Booking Excursions - Several Questions

[Fyrefly]

I have several newbie excursion questions that I was hoping that the fine folks here would be able to answer.

 

We're on a Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise with Princess, and will be going August 6th to the 13th. First question, the ports are the standard Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan. Are the main downtown areas all within walking distance of the ports or do you need to taxi in or be with an excursion to get in town?

 

Now onto the excursions:

 

My family likes history so for Skagway we were thinking of the city tour/day's of 98 show or the walking tour and staying in town to soak up as much history as we can. Is this the sort of thing that is bookable on your own or cheaper to do so, or are they cruise ship exclusives? Is there anything that gold-rush history afficiandos can recommend as an alternative or opinions on which tour is superior?

 

We have a whale-watching tour with Harv and Marv booked for Juneau based on recommendations from here so that is sorted.

 

For Ketchikan, similarly we are interested in seeing the Totem poles and possibly the hatchery so the Saxman,Hatchery,Totem Heritage & Discovery Center excursion (I think the lumberjack show sounds silly and amusing - thoughts if it's worth convincing my family to check out or is it tacky?) but again I'm not sure if they are the sort of things you can walk over or taxi over and do, or if it's like I've heard in the Carribean where you have to book through the cruise ship because they book up all of the spots ahead of time.

 

Lastly:

 

Me and my dad love salmon and want to have an authentic salmon bake while we are here. The problem is my mom does not like salmon so going on some sort of excursion with a focus on having a salmon bake wouldn't really be fair to her. Is there a go-to restaurant or something that has really amazing salmon we can partake in for lunch on one of our port days? I'm guessing it would be in Ketchikan but I really don't know, and I would love opinions from people who have been there, and not just go with the first place we see that serves frozen salmon to unsuspecting tourists! :D

 

A million thanks for all of your help.

[infoprof56]

I am sure others will have better information, but being a fellow Marylander I thought I would say hi and offer what I have learned from a year of research. We will be in the same ports a week ahead of you. Ketchikan and Skagway are relatively small towns at least for those of us accustomed to the population and size of east coast cities and towns. Don’t think Baltimore, more like the historic zone in Annapolis. You will be docked basically right in town. I don’t see any need for an organized tour for the activities you mentioned. Ketchikan reportedly has a great public bus system (http://www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us/bus/info.htm ) which will take you most anywhere you would want to go that you can’t walk to for a dollar a person each way. As for totem poles we are planning to go the opposite direction from Saxman to Totem Bight (http://www.experienceketchikan.com/native-american-totem-poles-4.html) and Potlatch Park (http://www.experienceketchikan.com/native-american-totem-poles-1.html), both are free and the bus goes there.

In Skagway we booked the train / van trip to Emerald lake independently. Not sure that would be for you as I understand even though it follows the Klondike gold miner’s route that is mostly a scenic thing. The in town stuff you mentioned I am sure you can do on your own without an organized tour.

Hopefully, the above links will help give you more information. By the way in my opinion you got bad advice on the Caribbean. Though we have occasionally done so, there is hardly ever a need to book a ship tour to avoid not having something to do. There are other advantages but lack of availability is not an issue in any port I have visited.

Have a great trip!

[Great Sky Girl]

Okay, here goes. We have been to Alaska on your cruise once and are going again, North, in a couple of weeks. You dock almost in town. No need for transport. Skagway is very small. You can walk the town by yourself and take the free national park service tour (which is interesting). Or you can rent a car and drive to Emerald lake and see just beautiful scenery. That is my choice this time. We took the narrow gauge train last time and had a memorable trip! But I think once was enough and it is more expensive with several passengers. Ketchikan is larger, but you can walk a good bit of it and see some great things. We are taking a tour in a 56 Chevy with Lois Munch and she will take us to the totem site and to the rain forest. Juneau, of course is much larger, but you already have a tour there. Excellent tour! You may ask them to take you to the Mendenhall Glacier, also. They will just let you off and you can take the trolley back to the ship.

[Acaliforniagirl]

If you want to save money, you can take a bus to see the totem poles in Ketchican. It costs $1.00 each way and the buses run one time per hour (just enough time to view the totem poles and village.)

