Mrscanadianbacon

2 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

The Mendenhall  Glacier is at Juneau.  I did the train and bus combination to Carcross in the Yukon and would recommend it.  One travels through different climates, thus scenery changes.  

My memory is horrible. Just my two cents that the bus ride wasn't as enjoyable for us as the train (hubby, wife and almost 5 year old) 

3 minutes ago, LadyMac72 said:

Just booked a cruise with a similar itinerary in mid September 2020.  What excursions did you decide on?  How was the weather?

We lucked out with amazing weather! We ended up doing the train ride and bus tour to the Yukon (highly recommend the train ride, I'd skip the bus tour) And in Skagway we did the Mendenhall glacier with the tram. We saw bears! 

Ketchikan, we just walked around

The bonus to end of season cruise was all of the sales 😂 we scored 

So many great options, now we are beyond excited! 

Thanks everyone! I think we've decided on a helicopter trip in Juneau, train to the Yukon in Skagway and just walk around Ketchikan. So stoked!! 💖 

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

 

We did Mendenhall Glacier, which is Juneau. It's not cheap, but it's totally worth it!

 

Some of the amazing mountains up high!

 

Flying around

 

After we landed ON the glacier

 

Our son, he was 12 at the time, and loved it!

 

The 3 of us after the ride

 

 

Here's one of the 3 or 4 videos I took...

 

Wow!!!!!!!! 

41 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

Like others have already said, it can be very subjective. We did 3 different excursions that all involved glaciers, because that's the things we wanted. We didn't care about the railroad trips or dogsled. Once was the small boat excursion in Tracy Arm, the other was in Skagway, the Wilderness Safari trip where we walked on the ground at the foot of a glacier, but the best was our helicopter ride. We did Mendenhall in Juneau and it was amazing!! That would have been our "not miss" thing. Mainly because there are very few places I want to do a helicopter ride to begin with, and this was basically a once in a lifetime thing for us.

Which port did you do the helicopter ride? This sounds right up our alley

Just now, mapleleaves said:

your trip is very late into the shoulder season, so some activities may not be available and some vendors will have closed.  ie  heli dog sledding ended a few weeks ago in some locations.  Bear viewing out of Ketchikan is past prime viewing period.

So you will need to research activities that are of interest then check to see if they're still available.  I'd also suggest backup plans at each port in case you encounter a Fall storm.

Your cruiseline will have hundreds of options for you to review.  If you find some excursions that interest you, but you would prefer to use an independent vendor , post again for suggestions. 

Thank you! This is good to know 

Scored a deal on HAL yvr return for my husband's 39th bday. We are travelling with our almost 5 yr old. We stop in Juneau, Skagway (birthday) and Ketchikan. Is there a must do excursion in any of these ports that would be a shame to miss? He's bummed we can't see Denali, so I want to make this trip the best I can

Leave Vancouver Sept 21st

Sorry for the novel