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Cruise Tours – The Way to ‘Cruise’
Alaska’s Highways, Flyways, and Railways
First
time cruisers sometimes wonder what a “cruise tour” might be.
A “tour” of the cruiseship perhaps?
Well, no... When you buy an Alaska
cruise tour (also called a "cruisetour" or a "cruise-tour") you
purchase a package that includes a basic cruise plus additional tours, travel,
and destinations ashore either before or after  the cruise. Your pre-cruise
and post-cruise choices range from wilderness lodges and national parks
to scenic rail and motorcoach excursions, riverboat journeys, travel to
Canada’s Yukon Territory, and any number of other pleasurable
things-to-do and places-to-see.
All necessary transportation, hotels,
tours, and transfers – including, of course, your basic
cruise – are usually covered in a single purchase. Exceptions: Some
meals ashore may or may not be included; gratuities seldom are.
The cruise tour category offered most by
cruiselines is a one- or multiple-night option featuring luxury rail
travel or motorcoach from Anchorage to
Denali National Park. The package may or may not include a sightseeing
bus ride deep into the park’s interior in search of grizzly bears,
moose, caribou, Dall mountain sheep, foxes, and - if you’re incredibly
lucky - wolves or wolverines. Some Denali tours extend north to (or
from) Fairbanks.
Farthest-roaming
choice is a trip by air from Anchorage or Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on
the shores of the Arctic Ocean, followed by luxury motorcoach travel
(paralleling the Trans Alaska Pipeline) on the Dalton “haul road” to
rustic Coldfoot and Fairbanks. This, in turn may be followed by rail or
motorcoach travel back to Anchorage. Princess Cruises, Holland America
Line, and Cruise West offer variations on this theme.
Here is only a small
sample, among scores of options available, that are offered by the
various cruiselines. The list will give you an idea of the wide variety
of cruisetours and extended stay opportunities from which you may
choose:
Large Cruiseships
All four Carnival Cruise Line
cruisetours listed at their website includes seven nights’ sailing
between Vancouver and Anchorage. The line’s longest post-cruise
northbound option (four additional nights) includes air from Anchorage
to Fairbanks, a goldmining tour and sternwheel riverboat cruise in
Fairbanks, luxury rail from Fairbanks to Denali National Park (Natural
History tour included) and luxury rail service from Denali to
Anchorage. (1-800-CARNIVAL; www.carnival.com)
A number of Alaska cruisetours feature
travel within Western Canada before or after an Alaska cruise. Among
them: Celebrity Cruises
whose 12-night cruisetour option begins (or ends) at Calgary, includes
highway motorcoach travel to Lake Louise, and Banff, and rail service
aboard the “Rocky Mountaineer” to Kamloops and Vancouver where the
basic cruise begins or ends. (1-800-437-3111; www.celebrity.com)
Among it’s roster of cruisetours, Holland America Line’s
“Klondike Explorer and Sawyer Glaciers” 10-night cruisetour encompasses
four days (three nights) of sailing from Vancouver to Skagway, rail
travel over the historic (circa 1898) cliff-hugging White Pass
& Yukon Route railway to Fraser, B.C., motorcoach travel to
Whitehorse and Dawson City in the Canadian Yukon, a 100-mile cruise
along the Yukon River to Eagle, Alaska, then motorcoach travel to
Denali National Park. All this is followed by luxury dome-car rail
travel to Anchorage. (1-877-724-5425; www.hollandamerica.com)
Before or after your Seattle-based Norwegian Cruise Line
voyage you can sample additional water travel of a different kind. Make
that a totally different kind – travel by duck! It’s true. Guests who
opt for this two-night option experience a “Ride the Duck Tour”
adventure in an amphibious World War II "Duck" landing craft. Also
included are a 10-hour second-day Mt. Rainier excursion and two nights’
hotel accommodations at the Red Lion Hotel. (1-800-327-7030; www.ncl.com)
Last year Princess Cruises
inaugurated a new “Direct to the Wilderness” cruisetour program under
which passengers could disembark at Whittier following a seven-night
cruise from Vancouver and immediately board the line’s private train
cars for a same-day direct rail link to Princess’ wilderness lodges in
Denali National Park and elsewhere.The program proved highly popular
and has been continued for 2006. Other options include same-day
arrivals at the cruiseline’s wilderness lodges at Copper River or on
the Kenai Peninsula. (1-800-774-6237; www.princess.com)
Royal
Caribbean International has scheduled cruisetour options
that include extra time in British Columbia. The line’s 11-day/10-night
“Whistler Cruisetour,” for instance, begins with a seven-night round
trip from Vancouver to Southeast Alaska and return. On day eight, after
disembarking their ship, cruisetour passengers travel by motorcoach
from the ship to their hotel at the resort community of Whistler. The
following morning features a spectacular gondola ride to the top of
Whistler Mountain. The rest of the day is free for independent
activities including hiking, biking, sightseeing, sampling championship
golf courses, and fishing. On day 10 the tour returns to Vancouver for
a day that includes a city tour to historic Gastown, busy and bustling
Chinatown, 1,000-acre Stanley Park, English Bay beaches, and Queen
Elizabeth Park. The cruisetour concludes on day 11 with a transfer to
Vancouver International Airport. (1-800-327-6700; www.royalcaribbean.com)
Mid-Size
Vessels
Regent Seven Seas Cruises (formerly Radisson Seven Seas
Cruises) describes this post-cruise option as "Alaska Your Way by
Private Plane." It's a two night program, offered in conjunction with
disembarkation. Says Regent's website: "Private Skytrekking is the
ultimate wildlife experience in the "great land". With your private
pilot-guide, you'll visit the backcountry, fly over glaciers, and enjoy
prize-winning photographic opportunities. Imagine soaring over a high
ridge top, gliding past a family of mountain goats grazing on lush
green grass. As you clear the ridge, look back: a waterfall spills five
hundred feet in a series of cascades to the verdant foothills below.
Off to your right, an opaque river snakes down from a glacial remnant,
clinging to a cleft in the mountain range. Fly over country never
explored by man. Land on river bars to observe bears, with no hint of
human presence. Picnic among brilliant wildflowers in the intense
Alaskan summer. (1-800-285-1835; www.theregentexperience.com)
Smaller
Ships
For anglers, American
Safari Cruises can tailor short or longer extended stays
out of Juneau or Sitka to sample unsurpassed saltwater fishing for
lunker king salmon and silvers, huge halibut, searun steelhead trout,
and other species. Or, the cruiseline can arrange fly-fishing
adventures by floatplane to remote coves, streams, and lakes.
(1-888-862-8881;
www.americansafaricruises.com)
Smallship
cruiseline Cruise West
combines two of its basic cruises - the 11-night “Coastal Odyssey”
cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage or the 13-night “Voyage to the
Bering Sea” - with a bush flight experience and three-day,
two-night wilderness lodge adventures. These cruisetours include
fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and bear gazing. The remote lodges -
Redoubt Bay Lodge and Winterlake Lodge - are located some 200 miles
from Anchorage and are accessible only by floatplane. (1-800-888-9378; www.cruisewest.com)
(Photo credit: Luxury train in Alaska's wilderness is a popular
cruisetour option - Princess Cruises Photo)
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