Need advice about Cruise West Wilderness Inside Passage

My Husband and I are leaning toward a Cruise West Wilderness Inside Passage cruise for June 07 but have a few reservations about the group experience. Most of our travel is on our own, camping, hiking and wildlife viewing and we try to avoid large groups of people. Alaska seems daunting to do on our own. Has anyone been on the Wilderness inside passage cruise and if so, is there some time to spend on your own wandering, or is it all group activities? any advice will be much appreciated, Lisa

Need advice about Cruise West Wilderness Inside Passage

Don%26#39;t give up so quickly on doing Alaska on your own. Would you like to camp in the Alaskan wilderness? There are many excellent guide services that run either kayak or backpack trips in many parts of Alaska. Sometimes they will do a custom trip for you, sometimes you sign up with a group, usually not more than 10 people, and you kayak or hike and camp for as long a trip as you want. This can be hooked up with site seeing depending upon where you are. Here are a few web sites to look up:

Alaska Vision Quest: They are out of Anchorage. I%26#39;ve gone with them and Wade and Wendy, the owners, are great.

Alaska Discovery (www.akdiscovery.com): They offer a nice variety of trips. I haven%26#39;t gone with them.

Spirit Walker (www.seakayakalaska.com): Trips out of the Glacier Bay area.

Tongass Kayak: trips out of Petersburg Alaska.

St. Elias Guides (www.steliasguides.com): hiking trips in the marevlous, off the beaten path, Wrangell St. Elias park.

Hope you at least look at this option.

Need advice about Cruise West Wilderness Inside Passage

Wow, so much information in such a short time. We are now seriously thinking about RV rental instead of the cruise option. just read a fantastic trip report on this site and it got us really excited. A few questions for anyone out there who knows. Is the June early summer timeframe so much better for wildlife that we should stick to that, or is September a good alternative to avoid bugs? Also, anyone out there who has done RV rental, what do you recommend? thanks, Lisa