amoon

Hello,

I want to ask is there way to book Alaska and excursions cheaper?

thanks

Reme

You can book them on your own. Decide what you want to do and use the internet to find operators for tours independent of the cruise lines. That is the easy part. Then look on cruise critic or on this site and ask for opinions from others who may have used those services. You will often get better tours for less money and you may be able to avoid the dreaded "shopping opportunity" ( an hour or two in a t shirt store)

live42day

I answered your other post too. I think it depends on what you want to do. We just did the Alaska cruise in September and found that some of the excursions were not much more than what we could get on our own. In Skagway we booked the train and by booking on the ship we were able to board the train right in front of the terminal. If you decide what excursions you want to do, you can get more detailed answers.

gail

We looked into this and found we could save a little money, but not great amounts - they were still very expensive for the complicated ones (such as glacier landing). The "light" excursions - like salmon bakes, Juneau bus tour, hikes - can easily be arranged on your own for less money, but I would suggest you pick 1 or 2 of the uniquely Alaska ones if you can afford it and skip some of the more simple ones.

traveller1959

Excursions in Alaska are outrageously expensive. In most ports, local tour operators are not cheaper or it is not possible to book them directly.

Following the advice of other Fodorites, we saved tremenduos amounts of $$$ by renting cars in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Seward. Besides the savings, we saw much more, were more comfortable and had unique experiences - like a very close-up encounter with a grizzly bear in Dyea (of course, from the safety of our car). Or the porcupine on a parking lot north of Juneau.

The only excursion that we took was a heli ride with dog-sledding on a glacier in Seward (also self-organized). It was expensive too, but worth it.

For a full description, read my trip report here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...-land-tour.cfm

amoon

thank you very much for all responses and advices

Eschew

Alaska Shore excursions on the cheap.
http://www.fodors.com/community/crui...-the-cheap.cfm

jasonnoel

One thing that you can look into are small ship cruises in Alaska that are all-inclusive. This way you can enjoy every excursion without a huge bill when you depart.

I just cruised on the MV Sikumi and it was amazing. Check out their site here: http://www.sikumi.com