Planning

I began researching Alaska in the summer of 2014. My husband was about to turn 50, and had been to all 50 United States except Alaska, so we thought it would be fun to hit his 50th state during his 50th year, in summer 2015.

A bit about us: We are a married couple in our 40s/50's with no kids. We love to travel independently both within the U.S. and abroad. I love to plan our trips! Thankfully, my husband is content to leave the planning to me. His only request for this trip? He wanted to see bears! I knew I couldn't guarantee that, but I did what I could to maximize our chances.

I checked out a number of books from the library and spent a lot of time on Trip Advisor reviewing other people's trip reports and lurking in the forums. I played around with a lot of different options: cruise only, cruise tour, cruise + independent land tour, independent land tour via RV. Google maps became my close friend, as I planned out various land itineraries! We were a bit hesitant to book a year in advance, because we weren't sure what my husband's work schedule would be, so we put making any definitive plans on hold for a while.

In February 2015, a good friend announced she was going to be getting married in July 2015 in Portland, Oregon, and that was just the motivation we needed to pull the trigger on our trip. We decided to combine our trip to the West Coast for her wedding with an Alaskan Cruise. First decision: to cruise before or after the wedding? I looked at all the cruise options that arrived or departed Vancouver around July 25 (Princess, Holland America, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, & Celebrity), and ultimately settled on Royal Caribbean's Southbound Alaksa and Hubbard Glacier Cruise on Radiance of the Seas. Neither of us have cruised before, and I wasn't sure it was our style, but it seemed like the best and easiest way to see the towns in Southeast Alaska. I ended up booking us an oceanview room. I didn't think we needed (or could afford!) a balcony room, but I also thought an interior room might feel a bit claustrophobic.

The next decision? How to best explore interior and/or South Central Alaksa. We knew we wanted to visit Denali, so when we booked the cruise, I also included a land tour option through RCCL (#7B, with overnights in Fairbanks, Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, and Seward), knowing that I had a few months to cancel it if I decided we wanted to tour Alaska independently. At this point, I started preparing an independent land itinerary, and priced everything out: rental car, accommodations, shuttle tickets in Denali, etc. When all was said and done, it was going to be significantly cheaper to do it on our own. Plus, I didn't like the idea of having to get up at the crack of dawn on someone else's timetable, or spend a large amount of time traveling from one location to another. With the help of the Alaska Destination Experts on Trip Advisor, I came up with the following land itinerary:

July 10: Arrive Anchorage late in evening, pick up rental car, overnight Anchorage
July 11: Travel to Denali, with stop in Talkeetna for McKinley flightseeing; overnight Denali
July 12: Shuttle to Wonder Lake, overnight Denali
July 13: Shuttle to Wonder Lake, overnight Denali
July 14: Travel to Glacierview, visiting Matanuska Glacier
July 15: Travel to Girdwood
July 16: Travel to Seward, possibly visiting Portage Glacier, Exit Glacier, SeaLife Center
July 17: 8 am Kenai Fjords Cruise, board Radiance of the Seas in the afternoon

For cruise port excursions, I decided to book directly with local vendors, as these tended to be smaller groups and more cost effective. The itinerary for our cruise was as follows:

July 18: Hubbard Glacier
July 19: Juneau: nothing booked in advance, but planned on visiting Mendenhall Glacier and Mt. Roberts
July 20: Skagway: Emerald Lake Tour with Dyea Dave (bus up, train down)
July 21: Icy Strait Point: Whale watching with Glacierwind Charters
July 22: Ketchikan: Anan bear viewing with Carlin Air (we really lucked out being able to book this...more info on my Ketchikan page!)
July 23: Inside Passage
July 24: Arrive Vancouver

A note on transportation: price out everything in its entirety in advance! I had read that a round trip car rental out of Anchorage was going to be less expensive than a one way rental from Anchorage to Seward. This was true, but when you factor in the cost of the train for two people from Anchorage to Seward, another night in Anchorage where accommodations are more expensive, the price wasn't all that different. For $200 more we could keep the car, skip the train, and stay in less expensive Girdwood, giving us the opportunity to explore the Turnagain Arm and Seward Highway on our own.