Tours for Juneau and Ketchikan dilemma

[Sailkeywest]

Hubby and I are taking a September 2010 cruise to Alaska and I am now looking further into excursions. We want to take one aerial tour while we are there, either by helicopter or seaplane. The helicopter flight that I am looking into would take us to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau and the seaplane tour takes you to Misty Fjords in Ketchikan. (heli/Juneau = 55 mins --30 min flight time, 25 min on glacier and Seaplane/Ketchikan is 2 hours long -- 1 hr 15 mins flight time, 35 mins on land) cost is about the same, $240 pp

 

The seaplane company (Island Wings) also offers an extended version of their trip which would include glacier viewing, but they state that the weather in September might prevent them from being able to offer that tour because they have to reach heights of 4000 feet. (cost for that tour is $380 pp)

 

The questions/options that I have are:

 

1. I have seen that Ketchikan occasionally gets canceled on some cruises due to weather, and if I book this tour myself, and the tour must be canceled at least 48 hours in advance to receive a refund. Since we are traveling in September, I am concerned. Does anyone have any experience with weather in September in Alaska, or ports being canceled?

 

2. Hubby really wants to land on a glacier, but from the pictures that I have seen online of this trip, it just looks like a bunch of dirty ice to me. :P Also, there seems to be a great deal of helicopters/tourists all around you on this tour, which isn't exactly the wilderness adventure that I'd imagined. The seaplane tour seems more 'remote.' Correct me if I am wrong, if anyone has experience with this. :) For those that have taken this heli/glacier landing tour, how did you enjoy it?

 

3. Maybe scrap the aerial tours altogether, because booking so far in advance prohibits us from knowing what the weather is going to be like or if Ketchikan might be canceled anyway. I think September tours of Mendenhall also occasionally get canceled. (We will be in Juneau on Sept 20) Whale watching tour anyone? Train ride? Lunch at someplace nice? Walk in the woods to get chased by bears?

 

Any input to help us is appreciated, Thank you :)

[Budget Queen]

Hubby and I are taking a September 2010 cruise to Alaska and I am now looking further into excursions. We want to take one aerial tour while we are there, either by helicopter or seaplane. The helicopter flight that I am looking into would take us to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau and the seaplane tour takes you to Misty Fjords in Ketchikan. (heli/Juneau = 55 mins --30 min flight time, 25 min on glacier and Seaplane/Ketchikan is 2 hours long -- 1 hr 15 mins flight time, 35 mins on land) cost is about the same, $240 pp

 

The seaplane company (Island Wings) also offers an extended version of their trip which would include glacier viewing, but they state that the weather in September might prevent them from being able to offer that tour because they have to reach heights of 4000 feet. (cost for that tour is $380 pp)

 

The questions/options that I have are:

 

1. I have seen that Ketchikan occasionally gets canceled on some cruises due to weather, and if I book this tour myself, and the tour must be canceled at least 48 hours in advance to receive a refund. Since we are traveling in September, I am concerned. Does anyone have any experience with weather in September in Alaska, or ports being canceled?

 

2. Hubby really wants to land on a glacier, but from the pictures that I have seen online of this trip, it just looks like a bunch of dirty ice to me. :P Also, there seems to be a great deal of helicopters/tourists all around you on this tour, which isn't exactly the wilderness adventure that I'd imagined. The seaplane tour seems more 'remote.' Correct me if I am wrong, if anyone has experience with this. :) For those that have taken this heli/glacier landing tour, how did you enjoy it?

 

3. Maybe scrap the aerial tours altogether, because booking so far in advance prohibits us from knowing what the weather is going to be like or if Ketchikan might be canceled anyway. I think September tours of Mendenhall also occasionally get canceled. (We will be in Juneau on Sept 20) Whale watching tour anyone? Train ride? Lunch at someplace nice? Walk in the woods to get chased by bears?

 

Any input to help us is appreciated, Thank you :)

 

You have a lot of misinformation. IF you cancel your flightseeing, there are restrictive cancelation policies. BUT, if they cancel, I don't know of ANY company that does not refund fully. And they can and do cancel all the way up to flight time.

 

Ports do NOT get canceled. It is extremely rare for ships not to make port. They come and do in all weather. Again, if a ship doesn't make port, most vendors fully refund. Verify this DIRECTLY.

 

You continue to have the wrong idea about these tours- depending on who you book your flightseeing with, you can most certainly be the ONLY plane/helicopter around. As for "dirty" ice- sorry, but this is nature. Glacier landing is spectular. If not of interest to you, then split up, meet back on the ship. I'll assume you each can do touring independently???

 

I have personally, done both these flightseeing options many times each. BUT, I have a priority for flights, and enjoy them all. Each of these are very different and only you can decide which is the best choice.

 

You do realize you are going during the timeframe of the worse potential weather??? You will need to be very well prepared in your attire, will make all the difference. Average is 3 days of rain- tours do NOT Stop, most go rain or shine and are not impacted, significantly by weather. Dusk will be by 7pm, again prepared your port time to make the most of daylight.

