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Yes, definitely spend a day or two in Vancouver if you can swing it. It's well worth the money! Boutchard Garden in Victoria Island is a must if you stay in Vancouver. I'm not a garden lover by any means but I thought it was worth it!
Definitely do your homework to see what you'd like to do!
YES!!! GO! Go! GO!!! We went on one a few years ago (Norweigian Cruise Line, I think) and it was a blast!!! We also went to Hawaii before that and I was not impressed. The Hawaii Cruise was set up like boot camp - you had to eat at a certain time and it was rush, rush, rush. The Alaskan Cruise was more laid back and you paid one fee that included all of your meals and tips - you could order as much as you wanted at any meal - 2 lobsters! 3 desserts. It was great, and I HATE to travel. Go and tell us all about it!!!!
as foma said we just got back
thanks for linking the pictures foma
We were on Royal Carribean I highly recommend a balcony we were able to stay on our balcony while visiting the Hubbard Glacier we also spent time just sitting out there enjoying all the views.
We had a wonderful trip glaciers,whales,sea lions,dog sled puppies the ship casino so many wonderful thing
The weather was cooler 55 to 60 which considering it was 90+ when we left home (Fla) was wonderful.
We left from Seward (about 2 hours south of Anchorage) after spending the day with rance and hannah lots to see in this town and ended up in Vancouver
If you want to go to Buchard Gardens you must have a full day just for this. We had planned on doing this but we only scheduled one night in Vancouver. We didn't get off the ship till almost 10 am and most of the tours to the gardens left at 8:30 am.
We enjoyed Alaska so much we are going back but the next time we are going to do a land vacation.
Yes, definitely spend a day or two in Vancouver if you can swing it. It's well worth the money! Boutchard Garden in Victoria Island is a must if you stay in Vancouver. I'm not a garden lover by any means but I thought it was worth it!
Definitely do your homework to see what you'd like to do!
And just so the homework is correct, that's Butchart Gardens near the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island - about 3 hours by ferry/car from the city of Vancouver.
There are actually tons of things to do in and around Vancouver that will keep you occupied for days on end without having to go to Vancouver Island, and there are botanical gardens also in Vancouver if you don't feel like spending 6 hours in transport just to check out Butchart gardens. I say this because most Alaska cruise tourists underestimate their time in Vancouver and underestimate the distance/time it takes to get to the Butchart Gardens.
My husband and I took the land tour and then the cruise so we were there for 12 days. We went through Princess and we highly recommend it. When we now look at pics we can still smell it and hear things around us so that was a great time. Jetboating was an absolute blast, we took a helicopter to Juneau over the glaciers and landed on one and went dogsledding. Pricey but so glad we spent the money.
We were so fortunate that we had incredible weather. We got there through a heat wave 89...hot then each day and each area was different to the point we couldn't put enough layers on through Glacier Bay.
Fairbanks was okay not much to do and they had us in a hotel pretty much across from the airport. Then Denali (Mt. McKinley) OMG spectacular.
The people in Alaska could not have been any nicer and they actually went out of their way to say thank you for contributing to their economy.
There is so much respect for the land, people, and tourists.
Every one should see Alaska at least once in their lifetime.
The web sites of:
Holland America
Princess
Carnival
Royal Caribbean
and cruisecritic.com
I took Holland America. An aquaintance and his wife are currently on a Carnival.
A cruise to Alaska is a magical experience of a lifetime.
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Alaskan Cruise
