Cruise ship also offer excursions with a drop off at the airport. If you haven’t already done it, a good excursion is to Victoria a park and the Cappolitana bridge.

Vickie,

thanks very much for the heads up.

Wow, that’s quite an unexpected bonus ! Looking at the descriptions the Sea to Sky Highway sounds and looks superb.

Should be a great way to ‘finish things off’ ..!

To those contemplating the Cruise I have upgraded to a ‘sea view’ cabin at a cost of £740. These appear on the deck plans as ‘F’ staterooms and there aren't many. The only other upgrade available appears to be to the ‘I’ cabins which are still inside (extra £205) and only slightly bigger than the standard ones ‘L’ currently reserved.

Hope that helps.

Roger

Hi Roger,

We're organising a day trip that will collect you from the cruise terminal and take you on the sea to sky highway and it’s attractions. Customers will then be taken to the airport in time for their flight.

Many thanks,

Vickie

Hi all,

I have been looking at/researching the Canada East to West Tour ever since I received the new brochure. I was also disappointed by the lack of information re the cruise ‘add on’.

However, looking at the cruise line’s website the details are pretty comprehensive. Clearly the cabin price is doubled for ‘singles’, which is disappointing. There appears to be some very exciting excursions, albeit with a hefty price tag.

I was intending phoning the JY advisors, but having read this thread I think all my questions have been answered bar one. On the final day what’s the procedure from docking at 7:00 am. until the 8:00 pm. flight ? A long time to kill especially if laden down with a suitcase ! And do JY lay on transfers from ship to plane ?

Having costed the 4 week trip (!) my guesstimate is ...

with Rocky Mountaineer + cruise. 9298

RM upgrade. 459

Flight return upgrade (the long, overnight one) 450

At least 10 JY optional excursions. 640

At least 4 cruise excursions. (I like the planes/helicopters !) 700

Tour meals. 300

Cruise meals (when off ship). 40

Tips. 213

Spending money. 400

GRAND TOTAL. 12,500

A hefty overall cost, but it will be the holiday of a lifetime. And ‘takes care’ of Canada !

Also, much better value, for me, than the Maharajas’ Express ...

Hot off the Press ... ALL BOOKED !!

(only 3 cruise spots now left in case you’re considering)

Now, let’s get this Winter nonsense over and done with ...

Roger

At the moment the only USA tour that interests me is the National Parks but like Bob do not wish to go whilst Trump is in charge! I hope I do get a chance one of these days as would love to see all the national parks. Canada too is on the radar and much as I want to see Alaska I rather not go on a cruise.

Regards

Jaya

Hi thanks for the feedback, Mike, Di, Peter...if I'd known about the add-on earlier I may have persuaded myself to book it!  Not to worry, I'm sure I'll have a great time on the Trav tour next year.  I'll have two travel buddies to keep me company and am really looking forward to it.  Perhaps I'll see Alaska another way some other time.  I'm not keen to go to the US while Trump is destroying all around him, in any case...

All the best,

Bob

Hello Bob,

The add-on is very expensive, I agree, but I’ve looked at this exact cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam on the Holland America website, and the price for double occupancy of an inside cabin is £1289 pp. If you change your request for the same cabin to single occupancy, the price rockets to £2395.70; a single supplement of just over £1100! So it would seem that it’s the cruise line who are responsible for the high pricing of this add-on. JY’s price includes an extra night in the hotel in Vancouver.

I’m guessing that Holland America really DON’T want single people on board their vessels!

Cheers

Mike

I did this tour and cruise some years ago before JY had to drop it.

At that time it was accompanied by a TM who was useless - we never saw her! However this was not a problem as the ship offered a wide range of excursions which were easily booked through their excursion desk. At the end of the tour, again the ship arranged all the disembarkation procedures.

A really good add-on which I can thoroughly recommend and don't worry about not being accompanied by a TM, the ship will look after you.

Hello Mike and Bob (Bob, Kedi can still say hello from you when we see her)

I would like to share my experiences of the Alaska cruise when we did it as an add-on to our JY Rockies Tour in September 2007.

We were on the Norwegian Cruise Line's "Norwegian Star". From what I can remember Margaret and I had to share a cabin. I have a feeling that it was because if we wanted a single cabin we would have paid a hefty supplement (like the Kenyan Safari).

Because of low numbers on the whole tour, Rockies bit as well, our JY group was integrated with a Page and Moy Group and a TS group. We had  a very young lady as our TM working for all of us, she certainly had her work cut out. The JY group were the only ones to have a meal included,breakfast, on the Rockies bit of the holiday. 

I remember Charlotte, the very young and inexperienced TM frequently pushing an elderly gent, on the tour, in a wheel chair and who was accompanied by his wife, around.

There were plenty of shore excursions to book once we were onboard our ship.

The railway at Skagway is great as has been mentioned previously. We chose to do the "Ultimate White Pass and Yukon Experience" The railway is 20 miles long and terminates at Fraser. On this tour when we arrived at Fraser we did a coach journey into the Yukon, after showing our passports as it was the border of America and Canada. We travelled along the Klondike Highway with a break and photo stop at Carcross. Lunch was at Caribou Crossing which was followed by a highlight.- Fifteen minutes of dog sledding (sleds on wheels as no snow). Unfortunately when we arrived at Caribou Crossing we were the only ones at the restaurant who hadn't seen a grizzly bear- or a black one, come to that.

In Ketchikan we hadn't booked any excursions so we ambled around town under our own steam, walked along the creek, watched salmon leaping, visited the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Centre and ended up at the Totem Historical Museum.

In Juneau we did a "Whale watching and wildlife quest" excursion. Seeing humpback whales and sealions was good but the scenery spectacular!

Just looking at my invoice for the Norwegian Star, we paid 175$ for the White Pass Railway and 124$  for the whale watching (2007 prices).

Unfortunately Mike if you are inspired to do this tour (know you enjoyed your winter Rockies  trip), you still won't get to Katmai.

I really enjoyed this holiday but only after having an injection for seasickness from the ship's doctor after travel pills had failed, even in a fairly calm sea. It can only be me.

Kind Regards

Di

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for the information, and for the recommendation of the White Pass Scenic Railway. I really need to make my mind up about this tour before it gets booked up.

Cheers

Mike