've really enjoyed the land tour portion of it because we really have an opportunity to see much more in you know, inside Alaska, for instance, we went to Denali Park, and in there you really have a chance to see a lot more wildlife and so forth, especially later in the year. A lot more of the animals are out we actually we've seen moose and we've seen bear and we've seen little sheep .
These are these trips are called cruise tours. And every cruise line does offer a cruise tour. They can be any length of time. You can spend two days three days up to seven days on land before getting on a cruise. They also offer them in reverse. You can do that crews going north and doing the land afterwards. Our recommendation has always been do the land first, it's tiring, and you can get on the ship and relax.
To learn more:
DreamVacations.com
Call us! (855)627-8473
Most of our trips have been on a cruise but we've really enjoyed the land tour portion of it because we really have an opportunity to see much more in you know, inside Alaska, for instance, we went to Denali Park, and in there you really have a chance to see a lot more wildlife and so forth, especially later in the year. A lot more of the animals are out we actually we've seen moose and we've seen bear and we've seen little sheep .
These are these trips are called cruise tours. And every cruise line does offer a cruise tour. They can be any length of time. You can spend two days three days up to seven days on land before getting on a cruise. They also offer them in reverse. You can do that crews going north and doing the land afterwards. Our recommendation has always been do the land first, it's tiring, and you can get on the ship and relax.
Charlie McDermott 0:18
Well welcome back listeners to another episode of dream vacations podcast. And I am back in the studio with Laurie and Greg. Guys, how you doing?
Greg Shuss 0:29
We're doing great, Charlie. We're looking forward to tell everybody today about Alaska.
Charlie McDermott 0:37
It's like 65 degrees here. I feels like Alaska. Did you guys bring back to cold weather? I mean, what are you doing to us?
Greg Shuss 0:48
So that's the problem when it's 65. In Florida, that's like bone chilling.
Charlie McDermott 0:52
My teeth are chattering? Well, Alaska, number one that's been not only on my bucket list for decades. I'm sure many listeners are going Ah, yeah, I got to do that. So I'm really excited to hear about Alaska. So you guys just got back, right?
Greg Shuss 1:12
Well, actually, we were we were down in the Caribbean with a group of 100 this last week. And then before that, two weeks before that, we were with a group of 120. But those were kind of the first one was kind of a specialized cruise. We do a singing cruise every other year. So that was a couple of weeks ago. And then this last week, we took 100 People from the area and visited places like St. Thomas and Mark St. Maarten. And where else .. the Dominican Republic .
Charlie McDermott 1:44
That's how disoriented I am. It's, it's for our listeners. It's mid March. Like would does anyone go to Alaska in March? I mean, that probably would not be a smart thing. I'm guessing that's why we have time. Like yeah, that's why we have these experts like Charlie be like, hey, Florida, it's it's warm everywhere. Did summer, 12 months of the year. Let's go to Alaska. And I'd see you guys do take that short shot. Just calm down. Let's wait a few more months until it gets gorgeous there. And then and then we'll go is that is that about? Right? Yes.
Laurie Shuss 2:17
This is the ideal time for Alaska for the sailing season is very short, mid May to the beginning of September. So you have a very short opportunity to take an Alaska cruise. If it says something somebody went desires. Actually, Alaska, I feel is one of the most beautiful parts of our country. Most people have never seen. And it's someplace that everyone should experience. It's just beautiful.
Charlie McDermott 2:43
All right, so I am with you. 100%. And I've not seen it. I've seen pictures and shows on TV and all that fun stuff. But so so let's Yeah, let's start with that. Laurie, so the the optimal season is that mid May until you said early August or September, September. Okay. Okay. So, so that's really important. So I'm gonna make a note of that in and the I guess. Sunlight, right? Is it like sunlight? They're just about all hours of the day at that point. Yes.
Laurie Shuss 3:19
It actually stays light until about 11 o'clock or 1130 at night. Wow. So they always have room darkening curtains on the hotel rooms and on the ships.
Charlie McDermott 3:29
Yeah, that's smart. Wow. So how many times have you guys been to have I Hezekiah?
Laurie Shuss 3:35
We've been there three times. Yeah. Yeah. And we've always two of them were land and cruise what they call a cruise tour. And one was a round trip from Seattle. So that was a very different experience than the land and cruise tours that we've done.
Charlie McDermott 3:51
Yeah. So what kinds of trips are available? What are your experiences been? And maybe some things you haven't done?
