pls comment in mendenhall heli excursions

[jbinbi]

I have a listing of the following mendenhall heli excursions, but no clue which is good or bad and the differences. These are booked thru princess, so i put the numbers down, don't know which outfit actually does them, but not that it matters at this point.

 

If anyone has been on any of these, pls chime in and give me your thoughts...

 

1. mendenhall glacier tour, jnu-810

2. same but with salmon bake, I guess they just feed you lunch, but nice

3. 4 glacier heli tour jnu-820

4. pilots choice ice age explore jnu-825

5. heli glacier walkabout jun-850

6. heli glacier hike jun-855

 

Also the last one is rated S for strenuous, but I have no idea what strenuous means to princess. What is strenuous for a 25 yr old who works out 5x a week, and what is strenuous for a 75 yr old who never works out are really far apart. I am assuming the cruiseline is trying to be conservative. But I don't want to book a hike that I can't do

[Budget Queen]

First point I will reference, IF all these tours have "Mendenhall" in their descriptions, then the vendor is TEMSCO. I'm not going to go to the Princess web site and look up your tours. IF the last one, doesn't mention "Mendenhall" then I suggest you instead look at North Star Helicopters. I only recommend the level 3, in my opinion. This is a hike doable by most anyone who has some fitness.

 

Longer can be better, depends on YOU and how you wish to proceed. Do you have other plans as well?

[vbmom87]

My daughter and son-in-law booked the helicopter with 2 hour hike. They were 25 at the time and in decent physical shape. I don't recall them saying it was strenuous, but would be happy to ask if you have any questions or concerns.

 

They did enjoy the trip and felt the 2 hours was adequate for them. What they did wish was that they had more flight time looking down at the glaciers from above. They saved $30 pp by booking independently (summer 2013). The others on their tour were from the cruise ships and had paid the higher price. My SIL was a bit nervous about booking this independently, but in the end was happy to have saved the $60.

[deladypilot]

We did the Helicopter Walkabout a couple of years ago. It gives you about 1 hour on the glacier. My husband has a broke back so we figured it was about all he could handle. It was an awesome excursion and for us, the perfect amount of time.

 

The walk itself was not really hard. They put ski type boots on you then strap on metal crampons so you can grab the ice. It just adds weight to your legs. Nothing to heavy though.

 

Go and enjoy

[mskaufman]

We did not go on these specific excursions but did do a helicopter excursion to Mendenhall. I wasn't going to do it but folks who went to AK told me to do a glacier walk. I was glad I listened.

 

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff386/mmkbx75/IMG_6701.jpg

 

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff386/mmkbx75/IMG_6694a.jpg

[travelbuds]

We booked the level 2 trek that NorthStar offers. Would have done the level 3-an hour longer- but wanted to squeeze in another excursion. Time went by fast. Would do it again!