We're on a RSSC cruise, the Mariner, from Vancouver to Alaska in August and I'm wondering if anyone has some recommendations for excursions that the ship offers. There are so many to choose from and we definitely don't want to miss the heli/glacier and dog-sledding ones but there are many others to choose from! Thanks.

I will be very interested to see what people recommend, as an Alaska cruise is something I would love to do.

I just spent 11 days on RSSC Voyager, and can't say enough good things about the ship, crew, and food. Enjoy your time aboard!

We will be taking our first cruise ever to Alaska, from Vancouver, B.C., in early August.

We will post our experiences. Now a FlyerTalk cruise to Alaska is something that would really interst me.

Punki, what a great idea. I even volunteer to organize the cruise, contact the cruiseline for group booking, etc.

You have to be the conduit to generate interest. Let's aim for late August-early September, 2006. Great time to be in Alaska.

Well I will keep my eye on this forum as planning an alaska cruise in august 2006.Have to be in seattle by september 6.

I went on an Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean a couple years ago and have some thoughts. One thing we found out was that oftentimes you could just purchase an excursion when you went ashore. Most of the ports had a place set up on the dock where the local excursion companies could have a booth and would sell their excursions. The prices they charged were far cheaper than what the cruiseline was charging. For our cruise we only purchased two excursions. The first was to ride the train up to the mountain in Skagway. The second was a helicopter ride to see a glacier and to have a nice lunch at a cabin. I'm blanking on which port that was at. Like I said before, both excursions were purchased through the cruiseline. However, when wer arrived at the port for the helicopter ride the weather was foul and the excursion was cancelled. So we ended up just doing the train ride at Skagway.

Now more to the point. After having had that experience and from talking to others who were on the cruise, here's what I'd recommend. If you see an excursion that you're just dying to do, and if money isn't a huge factor, then by all means book it through the cruise line to ensure that you get a spot. But if money is a factor, or if you aren't incredibly picky about the excursion you do, wait until you get to port. Try to get off in one of the first groups, make your way to either the building they have with booths for local excursion companies or the area where the companies are selling them (all ports had groups selling excursions from either a building or tables set up along the pier), and pick the excursion you want. The risk of doing that is they may have aleady sold out their excursion. But the benefit is to save money and have more choices.

That's my 2 cents. I would also highly recommend checking out www.cruisecritic.com . They have a forum strictly on information for ports of call, which includes loads of information on excursions. One thing that some people do is contact an excursion company before going on the cruise. Going this route avoids the mark-up the cruise lines do. And since there are recommendations from cruisecritic members who have used the excursion company you know you're going to have a good experience.

Hope that's helpful.

Thanks all and I have definitely been on cruisecritic many times and luxurycruisetalk.com also. We are going to pre-book our excursions with the ship ahead of time since this is our first cruise and there are several we really want to do.

When you book excursions through the cruise line, you're basically paying for the convenience, as well as the assurance that the ship will not sail without you. If you book an excursion through an independent vendor in the port, and you don't make it back to the ship in time, you're basically scr#@#d, and you'll have to make your own arrangements to get to the next port.

That's exactly why I'm booking with the cruise line for this first cruise!

When in August are you going? I'm doing the Vancouver to Seward route on HAL, departing on 8/26. I spent about $400 on HAL-sponsored excursions (helicopter ride, train ride, etc.). There are a few walking tours we'd like to take, but which we'll probably just deal with on the fly, since presumably they'll be close to where the ship's docked, and won't last more than a couple of hours at most. I can't see myself spending $45 to pre-book a city walking tour, when you can probably pay $15 or $20 "paying at the door."

I think Punki came up with a great idea-a FT cruise to Alaska. I am willing to co-ordinate and make the arrangements with a cruiseline for group space. I do logisitics planning for a living so have the time and expertise. Are you seriously interested? My husband and I go to Alaska every year, so a cruise just adds some extra fun days.

I would suggest Celebrity, HAL or maybe even Princess, unless we are considering the luxury lines. Carnival, NCL, and RCCL just don't seem to fit the FT way of living, but of course, I could be way off base.

Please post your thoughts and maybe post this on the forums you regularly participate in, if it is not against the rules.

Please post your question at luxurycruisetalk.com , they're very friendly over there and Ngaire (the board sponsor) is very knowledgable about RSSC cruises (I've sailed with her 3x).

I've got our excursions all booked and it turned out to be quite expensive! This is our itinerary and what we have booked so if you are interested, feel free to PM me later for opinions. We get home Aug. 25th.

Ketchikan
Neets Bay bear watch by Floatplane

Juneau
Four Glacier & Dog Sled Adventure by Helicopter

Tracy Arm
Fjord and Glacier Explorer(catarmaran)

Skagway
Adventure to Glacier Point by Speedcat

Sitka
Capt's Choice Wildlife Quest and Beach Trek

We've got two teen boys with us and this particular luxury cruise is not really a great ship for teens so we will be keeping busy-hopefully there will be time to explore the towns, get massages, etc!

Great cruise and wonderful cruise line(of course, this was my first cruise so I have nothing to compare it with). Loved the suites/balconies, uncrowded feel on the ship, open seating, wine/liquor and tipping included. PM me if you have any questions-I had so many before the trip!

Several years ago, my wife and I took a 7 day cruise from Seward to Vancouver on Celebrity. We decided to go on a helicopter excursion to a glaicer, but we did not book on the ship. At the time, I was 6'2", 240 pounds -- with my gear on (boots and coat), I was closer to 255 pounds. Since I tipped the scale in excess of 250 pounds, I was assessed a 50% surcharge. As it turned out, I got on the helicopter with a guy from my cruise who was closer to 275 pounds (without his gear). He told me that he was not assessed a surcharge because he had booked on the ship -- This fact was confirmed to me later at the excursion desk.

Not withstanding the unpleasant argument I lost (I offered to go up sans coat and shoes), the helicopter tour was one of the highligts of our trip, and my wife loves to tell the story at parties.