FEW weeks to cancel-- should I? due to skagway

[brnsofia]

Only reason I want to do Alaska is for skagway and train ride etc. we are on large ship quantum. and wondering if I should ?  OPINIONS?

[CruiserBruce]

Most ships are not skipping Skagway. There are two docks still functioning,  and some ships will tender.

[Kat915]

Tendering when very quickly last year and the tour operators worked around it. 

[wolfie11]

2 hours ago, brnsofia said:

Only reason I want to do Alaska is for skagway and train ride etc. we are on large ship quantum. and wondering if I should ?  OPINIONS?

Well, you could cancel now and look for a smaller ship that does Skagway or Haines.  You might even pick up a great deal last minute.

[Hllb]

If it will ruin your trip to not do Skagway, I’d probably cancel and look for a smaller ship that will dock there in one of the unaffected slots. Your ship will probably go there, but there’s a chance it won’t. I canceled a cruise because of this - not because Skagway was that important, but it would have added an extra sea day if they just skipped it and the itinerary already had a lot of sea days. I booked a cruise that went to different ports with only one full sea day instead.

[Coral]

I would cancel for the sole reason I would never pick that ship for Alaska. It has nothing to do with Skagway.

[ronrythm]

Any ship can miss Skagway due to winds. If the only thing you want to see is Skagway, fly into Vancouver and drive up to Skagway.

[wolfie11]

36 minutes ago, ronrythm said:

Any ship can miss Skagway due to winds. If the only thing you want to see is Skagway, fly into Vancouver and drive up to Skagway.

You could drive to Skagway from Vancouver but it would require an 3600 mile round trip over a lot of gravel roads.

[Brian V]

 

2 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

You could drive to Skagway from Vancouver but it would require an 3600 mile round trip over a lot of gravel roads.

Or fly into Edmonton, 4200 km (2550 miles or so) round trip, all paved 🤪

[Northern Aurora]

4 hours ago, ronrythm said:

Any ship can miss Skagway due to winds. If the only thing you want to see is Skagway, fly into Vancouver and drive up to Skagway.

To drive from Vancouver to Skagway folks would have to drive the AlCan highway to Whitehorse and then drive south to Skagway.   

[Coral]

14 hours ago, ronrythm said:

Any ship can miss Skagway due to winds. If the only thing you want to see is Skagway, fly into Vancouver and drive up to Skagway.

I don't think Skagway is often missed. Maybe in September?

 

I think Whitehorse would be the better airport to fly into.

[brnsofia]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:07 PM, ronrythm said:

Any ship can miss Skagway due to winds. If the only thing you want to see is Skagway, fly into Vancouver and drive up to Skagway.

Ok I am the orginal poster and we are not driving or flying anywhere. we are taking a big ship 5000 people and I worry it wont dock there due to landslide. I dont want to cruise if we dont get to the train ride etc. that is why I asked

[Glaciers]

@brnsofia 

Your original post seemed to indicate that if you couldn’t dock in Skagway you’d prefer not to cruise Alaska at all.  Most are trying to give you options on how to do that.  None are very appealing though and cruise lines can change ports for whatever reason at any time.

[david,Mississauga]

1 hour ago, brnsofia said:

Ok I am the orginal poster and we are not driving or flying anywhere. we are taking a big ship 5000 people and I worry it wont dock there due to landslide. I dont want to cruise if we dont get to the train ride etc. that is why I asked

 

If you check the schedules to see how many ships are expected on the day you plan to be there and the berth assignment, you may know if the odds are in your favour.

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SKG-Skagway-2023.pdf

 

If there are three or fewer ships you may feel better about it. (My wife and I are taking a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth and the rail excursion is the only excursion we have booked, so I am following the situation closely.) 

 

If your ship is assigned to the Broadway or Ore docks that is good. If your ship is assigned to  "Railroad Dock Aft" that is almost as re-assuring. It is planned to take passengers by shuttle bus to/from the ship at that berth. If that is not possible, tendering is a possibility. If your ship is assigned to "Railroad Dock forward" I would be worried.

 

Of course, berth assignments can change. But we have done three cruises to Alaska in the past seven years and the information given in the aforementioned site has been accurate for all ports.

[wreckem2013]

5 hours ago, david,Mississauga said:

 

If you check the schedules to see how many ships are expected on the day you plan to be there and the berth assignment, you may know if the odds are in your favour.

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SKG-Skagway-2023.pdf

 

If there are three or fewer ships you may feel better about it. (My wife and I are taking a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth and the rail excursion is the only excursion we have booked, so I am following the situation closely.) 

 

If your ship is assigned to the Broadway or Ore docks that is good. If your ship is assigned to  "Railroad Dock Aft" that is almost as re-assuring. It is planned to take passengers by shuttle bus to/from the ship at that berth. If that is not possible, tendering is a possibility. If your ship is assigned to "Railroad Dock forward" I would be worried.

 

Of course, berth assignments can change. But we have done three cruises to Alaska in the past seven years and the information given in the aforementioned site has been accurate for all ports.

