Zodiac tours in Alaska on Quest?

[whogo]

We're considering an Alaska cruise. Port descriptions list a number of Zodiac tours. I thought I had read here that Venture was not allowed to use Zodiacs in Alaska, something about not being a US flagged ship, maybe. Anyone know if Quest will use their Zodiacs in Alaska in 2024? Are these land based Zodiacs? The excursions are listed as $300 and up. Thanks in advance for any expertise you can offer.

[DTtravelers]

If you are thinking about Odyssey, then yes, they have ship-based zodiac tours.  We did the 14 day Vancouver Round trip in 2022 and 2023.  Do not miss the Inian Islands zodiac trip.  It can fill up, so book early. 

 

Alaska forces cruise lines to remove their own zodiacs and replace them with zodiacs supplied by Alaska-based vendors.  And only US citizens are allowed to operate them. 

 

Venture could not fulfill Alaska's requirements last year, so could not do zodiac trips.  There is a thread all about this.  Many passengers were not happy about this, but offloading all the zodiacs in None and shipping them to Vancouver to reload them would have been a logistical nightmare for Seabourn.

 

Dawes Glacier, Endicott Arm

 

 

Inian Islands

Edited January 29 by DTtravelers

[whogo]

Thanks, DTtravelers, that clears up my questions.