Canada and Alaska

[chopc]

Please could someone recommend a website or travel agent with whom we can book a trip to Canada , to include an Alaska Cruise?

Many thanks in advance!

Depends if you want small ship or large cruise ship! Major cruise ships go there so take your pick! Discover the World do small ship cruising, as do Noble Caledonia, which is way better experience of Alaska but much more expensive.

The large ships go to all the ports where there are numerous activities and you can have a fantastic time if you like standard cruis ships. But it’s expensive to take the excursions and it’s somewhat impersonal. If you want to see wildlife it’s not brilliant except for whales. We went with Princess many moons ago when DC were early teens but I wouldn’t now choose to do that. We are going to Canada later this year and spending a week on a small ship!

Any travel agent will have cruise brochures for Alaska from the all the major cruise lines.

For the Alaska cruise we started off in Seattle and then flew to Anchorage. Seattle is great and after a day in Anchorage we took the train to Denali. We then did a land tour before boarding the ship in Whittier. We ended in Vancouver. The land tour was pretty good but the opportunity to see wildlife in Denali was extremely limited. It was disappointing. We went into the park in a school yellow bus with steamed up windows. Lots of chat from guides but no effort to see bears!

I organised a trip for us to see bears during the cruise. We did see some black bears catching salmon. Go in late summer to see bears during the salmon run.

The scenery is stunning and we saw lots of whales. There are trips to see whales in the ports but some use sonar to track them and when they find them they hound them. That too was disappointing and against local protocol but tourists must see the whales!

So, if you can afford it, go on a small shop for a higher quality experience.

For Canada we are sailing in the Great Bear Rainforest and then staying at Tweedsmuir Lodge. This is a dedicated scenery and wildlife tour which you might not want. Wildlife Worldwide has options. Audley Travel also do good Canada trips.

Thank you. Love beautiful scenery but not necessarily into wildlife

Then any cruise will be fine. Holland America, Princess and other options will suit you. The scenery is stunning.

If you like scenery then not sure if you have considered the rocky mountaineer train journey.

Thank you both. Yes I have but the Rocky Mountaineer together with the cruise brings the trip up to around 20K

Glacier Bay is one of the highlights of Alaskan cruises and Holland America Line (HAL) and Princess Cruises have bagged most of the permits. Other cruise lines offer alternatives e.g. Celebrity do Hubbard Glacier, but you would need to decide whether that’s good enough for you.

www.cruisecritic.co.uk is a really useful resource, especially the boards with advice from people who’ve done the trips.

We're going in June chopc - just me and DH!

We've booked it all ourselves - flights to Vancouver, car hire to Whistler for a few days, back to Vancouver to board the ship (Silversea Muse - better be good! ) and I have booked several excursions. We have a couple of days in Vancouver on our return, before we fly back to the UK.

Looking forward to the scenery and the wildlife.

Can't wait.

Thanks for the tips

Agent has come up with a fantastic itinerary. Just need to check if we want to part with all that money ........ in the cruise no drinks are included ..... guess you can sneak in bottled water for the cabins

We booked our Canada trip through trailfinders and they have organised everything - flights, car hire, ferry transports, hotels, connecting flights, day trips etc. They have been fab!

Re drinks on the cruise, there will be water, ice, tea, coffee and a few soft drinks available for free from the buffet, so if you take refillable bottles or cups you’ll be able to take drinks back to your cabin.

Will try trailfinders to see if they can find a better deal

I thoughts drinks were not included in the cruise

@ajandjjmum can you direct me to a site where you booked excursions? Thank you

I'd really recommend traifinders. They'll work to your budget or tell you if you are being unrealistic. We mix and match when using them too. So some self organised some not. But tbh everything they've organised has been excellent.

Alcohol, branded soft drinks and drinks from the restaurants and bars won’t be included but there are limited drinks available from the buffet for free. This is standard across most cruise ships.

Some of the cruises are 'all inclusive', so everything (including tips) is covered in the price.

chopc
I have mainly booked the excursions through the cruise line. The only exception is the 'Harv's and Marv's' whale-watching trip in Juneau, as I wanted to be on a smaller boat. I use Trip Advisor endlessly!

Thank you

The cruises run expensive trips. You can find local companies that are better. Just google and use trip advisor.

Yes that's what I was thinking. Can you pick up an excursion on arrival?

The cruise agents can book it all, we used cruise.co.uk, my parents used iglu. Give them an idea of the itinerary you are looking for but also look on the website because they have all kinds of prepackaged options eg I saw fly to Toronto, train to Vancouver (via various stops) and then up to Alaska a few weeks back

Ps don't prebook excursions unless it's very off the beaten track eg they will offer trips at Skagway which you can book direct for half the price. If you can add on days in Alaska I recommend the train to Denali.

We went with Princess. The problem with booking excursions with other companies is that if, for whatever reason, there is a delay getting you back to the ship, the ship can sail without you!

@stucknoue so when the ship stops you can find companies at the port whom you can book excursions through?

In July HAL often bring out their Explore4 drinks package with 15 drinks each a day. Depending on when you want to go it might be worth waiting to see if they do it this year.

I would not leave it until docking to find a trip. It’s a bit last minute and no obvious saving. What halogens if they are all sold out and you don’t get what you want? All the trip companies know sailing times. Any trip could go wrong!

Cruise ship trips are often 1/2 a day to get clients back on the ship for lunch.