Greg Shuss 4:02
Well, you know, most of our trips have been on a cruise but we've really enjoyed the land tour portion of it because we really have an opportunity to see much more inside Alaska, for instance, we went to Denali Park, and in there you really have a chance to see a lot more wildlife and so forth, especially later in the year. A lot more of the animals are out we actually we've seen moose and we've seen bear and we've seen little sheep and more
Laurie Shuss 4:41
These are these trips are called cruise tours. And every cruise line does offer a cruise tour. They can be any length of time. You can spend two days three days up to seven days on land before getting on a cruise. They also offer them in reverse. You can do that crews going north and doing the land afterwards. Our recommendation has always been do the land first, it's tiring, and you can get on the ship and relax.
Charlie McDermott 5:10
So what happens then? Do you fly to Alaska and do a land tour
Laurie Shuss 5:17
to either Fairbanks or Anchorage or Seward, depending on how long your cruise story is, and how far north you want to start, you would look for for a cruise door that would reach the destination you want to go to
Greg Shuss 5:31
Fairbanks is probably the farthest north you can fly on a on a on a national airline. And then from there, if you want, if you want to go farther north, you can do that there are specialized tours into the Yukon. There are tours up to the Arctic Circle. I mean, there's a lot of different things you can do if you want to up that far and north in Alaska. So it's real opportunity again, to see a lot more of the of the of the of the internal part of Alaska at that point.
Laurie Shuss 5:59
My feeling is that if they're going to fly that far, they should see the state of Alaska, not just the Inside Passage, which is covered on your basic cruises.
Charlie McDermott 6:10
Okay. Yeah, very, very smart. So, so you do the land first at least that's your your recommendation. But you can do either. And then yeah, like that kind of recovery, the cruise home so so where does the cruise take you back to?
Laurie Shuss 6:24
If you're doing a cruise tour, most likely it's going to end in Vancouver, British Columbia, and at times with a stop in Victoria, which is a beautiful place to see. The round trip ones can go from Vancouver round trip, but you end up missing one or two of the ports on the Inside Passage because of time restraints. Also, the one that we did round trip from Seattle, was on the Royal Caribbean presidents cruise. And that was around trips. So we did skip one of the ports. But we did get to visit a new one we hadn't been to before.
Greg Shuss 7:00
And that was quite the exciting experience doing the Royal Caribbean's President's cruise because that's really a specialized cruise for people who are Crown and Anchor members of royal. It's a whole week celebration with the president of the company. And they do all kinds of special events and concerts on the ship itself. So that was that was a great experience for us as well.
Charlie McDermott 7:25
Let's jump to the Denali Park in the train ride. What What's that experience like?
Laurie Shuss 7:34
In Denali, you're going to see a lot of the wildlife you're also going to be up close in front, front facing to the Denali, Mount McKinley mountain, there are only 30% of people who actually get to see the entire mountain. It's very often covered by clouds part of it. So you might see the top of it but not the middle, or you'd see the middle in the bottom and not the top. When we were there all three times. We have not been part of that 30% crowd. They can see the entire mountain. Wow. The most of the the cruise tours do include a bus tour through the park of Denali. Right now part of the road is under construction. So you can't go all the way through to the tundra part. But we did see a good part of the park itself, which is just breathtaking to see the the wildlife and to see the mountain. It's just beautiful in there. And that's always included in a cruise tour. When you go to Denali and you stay at one of the cruise lines, lodges in every cruise line has their own lodges in the area. The ones we experienced. Were on Princess, so the princess Denali Lodge is absolutely gorgeous, and only about a mile away from the park itself.
Charlie McDermott 8:49
Oh, wow. Wow, that's nice. What is that? Is a train ride? Is that like a few hours? Or is that an overnight thing? How does that work?
Greg Shuss 8:58
Oh, that's actually it's actually quite a long ride.
Laurie Shuss 9:02
it's about seven hours,
Greg Shuss 9:03
Seven, eight hours. So it leaves from Denali Park and goes down to Whittier, which is where you catch the cruise line. But it's on a beautiful dome train has a great viewing options. I mean, you're going through the mountains and the rivers and it's just spectacular. And you get to see a wildlife as well. And then on the train, it's very luxurious. It really is because there's there's a dining option there as well. And there's also drinks and commentary. So it makes it a great experience. In fact, it was probably one of the favorite parts of our trip.