Is this why the second leg of my back to back shows both Haines and Skagway? First Leg says ORE second says RRF?

[luv2cruise668]

There is so much more to Alaska than the train in Skagway.  IMO, i wouldn't cancel my entire cruise just because my ship may not visit Skagway.  Yes the train is nice but to be honest, Skagway was my least favorite port of our cruise last year.  

[ChanaC]

I would just risk it. You may not be able to make it into any port for any variety of reasons. I was just reading someone's trip report on a Disney cruise where a propeller hit ice on their glacier day and they had to skip Ketchikan. A big ship could make it into Skagway but a small one might have some random issue and not make it. Things happen, and they can be unpredictable. There are no 100% guarantees so might as well take the chance.

[SuzieQ521]

On 3/19/2023 at 9:21 AM, david,Mississauga said:

 

If you check the schedules to see how many ships are expected on the day you plan to be there and the berth assignment, you may know if the odds are in your favour.

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SKG-Skagway-2023.pdf

 

If there are three or fewer ships you may feel better about it. (My wife and I are taking a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth and the rail excursion is the only excursion we have booked, so I am following the situation closely.) 

 

If your ship is assigned to the Broadway or Ore docks that is good. If your ship is assigned to  "Railroad Dock Aft" that is almost as re-assuring. It is planned to take passengers by shuttle bus to/from the ship at that berth. If that is not possible, tendering is a possibility. If your ship is assigned to "Railroad Dock forward" I would be worried.

 

Of course, berth assignments can change. But we have done three cruises to Alaska in the past seven years and the information given in the aforementioned site has been accurate for all ports.

May I ask why RR forward is problematic? There’s three ships in Port for our day in May and ours (Royal Princess) says RRF.

 

thanks

[Northern Aurora]

18 hours ago, SuzieQ521 said:

May I ask why RR forward is problematic? There’s three ships in Port for our day in May and ours (Royal Princess) says RRF.

 

thanks

 

The RR dock is long.  The slide area impacted the forward (town side),  The aft portion of the dock was not impacted.  Tenders pick up passengers from ships docked in the aft or rear berth and transport them past the problem area to the small boat harbor.

[brnsofia]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:21 PM, david,Mississauga said:

 

If you check the schedules to see how many ships are expected on the day you plan to be there and the berth assignment, you may know if the odds are in your favour.

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SKG-Skagway-2023.pdf

 

If there are three or fewer ships you may feel better about it. (My wife and I are taking a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth and the rail excursion is the only excursion we have booked, so I am following the situation closely.) 

 

If your ship is assigned to the Broadway or Ore docks that is good. If your ship is assigned to  "Railroad Dock Aft" that is almost as re-assuring. It is planned to take passengers by shuttle bus to/from the ship at that berth. If that is not possible, tendering is a possibility. If your ship is assigned to "Railroad Dock forward" I would be worried.

 

Of course, berth assignments can change. But we have done three cruises to Alaska in the past seven years and the information given in the aforementioned site has been accurate for all ports.

says RRA. assume that is aft?

 

[naturelovergirl]

20 minutes ago, brnsofia said:

says RRA. assume that is aft?

 

Here are the berth codes for Skagway

 

[thistledoo]

On 3/25/2023 at 3:23 PM, Northern Aurora said:

 

The RR dock is long.  The slide area impacted the forward (town side),  The aft portion of the dock was not impacted.  Tenders pick up passengers from ships docked in the aft or rear berth and transport them past the problem area to the small boat harbor.

Just to be clear, our berth is listed as RRF - I gather that's not good.  How do we get off the ship if docked in the forward section?

[david,Mississauga]

A report on the condition of the area is due soon. As we know, the cruise season starts later this month,

 

According to an article I read a few weeks ago (sorry, I haven't time now to try to find it again) the plan is for passengers from the ship at RRA to be transported by shuttle bus to/from the town end of the dock. Those from the ship at RRF will travel by the ship's tenders.

 

This assumes that it is deemed safe to dock a ship at RRF. 

[naturelovergirl]

@david,Mississauga

Was this your article you were referring to?

https://skagwaynews.com/2023/02/10/landslide-mitigation-tests-anticipated-by-april/
 

@thistledoo

Until the tests are done, it’s all a guessing game

[thistledoo]

32 minutes ago, david,Mississauga said:

A report on the condition of the area is due soon. As we know, the cruise season starts later this month,

 

According to an article I read a few weeks ago (sorry, I haven't time now to try to find it again) the plan is for passengers from the ship at RRA to be transported by shuttle bus to/from the town end of the dock. Those from the ship at RRF will travel by the ship's tenders.

 

This assumes that it is deemed safe to dock a ship at RRF. 

Thanks for that.   We'll be in Skagway twice with the other time due to dock at the more favourable BRD.  Still in early stages of planning, but we'll plan our non-ship organised activities around the BRD dock rather than RRF (unless we take a ship excursion and can get priority).