Dogsled Advice

[dmdiver]

I've noticed you can book glacier dogsledding in both Juneau & Skagway.  Any ideas regarding which port is the best for booking dogsledding?

[Bearvet]

My suggestion is to book at the first port you'll come to.  That way if it's cancelled due to weather, you can try to book at the next port.  Have a list of all of the companies names and phone numbers that offer dogsledding on a glacier available in case you need to rebook.

 

Our cruise went north to south, so we booked ours in Seward before the cruise began - that left us 2 ports to potentially book (Juneau and Skagway) if we needed to.  Luckily our morning glacier landing was held and the afternoon times were cancelled.  Many during the cruise were cancelled too, so we felt very lucky!

 

I can't compare with other places/companies, since I've only done the one, but I'd suspect that each port and company offer similar experiences - which are absolutely wonderful!!

[dmdiver]

Thanks, Bearvet.  We go to Juneau first, but don't arrive until 2:30pm.  We have Skagway next with about 13 hours in port, so plenty of time.  Next comes Ketchikan with I think 6 or 7 hours in port - morning arrival.  I just didn't know if they are still all going to the same place regardless of which city your helicopter flies out of or whether they go to a different glacier.  I just have no clue how many different glacier dogsled camps are in that part of Alaska.

 

P.S. Your profile pic made me a little sad.  Our neighbors just had to say goodbye to their little fawn pug.  She was a fawn cutie like yours.

[chipmaster]

Dogsledding on glacier is one of the most limited and most canceled due to it being higher up on the glaciers.   As climate change works its way the season has been very short, plan your cruise early in the season as August is becoming too warm and the camps get taken down. 

 

When we decided to do this we agonized over which port, and if you do enough research both ports have tours, and weather is weather and I never found any evidence that one port or AM  or PM was better, just people's myth arguments.    

 

Prebook, I'm skeptical that if canceled in your first port that with such short notice there will/would be open tours the next day/port but that is an approach.   During our cruise the heli and heli/dog were among the earliest that sold out, YMMV.

 

But if you get to do it on a sunny day it is indeed spectacular as is the CC bill that comes for the tour costs as well.  

[Robinhill]

On 9/28/2019 at 6:25 PM, dmdiver said:

I've noticed you can book glacier dogsledding in both Juneau & Skagway.  Any ideas regarding which port is the best for booking dogsledding?

 

I always book direct with Coastal Helicopters in Juneau.  I have gone dogsledding on the glacier three times now and have had a great time each time.  All of the major helicopter companies are closely priced.