What should we do after our Alaskan cruise to extend our honeymoon an extra 5 nights?

Question

We want to take a cruise in June for our honeymoon and would like to end up around Anchorage. We know we want to go to Denali, but should we stay there or just stay in Anchorage? Where should we stay, where should we go, and what should we do?

Answer 1

The best Alaska cruise experience is the CRUISE-TOUR. Princess, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean all run cruise tours which take you by train all the way to or from Fairbanks, Alaska. Princess and RC have special domed train cars for this. Your best chance to see wild animals will be if you do a cruise-tour where you go further north after cruising the inside passage. The only animals you are likely to see in the inside passage is seals. On these tours You can arrange to stop for a night or two in Taketna, or Denali National Park. This will be your best opportunity to see Moose, Caribou, eagle, wolf, and bear. But you really need two days at Denali so that you have time to get one of the Park Service's buses that go deep into the park. Regular tour buses , cars and campers can only go about 3 or 4 miles into the park. The Park Service runs buses about 17 miles into the park, but you must get to the visitor center very early to reserve a spot on one of their buses. The train stops going north and south do not get you to Denali in time or allow enough time for the deep back country buses. With Princess, Holland America, and RC you can do the tour part first and then go to Seward or Whittier to get on ship for the inside passage part. I recommend doing the tour part first.


WE did the Alaska cruise tour on Princess in 2001 and on our trip we stayed in Anchorage one night and in Denali one night and then spend our last night in Fairbanks before flying back home. On hindsight we should have stayed at least 2 nights in Denali and started our trip in Fairbanks with a flight there a day early so we would have time to explore that city.

My suggestion is look carefully at the 3 cruise lines that I mentioned and at the options for staying over in Denali and/or Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Answer 2

Many of the cruise lines offer multi-night land trips as extensions of the cruise, both before and after the cruise. Check with your cruise line to see if any of these interest you.