 

IF you have to have everything perfect with guarantees on weather, then, yes, forget about flightseeing, no way to manage this. And with that, you would be best to cancel this cruise and go earlier, to up your chances, if the weather is a significant priority to you?

[alpal1993]

I agree with Budget Queen,any cancellation from tour company you will not be charged.They might even offer you another tour if possible at a discounted price.

[PennyAgain]

The cruise companies have pushed the season by starting earlier and ending later. I used to book the late Sept cruises because they WERE cheaper and I miss cooler weather.

 

Sept. 20 is very late with many tour companies having already shut down for the season by that time.

 

The weather will not be what you see in the photos in the brochures and on the tv programs about Alaska. The days will be shorter with earlier sunsets and later sunrises.

[bqkali]

I can't speak for either of your choices - but I would like to suggest if you choose a glacier landing in Juneau, see if you can get longer than 25 minutes on the ice. I spent an hour on the ice on September 21, 2009 (so same timeframe as you :)) and it wasn't nearly long enough. I could have spent all day on the glacier :D

 

Yes, some of the ice is dirty, but some of it is spectacularly blue. Of course, it will depend on where you are able to land. The glacier is thrilling to check out the caves, crevasses, see the running water (and taste it!), and of course walk over.

 

I'm sure the flightseeing in Ketchikan is beautiful as well.

[sjmccmjs]

We flew with Island Wings on Sept 11 of this year. It was truly amazing and we were fortunate to have nice weather with only a few clouds. However, the day before, all flights had to cancel due to weather and I was told that all of those customers would get a full refund. So weather is hit and miss and you will be going even later in the season..

 

We also did a helicopter w/ glacier landing in Denali with ERA and have to say that this was our favorite excursion of all time. But again we had gorgeous weather, clear skies and the colors in Denali were changing so we went from oranges, golds and reds to wonderful blue ice. Absolutely breathtaking!!!

 

Both trips were great and having to choose one would be difficult. But weather will make all the difference and you can't predict that from one day to the next.

[Sailkeywest]

Bqkali, thank you for taking the time to attach the photos, they do look really beautiful, almost like from another planet. :P The Misty Fjords trip with Island Wings looks breathtaking as well, so it is so hard to make a decision! Ty sjmccjms for sharing about your experiences, making my decision even more difficult :P -- But they are nice decisions to make :D

[bqkali]

Bqkali, thank you for taking the time to attach the photos, they do look really beautiful, almost like from another planet. :P The Misty Fjords trip with Island Wings looks breathtaking as well, so it is so hard to make a decision! Ty sjmccjms for sharing about your experiences, making my decision even more difficult :P -- But they are nice decisions to make :D

 

Save your pennies and do both :p:p

 

That's what I'm doing - saving my pennies for my next trip to Alaska ;);)

[dchang]

We just recently returned from our Alaska cruise on the HAL Zaandam. We left Seattle on Sept 25 and were one of the last if not the last cruise of the season. In preparing for this trip I warned the other 3 people in our group of the possibility for bad weather and lots of rain. We were apparently very lucky. Our first port of call was Juneau and the day started out as a cloudy day with light rain. We took a Whale Watch charter for the four of us with HiTime Charters. Capt Toni Wisner picked us up in the parking lot next to the Tram. She provided us with an excellent afternoon on the bay. We were her last charter of the season and what was a 2 1/2 hour whale watch trip ended up with us being out for almost four hours. Just as we started to head back to the marina a calf breached right behind our boat 3 times. That alone was worth every penny we spent on the trip. We followed several groups of whales while we were out on the water but the calf breaching 3 times was spectacular. On our way back we stopped by Mendenhall Glacier for a quick photo and then back into town for some shopping. What started out as a cloudy, drizzly day turned into a beautiful sunny late afternoon early evening.

 

The next day as we pulled into Glacier Bay it was a beautiful day with the sun out from morning till evening and a great sunset. We could not have asked for better weather, even if it was a bit chilly with a slight wind. We spent our day moving from deck to deck and back to our balcony for all the views of Glacier Bay.

 

Our day in Sitka was another great sunny day and I could not believe how lucky we had been with the weather. While we had fully prepared for the worst, we had been blessed with some of the best weather possible. The only day of rain was in Ketchikan where we spent the few hours in port doing our best to get the last of the season sales. Most of the seasonal stores were packing up to leave town. But we did manage to find quite a few bargains.

 

The only part of the trip which might have been a problem was our first night and second day. We seemed to hit some very rough seas and on the second night which was the first formal night the dining room was half empty. Seems quite a few passengers were having trouble with the rough seas and spent most of the day and night in their cabins. Room service was very hard to reach that night and most public areas were pretty empty. Even the crew said it was the roughest it had been all season.

 

All in all we had a great cruise and consider ourselves very lucky to have had great weather for our late September cruise. We arrived back in Seattle and did not want to get off the ship.

[PennyAgain]

dchang, I'm so glad that the weather treated you so well. I was a rate week for sure.