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Excursion reviews and recommendations for Juneau, Sitka, Ketichican


Greatday34
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1st timer. Going to Juneau, Sitka & Ketichican, Victoria. If you have experience in any of these ports and have recommendations for specific excursions, we would love to see them.

 

Has anyone used local companies rather than HAs? If so any comments, warnings, suggestions?

 

Thank you all

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We use Harv and Marv's in Juneau for whale watching. They pick you up and bring you back. Tour #1 is small boats - 6-8 people max... wonderful! Going for 3rd Alaska cruise at the end of the month and are using them again...

 

 

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1st timer. Going to Juneau, Sitka & Ketichican, Victoria. If you have experience in any of these ports and have recommendations for specific excursions, we would love to see them.

 

Has anyone used local companies rather than HAs? If so any comments, warnings, suggestions?

 

Thank you all

 

Hi, Greatday, and welcome to Cruise Critic. You will find a lot of information on the Alaska forum here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

 

We have used both HAL excursions and independent excursions. The Alaska ports are small, and many of the local excursions vendors are used by the cruise lines (eg Allen Marine for whale watching in Juneau and Sitka, Temsco Helicopters for glacier hiking in Juneau and Skagway, etc). The main benefit from doing an independent excursion directly is the smaller group size.

 

In Ketchikan, I can heartily endorse Wild Wolf Tours:

 

http://www.wildwolftours.com/

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Juneau -- we have used HAL's tour and Orca Enterprises for whale watching. There are also great float planes and helicopter rides -- enjoyed all of these tours. Red Dog Saloon is a great place for a drink and a bite to eat. It has changed over the years.

Sitka -- used HAL's tours for the Sea Otter and Wildlife excursion -- glad we booked through HAL as both times we did it, they were sold out before the ship got there. Saw lots of wildlife and whales on this excursion. It is easy to walk this town and see all the Russian influence.

Ketchikan -- Saxmon Village, Totem Bight - great tours. Take the small tram up the hill -- great view. Walk to Creek Street -- lots of small shop and Dolly's House -- a small bordello.

Victoria -- Buchart Gardens.

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Call us cheap! We did the cruise on the Westerdam a couple of years ago and didn't sign up for any excursions. Perhaps because we lived most of our lives on the west coast and the last 25 in the Pacific NW, many of the excursions didn't seem that special to us. I'd like to spend a week in a fishing lodge sometime, but a few hours out on a party boat seems too rushed to me. My wife won't go in a helicopter so that knocked out some other excursions.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking the portside streets in Juneau and in Ketchikan and Sitka. We did visit a few of the museums and found them very worthwhile. Our biggest outing was to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, taking the big Blue Bus there and back. This involved a good hike and rewarded us with great views of the glacier and falls. The visitor center was another place of interest.

As for Victoria, we had been there on a previous trip and decided not to go through the hassle of trying to do anything in the small window of time the ship was in port. We enjoyed a peaceful dinner on our final night onboard.

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Took this cruise last year. We did not do excursions in Ketchikan or Sitka, just walked around the towns and did our own thing in those places. In Juneau, we tried to do wayyyy too much in one day. We took a ship's excursion to the place that does the running with the sled dogs but the sleds are on wheels. That was expensive, although not helicopter to a glacier expensive, but very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. We went up the Mount Roberts tram. We bought tix on our own, although you can get them through the ship. I would wait to purchase these until you get there. No telling what the weather will be, and if it's cloudy and rainy, you won't get to see the nice view. We went out to Mendenhall Glacier on one of those buses that sells tix on the pier. We had a good driver who gave us some informative and entertaining narration on the way out there. Mendenhall was the most disappointing glacier we saw on the trip, although I still recommend seeing it. (We did the 26 glacier cruise from Anchorage; wowza, lots of nice glaciers; you didn't mention Anchorage, but that excursion was totally worth the price.) However, because we crammed so much into Juneau, we didn't have much time at Mendenhall and had to rush to get back to town. If you go there, it's easy enough to do on your own, but give yourself time to check out the visitor center and walk around a bit. A couple hours at least. And we also did one of the Allen Marine whale watches, booked through the ship. On the plus side, there was a nice dinner buffet spread for us on the boat, very tasty. But I'm from New England and used to go whale watching all the time from Cape Cod, and Alaska whale watching was a huge disappointment for me. The trip was much too short, it was overpriced for the experience, there wasn't much useful education from the naturalist, and we stayed with the same couple whales who were merely diving for a ridiculously long time and then turned around and went back in. I'm not saying don't go--if you've never been whale watching, you should do it somewhere at some point in your life, and you have a *much* better chance of seeing an orca in Alaska than in most other places including Cape Cod. However, if I were to do Alaska whale watching again, I would take one of the small boat (less than ten people) excursions either through the ship or arranged on your own. There are recommendations for these on the Alaska board and on TripAdvisor. Note also that if you look for them, you will see a TON of whales and dolphins from your ship. I spent hours in the Crow's Nest and on the sky deck watching them, although obviously the ship isn't going to stop so you can get a good look.

