If we decide to do a southbound Celebrity cruise, will the plane fares be high since both are one-way?

Welcome to Cruise Chat. Generally round trip tickets are better. With that said, it seems you can't really go by any set rule with the airlines. Fares vary from airline to airline, and the competition you have from the destination your flying out of and going to. There's no rhyme or reason to what the airline do anymore. Here's a good example I just did some checks using the same airline and dates of Aug 7-13th for all three scenarios:
Nashville to Anchorage roundtrip $672
Nashville to Anchorage and return from Vancouver $1000
Nashville to Vancouver and return from Anchorage $649.
See, the roundtrip in this case is actually slightly higher than the two one ways. All you can do is price it out and see what works for you.

Thanks for the warm welcome, and thanks for looking that up for me! Those differences in prices are certainly odd. Guess I'll just have to try to make the best deal I can, then quit thinking about any other "what if's" and enjoy the trip.

Which of Celebrity's add-ons are the best for actually seeing Alaska before the cruise?

Thanks!

Hi Bren808, welcome to Cruise-Chat. It's hard to say which pre/post cruise packages are the best without knowing what your interests are. Do you enjoy the lumber jack competitions? Do you enjoy panning for gold? Do you enjoy fishing/hunting/photography/hiking/history? Whale watching? Helicopter, plane or boat? Just a few things like that http://cruise-chat.com/groupee_commo...on_biggrin.gif

There are so many great packages to select from, it's hard to narrow it down. Just wanted to say "howdy" and welcome you aboard! Best wishes!

A lot will depend on your budget and length of your vacation time. I recommend spending at least four nights on the land portion to appreciate the Alaska interior. Anything shorter and you will lose a lot of time just in traveling to/from the interior destination. Anchorage to Denali is about eight hours by train. The four nights would give you two whole days on land for exploring.

As far as flights go you are not really buying two one way tickets, most airlines have multi-city options. I would go on Orbitz and price it, that will give you many options and airlines to compare prices with. I booked with Celebrity and comapred their pre and post cruise packages and I was able to book my own with a little research. Check the Port chat section for Alaska port chat information. Happy cruising !