travel, hotel and booking Information

Thinking about an Alaska cruise this summer? You've got tons of options along the sea routes of "the Great Land" in 2006. And few, if any, passengers who make the trip will return home disappointed in this region of towering mountains, lush forests, endless acres of untrammeled wilderness, whales in the water and brown (grizzly) bears on shore. Equally exciting: Alaska Native cultures still vibrant and living, and "Sourdough" goldrush history still reflected in many structures and sites connected to the Klondike stampede to the Yukon.

Hotel Booking 16 Cruiselines, 47 Ships

Find a luxury cruise, luxury hotel, grand hotel, boutique hotel, 5 star hotel, luxury villa or luxury tour for luxury travel.

Travel Agency Among voyaging choices: No fewer than 16 cruiselines will dispatch a total of 47 big and little vessels on literally hundreds of sailings this spring, summer, and fall. And that doesn't include Alaska's 11 wide-ranging state-owned passenger and vehicle ferries, most with staterooms and food service. You can board a couple of these ships as far south as Bellingham, Washington.

RoseJackson (# 16 of 16) 32pm Sep 13, 2007 EST We are planning a cruise to Alaska next August. My husband is in a wheelchair, but can use a scoter when we travel, but there is NO WAY I could carry him, or he could walk, from the cabin door into the cabin. Which cruise line do you recommend for us and which do you think we will be more successful for getitng a handicapped room Also, do you recommend online booking or going through a travel agent

Cheap Hotel Some of the major vessels in the cruiseliner fleet -- floating grand resorts actually, with swimming pools, fitness centers, Vegas-style shows, casinos, movie theaters, and lounges -- will accommodate more than 2,000 passengers per sailing. In contrast, some of the smallest ships will pamper only a dozen or so.

Groople In the News Groople Selected by Bizbash as Provider for Group Travel Bookings June 1, BiZBash, the preeminent resource for the event planning industry, today announces a partnership with Groople.com, making Groople the exclusive online group travel partner for BiZBash's thousands of event professionals. BiZBash users now have Groople's group travel tools, with the unique ability to research and make group travel arrangements online. While most travel booking sites don't allow for group reservations at all, through BiZBash, hotel bookings for 5 rooms or hundreds of rooms are now simple to book and include special group rates. With an initial offering of hotels, the service will expand to offer airfare, cruise, car and rail bookings online. free number ( 4316) is available for arranging air, cruise, car and rail, as well as more complicated hotel requests.

Flight Booking Deprture Ports

8mong many firsts for the group market, the new technology platform enables consumers to do something that other sites haven k allowed to book travel and accommodations for more than five rooms in a single online session. Featuring more than 56, 000 hotels, including 7, time group rates, Groople is primed to become the industry largest automated solution for unmanaged group leisure travel, a market estimated at $18 billion to $24 billion. Under its hosted inventory and commission models, Groople generates group bookings niche by niche for hotels and plans to add air, car, cruise, bus and rail later this year.

Travel Agent Cruiseship ports of departure include Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Prince Rupert, plus a number Alaska coastal communities - among them Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, Cordova, Whittier, and Seward.

As the premier online booking resource for the $20+ billion leisure group travel market, Groople provides group rates and inventory, allowing consumers to easily plan, book and manage all group travel needs in a single setting. In addition to more than 60, 000 hotels and six major cruise lines, Groople also offers group bookings for air, car, bus and rail.

Hotel Chicago Cruise lengths vary. You can book a short cruise of three nights/four days in Prince William Sound or you can sign up for a traditional seven-night/eight-day roundtrip "Inside Passage" voyage from Seattle or Vancouver to Southeast Alaska and return (longer from San Francisco). Or you can book a seven-night/eight-day one-way "Gulf and Glaciers" cruise between Vancouver and Seward or Whittier. If you have the time (and budget) you may opt for an "expedition" sailing. Longest is 24 nights/25 days and includes the Bering Sea and even Russian ports and cruising areas.

