Princess Alaska Cruise / Land Tours

[susanmaz]

Can anyone explain the difference between the "plain" land tours and the "escorted" land tours? We're contemplating one for maybe next year and would like to understand the difference. Has anyone done this with Princess? Any recommendations as to land tour lengths? From their brochure, I believe all of the cruises are 7 day. Any recommendations as to cruise first vs cruise last? Thanks for any input. (You guys know most everything!!)

[Cruise Fanatic]

I am not quite sure what you mean by "plain" land tours. There are hosted and escorted. Hosted tours usually mean that in a specific city on your itinerary a local person from that city will "host" you for the day and be your guide for that city only. An escorted tour usually means that one person will stay with your tour for the full amount of time and be your "escort". There are many different combinations and length of tour/cruises. A 7nt cruise with 4nights land is a good combination. I wouldn't recommend less on the land. Many feel doing the land first and a Southbound cruise is best. The truth is either way is just as good. Even the Alaska experts that travel around the US doing the "Alaska On Stage" show admit either way is just as good.

[waterart]

escorted tours is more like they do at Tauck and Globus, where someone stays with you the whole time and is your own tour guide. Happens a lot in canadian Rockies. Not necessary here, a land tour would be fine.

We just got back and did land tour first. I recommend that since it is fairly tiring with all the moving and packing and unpacking. You also get up fairly early on each day to do Denali and other tours (Denali buses start leaving at around 5:45 a.m.)

Finally, the other reason I would recommend southbound is that at the end of the trip, you will only have to travel back from Vancouver, as opposed to Alaska, which adds at least another 5-7 hours of travel time. Hope this was helpful