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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A theme which often runs through cruise-related threads is the assumption that cruises are all alike, when nothing could be further from the truth.  Different lines, ships, and itineraries cater to different kinds of passengers and offer very different experiences even if all involve ships of varying sizes and features.

While some people posting clearly understand this, others obviously assume whichever cruise(s) they have been on in the past are representative of all cruises everywhere, which is nonsense.

Do your research to make sure your preferences and expectations will be met, which they can be if you pick the right cruise.  Characterizing all cruises with broad sweeping generalizations is just ignorant.  Not everyone will like that type of vacation at any price point, which is fine, but it's really quite foolish to assert that "all" cruises have mediocre food, poor entertainment, loud and boistrous guests who mostly want to drink booze, etc, assertions which pop up here with regularity and which reflect limited experience with specific cruises which were clearly poorly matched to those writers' tastes.  [/quote]

+1.  Alaska has many cool options for people who dislike “traditional” or low end cruises.  UnCruise runs very small ships and caters to an active clientele with lots of kayaking and hiking. They are the only company that gets an overnight in Glacier Bay and two full days and there are about 60-80 passengers only.  Alaskan Dream Cruises is another and they focus on the cultural aspect of native Alaskans.

These little guys can get closer than even the luxury ships (and certainly RC). They also do less of the touristy stops - what I would call “lumberjack sh*t” - and can change their itinerary based on weather or other information.[/quote]

I got flamed for this earlier but if you want this kind of a small ship experience but don't want to pay for it, you can do an overland trip on your own. I was intimidated because everyone said "oh you have you do a cruise" but it really not much harder to plan than any other trip.

Of course if you like cruises, that is great too!!![/quote]

Right, you don't have to do a cruise to go to Alaska. IDK why so many people think this. Sure, some of the places are convenient by cruise, but we did a 2 week road trip through Alaska and had an amazing time. We still got out on the water by taking day trip boats to Kenai Fjords,etc. Everything was much, much cheaper to do it on your own. We looked at the prices these cruise ships charge for the same thing we did and they mark it up a ton. [/quote]

For whatever reason people love to hate on Anchorage but basing yourself there and doing day trips out of Seward, Whittier, the Mat Su, and doing maybe some road tripping to Denali or Homer will give you a delightful trip. And everything is way cheaper in Anchorage, like expensive by US standards but not the eye watering prices you’ll see in the rest of the state. 
[/quote]

I think axchorag is great — I always recommend the Native Life center there.  We did both a self guided land version and a cruise and I agree you can get much of it pretty easily be driving and combining with some paid excursions like a boat trip out of Seward or a helicopter flight.  Glacier bay and Hubbard bay are the big cruise draws and it’s somewhat of a pain to get to some of the other locations but there’s lots to see in Alaska either way.  [/quote]

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