Excursions vs On Your Own Ports

[stacied68]

My husband and I are going on an Alaskan cruise in May.  I am trying to decide in which ports to purchase excursions and which ports can be enjoyed by exploring on our own.  

 

Juneau

Skagway

Tracy Arm Fjord

Ketchikan

Victoria

 

TIA

 

[riffatsea]

It really depends on what sorts of activities interest you 

Any port can be walked around on your own or you can rent a car and drive yourself

Many people go to Alaska wanting to go whale watching,hiking seeing animals etc

What do  you want to experience there?

 

[SuzieQ521]

Are you both able to walk a moderate amount?

 

I would say most certainly Ketchikan and Victoria you can walk on your own or take local transportation. Creek Street is very walkable from the Port and my husband and I even found a local hike that gave us the most gorgeous bird's eye view.

 

Is your Victoria stop just an evening one like most cruises to Alaska? If so there should still be enough daylight to be able to walk to the inner harbour, see the parliament buildings, empress hotel etc. (also beautiful with all the lights at night).

 

We also did Mendenhall Glacier on our own a few years ago on the roundtrip blue shuttle and then walked around town. Compare the costs with your cruise sponsored excursion. (Juneau).

 

We also booked independent excursion in Skagway with Chikloot tours and did one way train to White Pass and one way bus back. The cruise line also has this so compare prices. We then just walked around the town before heading back to the Port.

Edited March 2, 2023 by SuzieQ521

[Northern Aurora]

@stacied68: You may receive more responses and ideas if you let folks know your interests.   Just a thought.

[HaveWeMetYet]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:34 AM, stacied68 said:

My husband and I are going on an Alaskan cruise in May.  I am trying to decide in which ports to purchase excursions and which ports can be enjoyed by exploring on our own.  

 

Juneau

Skagway

Tracy Arm Fjord

Ketchikan

Victoria

 

TIA

 

Juneau - Plenty to see walking thru town. If you like to hike you can take the tram to a trail that leads to Mount Roberts. The tram is called Goldbelt I believe and it is right outside the cruise dock. Good views.

 

Skagway - A few museums on the history of the Gold Rush era are walkable.

 

Tracy Arm - Tour from a boat only. This is not a port stop.

 

Ketchikan - A couple of history museums on Southeast Alaska and shops are around the dock. There is a Totem Pole museum about 15 minutes away. Good hiking trails start about a mile and a half Northwest of the dock along 3rd avenue.

 

Skagway has some issues with one of the docks and it may not be ready for ships in May. Check the threads about this elsewhere where you can look for updates and check which dock your ship will be at. The dock codes with the rock slide problem are RRA and RRF

[Coral]

I am just going to say - some of the best things to do in Alaska is away from the port towns! Plan something to get out of town or else you are going to see a lot of Diamonds International. There are a ton of private excursions out there if you don't want to go through the cruise lines.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Coral

[naturelovergirl]

21 minutes ago, Coral said:

I am just going to say - some of the best things to do in Alaska is away from the port towns! Plan something to get out of town or else you are going to see a lot of Diamonds International. There are a ton of private excursions out there if you don't want to go through the cruise lines.

Agree

[JRoyston]

I’ve been to those ports in 2019 and did mainly ship tours. I’m going again this year and are doing some ship tours and some things I’ve organised myself.

 

Juneau - we did a ship’s excursion which combined whale watching and a trip to Mendenhall Glacier. We really enjoyed it, but didn’t feel we had enough time to hike the trails near the glacier, so this time we are going by ourselves to the glacier and skipping the whale watching. But, we’re only skipping whale watching as we are going to Icy Strait Point and will be able to see whales there.

 

Skagway - we did the train excursion. I enjoyed it, and it was nice to have a more relaxing day. But, having done it once I don’t feel the need to repeat it. Skagway isn’t on our itinerary this year anyway, as our ship is going to Haines instead.

 

Tracy Arm Fjord - we didn’t do anything for this one last time, just stayed on our ship as it sailed there. This time we do have the smaller boat excursion booked which should take us closer to the glaciers.

 

Ketchikan - last time we did a walking tour with a former mayor from a local tribe. It was booked through the ship, and was wonderful. After that we continued to walk about by ourselves and found the Totem Heritage Centre. However, having heard such good things about the lumberjack show, we’ve booked that this time.

 

Victoria - on our last cruise this was the only excursion I booked independently. We went whale watching with Eagle Wing Tours and I loved it so much, I’ve booked it again for this year. I was desperate to see killer whales in the wild, and we achieved this in Victoria.

[Coral]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:34 AM, stacied68 said:

My husband and I are going on an Alaskan cruise in May.  I am trying to decide in which ports to purchase excursions and which ports can be enjoyed by exploring on our own.  

 

Juneau

Skagway

Tracy Arm Fjord

Ketchikan

Victoria

 

TIA

 

Juneau - I would highly recommend whale watching if you have not done this elsewhere.

 

Skagway - I would recommend going into the Yukon. Do the bus one way and train the other way. You can do this through cruise line or through Chilkoot tours: https://chilkootcharters.com This port is all about the gold rush and the Yukon Territory is gorgeous.

 

Tracy Arm - if you can afford it, do the small boat excursion through the ship. Much closer to glaciers, much better experience. This tour sells out so book it soon.

 

Victoria - Butchart gardens are stunning. If you will be there during an evening, book through ship as the distance is far. These probably rank as one of the top gardens in North America.

 

Ketchikan - I would probably just walk around. Most tours I have done here have been underwhelming.

[wolfie11]

If you have time in Ketchikan, there's a great exhibit this summer at the Tongass Historical Museum called Cruising the Fossil Coastline. It has already toured several museums.

https://museumca.org/on-view/cruisin/

Edited March 5, 2023 by wolfie11

[dd57]

Ketchikan has tours to Misty Fjords park either by air or by sea.  Awesome high cliffs and narrow waterways.  One cruise we took an excursion to paddle canoes on a nearby lake.  There we saw lots of wildlife.  This was many years ago, so I don't know if that kind of excursion is still available.

[Kathscof]

Great discussion already, but wanted to share that I have read in MANY places that the Ketchikan Totem parks' demonstrations are only arranged for tours in advance (mostly cruise ship tours) so we are taking part in one when we visit.  If that is your interest there, I would suggest looking into that.  

 

Skagway we did one independent tour and one ship excursion (as it was last year and the border restrictions ceased one way train rides) to piecemeal together the excursion we wanted, we would have booked the train direct from the line, but it was sold out, so we booked through the ship.  

 

We went with Juneau Whale Watch for a whale watch and Mendenhall glacier shuttle, which was enjoyable, but you did have to trek from the far out dock (tiny ships get pushed out there) into town by walking or a shuttle.  Ship excursions pick you up at the ship, which with folks who would prefer not to walk miles is a bonus.