 

In Victoria, we took a ship's excursion to the butterfly place and Butchart Gardens. Both were wonderful, but we didn't have nearly enough time at the butterfly place, which was disappointing, and I also felt like I had to rush through the gardens, although we had more time there. As a general comment, I would avoid ship's excursions that go to more than one place, or at least limit it to two stops because inevitably you're not going to have as much time at one or the other or both as you'd like and that's usually disappointing. All of these ports are great though; enjoy your cruise!

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If you are a fan of Deadliest Catch, we just took the Bering Sea Crab boat excursion out of Ketchikan and it was a great excursion!

 

 

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We loved that excursion. We did it three years ago and my kids still talk about it.

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Yeah, it seems that there are no inexpensive excursions in Alaska. :)

 

Having said that, I did the Bear Watching & Wildlife Viewing Adventure out of Juneau (DW learned that it would be five hours with no bathroom in sight and bowed out) and it absolutely made the trip for me. I even rented a 600 mm zoom lens for my DSLR so it was exciting to see the bears (and the little cubs).

 

35569513863_bf5c40cc7c_c.jpg

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Another vote for the Mt. Roberts Tramway in Juneau if you have a decent day. I took a HAL tour to the totem poles in Ketchikan and then they dropped us off by Creek Street. This is something you could do on your own much cheaper.

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We've been to Juneau twice. The first time we did the Mt. Roberts Tram. We didn't book it in advance, just walked up and got on the tram. There are some good trails up at the top for those who like to hike. The second time we did the blue bus out to Mendenhall Glacier for $20 roundtrip.

 

In Ketchikan the first time we just walked around. We did Creek Street, took the funicular up the mountain and back down, watched the salmon in the river and drank coffee. The second time we booked Ketchikan Taxi Tours for an individualized tour, requesting the non touristy parts of the area. Well, we went bear watching, waterfall viewing and apple picking.

 

In Sitka we did the otter excursion through HAL. We saw tons of whales and otters, stopped on an island and learned about the sea life that washed up on the beach as well as camping rules.

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When we were in Homer I could see the glaciers across the bay and on my Google map it looked like they weren't far from the shore. I thought it would be nice to somehow get a boat over there and hike up to one of the glaciers. Later I discovered that was actually one of the listed ship's excursions.

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If you are a fan of Deadliest Catch, we just took the Bering Sea Crab boat excursion out of Ketchikan and it was a great excursion!

 

 

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You can book Bering sea crab excursion directly with the company, save a few dollars over the cruise ship price. It is still pricey. The crab boat is parked on the cruise ship pier.

 

In Ketchikan many vendors are selling tours in a large visitor center right on the pier. Be ready to go on the tour and browse the vendors for the best deal. Vendors may fight for your attention as they want to fill tours up.

Definitely walk up to Creek street on your own.

 

We love the cheap bus trip sold dockside in Juneau to Mendenhall Glacier. Love the hiking and quiet beauty out there.

Flightseeing is best booked on the spot in Ketchikan and Juneau, weather dependent.

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Ketchikan: We walked up the street along a fairly small and very steep creek. The salmon were swimming upstream to spawn (at the hatchery) and it was AMAZING just to watch them swim upstream and jump over the rocks. One of my favorite non-excursion things I've ever done.

