I'm not sure if this belongs here but I think it does.

I'm in the process of planning my main trip for 2006 and I've got several possibillities and would like to get some info from those who ahve done these trips already.

There are three main possibillities-

Alaska Cruise / Land Tour

Northern Europe Cruise (Scandanavia, Baltics, Russia)

and the third one that doesn't involve Lighthouses directly-

River Cruise in Europe.

I'd appreciate any input I can get on these from somebody who has done any of them- cruise line, type of cabin, lighthouses that can be seen, etc.

I know some have taken cruises or trips to Northern Europe and to Alaska and I hope you can help me.

Thanks,

Dennis

It depends on what you're looking for.

In AK, look into a small-ship cruise instead of a Princess or HAL kind of thing. You'll get to see more, get to know your cruisemates better, and have a more "interesting" experience.

In Europe, the major lines are bigger. I think Princess and HAL are again big here. There's also the luxury lines, like Celebrity, Crystal, and Cunard (my personal favourite, which I could write pages of advice on alone.)

A river barge cruise is supposed to be wonderful. You could also look into a canal barge. The former usually tends to have ships topping out at about 50pax, while the latter usually tops at 12-16pax, with 8-10 being the norm. It seems very cool, going through all the old-fashioned locks and all the tiny towns.

A good place to start for canal/river cruises is Abercrombie and Kent's site at http://www.abercrombiekent.com/index.cfm?navid=3.3. To take one of their tours is sometimes a little steep, but for this segment, it's also a good jumping-off point, since they have info on all the major barges, which they charter for their trips. After you find a vessel you like, but don't want to go with A&K, some Googling may find you a better deal.

Each situation you present has various options. I would choose a place first, and then start whittling down big ship/small ship, river/barge, regular/luxury line, etc.

Greg,

Thanks for the info but I'm hoping to get some first hand experience replies.

I've got the general info part down- that's why I specified the three things I was interested in getting info from people on. I'll agree the European River Cruise is less specific than the others.

Dennis

My wife and I did an Alaska Cruise 2 years ago on RCCL on the Radiance Of The Seas. It was wonderful.

Here were the stops:
Depart Vancouver BC
Inside Passage (Cruising North)
Juneau
Skagway
Hubbard Glacier (Cruising)
Ketchikan
Inside Passage (Cruising South)
Return Vancouver, BC

All I could say is WOW! The scenery is beautiful. Hubbard Glacier is just magnificent. The wildlife is very interesting (bring a long lens). If you do this trip, definitely take a float plane excursion and the Orca Lodge whale watch. The dog sleds were closed due to soft glaciers when we went in late August. You MUST get a cabin with a balcony, trust me on this. There were only two catagories higher than our cabin. There was even a Guard Island lighthouse excursion (cruise around, not actual a landing) that we didn't take. You could see quite a few lighthouses if you know where you are and the ships course. GPS is a great help, and the ship has a channel that shows your ships location and coordinates on a map at all times.

Lights I saw:
Point Retreat, AK
Sentinel Island, AK
Brockton, VBC
Prospect, VBC
Triple Island, Inside Passage
Pine Island, Inside Passage (I mistook it for Addenbroke, need to fix that)
There are many more, I just missed them.

Would I do it again...YES! And this is from someone that hates the cold. Actually it wasn't that bad temperture wise.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Great info Lighthouse Joe! I'm lurking on this Topic Dennis. lol
Bob

Joe,

Thanks for the info. I agree with you on the balcony- it's a requirement for an Alsakan Cruise.

You can even sit in your cabin and still see the sites if it gets too cold and you don't have to fight for a spot on the rail. My Mother and sister took an Alaskan Cruise a couple of years ago.

If I do the Alaskan Cruise we're thinking of the Land / Cruise option with a few days in Vancouver at the end of the cruise.

Esther seems to be leaning on a Northern European Cruise , though.

Here's a question for anybody- have you tkaen a cruise like the northern european ones where most of your actual cruising is done at night from city to city? I've been reading some reviews that say in cases like that to save money and get an inside cabin since most of the time you can't see anything anyway. Any thoughts?

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Enough has been said about Alaska and I totally agree about having an outside balcony cabin. The only other option that I would throw in is which glacier area you would want to see. I really wanted to go into Glacier Bay. I chose the ship based on it going into Glacier Bay. The NPS controls how many ships can go in there and it became so popular that when I was there a couple of years ago, only 2 ships were allowed into the bay on the same day.