Laurie Shuss 9:40
So that was a naturalist onboard with you no matter what cruise company you choose. So they're always pointing out all the wildlife in the scenes. And the first time we went I thought the train was going to trip over because they said Oh look, there's a moose and everybody on the train moves to one side of the train. I thought it was going to operate over but it got was a very exciting fun trip. You get to socialize with all the people on the train and, and share stories but the naturalists are very very educated. They go through extensive training to be a naturalist on these cruise train trips. So they they give quite a lot of information to the guests which which makes it really enjoyable.
Charlie McDermott 10:21
You know, when you said that everyone moves over to one side of the train, it reminds me of the the dolphin tours you see down here, Florida and and and you know, Dolphin everyone moves in the back to the boat in front of the boat is like
Laurie Shuss 10:37
absolutely the same thing happens on your whale watching tours and Alaska. Because they do guarantee that you're going to see whales.
Charlie McDermott 10:45
Wow. Wow. All right, you guys earlier on in the episode here, you mentioned the Arctic Circle. And tours there we tell me more.
Laurie Shuss 10:58
Most often it's a plane trip. Because of time restraints. It may be an excursion, it would be round trip, but you do get off in certain areas to view things. But the Arctic Circle is quite an experience. We have not done it yet. Perhaps if we go back for a fourth time to Alaska, we will try and do that. But part of some of the cruise tours is a visit to the Arctic Circle.
Greg Shuss 11:23
And really that's your best opportunity to see the northern lights. So early spring or late summer or early fall. It's a great opportunity at that point to see them. Which again is just absolutely amazing.
Charlie McDermott 11:37
Wow, wow. So I get that overnight or a multi day event.
Laurie Shuss 11:44
Not necessarily it can be part of a land tour or it can be an excursion off of a ship. Okay, it's a long, it's a long flight. But they do guarantee that you get back to the ship on time.
Charlie McDermott 11:55
Yeah, yeah. So what are your tour? Yeah, yeah. What kind of a flight? Is it? The the like land in some remote airport
Laurie Shuss 12:06
You can on some of them, and some of them you'll even land on a glacier. Oh, and on the tour that you select, yeah, there are flightseeing excursions for most ships. And in most of the destinations in Alaska, where you can actually get on a, an a glacier, they give you glacier hiking boots, and you can climb under a glacier and see all the blue ice, which is amazing. You can also fly to a dog sledding school on a glacier and help to learn how to do the mushing of the dogs and riding on a sled with the dogs. It's quite an experience. We had it booked several times. And all three times we had it scheduled it got cancelled. But we have had clients do it and send us videos of their glacier experience and it is absolutely the most amazing thing you ever want to see.
Charlie McDermott 12:56
Alright, so I'm sure you get this question asked a lot. Alaska, summertime, but then we're talking glaciers and dog sledding and all that. What the heck do I pack? What do you wear? What's the weather like?
Laurie Shuss 13:10
My packing list for Alaska clients is to work to pack in layers. We arrived the first time and it was 90 degrees at eight o'clock at night. We sat out on the balcony of the lodge and had a drink and overlooking the river. It was just beautiful. But layers are usually the best thing. If you're planning on going up to the Arctic Circle, you might want more winter clothing or winter jacket. hats and gloves are always suggested. Because it can get quite cold. Sometimes in the latter part of July, you might hit a lot of rain. So be prepared for rain gear, umbrellas, rain jackets, things like that.
Greg Shuss 13:48
Yeah, Charlie, I'm used to wearing shorts all the time. So I wasn't really happy about having to wear pants and socks and shoes and socks. But there are days where it definitely is warm during the day. But at night it gets down. Again, when we were there. I think in August or September it got down to about 35 or 40 degrees.
Laurie Shuss 14:12
Especially if you go early in the season in May, it can be pretty chilly. And there's still lots of snow up there. So people think oh, it all melts. I won't see it. But there's a lot of snow to be seen.
Charlie McDermott 14:25
Alright, so for your next fourth trip to Alaska. You could you know, do anything you want it you know what is that special excursion or trip that you would put together for yourself personally? It
Laurie Shuss 14:39
would be the flight to the glacier to do the dogsledding. It's amazing.
Greg Shuss 14:45
Yeah, we've tried three times. So I think our next trip we're definitely going to have to do that. It's been on our bucket list for some time. So that's definitely on there. I think also that you know, we were in one of the stops that we were at in Alaska is called icy strait point, they have the world's longest largest zipline, it's 5500 feet long, and a 1300 foot drop. So we were there on a on a stop from our cruise, but we didn't get a chance to do that. So if we go back, I've convinced Laurie to go and I'll watch
Charlie McDermott 15:22
they, yeah, I
Laurie Shuss 15:26
Icy Strait Point also has a gondola that goes up to the top of the mountain where they get on that zipline. And we did do the gondola all the way up to the top. But we were actually traveling through the clouds. And we couldn't see below us as we were traveling up to the top. It was pretty amazing.
