Jewel: Planning

Welcome to my third annual “beat the heat” cruise. Two years ago I went to Alaska last year with Carnival. That one was a roundtrip from Seattle. The ports were Tracy Arm Fjord, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Victoria. 

This time I am repeating the cruise I did last August on Norwegian Jewel from Seward to Vancouver. After spending all of my pre-cruise time in Anchorage last year, I knew I would be doing it again to spend more time in the Seward area pre-cruise which is what I’ll be doing this year.

Booking

I was looking at several different options for this cruise. I want to do a Princess to Alaska cruise that includes Glacier Bay. I want to do a roundtrip Seattle cruise on one of the larger Norwegian ships. I also wanted to repeat this one to spend time in Seward pre-cruise.

In the end this schedule, with the cruise running Monday-Monday giving me the weekend to travel and spend time in Seward, just worked best for me this year.

Since booking my first Norwegian cruise last year, I learned my former vacation planner didn’t do me any favors.

She failed to mention the 10% veteran’s discount I could’ve had. Since my status is already verified with ID.Me, it was an easy five minute process for me. Now I automatically get 10% taken off of all fares on the Norwegian website.

She also failed to mention Cruise First. Why not tell everyone to buy a Cruise First certificate to save at least $150? $250 when they run a special. I took advantage of both of those discounts this time and saved about $350.

Flights

This is a quote of mine from last year:

“I took the chance booking my flights with NCL for $623. They had a deal where the second person flies free so it would’ve been an even better deal for two people. All of my flight research came up with the flight costing north of $1,000 booking it myself. More like $1,200 for reasonable flights.

If I had booked the cruise in June, I probably would’ve just booked my own air because at that point I could’ve picked my flights for about $100 more than what I paid through NCL.”

Lesson learned and applied. This time I booked my own flights. I had my eye on American Airlines because they had nonstop flights from Dallas to Anchorage and from Vancouver to Dallas. All spring I watched those flights bounce between $1,000-1,3000.

Finally in June they fell down around $500. I ended up booking my nonstop flights with additional legroom seat upgrades and a checked bag for a little over $700. Probably less than what I paid last year after seat upgrades and baggage fees.

Norwegian booked me on the horrible return flight last year that left at Vancouver 11:45pm and gave me a 1 hour layover in Toronto. I missed my connection because I had to change terminals and clear TSA which was over an hour wait. I ended up having to fly to Chicago to get to Dallas. I landed in Dallas about 40 hours after I got off of the ship.

This year I’m very happy with my flights. I’m nonstop both ways and will be home at 7pm on debarkation day. If I were a gambling man, I could’ve been home by 5pm. I’m playing it safe with the flights.

Free at Sea Upgrade

Last year I did the $300 Free at Sea upgrade. That gave me Wifi, two additional specialty dinners, and the upgraded beverage package which includes Starbucks and water.

When I look back at it I’m not sure I made good use of that package. The only alcohol I used from the premium side was Grey Goose and Baileys. And I would be perfectly fine with Tito’s and Mahoney’s which are on the basic package. I did get a Starbucks each day. That is worth about $50. I think I only got a couple of waters because I was drinking water in the dining room and ashore. The waters on NCL are big and bulky and not ones I want to carry around in port. I don’t think I got a $300+ value out of the package last year.

This year I decided not do to the upgrade. I did purchase WiFi for $109. Even if I bought a Starbucks everyday and a six pack of their 1.5 liter waters, I’d come in under $200.

Cabin Upgrade

Like last year I was given an option to bid on cabin upgrades. I didn’t bid on ocean view because it says you could be assigned a window or a port hole. To me those are not the same so I’m not willing to bid the same on them. I did bid slightly above the minimum on a balcony stateroom but I did not receive an upgrade.  The minimum bids for ocean view, balcony and suite were $75, 150, and 350 per person. I’m assuming they would’ve doubled that since I’m solo.

Anchorage Accommodations

My flight doesn’t get me into Anchorage until 7pm. Again this pre-cruise trip is all about Seward. I can’t get there until the morning so my plan was just to find an inexpensive place to stay the night. Since my bus to Seward leaves from the convention center, I wanted a place near downtown. Ideally I want to be able to walk to the convention center. Downtown hotels were starting at $400 before taxes. 

I did look into the place I stayed last year but it was already booked. I used various hotel websites, VRBO, and Airbnb and I think I found the best place for the money close to downtown. I got an Airbnb full unit rental right by Delaney Park for a total of $158. The Civic Center is a short walk from the park.