I would highly suggest going to the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. We also enjoyed a float plane trip out of Ketchikan over the Misty Fjords. It is very beautiful scenery and the pilot landed the plane in one of the glacier lakes so we were able to get out on the pontoons and take some pictures. My kids loved the kayak trip in Haines. They saw lots of wildlife upclose and personal. Our last stop was in Victoria...make sure you go out to the orca pods if you stop there. You can take rubber boat trips out or we took another float plane and flew over them. We were also able to see a 40 foot gray whale from over head. It is quite a sight watching that huge spout come up out of the water.

Now on to Europe...

I was there for 4 weeks this summer on two different cruises. The two I was on this summer were both in western Europe. We started in England and went to Paris, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Holland, and Belgium. I have also been on the 2 week Baltic cruise to the Scandinavian capitals. Or...your other choice is the Mediteranean. I was there 2 weeks last summer and loved it. It mostly depends on what type of things you want to see and how hot you want the temps.

Let's start with your choice of cabin...I have had balcony's twice and outside windows twice. For the Med....hands down go for the balcony. Even though you are gone during the day...it is beautiful to watch the ship leave port and sit out on the balcony for a snack or drink before dinner. The temperature is perfect for sitting outside watching the ship coming in or out of port.

If you are comparing No. Europe then it is a lot cooler. I'm not a big fan of the cold so I didn't use my balcony as much. The trip I was on from the end of June to July, I had a window and that was fine. The trip I took from the end of July to August, I had a balcony. The most enjoyable part of having the balcony was that we were right next to the bridge. Everyday, we would go out on the balcony and talk to the captain and he would point out different landmarks. We had our own personal tour guide.

They are all fun but busy days. Make sure to not overload your schedule. We were on an 8 hour time change to London and then if you go to the Baltic...you change time zones 3 more times. You can get totally exhausted. One final tip...if you can get together with 4 people...I found I could reserve taxi drivers for the day almost as cheap as the price of the tours. We were able to see and do so much more without waiting for tour buses to load and unload.

Sorry to be so long winded...I would be happy to talk with you if you want more information.

BTW...I haven't been on a river cruise but my sister took one in Germany last summer and in China this summer. She liked them because all the tours are included with the price of the cruise. The biggest difference is the size of the ship and not too much for nightime entertainment.

So "Travel Queen", I have one question? Port or Starboard. I'm assuming it makes a difference for viewing lighthouses from your balcony in Alaska?
Bob

In answer to your question Bob...it all depends on where you are starting your cruise. If you are going in and out of the same city then it really doesn't matter. The captain does a good job of turning the ship different directions so that you can see from both sides.

Where you will find a difference is if you fly in to one city (Anchorage) and out of another (Vancouver). I like the balcony cabin that follows the shoreline better than the open ocean. I think you see better wildlife closer to the shore. So, if I was going on the northbound cruise to Alaska from Vancouver to Seward, then I would choose the starboard side. If it was the reverse going from Seward to Vancouver, then I would pick the port side.

Just MHO!

Dennis, Tammy Wolfe just got back from an Alaska cruise in June and she had several lighthouse images from there she managed to sneak in. I'll see if I can find her thread and post it here.

Update - here it is!

Tammy\'s Alaska Trip

Jen,

Thanks- already went back and checked her posts out. Great photos but not much detailed info that I'm looking for. I want peoples thoughts- what was good, what was bad, would they do it again, etc.

I actually put her in contact with someone who did extensive research for lighthousing on an Alaskan cruise.

I have contacted her but she's in florida until the 31st so I have to wait for specifics until she gets back.

The person who sent her the info is leaving for a Lighthouse cruise of Hawaii tomorrow so he can't sent it to me until he gets back- all these people cruising all over the place.

Dennis

Wheland,

You might want to look at these message boards:
http://www.cruise-addicts.com/forums/index.php
http://www.cruisecritic.com/
http://www.cruisemates.com/MBindex/

These people cruise ALOT!

Joe,

Already been there and done that- thanks for the info though.

I just know that several people on the forums have done some of these cruises and wanted to get their opinioons as well.

Unfortunately I picked the time that everybody was either alrerady gone or getting ready to go. I'll get my info eventually.

I've been doing much research on many sites online and I'm narrowing it down oen way or the other.

Dennis

I agree that you should join a cruise forum, both in the decision, planning, run-up, and post-cruise times. I'm a member of CruiseCritic, basically to discuss Cunard, and they're probably the largest one. I'd definitely reccomend it...those people know everything, and you usually get answers really quick.

