Haines River Wilderness Adventure?

[konatyme]

Has anyone had experience with this tour? We're looking at it for our August cruise on the Crown Princess. Thought it sounded like a good possibility, but did see a rather negative review on it from a cruiser who did the excursion in May.

Thanks for any input!

[peety3]

Depends on what your style is. DW and I, plus my parents, did this in 2014 and weren't impressed. Our thought is: 45 minutes on a ferry, 30 minutes on a "school bus" to get there. Grab an extra jacket from their stash if you want one, and rent binoculars for $5 (they are GOOD ones, from what I understand), then file onto the boats. The boats hold 24 each: that's six rows of four-abreast. Once you're on the boat, "assume the seated position", because that's where you'll be for an hour plus. After the ride, you'll have a reasonable lunch, then back on the bus for 30m and back on the ferry for 45m.

 

While out on the river, our tour guide was quick to point out that the river changes daily, because of the glacial sediment (very sand-like) that gets moved by the currents and flows. He wasn't the smoothest on the microphone while he was busy being a captain, but did get us to various places with decent sights. We did see several eagles before him, and a couple times he didn't believe us.

 

In our case, we got a little extra time on the river, but that resulted in us being late getting back for lunch, which meant a rushed lunch as the bus HAD to leave by a certain time to make the ferry. A little too chaotic for my style.

 

I wouldn't call it bad, but it was in no way our idea of an ideal excursion, and probably at the bottom of the list of excursions we've done.

[konatyme]

Thanks for the info; we may rethink this one. We wanted something "outdoors", with some chance of seeing wildlife (although we live in Oregon, so have seen eagles, whales, bears, etc.). Just wanted something maybe more adventurous than a train ride. Will keep looking!

[judynorth]

We did the rafting trip out of Haines and loved it. The scenery was beautiful and the rafting was fun. However, we were docked in Haines so we didn't have the long ferry ride from Skagway and back. It was a fairly long bus ride to the beginning of the rafting trip and a shorter bus ride back to the ship. If you had to add the travel time to and from Haines on the ferry to the trip that would make the travel longer than the time on the water. I'm not sure it would be worth it.

[Budget Queen]

Has anyone had experience with this tour? We're looking at it for our August cruise on the Crown Princess. Thought it sounded like a good possibility, but did see a rather negative review on it from a cruiser who did the excursion in May.

Thanks for any input!

 

I have also rafted as Judy mentions which is quieter and more "natural", also first trip there, in the 90's (didn't know any better :) ) did the jet boat tour. I've also been there several times with car rentals driving along the Chilkoot River. Do not except a lot of wildlife, and the same amount of eagles as anywhere else in Alaska. It is scenic.

 

But, I actually like the Tayia River rafting better for the scenery, which is available by road out of Skagway.

[Crew News]

Depends on what your style is. DW and I, plus my parents, did this in 2014 and weren't impressed. Our thought is: 45 minutes on a ferry, 30 minutes on a "school bus" to get there. Grab an extra jacket from their stash if you want one, and rent binoculars for $5 (they are GOOD ones, from what I understand), then file onto the boats. The boats hold 24 each: that's six rows of four-abreast. Once you're on the boat, "assume the seated position", because that's where you'll be for an hour plus. After the ride, you'll have a reasonable lunch, then back on the bus for 30m and back on the ferry for 45m.

 

While out on the river, our tour guide was quick to point out that the river changes daily, because of the glacial sediment (very sand-like) that gets moved by the currents and flows. He wasn't the smoothest on the microphone while he was busy being a captain, but did get us to various places with decent sights. We did see several eagles before him, and a couple times he didn't believe us.

 

In our case, we got a little extra time on the river, but that resulted in us being late getting back for lunch, which meant a rushed lunch as the bus HAD to leave by a certain time to make the ferry. A little too chaotic for my style.

 

I wouldn't call it bad, but it was in no way our idea of an ideal excursion, and probably at the bottom of the list of excursions we've done.

 

My experience was similar. Parked under one eagle's nest and saw two eagles flying about. It was a lot of boat riding for such little wildlife spotting.

 

The food after the excursion was good.

[konatyme]

Thanks for the comments. We found a non-ship excursion that looked better to us, so have cancelled this one.

[mek]

I did the Ocean Raft Adventure last month in Skagway and it was great - convenient from the ship and we saw beautiful waterfalls with a lot of wildlife.

[poss]

What is the ocean raft trip? (as compared to the Chilkoot river raft trip)?

 

Also: Is the scenery handsome on that longish ferry ride?

 

Thanks.

[Budget Queen]

What is the ocean raft trip? (as compared to the Chilkoot river raft trip)?

 

Also: Is the scenery handsome on that longish ferry ride?

 

Thanks.

 

These are two very different tours. The Lynn Canal, is the same route that is taken by your cruise ship. The Ocean Raft trip has been getting good reviews. Take a closer look at the vendor and reviews.