The 2006 Alaskan Season Is Almost Here - Are You As Excited As I Am?????

[Fergus]

Hi Sheryl, YES, we are booked with Orca for the early morning trip in Juneau - are you on that one? Not sure what we will do afterwards - what are your plans?

 

Libby

 

PS: Are you on the yahoogroup that sea_u_onboard started?

[TSCOTT]

My hubby and I can hardly wait for our first cruise to Alaska....63 days and counting!

[Sandy Girl]

We will be in Alaska starting August 9 - land tour for 7 days then we cruise on the Spirit starting August 16. I can't tell you how excited I am. My DH did not want to go - but finally gave in to me. BUT every day I hear about it.:rolleyes: Come August 24 (return home date) I will be saying Told You So! :p Lots of first for us. First Helicopter, First Seaplane, First rafting -etc.etc. We did do a whale watch in Hawaii but I think Caption Larry's will be better. Two other couples are going with us. We have a balcony room - I am on this sight at least once a day:) Thanks everyone for all their help, especially Budqet Queen and Murray.

[gvre]

We will be on the Sun Princess 7 day inside passage sailing from Seattle on 5/28/06. This is our first (and possibly last due to our love of warm climates) Alaska cruise and our ports are Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria.

 

We really want to experience the "must see" excursions and we are willing to spend the money to make this a truely memorable cruise.

 

Since there are so many experienced Alaska cruisers on this board I wonder if you could make some comments or suggestions to the excursions we are considering?

 

Normally when we travel we book most excursions "off ship", however for Alaska when checking with some of the private operators we've been told that we will need at least 4-6 to do the tours we want. We are traveling as a couple and we do not want to miss a tour just because we can't assemble enough people for it.

 

I've included our ships arrival and departure time for each port.

 

:D Ketchikan 6:30 am - 4:30 pm

 

We have been told that Misty Fjords should not be missed and we are thinking of the ship's Misty Fjords Seaplane Exploration which includes 65 minutes flight and 10 minute water landing, or the Misty Fjords Wilderness Cruise Flight which includes a catamaran cruise to the heart of the Misty Fjords Nat. Monument and a 30 minute flight back to Ketchikan.

 

:D Juneau 1:30 pm - 10:00 pm

 

My husband has booked Capt. Larry's Orca Enterprises Whale Watch from 3:00 - 6:00 pm. I've been told not to miss the Glaciers tours and I am thinking that we should consider doing either the ship's 4 Glacier Adventure by Helicopter which includes a touch down on Norris or Taku glacier, or the Helicopter Glacier Walkabout which includes a "pilot's choice" touchdown and a 1 hour glacier walk.

 

I really like whales but I've never seen glaciers. We've done whale watching trip in Hawaii and we've seen them in the distance but we don't even bother with them in Tahiti (we are hoping to someday run into a pod while diving).

 

Is the whale watching excursion a "must see"? I am thinking that it may be possible to see whales from our ship while cruising the inside passage but my husband thinks the only way to see them is with Capt. Larry.

 

:D Skagway 6:00 am to 5:00 pm

 

I was considering the ships Pilots Choice Ice Age Odyssy by helicopter with 2 landings but my husband is really interested in the ships Heli-Hike & Rail Adventure which includes a flight over the Juneau icefield to Glacier Station, a 5 mile hike along remote Skagway River to view Laughton Glacier, then White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad back to Skagway.

 

I really want to do a glacier landing but my husband really likes the idea of a wilderness 5 mile hike. I'm thinking that if I do the glacier flight in Juneau and the Heli-Hike in Skagway we will both get what we want. That is one of the reasons I am concerned about doing the whale watch instead of glacier tour in Juneau.

 

:D Victoria 5:00 pm to 11:59 pm

 

We've been here once before and since we get here so late we probably will do a ship tour which includes Craigdarroch Castle or try to do it on our own although it closes at 7:00 pm and our guide says to allow 1 hour to see it.

 

The ship has a Whale Watch tour here with 90% of tours discovering whale pods. If whale watches are a must see on an Alaska cruise would Victoria be just as good as seeing them in Juneau?

 

 

:) We have gotten so much good information on our other cruises from cruise critic members in the past. We are hoping those of you with experience in Alaska will be able to help us so we can make this a "cruise of a lifetime" adventure.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions you can make.

 

Debbie

[bdwyer]

My husband was showing a huge lack of interest until this week when we got our pre-cruise documents; now I can't get him to stop talking about it. He bought himself a book called Alaska by Cruise Ship (Anne Vipond) at Barnes and Noble which he said really helped him visualize - lots of maps and pictures. Of course he ignored all of the web links to cool Alaska I've been giving him for 12 months :D

[Cruise_More_Often]

That is a great book! Mine is already dog-eared. But you should see my IE "Favorites" on Alaska (scroll, scroll, scroll)! Excited, nope, not at all.:D