Ketchikan question.....

[dsstasz]

The excursion we are going on will take up most of our time in Ketchikan. However, there is an alternative excursion we can go on that would leave us with some time to be in town.

My question is, would I be missing a lot if I did not spend time in town.

 

Sue

[IAGrown]

There isn't much to ketchikan. We jsut returned from an alaska cruise and did the Zip=line canopy adventure - it was AMAZING -- there is nothing you will miss in ketchikan that you won't find in the next port - enjoy your excursion - the shopping can wait :)

 

dress for rain - a good rain coat and rain pants are a plus! keep dry and enjoy the experience - it is amazing!

[karatemom2]

The excursion we are going on will take up most of our time in Ketchikan. However, there is an alternative excursion we can go on that would leave us with some time to be in town.

My question is, would I be missing a lot if I did not spend time in town.

 

Sue

 

The town is cute and walkable with some enjoyable things to see, but a lot of it is shops. If the excursion you have planned is something you really want to do I wouldn't worry about missing out on time in town. On our first trip to Ketchikan we had a similar situation and because of our planned excursion didn't get time in town. It was such a great excursion and I'm glad that we didn't miss out. We have since been able to spend some time in town on other trips and while it has been enjoyable, I'm glad I didn't miss out on that great excursion we did on our first trip to Ketchikan.

[KAYEF]

At the time we are going to be in town, the creek MIGHT be red with salmon. In that case, it's a quick walk about three blocks up from the ship.

You'll have the "same shops" in all the towns, so shopping is not something you HAVE to do here.

However, if they have the same coupon books that we had last year (given to us upon boarding), the large store just to the left, right at the end of the wooden walkway as you disembark......had $9.99 SHIPPING coupons. We didn't realize what a great thing that was until we reboaded and really looked through our book.

Since we were on a b-2-b we did almost all of our shopping there (and at their two sister stores) on our way back...........they shipped it (they paid almost $40.00) and our boxes were right at the house a couple of days after we got home! Everything was amazingly packed...........even the mugs which were in their own, cushioned boxes, had bubble wrap around the boxes!

We had "looked" everywhere and decided the prices were pretty much the same.................bought ALASKA MADE Ulu Knives, sweatshirts, t-shirts, ball caps, mugs, etc.

There's no way we could have hauled it all back, even with our extra duffle bags....................best $9.99 we spent on the whole trip.;)

[pamfj]

You won't miss a thing. Ketchikan was the most "touristy" of the places we visited. Wished we had spent more time out on the boat fishing (even though we did not catch anything).

[tartertwo]

we just were on a cruise in June and my husband and I took different excursions. I came back much earlier than his excursion (he came back in time to board) I spent time shopping. There is one spot that you can walk up to where the salmon run that is pretty, but most of the buses drive by so you should see it. The shopping was nice, but similar to most ports. ( I thought the deals might be better in Skagway on some of the items, unless you use the coupon book another reader spoke of, PS we recieved our at the cruise terminal in Seattle)

 

do the Excursion. The one thing I learned was the best way to see Alaska, was the excursions.

 

HAPPY CRUISING

[BIG_Steve]

Ketchikan has some meaningful things to see like the totem poles. That did not interest us, so we took a long excursion. When we got back, we had about 90 minutes to poke around. And while I don't mind tourist stuff, I wished our tour had gone an hour longer.

 

Start with your ships descriptions of what tours they offer. If nothing there interests you further than the tour you're already on, and you don't desire to do a lot of shopping, then take the long tour.

[bearbait]

If all you guys do is hang around the cruise ship docks your missing 90% of the town. There is much more to the 4th largest city in the State of Alaska then the trinket shops downtown.

[Travel_Maven]

If all you guys do is hang around the cruise ship docks your missing 90% of the town. There is much more to the 4th largest city in the State of Alaska then the trinket shops downtown.

 

 

I agree! Of all the towns we stopped at on our land/sea trip last week, Ketchikan was one of my favorites. We didn't hang around the dock except to eat at a local fish place (it was great!). We went straight to Creek Street and had a great time. In fact, we wish we had more time to spend there before our excursion.

