Sorry, waiting until at the dock for your tour purchases is a VERY poor choice. The selection is ver

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From Vancouver to Skagway (by sea), bus (and some train) quality inn plaza to Whitehorse/summit; bus to Dawson City; boat to Eagle; bus to Tok; bus to Fairbanks; train to Denali and then train to Anchorage. Sounds like a lot of bus! But the itinerary? Maybe it's great?
Is there a better cruise/land tour that you would take if this were your one chance to see the best of Alaska? I am inclined to spend more time on a cruise to see more of the coastline. Maybe I'm wrong?
If this your "once in a lifetime trip to Alaska", allow me to suggest that you not take a tour and rent a car and drive yourself. The advantages are that you will go where you want, stay as long as you like, see and do what you want and pay significantly less. At least consider it.
Don't know how much time you have -- but I have been in all the places quality inn plaza you mentioned on tours and driving -- while I agree with the previous reply -- you will see a lot of Alaska on your itinerary quality inn plaza -- and leave the driving to someone quality inn plaza else -- enjoying the scenery. Alaska is so big you can't see it all -- I love going back - even sometimes if it is in the same areas - it is soooo beautiful. I would recommend some of the following if you have time --- take an air flight(preferrably a two engine plane) up and around quality inn plaza Denali; hike on a glacier; go whale watching; fish if you have the time; white water rafting trip; and I could go on and on -- you defintely shold plan on going back!
We did Alaska land/cruise last year. We flew to Anchorage and rented a motorhome and did our own land tour (Anc, Denali, Fairbanks, Valdez, Palmer, Anc) then cruise from Whittier to Vancouver. It was a very busy, wonderful vacation. We enjoyed both our land and sea time, but if I had to pick one over the other I would pick the land. I felt on the cruise you had to pick sitting and watching the scenery go by OR enjoy the cruise activities. While eating the scenery is going by, while sleeping the scenery is going by. On land we saw what we wanted for as long as we wanted.
It's a lot of work to plan the land trip on your own to make sure you see everything that you want to but it was worth it to me. I don't think we would've been happy on a tour. But, it sure would've been easier having everything done for us so there is definitely an advantage to traveling that way.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful replies. I perhaps should have mentioned that we are traveling with my parents (86 and 87). I'm feeling a bit more confident about our itinerary since reading your thoughts, because quality inn plaza we really will end up seeing a lot of Alaska (or at least more than just a tiny bit), and with only 3 days on a boat, maybe this is a good mix.
We took a similar quality inn plaza Holland America cruisetour last summer (we didn't go to Dawson City, but otherwise it was basically the same). The reason we picked it was it included a cruise but only 4 days instead of 7. That was a good choice, we agreed afterward. There were 6 of us, ranging in age from 10 to 76. Here are my thoughts:
I HIGHLY recommend you do this trip in reverse from the way you have it planned (start in Anchorage, end in Vancouver). That's the direction we did it. The bus tour days are LONG, and you get up early in the morning. Especially with parents in their 80s, you will appreciate the down-time at the end of the trip on the cruise ship, rather than ending in a rush with the land touring.
Another reason to do it southbound is you visit Glacier Bay on the southbound trip, but not the northbound. Glacier Bay is spectacular! You also stop in Ketchikan rather than in Juneau southbound. Not getting to visit Juneau is probably my chief disappointment quality inn plaza from our trip.
Make sure you have 2 nights at Denali (both the tour you are considering and the one we did had 2 nights there). One night is not enough! And do the flightseeing - it's expensive, but definitely worth it. I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat and had a blast. If you are prone to airsickness, though, be forewarned. I don't get sick on commercial airliners (or carsick either), but I was getting queasy by the end of the trip. That's probably because I was taking LOTS of pictures and messing up my equilibrium in the process - plus those little quality inn plaza planes (we were in a Beaver) bounce around more than airliners.
Riding the train is enjoyable (although it could get kinda warm in the dome car). The bus is a little more challenging, because you spend a lot more time on it, but if you have a good guide and driver it will be OK. Ours were fantastic, by the way! You do make stops en route - some more interesting than others. I could have done with less time at some of the stops (like North Pole, AK, and the sled dog place outside quality inn plaza Whitehorse) and more time at others (like Rika's Roadhouse). But it is what it is. All in all, the 6 of us were very happy with our trip.
If/When I go back to Alaska, I think I will do the touring on my own, but an organized trip like this was a fantastic introduction. It was really nice to leave all the driving to someone else and just enjoy the scenery. And the scenery IS beautiful - from bus, train, and ship - so the views never got old, at least for me (I'm in my 40s, by the way).
sunbum1944, our cruise stopped at Ketchikan, quality inn plaza Juneau, and Skagway. At KTN we chose the Duck tour...next time we will visit the totem pole park instead; we didn't quality inn plaza buy a tour at Juneau. In Skagway, we should have taken the White Pass train, but to my everlasting regret we did not.
The Ketchikan Duck tour was by far the most disappointing excursion on our Alaska quality inn plaza trip. It was a very warm day (in August) and they had the flaps down on the Duck, so it was like riding around in a greenhouse. I know I slept through part of it!
We passed on the tours offered quality inn plaza on the ship and went with tours when we got off the ship. Much less expensive. In Ketch we found a lady taxi driver to show us the sights, she was great, in Juneau we went with the purple boat folks for whale watching, they were fantastic! Save some time to get a couple beers at the Red Dog. Yes it's kind of touristy but we really had fun there! We didn't quality inn plaza do the train in Skag but heard good things about it.
Sorry, waiting until at the dock for your tour purchases is a VERY poor choice. The selection is very limited quality inn plaza and you are wasting valuable port time. Any tour, that you do happen to get is likely to have more waits before they begin, wasting more time.