Wings Airways Taku Lodge - 9am Booking with 7:30am Port Arrival?

[BeachTunes]

Hello! 

 

My husband and I are planning to book an Alaskan cruise with Celebrity soon and the Taku Lodge flight/salmon lunch out of Juneau is on our bucket list! 

 

Wings Airways is currently showing availability for 9am or 11am departures on our port of call date in September. The 9am seems interesting because it's a combo of brunch and lunch and includes a few extra dishes that sound cool like reindeer sausage! That said, would it be too risky booking the 9am with a 7:30am port arrival time on Celebrity Solstice? My instinct is telling me the 11am would be a safer bet but I'm curious if anyone has done the early time slot in the past. We personally prefer early excursions to allow more time to explore the port at our leisure, chill, shop, etc. 

 

Thank you all in advance for your input! 🙂

 

 

Edited April 5 by BeachTunes

[donaldsc]

Wings is a very reliable vendor.  Have you called them and asked then your question.

 

DON

[BeachTunes]

16 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

Wings is a very reliable vendor.  Have you called them and asked then your question.

 

DON

Thank you Don! It's so funny with all of these online forums these days, I didn't think of the common sense idea of contacting the vendor directly. LOL! Will do! 🙂

Edited April 5 by BeachTunes

[Crew News]

9 hours ago, BeachTunes said:

Hello! 

 

My husband and I are planning to book an Alaskan cruise with Celebrity soon and the Taku Lodge flight/salmon lunch out of Juneau is on our bucket list! 

 

Wings Airways is currently showing availability for 9am or 11am departures on our port of call date in September. The 9am seems interesting because it's a combo of brunch and lunch and includes a few extra dishes that sound cool like reindeer sausage! That said, would it be too risky booking the 9am with a 7:30am port arrival time on Celebrity Solstice? My instinct is telling me the 11am would be a safer bet but I'm curious if anyone has done the early time slot in the past. We personally prefer early excursions to allow more time to explore the port at our leisure, chill, shop, etc. 

 

Thank you all in advance for your input! 🙂

 

Just for clarification, the posted arrival times for cruise ships is that time when the first passengers can go down the gangway.  That means 9:00 AM works.  Food is served buffet style.  Of note, the ice tea is chilled with pieces of glacier ice.

 

 

 

[maggiev]

@BeachTunes by the sound of it, you are not doing the tour with Celebrity? How are you booking?  We will be in Juneau the end of August with Holland & would appreciate your input. This seems like an exceptional excursion 

[BeachTunes]

@Crew News: Thank you so much for the info and stunning photos! We are even more excited about this tour! Drinks chilled with glacier ice? Icing on an already delicious cake, so to speak! 🙂

 

@maggiev: The tour with Celebrity is way more expensive than booking direct. For us Canadians it's $300 more per person! We will be booking directly with the Taku Lodge/Wings Airways: https://wingsairways.com ✈️

 

For the record, I reached out to them directly and received confirmation that yes, a 9am tour start will indeed be compatible with a 7:30am port arrival time. I was told that check in for the tour is at 8:30am and that our ship will be docked a short few minute walk from their office/seaplane. (I would imagine Holland America ships would be in a similar location at the pier.) ❤️

Edited April 6 by BeachTunes

[Coral]

Sounds like you have confirmed your answer. I would only be worried about this time if you were tendering and not docked. If you are docked, you are fine.

[LAX]

I see there is an option to do flight only. Do most people end up doing the bundled flight and feast?

 

LAX

 

[Kat915]

9 hours ago, LAX said:

I see there is an option to do flight only. Do most people end up doing the bundled flight and feast?

 

LAX

 

I booked with the cruise line so don't know pricing difference between flight and food. The meal was quite good though. Salmon was excellent along with the sides.

 

This excursion is highly recommended. 

Edited Saturday at 02:53 PM by Kat915

[lobsternight]

It really is an exceptional tour, and with Celebrity you should be docked right next to the planes so very short walk  

 

My advice would be to take the 11am tour as the earlier one can sometimes be postponed due to morning cloud or fog  

[BeachTunes]

3 hours ago, lobsternight said:

It really is an exceptional tour, and with Celebrity you should be docked right next to the planes so very short walk  

 

My advice would be to take the 11am tour as the earlier one can sometimes be postponed due to morning cloud or fog  

 

Thank you @lobsternight! I appreciate your feedback and input. We have booked the 9am departure but our booking is changeable. We'll look into rescheduling to the 11am tour.

 

The reason we booked the earlier "brunch" option is because I really wanted to try their reindeer sausage that's only served in the morning! LOL! Upon further research, I'm learning reindeer is sold in some form or another at all of our ports of call so I'll get my fix at some point! 🙂

[jean87510]

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Edited yesterday at 10:32 AM by jean87510