Advise re: Juneau Mendenhall Glacier tour

[Taykee1]

My husband and I are looking to go to Mendenhall Glacier on our stop to Juneau. I have 3 options.

1st is to book with the cruise which  is for 3.5 hours. I now this one will guarantee us a seat on the bus. 

2nd is to book the combined Glacier and Gold Belt Tram with the cruise line for only 4 hours

3rd is to just book the bus from the Dock  - M & M Blue bus and then to the Gold Belt tram when we return.

So with 1st option has anyone done this and approx once travel time taken out how long do you get at the Glacier, we are fairly fit and fast walkers so I am assuming we would only need 1 to 1 1/2 hours there. We would only walk to Nugget Falls and then to viewing deck, and possibly  have a look at the visitors centre.

With option 2 would this not give us enough time as I am assuming we would require an hour up on the top of the Gold Belt tram (basically just want the views no need to be doing any of the walks up there). So my concern is would this only give us maximum an hour at the Glacier and if so would this be long enough.

Option 3 has anyone just bought a tour with the blue bus from the dock, which I know runs every 30 min, and been able to hope straight on the bus or are the lines long and we may have to wait for the next bus. Don't fancy standing in a bus line for 30 min. I sort of feel if no queues this may be the one for us as we can spend as much or as little time at the Glacier. Then return and go straight up the on the Tram.

we will be on the Discovery which docks from 12.30pm to 9pm. 

Any help appreciated. 

[Taykee1]

sorry I think I have asked this in the wrong board. I have copied it over to Ports of Call board.

[Mike45LC]

We took a princess shore excursion to the glacier. I felt ripped off.

 

1.  Ship charged approximately 30% more for the ship‘s bus compared to the shuttle from town. And the ship’s excursion offered nothing but basic bus transportation.

 

2.  After being dropped off, we were stuck at the Glacier for 2.5 hours.  We were hard pressed to kill even an hour there in the rain.  I ended up paying a cab that was dropping off passengers to bring us back. 
 

3.  If we’d done the shuttles, they run every 20 minutes, so I would not have needed a cab to get back.

 

Just for the record, I tried to get an earlier bus from the Princess excursion and I tried to get any of the shuttle drivers to take us, but I still need to take a taxi.

 

[Cali Viajera]

Have you looked into private tours? We did the Alaska Shore Excursions Mendenhall canoe trip. You canoe close to the glacier. It's an amazing way to see the glacier and Nugget falls from a different perspective!

[KarmaCruisers]

If you just want to go to the Mendenhall glacier; go to the little “booths” by the base of the Mt Roberts Tramway; $40 each and it’s a direct shuttle over there and stay as long as you like (multiple shuttles running)

literally haha; they’ll be a guy screaming “GLACIER SHUTTLE!” Just ask him 

[Mike45LC]

I was not advising against the canoe excursion that Cali mentioned.  My comments were strictly for the bus transportation.  

[SiliconCruiser]

If you don't have mobility issues, the blue bus is the most convenient and least costly.  If you need wheelchair accessible transportation, they you'll either the Princess Excursion that is ADA accessible or a cab (be aware of cab drivers that may tell you that the only way to guarantee a ride back is if you have them wait during your visit; these drivers tend to be college kids running whatever hustle they can to take the most money back to school.)  You can also take the city bus (they're all wheelchair accessible) but it is about 1.1 miles from the bus stop to the glacier.

 

[good42n]

We did the bus line. I don’t recall how long the lines were, but I guess that means it wasn’t a big deal. We wandered around on our own. There were good guide signs and the rangers were out to answer any questions.