Online Booking Glaciers

Travel Health Insurance Of course, an Alaska cruise would hardly be an Alaska cruise without a day or more at major glacier viewing sites, among them: Glacier Bay National Park north of Juneau; Hubbard Glacier, which "flows" off Wrangell-St.Elias National Park into Disenchantment Bay and Russell Fjord north of Yakutat; twin Sawyer glaciers within the U.S. Forest Service's Tracy Arm-Ford's Terror Wilderness Area between Juneau and Petersburg; and Southcentral Alaska's Prince William Sound with College Fjord and other glacier-rich sites.

Hotel Reservation If you want more than sea travel you can book the increasingly popular option of a "cruisetour." That is, before or after your cruise you can experience the likes of a tour to Denali National Park, Fairbanks, Prudhoe Bay (on the shores of the Arctic Ocean), Canada's Yukon Territory, or other popular land destinations.

London Hotel Booking For cruiseline-by-cruiseline itineraries and options, following are the names, phone contacts, and websites of the 16 companies cruising Alaska in 2006.

Discount Travel Large-ship Cruiselines, 1,000 to 2,672 passengers

Orlando Hotel Carnival Cruise Lines, 1-800-CARNIVAL
(http://www.carnival.com)

Booking Agency Celebrity Cruises, 1-800-437-3111
(http://www.celebrity.com)

International Travel Medical Holland America Line, 1-800-637-5029
(http://www.hollandamerica.com)

New York Hotel Norwegian Cruise Line, 1-800-327-7030
(http://www.ncl.com)

Online Travel Booking Princess Cruises, 1-800-PRINCESS
(http://www.princess.com)

Travel Medical Insurance Royal Caribbean International, 1-800-722-5045
(http://www.royalcaribbean.com)

Miami Hotel Companies With Mid-Size Vessels, 300 to 999 Guests

Air Deccan Booking Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, 1-866-314-3213
(http://www.rssc.com)

Las Vegas Nevada Travel Silversea Cruises, 1-800-722-9955
(http://www.silverseacruises.com)

Las Vegas Nv Hotel Smallship Lines, Serving a Dozen Guests to 299

Hotel Florence Booking Online American Safari Cruises, 1-888-862-8881
(http://www.americansafaricruises.com)

Orlando Travel American West Steamboat Co., 1-800-434-1232
(http://www.americanweststeamboat.com)

Hilton Hotel The Boat Company, 1-360-697-4242
(http://www.theboatcompany.com)

Booking Delta Com Clipper Cruise Line, 1-800-325-0010
(http://www.clippercruise.com)

Travel Insurance Online Cruise West, 1-800-888-9378
(http://www.cruisewest.com)

London Hotel Discovery Voyages, 1-800-324-7602
(http://www.discoveryvoyages.com)

Online Hotel Booking Lindblad Expeditions, 1-800-EXPEDITION
(http://www.expeditions.com)

Travel Insurance Maple Leaf Adventures, 1-888-599-5323
(http://www.mapleleafadventures.com)

Paris Hotel Ferries

Airline Booking Alaska Marine Highway System, 1-800-642-0066
(http://www.FerryAlaska.com)

Travel Trailer BC Ferries, 1-250-386-3431
(http://www.bcferries.com)

San Francisco Hotel Copyright © 2006 by Mike Miller. All rights reserved.

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Alaskan travel writer Mike Miller lives in Juneau where his current passion is publishing an information-packed website about Alaska cruising and ferry travel: http://www.AlaskaCruisingReport.com. Miller has authored or contributed to a number of books (Fodors, Sierra Club Books, Globe Pequot, The Milepost and others) and contributes to TravelAge West (for travel agents). He frequently writes for major newspapers and magazines.

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Bangkok Hotel

Music Booking Alaska travel writer Mike Miller lives in Juneau where he publishes the Alaska cruising website http://www.AlaskaCruisingReport.com. The site covers virtually every facet of cruiseship travel in Alaska. He also writes newspaper stories, magazine articles, and books (Fodors, Sierra Club Books, Globe Pequot, AlaskaBooks, and others)

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