iregeo2

Greetings!

My 83 y.o. father (in good health) and I have booked a last minute cruise to Alaska. We are travelling southbound from Seward to Vancouver, with stops in Haines, Juneau and Ketchikan. I am totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of shore excursions offered, and am having difficulty narrowing my choices. Additionally, I don't know whether to book through HAL or another provider, and whether to book in advance or play it by ear.

I'd love to hear of your experience; excursions you enjoyed, excursions you didn't enjoy; when and how you booked them, etc.

Thanks.

sludick

In Haines - Kroschel Wildlife Center. We thought it was just awesome. http://www.kroschelfilms.com/

There are surely a ton of choices, though, very difficult to decide. But for us, Kroschel was unique.

sunbum1944

I found it easier to book through the cruise lines before I left. Easy, tickets in your room when you arrive onboard. There are lots of vendors waiting in each port but I did not want to start shopping once I got there.

The whale watching in Juneau was amazing. Look up bubble net feeding and you will see what I mean.

Ketchikan we did flight seeing from a float plane. All would be pretty easy for your father I would think.

emalloy

I would wait and watch the weather, a lot of where you are going is in a rainy area and I would not want to be out in the open in a downpour. In Juneau the city bus to Mendenhall glacier is much less expensive and goes on the same road that the ship bus goes.

sludick

Agree with emalloy about both the bus to Mendenhall and to be aware of the possibility of a downpour. If you do Kroschel, make sure to take a raincoat and be prepared for a bunch of skeeters - they were viscious, and we were there early in the season.

One that we did the first trip that was (to us) disappointing was a combo Mendenhall/whale watch/salmon bake. Reasons: There was barely any time to see Mendenhall, the whale boat was overheated inside and any whales very far off (your experience may vary), and the salmon bake just so-so.

Would have liked to do the float plane; maybe next trip. But, Ketchikan itself is charming and very worth spending time there even without a formal tour.

NJriverchick

I also found it overwhelming.

I would book through the cruise line just for the sheer convenience and peace of mind that you are guarenteed that you wont be left behind.

I would also recommend that you book everything in advance because then you can stop thinking about it. Plus I noticed that our friends who like to "wing it" and thought they could decide last minute still couldnt decide what to do and ended up not doing excursions and just strolling around the port.

Finally, I would print out a list of all the exursions that the ship offers in each port and start eliminating. I think you will quickly narrow down the options based on activity level, price and interest.

sunbum1944

I did what NJriverchick did- printed all of the excursions and then eliminated immediately the ones I knew I didn't want to do, which quite a few. Then started reading the descriptions of what was left.

iregeo2

Thanks all. I'll report back on what we decide. What a quality problem!

china_cat

i found that while booking independent excursions in Alaska did not necessarily save me money vs the cruise lines, it did give me more options and often smaller groups.

As an example, one could book the White Pass railroad train/bus combo through the cruise line and you are on a 40 person bus. Book with Chilkoot charters, and you are on a van with about 15 instead. A little bit easier when stopping for photo ops and the like. Or the whalewatch in Juneau, the cruise excursion is a big boat that holds 150. We went on a much smaller boat, with 30 or so.

Also, if you want to do a helicopter or flightseeing excursion, while I agree it would be nice to wait and see if the weather is good, I think these get booked up, and if it IS nice, you may be out of luck. I could be wrong about that, but the ships helicopter excursions were definitely all booked up a month before we left.

I highly recommend a helicopter glacier landing from Juneau. It is pricey, but to me it was the highlight of our cruise.

iregeo2

Hi china_cat. Question...I hear so much about the beauty of Mendenhall glacier, but I am sure it is the most crowded one. Does it "matter" what glacier you land on? I see that the cruise line definitely offers helicopter tours of Mendenhall, while Shore Excursions Group offers landings on other glaciers.

Also, does anyone have experience touring with Shore Excursions Group?

china_cat

well, we landed on Herbert glacier, we used Coastal Helicopters. You can see some pictures here:
http://north2alaska-chinacat.blogspo...ng-on-ice.html

As I recall there were 1 or 2 other helicopters in view on this glacier, but they were pretty far away. It certainly didn't feel crowded. I think these things are a bit self-limiting...the copters go often, the stops aren't long, and they need to stay some distance from one another. But having only done it once, I'm hardly an expert.

3Doxens

Does your dad like to fish? There is a great excursion in Ketchikan through HAL called Guided Fishing and Wilderness Dining that is a lot of fun. You go out in a small boat, and everyone holds their own rod ( I know that sounds odd, but on some fishing excursions you have to take turns.) Anyway, after fishing, you go ashore and have your catch for lunch along with blueberry cobbler and some side dishes.
It's not cheap, around $300 pp, but the scenery and experience of fishing in Alaska is wonderful.

MaryBethK

My daughter and I were on a land/cruise vacation last summer. We booked our tours through the cruise line. When talking with another couple they mentioned they found someone on the pier who took them on a tour. Took them out somewhere and left promising to return in time to get them back to the ship. They never returned and the people almost didn't return to the ship on time for departure. I imagine the ship would leave without you.

Shar

we did an excursion via a small zodiac boat (we didn't have to row!) in an Eagle preserve which was outstanding. Saw more eagles than I could imagine. Also did the float plane ride over the fjords. In early June 2012 there was still snow on the mountains and it was lovely. Whale watching - we were treated to a "bubble up" (I think that is what it is called) where the whales gather in a circle under water and all come up at once with their mouths open gulping in an enormous amount of fish. It was spectacular. It was expensive but we booked our all through cruise line (Oceania) Make your dinner reservations for any side restaurants NOW if you are at all interested. On our last cruise with Silver Sea, we waited to long and didn't get the one we wanted but the main dining room was very good as was the room service every morning for breakfast on our balcony. Oh how I miss that!

palmtree2384

We did excursions in Haines, Juneau and Ketchikan. We went last August. Every one of the excursions I booked through our cruise ahead of time. All were a success! We had great weather(about 72 and sunny every day)! Great, great time on all of the excursions!! We did the whale watching excursion in Juneau, saw a lot of whales! did the eagle preserve rafting trip in Haines, saw a ton of eagles and great float trip! Did the bear watching excursion in Ketchikan and saw quite a few bears, while we were up above them on a wood bridge! It was amazing seeing a mama bear teaching her little cubs how to fish!!

iregeo2

palmtree2384, do you remember the name of the area you were at for bear watching in Ketchikan?

happytourist

If this is your first cruise, go with the cruise line's excursions. Trying to locate your outside excursion just adds a new level of stress that you don't need at this point.

You'll want to do one whale-watching excursion and perhaps one excursion deeper inland (bus, train or plane).

palmtree2384

iregeo2, I don't remember the name of the area for the bear watching, sorry. I just booked the one from the cruise ship. We went by bus to get there, it was a little bit of a drive(maybe about a half hour), and there was a demonstration area where a man was carving a totem pole, and some eagles and reindeer that were being rehabilitated there, also a fish ladder that was pretty cool too! I thought maybe if any of them sounded like that you might be able to figure out which excursion it was? Sorry I'm not more help. I hope you have a great time!