Charlie McDermott 15:42
Wow. Yeah, you know, heights aren't my thing that would take decent amount of alcohol before I probably hook up to it. I'm guessing that just to stay warm. But anyway. That's great.
Laurie Shuss 16:00
Take the fear away.
Charlie McDermott 16:03
So for a rookie like me and our listeners who would like me, or you know, this has been on the bucket list way too long. What do you recommend for first timers to Alaska,
Laurie Shuss 16:15
I would definitely recommend a cruise tour, doing the land and doing the cruise. Both have benefits both have beautiful sights to see lots of wildlife. And I do recommend when you're doing the land first, that means you're traveling through the Inside Passage southbound, so the best viewing areas would be on the port side. So when I'm booking cabins for a round trip, I always select cabins that are on the port side. And most don't know that and they don't understand that. And that's why the portside cabins go sell out first. But it is important to to guide our clients into knowing what the best cabins are. It's either on the port side or on the aft part of the ship where the ship will turn in the glacier areas in Hubbard Glacier and Glacier National Park, they will turn on a dime so that everybody can see but as you're going down through the Inside Passage, port side or after the direct back side of the ship, or the best viewing areas
Greg Shuss 17:19
if you're going to Hubbard Glacier which is one of the stops on the cruise there's a there's an excursion you can take a smaller boat from the cruise ship and it takes you right up in front of the glacier and while you're there, it's calving so there are pieces of the glacier that are that are cracking and falling right in front of your eyes.
Laurie Shuss 17:40
and you're so close you can almost touch it. It's it's amazing to hear that Thundering sound when a piece of ice falls off.
Greg Shuss 17:48
Wow. And Charlie I think the other thing that you need to do is you need to go to the lumberjack show in Ketchikan because there if you're if you're lucky, they pick an audience member to come out there grab an axe and start chopping away with all those Lumberjacks.
Laurie Shuss 18:03
It was a really fun show. We had never done that before. And I'm really glad we did. And then they have axe throwing at the end, you can practice throwing an axe at a target which was really fun to.
Charlie McDermott 18:16
Oh what an experience, I love it. Well, this has been fabulous. I love your insider insider tips. You know, little things like that make a big, big difference in your experiences, whether it's to Alaska or other places. I mean, you guys have great, great information and listeners who want to get to Alaska or other places best way for them to get in touch with you guys.
Greg Shuss 18:48
Well, again, you can always reach us through cruisewithlaurie.com . That's one of our websites, you can reach our main website that way, or you can call us on our main number which is 239-603-6040. And we look forward to hearing from you and getting you and your family or friends and anyone else that you know who would love to see Alaska because you need to go now.
Charlie McDermott 19:12
One that now mid May two. I'm sorry. I would fall for that. I'd be they're gone. They told me Oh, where are you going next? What's on the docket?
Laurie Shuss 19:30
Well, we leave in two weeks for Europe are doing a river cruise to go see the tulip farm, the Keukenhof world famous tulip farm in Amsterdam . We'll spend a few days in Paris. We'll go back to Amsterdam and get on a Rhine river cruise, going from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. And then we're doing a couple of train trips through Switzerland on the Glacier Express.
Charlie McDermott 20:00
I'll tell you my next life. I'm coming back is either Laurie or Greg, I don't care which I just want these experiences, but our listeners can get these experience anytime just get in touch with Laurie and Greg, and, guys, we'll we'll see you and talk to you real soon and we definitely want to get an update on that trip. And for our listeners who are hearing river cruises, we actually did a past episode on river cruises so if you haven't listened to that boy you've got to that was like all your episodes it's it's always like an eye opener for me it's like oh wow, these things exist. Wow, what a cool way to go on a cruise I River. Absolute comes up with this stuff. Anyway. Guys, great seeing you enjoy your trip and I will see you in the next episode.
Greg Shuss 20:50
Bye. Thanks for listening to dream vacations with Laurie and Greg shots. To learn more about our travel business. You can go to cruisewithlaurie.com . You can call us at 239-603-6040 or email gshuss@dreamvacations.com . Now until next time, have an awesome day.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai