Tour Vendors at The Dock/In Town

[MaxsMom73]

Leaving Saturday on the Jewel. Just curious what I should expect for tour vendors at the dock? We didn't want to book tours ahead of time and wanted to choose based on how the weather looks the day of. Are there many vendors with spots available? Thanks

[CruiserBruce]

There may be. There might not be. My issue would be what would the quality of tour providers that have not already been booked, keeping in mind that the Alaskan communities are small, and not an unlimited research? Consider that some ports may have 3-5 ships in port.

[Kamloops50]

There are always vendors at the dock. The only issue is that the tours that ship sells aren't available at the pier.

Also the time slots they have are those that the cruise line won't use .

[Budget Queen]

I suggest you have direct phone numbers of the tours you are considering. IF you have no idea, sorry, but you are going to waste a lot of time scurrying around trying to book tours. If you are only looking for city/type simple tours, this would work best.

 

Do you already have ideas known?

 

Another consideration, there are some situations where you will have no clue about "weather" from the port. This is significant for the White Pass and Yukon.

 

Every dock has vendors and a visitor center nearby. But, it's only going to be a fraction of what is available in advance.

[zqvol]

Leaving Saturday on the Jewel. Just curious what I should expect for tour vendors at the dock? We didn't want to book tours ahead of time and wanted to choose based on how the weather looks the day of. Are there many vendors with spots available? Thanks

 

You will find plenty of tours available, BUT you won't find flight seeing and probably not whale watching, those have limited capacity and are usually booked well in advance. Waiting until you arrive is not a wise move in AK, but at this late date it doesn't matter because most people book excursions at least 6 months out and the good ones are full.

 

You will likely have to book through the ship to get any good tours, ,and they may be sold out too.

[Budget Queen]

You will find plenty of tours available, BUT you won't find flight seeing and probably not whale watching, those have limited capacity and are usually booked well in advance

 

.

 

This really is not accurate. It is pretty easy to get walk up flights in Ketchikan, I have done so. And not difficult to get a whale watch out of Juneau either. There are at least 20 whale watch vendors. I never fail to see availability at the dock booths.

 

The whole point is- you can not be picky about

the vendor. But, both these tours, are usually available for walk up.