Excursions Review (Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan)

[frchteaze]

Here's a link to the full review on the Celebrity board. I'll go into a little more detail on the excursions here.

 

Ports:

We weren’t that active, since I was sick and my mom isn’t in the best of shape. Mostly we did the excursion for each port and hit a few shops close by.

Juneau- We did the salmon bake at Gold Creek. The tour bus driver was lively and fun and informative, and it’s a shorter bus trip than I thought it would be (10 minutes max as opposed to the 30 minutes I had heard about). The bus was a bright yellow school bus, but comfy enough. The tour driver dropped us off in town on the way back and said we could ride back to the pier on any other Salmon Bake bus if we went back to that stop. It was a short walk, so we just walked back on our own.

The food was good, but I felt like a cattle being herded to sit, eat, and leave. I’m not a fish eater, but I did taste the salmon and it was good. I think if you like fresh fish, you’d love it. The chicken was delicious; I didn’t try the ribs. The blueberry cake dessert wasn’t that good (too dry). Water, tea, beer and wine available. Beer $5, not sure about wine.

I think if I did this port again, I’d skip the salmon bake unless the salmon is a priority. The area itself was very nice and cute. There's a cute little gift shop there, although we found many of the same items for half the cost in stores in town and other ports. You can also roast marshmellows over a fire. We took a short walk down to the waterfall and it was pretty as well.

The shops were cute. The Alaska Shirt company had great deals on everything, but there’s also one in Skagway, so don’t feel like you have to buy everything in Juneau. We took advice on the Alaska boards and walked down to the Alaska Bar next to the Alaska Hotel. It was a great little local hangout. I think we were the only tourists in there, and it’s a smoker’s paradise! After this trip, I felt like everyone in Alaska smoked. ;) It was also nice to step in and get out of the tourist glitz for a little while.

We bought Ulu knives here from a store that sold only these. Beautiful selections, and the prices were on par with what I had seen online. They gave a free demonstration and the ulu knife/bowl set came with a cookbook. You could ship them from the store for a reasonable price. We chose to carry them on (3 sets). The security getting back on the ship pulled us aside and told us we could carry them on, but to pack them away in our luggage immediately. This is one reason why we bought the sets and not the loose knives, since the sets were wrapped up in plastic wrap and were more obviously for gift-giving than just to use immediately.

The weather was rough heading to Juneau, and we were delayed about 2 hours. A lot of people were unhappy since they had their excursions cancelled. Many other people had excursions shortened or delayed. Announcements were made before we got off the ship alerting people of excursion cancellations/changes and at least 20 were mentioned. All of the whale-watching got cancelled. The bike & brew had the brewery part cancelled and either the float planes or the helicopter got cancelled (don't remember which one). The fishing trips still went out and all the glacier combo tours.

Skagway – The train was great. I was a little nervous about riding that high up on a 100+ year old train, but it was fine. We saw a black bear right next to the track, so that was a great highlight. Our dinner companions did the Yukon bus trip and they enjoyed it too, but it took longer. We could see the buses stopping and taking pictures as we headed up the trail. Hard to compare the 2 since I only did one, but I think most people will be happy with either one.

We boarded the train at the pier and it was quite easy. Several train cars to choose from for the Celebrity ship, with the Royal Caribbean ship closer to the front. We did not stop at the train station to let more people on, so it must have been sold out. We sat about 5 cars from the back of the train and had no trouble with diesel fumes when the engine switched to the front. The views were phenomenal, and the guide did a good job of telling us how long you would have to get a shot (10 seconds, etc.). Professional photographers should probably do a combo tour with the train up/bus down to get the best shots. The buses looked very nice (not rickety old school buses).

We got off the train in town, even though we boarded at the pier. And because of this, we didn’t realize how far of a walk it is back to the pier. If we hadn’t headed back early, we might not have made it with my mom so out of shape. (She had to stop and rest often.) There were S.M.A.R.T. vans all around for $1.50 a person, and I would definitely take one of those back next time. I wasn’t as impressed with the shops here in Skagway, but I’m not easily impressed by high-tourist area shops to start with.

Ketchikan – We did the Undersea boat tour. We got lucky with where our ship docked and ended up being very close to the excursion areas and some good shopping. The boat tour was fun. We didn’t get to see much because the algae were in full bloom and it was still early in the season. According to our guide (who was a young kid, but a knowledgeable local and fantastic), the previous 2 days had a lot of sunshine, which kicked the algae up and made the water difficult to see through. It also sounded like the best time to view marine life was the end of June/early July. I would highly recommend this tour in late June/early July if the weather was just right. It's hard to know ahead of time what the weather conditions will be, so if you think this might be fun, I say go for it.

Everyone who did this tour with me seemed to enjoy it but it was very low-key. I wasn't disappointed even though we didn't get to see a whole lot. They did have an underwater camera that helped see through the water, but it was a neat experience anyway. We saw a few jelly fish, tons of beautiful star fish, a few sea cucumbers, and of course kelp everywhere. We also saw an otter jump out of the water and urinate right next to us as we were waiting to get on the boat. That was a hoot! The boat itself was nice. We first went downstairs (several steep steps down) and took the ride out. On the way back, we all grabbed a pair of binoculars (very nice ones provided for you) and headed up on deck to view the top side of the way back. We saw several eagles and got great pics. There was also a small tank on board with various small animals (crabs, sea cucumbers, star fish) and we were able to hold them and touch them. The kids on board seemed to love it. Small bathroom on board too, if you need it.

We also saw several kayakers around the area where our boat left from. The scenery here was beautiful if you like quiet fishing village kind of scenery. If I had this port to do again, I would probably try the kayaking.

Shopping was good. We pretty much stayed in the Salmon Landing, which is a small mall of sorts. It had a bar (The bartender in Fat Stan’s is great!), a couple of quick dining options, and several stores. We did all notice that most of the people in Ketchikan were unfriendly and not helpful, even when trying to buy something. (Speaking of store personnel here mostly.) I'm not sure if these people were locals or not. The three people I know for sure were locals were extremely friendly, all others were not.

This was the best port as far as walking around, low prices, and being close to the pier. It’s hard to save your shopping for the end, but I would recommend trying to do that if you have enough time scheduled for Ketchikan.

Hubbard Glacier – This was a disappointment to me. We saw lots of beautiful scenery throughout the trip, and to be honest, the glacier viewing didn’t really seem much different other than seeing little chunks of ice in the water. We saw a Regent ship make a path through the icy waters and get very close to the glaciers. Had we been able to follow, it probably would have been much better. But, as it was, we didn’t get very close to the glaciers at all. No calving or anything close the spectacular things I’ve heard and seen on TV or in other reviews. Perhaps this was just this trip. It might be different on other sailings.

[lillabella]

I enjoyed reading your honest opinion about the ports you visited and the excursions you took. I actually found it quite refreshing to read something other than the "this was the most amazing thing I've ever done" statements I usually end up seeing in reviews. :cool: We leave in 10 days for the Northbound Spirit trip.

[wspatton]

Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts. I have the salmon bake scheduled, I think I'll probably like it since we like salmon.

 

I have the Bus ride up and train down.... that seems to have been the one consensus for Skagway - do something involving that train.

 

now if I can just wait until August 27....

 

Bill