Amazing Alaskan Cruise

Ship tip

Our cruise was to Alaska on Norwegian Jewel. Overall it was a nice cruise, but we would probably look for a different cruise line on any future cruises. The staff were very friendly and helpful most of the time. The primary issue we had was with NCL’s systems and communications. Most of these shortcomings could have been cured with an additional instruction or two. And we found that many passengers had the same issues we did. For example, my wife had booked our cruise and set up our Internet service once we were on board. I then went in to set up my account, but it never worked. After meeting with the Internet manager and listening to the half dozen people in front of me in line asking the same question, I discovered that only one account can be set up and other people in the room must use the same username and password. This is not stated in the materials they provide you. There was at least one thing like this that occurred every day. We did an independent tour in Ketchikan with Lisa at Tlingit Tours, 907-821-2131. Lisa is a native Alaskan and provided us a lot of great information. She asks what you are most interested in and then tailors your tour to your interests. In Juneau and Skagway we purchased the NCL tours and were happy with them. In Juneau we did a hike to see a glacier and then a whale watching tour. We were very lucky that we got to see whales bubble feeding, which is seldom seen. In Skagway we did the train ride to White Pass. It was fun and thrilling. Lots of history about the gold rush. We included in our tour a land tour to Denali National Park. Alaska is large so expect a lot of time on the coach and train. We initially were disappointed that Aramark, NCL’s contractor for housing had overbooked the lodge in Denali so we had to stay overnight in Talkeetna. But this turned out to be fantastic. We really enjoyed our time in Talkeetna and the accommodations were better than in Denali. We would have preferred if we could have stayed in Talkeetna, but the travel time just would not allow for that. The trip into Denali was grueling. Close to 8 hours on a school bus up and down narrow gravel roads. We did get to see some amazing scenery and some wildlife, but most people on our tour felt that it was just too long. A shorter tour of Denali would definitely be preferred. We did get a closer look at Denali from the furthest point of the tour (30 miles from the mountain), but the mountain is usually cloud shrouded at least partially, so even that really wasn’t worth the tortious trip. Unfortunately, if you book the land portion of NCL’s cruise this trip is not an option, but is an automatically included part of the package. I must say the tour director, Joel, and coach driver, Alice, on the land portion of our trip were OUTSTANDING. Joel was able to make accommodations on the fly and had everything organized even when last minute changes were requested or required. Alice has many amazing stories from her time in Alaska and helped keep us entertained. That aspect of the entire cruise package had to be the best. Overall, I’d recommend an Alaskan cruise to anyone wanting to get a brief glimpse into the 49th state. But be aware that there likely will be some shortcomings you will need to expect.