Ward Cove

[timetravellers]

Our RCL Serenade of the Seas cruise next month has been switched from Ketchikan to Ward Cove and our excursions have been cancelled!  
Please tell me what you know about Ward Cove! Shuttles? Dock side excursion vendors? Etc?

Thanks

 

[cruising7]

We’re going next week and are still unsure what we’ll do,  but  have contacted several tour operators who said it’s easy to get a bus to downtown, or many will pick up at Ward’s Cove. 

[timetravellers]

Thank you

[kona_wahine]

Our NCL Encore cruise docked at Wards Cove. It was about a 15 minute shuttle to town. They had buses available at the port. There is also a building with quite a few souvenirs inside for shopping right there. It looked like a lot of excursions were picking up there also. It was a short stop, and the line to get back for a shuttle was long. 

[donaldsc]

I regard Ward Cove as a way to jam even more passengers into Ketchikan than the main docking areas can handle.  The population of Ketchikan is 8200.  If you have 4 or 5 large ships in town you will get maybe 10,000 to 12,000 cruisers in a town with a total population of 8,000.  Add another 3000 coming in from Ward Cove and the whole thing gets ridiculous.  That is why our AK trip this year will be on a ship that holds about 200 people and that stops at mostly very small towns that the big ones can't stop at.

 

DON

[mrsturkelton]

We leave on the 19th on the NCL Encore.  We're docking at Ward Cove for our Ketchikan stop.  I hope it doesn't take too long to get into town since I'd really like to explore some.  I've heard the last shuttle back leaves at 11am which leaves just a few hours to explore and not enough time to grab lunch in town.  I'm bummed as I was looking forward to eating at the Alaskan Fish House for lunch that day.  Our ship is set to leave at 1:15 pm so the last shuttle back at 11 seems early to me.

[quack2]

Ward Cove sucks.

[kona_wahine]

@mrsturkeltonyes, I was surprised when I saw they said the last shuttle back was 11:00, and we got in line right about 11:00 and waited and waited…. Lots of people in line. I would say that it’s more 11ish…. Probably more so that stragglers don’t show up at 1:00 and expect a shuttle. But don’t expect lunch, as nothing was open that early for lunch.

[quack2]

Short port times and remote docking locations.  Nice work Norwegian.