[chipmaster]

I found all the towns a bit too touristy. Do the excursion and if you have time walk it to kill some time ;) I was very dissapointed in the creek walk and other stuff there. I didn't have the time to really see the totems out of the town. If shopping is what you want then at least in one port make a few hours for it,, but I'd do the tours, see the wilderness and do action activities over the town.

 

Enjoy!

 

The excursion we are going on will take up most of our time in Ketchikan. However, there is an alternative excursion we can go on that would leave us with some time to be in town.

My question is, would I be missing a lot if I did not spend time in town.

 

Sue

[BaltiGator]

If all you guys do is hang around the cruise ship docks your missing 90% of the town. There is much more to the 4th largest city in the State of Alaska then the trinket shops downtown.

 

Can you kindly elaborate? We're generally not the excursion types and would like to know what sort of "do it yourself" options we have in these towns. (We are stopping in Ketchikan, Sitka and Juneau.)

 

Many thanks!

[KAYEF]

Can you kindly elaborate? We're generally not the excursion types and would like to know what sort of "do it yourself" options we have in these towns. (We are stopping in Ketchikan, Sitka and Juneau.)

 

Many thanks!

 

I won't write about ALL there is to do in towns, because many others will, but I will tell you one of my "finds" in Sitka. We loved Sitka and had only been there on cruises until we flew to Anchorage, rented a car for a month and did "more." We used the Marine System and stayed in Sitka for four or five days.

Upon walking along the main street, up past the Russian Orthodox church that's in the middle of the street (St. Michael's), we kept going and came to the "end." To our right was lots and lots of lawn. The sea was farther out but there was a huge yellow building there.

We went to it................and upon arriving several elderly people wanted us to come into their green-house....which was FULL of beautiful flowers and plants...............turns out the building is a

"Pioneer Home"..................most people there helped make Alaska what it is now. They were early settlers.:)

We had a WONDERFUL time hearing stories about the "real" Alaska..........I love conversations with these people full of wisdom and tales. They had a Gift Shop there full of things made by these folks!

Now, I'd be the first to tell you to see all the Russion History things in Sitka and to walk the trail through the totems, but the Pioneer Home had "human history.";)

[Blendermagician]

Can you kindly elaborate? We're generally not the excursion types and would like to know what sort of "do it yourself" options we have in these towns. (We are stopping in Ketchikan, Sitka and Juneau.)

 

Many thanks!

 

In Ketchikan, we took a city bus ($2) out to Totem Bight State Park. (I can't remember the cost there) It was a nice place to visit, with Totems, and all. We also did a small museum right near the salmon ladder and enjoyed Creek Street for little shops and a Halibut dinner.

 

Juneau. We took the shuttle round trip out to Mendenhall Glacier and hiked. We had wanted to do the Mt Roberts tram but it was very foggy, so it would have been a waste of money.

 

We went to Skagway, not Sitka.

[streetclem]

Skip the stores near the dock and walk to Creek Street. We saw salmon jumping in the stream, took some great pictures and shopped at some very nice, interesting stores. I also enjoyed seeing the totem poles and learning about what the different designs meant. I wish we had more time in Ketchikan.

[Budget Queen]

What ever you choose, you are going to "miss" something. I too, definately am not inagreement with the above- "skip Ketchikan, you won't miss anything" comments. I'll speculate these are not repeat multi time visitors, nor, did they get past the shopping (which they didn't or they wouldn't have commented like they did).

 

There is plenty outside of shopping, and a lot of history and interesting gems to find in Ketchikan. Just depends- what YOU want to do?? There certainly are some excellent tour options to consider. Tough choices indeed.

 

For clarification- there is no cost for Totem Bight, just the $2 round trip bus fare.

[CowPrincess]

If all you guys do is hang around the cruise ship docks your missing 90% of the town. There is much more to the 4th largest city in the State of Alaska then the trinket shops downtown.

 

Quick, note the date, mark the calendar. Bearbait and I agree about something :D :D :D

 

IMHO to the OP -- only you can decide how much time you want to spend on an excursion, whether you will feel cheated if you do the shorter one you are considering, and what exactly you would want to do while in the town. If you want to see native art, native history, Ketchikan is a great place for that. If you want to see Diamonds International, you truly can do that in most cruise ports, so you don't need to cut an excursion short, y'know?