Alaska - Flightseeing tour or 26 Glaciers cruise?

I will be in Anchorage for basically two days. One of those days I'm contemplating either a flightseeing/float plane tour or the 26 Glaciers cruise.

It seems I'd see more on the flightseeing tour in less time, I wouldn't have the drive to catch the cruise and, well, I've never been in a float plane so that's appealing.

Curious if posters to this forum have experienced both and which they would recommend. I realize the flight would be considerably more expensive, but the upsides seem worth it to me, unless the cruise is truly a much better experience.

Advice?

Another question ...should I rent an SUV for mid-May or will a regular car be OK? Will only be driving around ANC and probably to Whittier for cruise. (Leaning toward doing cruise and flightseeing.)

I will be in Anchorage for basically two days. One of those days I'm contemplating either a flightseeing/float plane tour or the 26 Glaciers cruise.

It seems I'd see more on the flightseeing tour in less time, I wouldn't have the drive to catch the cruise and, well, I've never been in a float plane so that's appealing.

Curious if posters to this forum have experienced both and which they would recommend. I realize the flight would be considerably more expensive, but the upsides seem worth it to me, unless the cruise is truly a much better experience.

Advice?

Another question ...should I rent an SUV for mid-May or will a regular car be OK? Will only be driving around ANC and probably to Whittier for cruise. (Leaning toward doing cruise and flightseeing.)
I've never done an official flightseeing flight, but I have done the 26 Glacier Cruise. I have, however, piloted a small aircraft between Anchorage and Talkeetna (though I never did finish it up and get my actual private pilot license) and have seen McKinley from the air on a clear day. No contest, I think: do the flightseeing trip--if it's a clear day. (On a cloudy day, however, the 26 Glacier Cruise is a great fallback.)

Although we had a surprise 22 inches of snow fall last weekend, the ground should be completely snow- and ice-free by the time you get up here and a regular car will get around just fine.

I'll be out of town May 13-20 and again May 25-28, but if you're in town outside of those dates, PM me and we'd love to host a dinner or something for you! (Actually, even if you're here when I'm gone, the rest of the ANC FT crew would, I'm sure, be happy to meet up with you!)

I'll be in or around ANC from 6/5-9 and am trying to figure out what scenic outings I should do.

thanks, safe travels and report back what you ended up doing :)

I'll be in or around ANC from 6/5-9 and am trying to figure out what scenic outings I should do.

thanks, safe travels and report back what you ended up doing :)

Don't know which one l'etoile's looking at, but check out this link for some ideas and names of companies (all the ones listed are reputable and offer good service):

http://alaska.org/flightseeing/

Definitely agree with Jackal - if the weather's great, do the flight. If not, the cruise is fun enough.

The drive to Whittier is gorgeous, and the tunnel is interesting. Whittier itself is, well to put it nicely, a little bland. :p

The Alaska Railroad does run to Whittier in time for some of the cruises - might see if that's an option to combine even more activities together. If you wear a hat, you may not by the time the cruise is over - the boat moves very quickly, and if it weren't for a fast-acting German guy at the back end of the boat, I would have been hatless. So hold on to your hat. :)

By mid-May the days should be getting pretty long - you may have more time than you think to do/see things. I would also recommend Earthquake Park and possibly pulling into the back parking lot of the Alaska Motor Vehicle Department by the airport - great place to sit and watch the floatplanes takeoff and land.

If you do end up doing the floatplane trip, please report back about the experience - it's the one thing I haven't done in Alaska yet, though a similar trip in New Zealand was a lot of fun!

Have a great and safe trip!

Sean

Thanks much for the advice and information. I'm going to hope to do both, assuming the weather's good for the flight.

And thanks jackal for the invitation. It looks like we will cross paths, however.