 

If you keep walking up the path along the creek you will see totem poles and there is a hatchery that offers a tour for a small fee if I remember correctly.

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Another enthusiastic vote for the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour in Ketchikan. It lives up to the tour's description.

 

A float plane tour to Misty Fjords more than met my expectations (and helped me overcome my concern about flying on a small plane).

 

At Juneau, the float plane trip to Taku Lodge for their Salmon Bake that includes views of 5 glaciers also was worth every penny I spent.

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Just got back from Alaska aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam. In our research, we found that pricing was the same to go through HAL excursions. In Juneau, we did the seaplane to the Taku Lodge, which was amazing. I highly, highly recommend it. You take a seaplane over the glacier and land at the remote Taku Lodge, where you are served a delicious salmon meal. We went with small children and older parents, and everyone had a wonderful time. In Ketchikan, some of our group did the salmon fishing, which they loved, and others of us did the duckboat with the kids. We never, ever book excursions through the cruiseline in the Caribbean, but I'm so glad we did it in Alaska, it just made everything so much easier.

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Another enthusiastic vote for the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour in Ketchikan. It lives up to the tour's description.

 

A float plane tour to Misty Fjords more than met my expectations (and helped me overcome my concern about flying on a small plane).

 

At Juneau, the float plane trip to Taku Lodge for their Salmon Bake that includes views of 5 glaciers also was worth every penny I spent.

I agree with you on every excursion.

 

I have never seen Deadliest Catch, but took that tour based on the recommendation of a friend. He was so right.

Besides the flight to Misty Fjords (which was fabulous), I have also taken the boat tour over. Also excellent.

 

At Taku Glacier Lodge, don't forget to check out the bear hanging around in the tree by the grill. He's just waiting to clean it off while your having your meal. Really neat!

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Ketchikan- We picked up a walking tour map from the Visitor's center. We walked to Creek street, watched the salmon in the creek, followed the married man's trail up to the fish ladder, turned right along the street that parallels the creek and walked down to the Salmon hatchery. There was no admission fee and there were two staff members there that answered questions for us. We then walked to the Totem Heritage Center, paid $5 per person to see the totem poles exhibited there. There were staff members here that would answer any questions. We had chowder at Annabelle's for lunch.

Sitka- We walked to the Sitka National Historic Park,listened to a talk outside by one of the park rangers, talked to a totem pole carver inside, saw a film, visited with a lady doing some bead work. We then walked through the park to the Alaska Raptor center. The cost was $13 per person entrance. Don't miss the talk that the staff gives in the auditorium. Sit up front if you can, you won't be disappointed. We then had chowder at the Ludwig's next to the Aquarium.

Juneau- We booked a whale watching trip at one of the booths when we got off the ship. There were 14 passengers on a boat rated for 49. The cost was $139.65 per person including tax and the company was Juneau Tours. The price was for a combination whale watch with Mendenhall glacier. We were taken directly to the whale watching boat, had an excellent time and just were very fortunate that they hadn't sold many tours. The whale watching was amazing and was in a very comfortable boat. We then were driven to Mendenhall Glacier park. We walked to the raised walkway by the creek and were told that bears had been there just 30 minutes before. We walked out to the waterfall by the glacier on a very easy, flat surface. We checked out the area for bears again and were out of luck. The white school bus was our transportation back to the ship. Just as we were leaving the park area we saw a giant bear off in a grassy area beyond the parking lot. A terrific end to an amazing day. We had to have chowder at the Hangar on the Wharf and watch the float planes take off and land.

Victoria- We booked ahead of time with a private company called "Fresh Air Tours". We had hoped to share with other cruise critic members but nobody was interested so we went by ourselves. We asked to be taken to Craigdarroch castle and Butchart Gardens. The tour didn't include the entrance price for either place. We thoroughly enjoyed our day and our tour guide Linda. This company is best for a large family group. It was expensive for just the two of us but we saw exactly what we wanted to and would recommend a visit to both places if you have already seen the inner harbor area.

Mary

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As RuthC mentioned at the Taku Lodge, a bear made its appearance and stole the show! I was impressed that a staff member positioned himself between us and the bear with a very long pointed pole in case the bear might have thought we were more interesting than the salmon.

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