We are booked for an Alaskan cruise in September with Holland America. Any recommendations as to which excursions are best? Is it better to book independantly or with HAL? What do we not want to miss? Our cruise is only 7 days.

Thanks to any replies!

HAL does a great job in Alaska. we generally book with the cruise line, time is limited and these are generally very efficient tours. What ports of call? In Skagway the White pass Railroad is the top tour, try to find one combined with the bus to the Yukon. Take any trips that get you into the countryside.

You need to do your homework. Take a look at a shore excursion list and narrow down YOUR interests. There are way too many excellent tours to recommend. Budget fully, in my opinion you get only half a trip without them. I never book ship tours and alway go direct with the venders, very easy to do in Alaska.

Thanks for the feedback. Another question, does the ship dock for the day and can you do more than one excursion in a day if each is only a few hours? Are shorter excursions available more than once per day? Can you recommend a good website for booking tours independantly of the cruise line?

Thanks!

If you go to the cruisecritics.com board you will find lots of answers.
We are also booked for Alaska in Sept. as well and I got tons of information from that board.

Determine what your interests are and your budget. Some excursions such as flights can be costly. If you want to do independant tours I would suggest you book soon. They can fill up fast since they take less people and have only so many slots.

You need to determine WHAT tours you are looking at THEN you can find venders to book independent. I never recommend "middle men" in Alaska, you are far better off dealing direct with the venders. Very high business standards in Alaska. Go to any cruiseline's shore excursion list - on line and narrow down your interests. Tours are port based so it won't matter which cruise line if yours doesn't have a list.

BQ. Do you have vendors of choice to recommend?

That website is actually www.cruisecritic.com. We'll be doing the Oosterdam which includes Sitka next month. I know the sea life otter adventure is a very popular tour. We are nervous about missing the boat and for other reasons we book through the ship. Some ports can fir in 2 excursions. If you do decide to book through the ship, do book ahead of time as some of the best tours are already sold out before you board the ship

You need to tell me the tours you are interested in. Plenty of great venders in Alaska.

For clairfication it is an UNFOUNDED fear of missing the ship due to independent tours. Just doesn't happen, only way to miss the ship is for YOUR OWN poor planning. If you go with independent venders, go with their scheduling recommendation- no problems.

While I agree in concept with BQ, the cruise line will definitely wait for passengers booked on its own excursions but not those who simply do not show up, for whatever reason.

In Alaska, I have always booked independently after much research. I have not had problems there.

However, in other ports on other sailings I myself have seen passengers left behind. Whether they were with an independent or not (one was a dive trip in Cozumel that had engine problems on the return) I cannot say in every case. Just be aware and use a reputable company.

The Port boards at cruisecritic.com are excellent resources.

Budget Queen is right - go ahead and book your own. I recommend taking the city bus and going to Glacier Gardens and or the Glacier out the same direction and the same bus in Juneau. The trip cost us 1/3 of what HAL was charging for the same trip with the added bene of not having 100 people along with us on the glacier garden tour. It was fabulous and a great memory.
BUT- Here's my two cents - you can't do it all - you need to relax - this is a vacation - no?. It's nuts to cram two tours into one day. I drove myself (and my husband) crazy on the cruise. I wanted to dance all night and bi-locate to the deck to see the beautiful scenery at the same time (remember it was light almost all night). Then I was bummed because I was too tired to be up at 6:00am to watch the whales or the glaciers in College Fjord. During the fancy wonderful formal dining when I was all dressed up eating fabulous food I regretted not being on the deck in my jeans and tennis looking at the beauty. I regretted that I could only take pictures from one side of the boat at a time and I was always wondering what I was missing on the other side. Don't be like me! Accept your finite humanity. YOu can go 24/7 because you can always sleep when you get home but you really shouldn't try to go 48/7. Take one bite and savor it and taste it fully or it may end up to be mush in your mouth and you won't remember any of the wonderful flavor. Just a thought.

While the White Pass/Yukon railroad is one of the most popular excursions out of Skagway, You can see much more, in more comfort and at your own pace by renting a car and driving north into the Yukon out of Skagway. We did this, renting a van for 5 of us in June a couple of years ago and it was the highlight of our trip. I think we used Avis, and they picked us up at the dock. The scenery is spectacular and we could pull over whenever we wanted for photographs and a picnic. We even had the good fortune to spot a bear who had come close to the road to forage and we pulled over (at a respectful distance) for some fantastic photos. We got as far as Carcross and Emerald Lake. I later learned the best spot to photograph it is across the street from the pull-off and atop a small hill. Had hoped to get to Whitehorse but had an elderly parent along and was ready to head back to the ship. We even had time to drop him off at the pier and go to Jewel Gardens, where you can have tea and enjoy the stunning flowers. Before you go be sure to pick up a copy of Alaska Mileposts- a big soft-cover book listing every imagineable site of interest along every route in Alaska.

For clairfication the White Pass RR has only about 3 miles of common viewing with the Klondike Highway. Scenery and history are superior via the rail, if of interest. Avis is the only major car rental and they do not pick up at the dock, you now walk there, located on 3rd in a room of the Westmark, across the street from the main building.

Thanks BQ. We are planning that trip, the RR that is.

Without a doubt my most memorable adventure from just about any vacation we have ever taken was our helicoptor tour of the glaciers AND walking on the glacier. It was just a once in a life-time treat! And well worth the extra money we decided to spend on it.

one of the most memorable events in my life was to stand on the transom of a large catamaran and watch a humpback whale roll up just behind the boat. it was wider than the boat! if they still offer the opp to view the humpback whales, don't miss it. the trip is rigidly controlled by the Gov't. to ensure that the whales are protected. clearly the highlight of my trip to Alaska. unfortunately, you may find Alaska is quite drab in Sept. once the snow melts, Alaska loses much of its charm. good luck.

We went to Alaska in June. In 5 port stops, we went on 9 tours. The best by far was a helicopter/ dog sledding tour in Juneau. We also went on a floatplane tour to Misty Fjord, the White Pass RR tour, & whale watching. IMHO, none of them came close. I have read that the heli/dog sled tours may not be offered in Sept. If they are, we personally thought that although it was the most expensive of the tours we took, it was worth every penny. We all agreed that we would have forgone the others in favor of that one. BTW, we took this tour through Coastal Helicopter. Enjoy Alaska! It's beautiful!