Anchorage Plans

I am going to be getting into Anchorage at 7pm and leaving at 7am. My plan is just to get an Uber/Lyft to the Airbnb, check-in, walk to dinner, then in the morning walk to the Civic Center where my bus is leaving from.

Seward Transportation

Last year I took the embarkation day train from the Airport to Seward. That gets you there just in time to board the ship. This time I knew there would be an early morning train option leaving from the downtown train depot but I also wanted to check in on ground transportation.

Booking through Alaska Railroad my options are a 6:45am train that arrives at 11:20am for $124 Adventure Class or $253 with Goldstar Service. The two bus services I found are Seward Bus Lines and Park Connection.

Seward Bus Lines only runs once a day. The Anchorage to Seward line leaves at 2pm and arrives in Seward at 5pm for $85. I was hoping to get to Seward earlier in the day so I checked into Park Connection.

Park Connection has several options including a Seward Express Bus that leaves from the Convention Center at 7am and arrives in Seward at 10:30am for $75. That’s what I booked. The Airbnb I booked is a short walk to the convention center. There are three drop off options in Seward. The Gateway Hotel, Small Boat Harbor, and the Windsong Lounge.

I selected the Gateway Hotel which is the closest option, less than a mile down the street from my Airbnb.

Seward Accommodations

There aren’t a lot of options in downtown Seward. The ones they do have are quite expensive. I didn’t book my rooms until two months out because I just really didn’t want to do it until I knew when I was going to be flying in.

In hindsight I probably should’ve booked something that was refundable earlier. The best hotels were already booked. They probably would’ve been out of my price range anyway. The remaining options downtown ranged from sketchy to extremely sketchy. I ended up paying a little bit more than those for a nice Airbnb. The total was $280 for one night in a nice looking studio apartment downtown.

After I booked I initiated communication with the host asking if there were any options for luggage storage on check-in day since check-in isn’t until 4pm.

The only luggage storage place I’ve been able to find is Orange Bike Delivery which is closed on Sunday. My hope was to book an excursion where the tour operator would watch my bags, but it’s always good to have a fallback plan. In Anchorage they offered me an early check-in last year.

I was not as lucky this time. The host ignored my messages for six weeks.

Two weeks before the cruise it became apparent I wasn’t going to have a tour operator to watch my bags. I reached out again and said if they didn’t have a storage option for me I would have to cancel and switch to a hotel.

This time I got a response that a hotel would be a better option. Now I need to try to book a hotel just two weeks out. I canceled the Airbnb and started looking at hotels again.

The most popular hotel in Seward Harbor 360. That would be incredibly convenient because it is where my embarkation day tour starts. Those rooms start at $500 for my night which is a little rich for my blood. I’m trying t0 keep it around $300. Hotel Seward started around $260 but that is for a room with a shared bathroom. To get your own bathroom you have to pay $360 which comes to $400 after taxes. 

Finally I settled in on Hotel Edgewater. This hotel is close to where I was originally staying. I got a room for $260 which came to $290 after taxes. That’s only $10 more than my airbnb and it sounds like they’ll pick me up and store my luggage.

The room I booked does not have a window.  I could’ve gotten one for about $20 more but I don’t think I’m going to use it. I’m going to check-in, go out to dinner, come back, and go to sleep. I’ll be checking out early the next morning. 

Seward Tours

The main reason I wanted to come back to Seward with Norwegian is I wanted to do a Kenai Fjords tour. That wasn’t possible last year with the embarkation day train so I knew I would be doing this trip again. There are two primary companies for Kenai Fjords tours.  Those are Kenai Fjords Tours and Major Marine.

For a smaller boat, Seward Ocean Excursions is also well-reviewed. I quickly ruled out Seward Ocean Excursions because you have to rent the entire boat (up to 6 people) for a longer tour.

I was leaning toward Major Marine because their tours are slightly longer. Once I dug into the companies and found that Major Marine is locally owned and Kenai Fjords Tours is owned by a corporation in Phoenix, I felt even better about going with Major Marine.

I did ask both companies if they could store my luggage and to tell me the differences between the tours.

Here is what Kenai Fjords Tours said:

“Yes, we can store your bags at our office while you are on the tour.

The Northwestern Tour goes further into the park, you see a smaller glacier, but more waterfalls, it is also the tour with the most time on the water which gives you an advantage to seeing wildlife.

You still see quite a lot on the National Park Tour, which also sees the most active glaciers in the park.”