[Budget Queen]

I have several newbie excursion questions that I was hoping that the fine folks here would be able to answer.

 

We're on a Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise with Princess, and will be going August 6th to the 13th. First question, the ports are the standard Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan. Are the main downtown areas all within walking distance of the ports or do you need to taxi in or be with an excursion to get in town?

 

Now onto the excursions:

 

My family likes history so for Skagway we were thinking of the city tour/day's of 98 show or the walking tour and staying in town to soak up as much history as we can. Is this the sort of thing that is bookable on your own or cheaper to do so, or are they cruise ship exclusives? Is there anything that gold-rush history afficiandos can recommend as an alternative or opinions on which tour is superior?

 

We have a whale-watching tour with Harv and Marv booked for Juneau based on recommendations from here so that is sorted.

 

For Ketchikan, similarly we are interested in seeing the Totem poles and possibly the hatchery so the Saxman,Hatchery,Totem Heritage & Discovery Center excursion (I think the lumberjack show sounds silly and amusing - thoughts if it's worth convincing my family to check out or is it tacky?) but again I'm not sure if they are the sort of things you can walk over or taxi over and do, or if it's like I've heard in the Carribean where you have to book through the cruise ship because they book up all of the spots ahead of time.

 

Lastly:

 

Me and my dad love salmon and want to have an authentic salmon bake while we are here. The problem is my mom does not like salmon so going on some sort of excursion with a focus on having a salmon bake wouldn't really be fair to her. Is there a go-to restaurant or something that has really amazing salmon we can partake in for lunch on one of our port days? I'm guessing it would be in Ketchikan but I really don't know, and I would love opinions from people who have been there, and not just go with the first place we see that serves frozen salmon to unsuspecting tourists! :D

 

A million thanks for all of your help.

 

If you truely are into History, the White Pass RR is a highlight. Extremely interesting. But, I would not consider any of the "town tours" of Skagway. This is easy to just do yourself. Going to the Park Service Visitor Center on Broadway and Second is a must do. They have exhibits, free walking tours- go on more than one, if different rangers are scheduled- you must sign up, ranger talks, movie. http://www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm

 

 

In Ketchikan, the Totem Heritage Museum is excellent, in the past there were discounted combo tickets available with the Hatchery. If no mobilitiy limitations, I would highly recommend "my walking tour", which many have enjoyed.

 

For salmon, I highly recommend Thane Ore House in Juneau. They have picked up on the dock, in the past. Don't you have a long Juneau port day? This also is an interesting walking city.

 

Head to your library and take out Fodor's Alaska and Frommer's Alaska, both have walking tour maps and details of the sights.

 

 

As for the Ketchikan Totem Bight recommendation- you need to allow three hours, with taking the city bus, Blue line. Print out and bring with you the totem guide- http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/totempol.htm Potlash Park is next door.

[RoupMom]

I'll throw in my 2cents worth as well. Depending on your time in Juneau, you can take a special Mendenhall Glacier bus from near the dock for something like $14 RT which gets you very near the visitors' center. IMHO that's much better than doing a ship's excursion, which we've done as well.

We were in Ketchikan last summer with our family, including grandsons 4 and 6. They absolutely LOVED the lumberjack show and still talk about it. It's very near the dock and there's no need to do a ship excursion. Also in Ketchikan, people rarely mention the Tongass National Forest Museum, which we saw in 2004 and is adjacent to the public library, a few blocks from the dock. It's a truly wonderful museum that we are eager to see again this summer. Several departments of the US govt have exhibits there in the form of vignettes, showing all aspects of life in Alaska over the years. For example the fisheries have a section on fishing, land management on forestry, etc. It's free or cheap, I forget which.

We really enjoyed the train in Skagway, and learned a lot of history. It is expensive, though, and I wouldn't do it again just because of that.

As for salmon! Yum yum! You are in for a treat! Atlantic salmon is fine, but there is nothing like wild salmon from the Pacific Northwest! I've only been on HAL, not Princess, but HAL always serves salmon several times. If you find an excursion that combines a salmon roast and a Native show, I'd do that. Those places often serve chicken as well, for those who don't like salmon. It definitely is different when cooked on cedar planks as the Natives do many places. Enjoy!