RV rental in Alaska

This is the first time that I remember seeing a more concentration of RV rentals on the highway in the Fairbanks area this summer than any other time, like a 1 to 3 ratio of RV's of Great Alaskan or Cruise America.

So it tells me one of two things :

1)- It's cost effective to rent one - or -

2)- Vacationers just do not have the extra time needed to travel from the states to Alaska by road.

My guess is 2) since there seems to be quite a demand from all the rental RV's I seen on the road upon a daily basis this summer.

Ahh...I see. Thank you.

GMandJM wrote:

tonymull wrote:
I'm caregiver for someone who uses Oxy daily. The doctor writes 3 separate 30 day prescriptions and they have to be hand delivered to the pharmacy. In that manner 90 days may be written, but you're right, only 30 days can be dispensed at a time. Her doctor has not required more frequent visits than annual. I think once a prescription is entered into the system at Walmart you can get it at any Walmart store. Course you can get 222's over the counter in Canada and rely on codeine....

What are 222's? (Not asking for myself.)

Don't want to get off topic, but 222's are Tylenol and codeine.

I was very pleased with Great Alaskan, would recommend them to anyone.

To be clear, yes, we can get scripts for three months... three separate prescriptions. But only 3 months... the doctor has to see him every three months. And we did have an issue in Arizona when a pharmacy rejected the script due to it mistakenly not being dated by the doctor (his mistake).
Luckily we were going to head home early anyway. As it turns out, the pharmacy in AZ would have taken a new faxed prescription from us - but not directly from the doctor.. and Cali law prevented the doctor from faxing directly to us.. so basically - we were screwed.

Honest people who need the meds are the ones being messed up. The crooks always get around the system.

GMandJM wrote:
Just curious: How long of a time did you all rent when you did Alaska in a C? What's a reasonable span of time for a first-time visitor who plans on going back "someday"?

When my dad was up in Alaska for the summer with his rig, I flew in with my son and joined him in his rig for two weeks, essentially making it a fly in rental (without the renting hastle)

Saw just about all the highlights you can hit on the roads of Alaska, from Anchorage. Would I like to have driven up and spent the whole summer there? Hell yes!

But the two weeks was a wonderful taste of Alaska, and its the most I will have until retirement in 10-15 years.

No regrets at all, and I have considered flying in and renting a C for a couple weeks, just need the funds.

Thank you for the helpful info, Joe B. I'll look into those one-way "repositioning" rentals.

We were wondering if two weeks would be enough time.

Back to the Anchorage rentals, there are several other rental agencies in town. The two mentioned are the largest, ABC and GAH, both of whom are new RV dealers. Both the large firms, bring up as many as 150 new class C units a year from the factories in the lower 48. They rent these out one way at a discounted price and several forum members have rented and driven a new unit to Alaska for the rental companies.

Now unadvertised, is the return trip that some of them run from Anchorage to the lower 48 in the fall time. With the Alaska population being somewhat small, the used RV market can get glutted quickly with 300+ two year old Class Cs being put on the market so some are sent back south, some by barge, some sold locally to buyers and others rented one way to folks that want to return them to a variety of cities in the lower 48. Some years they put an ad in the Anchorage papers, since there are so many summer workers in Alaska, they seem to find many of them wanting to drive a used unit back south at a reduced rental daily rate.

I can't remember any of the forum members ever commenting about the company they rented from being unsatisfactory, but the two big companies get great reviews. Most of the smaller companies are mom and pop owned and run. They may provide a great unit, at a bit cheaper price, since they do the maintenance themselves, etc.
Two weeks seems to give most time to run around the tourist circle in Alaska and get a taste of what is available to see. Some like to fly to Alaska, rent for a couple of weeks, then fly to some of rural Alaska, such as Nome, Kotzebue, Barrow, etc. Others prefer to fly back home after their time in Alaska.

Whether you drive your own rig, or fly and rent, or take the ferry system part way, there just is not a bad way to get to Alaska. In my 13 round trips to/from Alaska by RV, I have never found the trip any harder on my rigs, than driving cross country on some of the lower 48 roads.A driving trip to Alaska is just a series of 300 to 500 mile days for most of us, just more miles that what most have ever done sequentially on one trip before. Whatever makes a person more comfortable on their first trip, is probably the way they should go about it.

We all have to use the time we have available. While two weeks may not be optimal for all, it should be a great introduction to the state. I have often said on here, that I would fly to Alaska just to spend a weekend if I could afford it, which I can't.

I put a bit of verbiage about what I would do with two weeks, in Alaska, on my web site.
http://www.pajbcooper.com/two_weeks_in_alaska.htm

tonymull wrote:
I'm caregiver for someone who uses Oxy daily. The doctor writes 3 separate 30 day prescriptions and they have to be hand delivered to the pharmacy. In that manner 90 days may be written, but you're right, only 30 days can be dispensed at a time. Her doctor has not required more frequent visits than annual. I think once a prescription is entered into the system at Walmart you can get it at any Walmart store. Course you can get 222's over the counter in Canada and rely on codeine....

What are 222's? (Not asking for myself.)

2gypsies wrote:

tonymull wrote:

KampingKris wrote:
Thanks everyone. Still figuring out what to do. One of our issues related to not spending months and driving the bus is medical - prescriptions. DH has many. While the "regulars" aren't an issue, the narcs for back pain are. These days you just can't get refills - or they make it extremely difficult even with a legal prescription.

Transfer your prescriptions to Target or Walmart and you can fill them in Anchorage. Or have your doc write out 90 day ones and fill before you leave.

With a new ruling this spring, narcs are extremely hard to get a prescription. You can't just transfer them to WalMart like other prescriptions. You need to see your doctor for another 30 day prescription - no 90 day and no automatic renewals. I'm not sure how full-timers now are doing it. There must be a way.

I'm caregiver for someone who uses Oxy daily. The doctor writes 3 separate 30 day prescriptions and they have to be hand delivered to the pharmacy. In that manner 90 days may be written, but you're right, only 30 days can be dispensed at a time. Her doctor has not required more frequent visits than annual. I think once a prescription is entered into the system at Walmart you can get it at any Walmart store. Course you can get 222's over the counter in Canada and rely on codeine....