Here is what Major Marine said:

Once I got my Kenai Fjords tour booked I started looking into my options for Sunday. I really wanted a guided tour to the top of Mount Marathon. The only place I could find that does one is Seward Wilderness Collective. That tour leaves at 9am and I’m not going to be in town until 9:45. It also looks like they require you to book two people at $200 per person. I don’t think I’d be interested in a $400 hiking tour.

Another option I looked at for Mount Marathon is Marathon Helicopters. With them you can catch a helicopter to the top for $75 and just walk down or book two flights for $150. Even though their website allows you to book one person, I found they actually require solos to book two tickets or get on a solo list in which you could end up on a helicopter with another group who “may not want to land on the mountain.” I decided not to pursue this option any further.

I looked into ice hiking on Exit Glacier which you can do with Exit Glacier Guides. But the tour starts at 9am and I’m not going to be in town until 9:45.

Another place I looked at is the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. If I had Monday open, their brown bear encounter would’ve been great. On Sunday they have a moose encounter. If the walk on the wild side tour were available I might have considered that and the moose encounter but the walk on the wild side was sold out.

I decided to do the Alaska Sealife Center and Mount Marathon on my own. I didn’t want to do the mountain on my own because there is a possibility for bears. My plan was just to buy bear spray and take all of the precautions. You can’t take bear spray on a plane or ship so I would buy it in Seward and give it to someone else before I left. 

As we are getting closer to the trip, I’ve watched the chance for rain in Seward on Sunday rise from 80% to 100%. Indoor activities seem likely. The Alaska Sealife Center is a good fit for that. It’s right by my hotel so it will be pretty convenient. It costs about $30 and I can save $2 as a veteran. I’m adding the Seward Museums as a likely Sunday activities.

Alaska weather is really luck of the draw. All of the ports have been 70’s and sunny for a couple of weeks now. For my cruise it’s looking like 60’s and rainy in all ports.

Ship Excursions

Hubbard Glacier

Last year I had to make that tough decision on whether or not to book the expensive Hubbard Glacier Explorer tour. I have seen pictures that look like the ship can get pretty close. I booked the tour and was very happy I did so because the ship couldn’t get anywhere near the glacier on my Hubbard Glacier day.

Since I’ve already done it, I’m going to enjoy the views from the ship and maybe I’ll get lucky with weather that allows us to get closer to the glacier this year.

Ketchikan

Last year I did the Neets Bay Bear Encounter in Ketchikan which was expensive but amazing. This year I’m going to try the cheaper Black Bear & Wildlife Exploration and see how it compares. This one costs $200 where Neets was $300. This one does not require a boat like Neets Bay did. I have done a sneak peek and it looks like it’s on a boardwalk in the woods and I may have an opportunity to see bears climbing trees. But being in the woods there are more places for the bears to hide.

Icy Strait Point

In Icy Strait Point I’m doing the tour I wanted to do two years ago that was sold out. That’s the Spasski River Valley & Wildife. This will give me a chance to potentially see brown bears. I have taken a sneak peek on this one as well. The bears will be farther away than Neets Bay and I’ve seen a lot of people walking away disappointed having not seen any bears. I’m going into this one with low expectations and hopefully I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s another affordable ticket at $109 after the discount.

I also added a ticket on the Skyglider mountaintop gondola since it doesn’t cost anything with the $50 free at sea discount. I may or may not use it since I went to the top of the mountain last year.

Juneau

In Juneau I booked Historic Gold Mine & Pan for Gold. They do a lot of variations of this tour. Others include a salmon bake. I didn’t feel the price difference was worth it for the salmon after watching some videos and reading reviews of those tours. It would be an additional $50 to add the salmon bake. I’m going to do a salmon bake in Skagway that includes a show for cheaper.

I also took a ticket on the Goldbelt Tram since that’s free with the excursion discount. I did go up last year and may not want to do it again but it’s an option if I want to.

Skagway

Skagway is a busy day. Last year was my first time there. I did the roundtrip White Pass Railroad and the Red Onion Saloon Brothel Tour. 

This year I want to really take advantage of the $50 off excursions. Summit Scenic Drive is one that comes out to be free. I booked that one first then worked my other plans around it.

First thing in the morning I’m doing the Original Street Car tour. Then after that I’m going to the Liarsville Salmon Bake. After the discount the streecar is $25 and salmon bake is $29. That’s why I selected this one over adding a salmon bake the the gold mine tour in Juneau for an additional $50. The Summit Scenic Drive will be after the Salmon bake.

I compared the prices of all of the excursions I booked to what they would’ve cost me on Carnival. I saved $300-350 on excursions with Norwegian. That’s not including the salmon bake because I couldn’t find one on Carnival that was only a salmon bake.