We can help a lot here, but those people live, eat, and sleep cruising. Just look at their signiature lines and you'll see what I mean.

Greg,

I've already said I was going to places like that.

I still would like to discuss it with people that I have some more direct contact with- people I have actually met and whose opinion I think highly of.

The problem with anything on the internet is this- if you go to a bulletin board you will find 3 answers to every question asked- yes, no and I don't know but here's what I think anyway.

I mean none of the above as a criticism towards anyone- it's just the way of the internet. You've got to take a good bit of it with a very large grain of salt. It happens here even- but I'm a chicken and I'm not going to name names.

Dennis

Never mind - on my way down to the new comments, I noticed that. :rolleyes:

Bringing this to the top!

Any help planning a trip to Alaska in addition to the above would be appreciated.

What is the best time and worst timr?

January isn't really a great time . . .

January isn't a great time for anything especially in Alaska

We went in August - had great weather - fantastic time!
HCS

I'm going to do the Baltic cruise in June so I have no experience to offer and hope to get some here. Check out the Lighthouse Directory for possibilities.

I have done a land trip in Ireland where I did see a few lighthouses and I've done a cruise ship trip in the Med where I saw several lighthouses

We also rented a canal boat in England where I didn't see any lighthouses. We did the locks ourselves. There are several different kinds of river cruises as has been pointed out. For the smaller boats, some are like a self catering apartment, and some are like a small moving guesthouse where someone else does all the cooking etc. On the latter kind, they don't usually take kids.

Well I hear January is a great time for Australia and New Zealand and much of the rest of the southern Hemisphere.

Seriously- I can give you some insight into a cruise in the UK and Scandinavia in July. It's usually very temperate in Scandanavia then- but the year we went it was 80 degrees everywhere in the UK, Ireland, Norway and Denmark.

The cruise was 2 weeks and we had a great time and saw the fjords up close and got to see about 45 lighthouses over the two weeks in 8 countries.

Dennis

Stan and I went to Alaska in 1995 and again in 2007--two different cruises. Did not see any lighthouses on either trip. Princess cruise line (3,000-passenger ship) and Lindblad Expedition (60-passenger ship). Would go again using Lindblad if I had the chance. Can send a short synopsis if you want details.

Sandy

Bob...I think going to Alaska is a "crap shoot" on weather. The year we cruised we went the first week of August. We had absolutely beautiful almost hot weather. (The steam train we were on going up the Yukon Pass by Skagway had to stop and cool off before we could continue to the top.)

We joked with a shop keeper in Skagway about it being the first sunny day she had seen all summer. She said our ship was good luck and didn't want us to leave and take the sunshine away.

But...our good friends were on the same cruise that we took only 1 week before us during the end of July. They had nothing but rain and fog. It was so foggy, the ship had to be turned back from entering Glacier Bay.

That same year, we had friends go to Alaska the middle of August. They also had nothing but rain.

Sue and I went on the Inside Passage Cruise on the first week in August in 97. The the day we entered Glacier Bay was so clear we could see the peaks of all of the mountains, which a ranger I was talking to said was about the third or fourth time she had seen them in the five years that she had worked in the park.

In Juneau we encountered liquid sunshine, which is like a steady mist. This is the norm we were told about 80% of the summer there.

The cruise ship did most of the traveling at night, therefore passing most of the lighthouses along the way after dark. This is done so that the days are spent in different ports doing side excursions such as whale watching, walking on Glaciers and of course shopping.

We went to Alaska in June of 1999 on Princess Cruise Ship. The problem, like Paul said, is that the ship passes lighthouses after dark. We did see Eldred Rock and one other that we never could identify.

It was cold in June but what a great trip. I recommend the land excursions which were more fun than the cruising. There was a canoe trip around glaciers, a heliocopter to a dog sled camp, a float plan that landed near the fiords and horse back riding.

Some day it would be great to do the lighthouse tour if they had one. It probably would cost a fortune!

Alask is wonderful and well worth the trip.

Judy

We've done the Inside Passage four times now over the last 30 years or so and I agree that the weather is very unpredictable in advance.

The best way to see the lights along the way is to take the Alaska ferry which travels to or from Skagway, Alaska to Bellingham, Washington. It travels during the daytime as well as at night. If you plan your trip carefully, however, you can get off and spend the nights in cities along the way (Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and more)so you can see the whole Inside Passage and the lights during the daytime. In my opinion, a great way to travel - casual, no shipboard activities - just very relaxing and beautiful scenery.

Larry