Has anyone done the WPYR train to Carcross?

[40yearcruiser]

Thanks to all who gave us your reviews, and special thanks to Murray for the photos. I wasn't expecting that there is still so much snow!

 

How was the temperature on the train? Will we need to dress for cold? (I'm from Florida and anything below 60 is cold to me ;) ) Aside from a camera to capture those fabulous views, is there anything else we should plan to take on the train?

[LUV2Travel]

To 40yearcruiser:

 

I don't know when you are cruising, but last week it was fairly cold and I had layers of clothing on. I would suggest at least bringing a jacket because you may want to step out of the train car to take pictures as it moves along (brrrrrrrr), the door to the train car will open periodically as conductors walk through, plus you have 2 hours off the train at Lake Bennett (where you may want to walk around the area). We had our binoculars and camera. Have fun!

[40yearcruiser]

We will be on the train on June 6, so expect it will still be cold. Is there any heat on the train? We'll dress in layers to be prepared for whatever.

 

Is it OK to bring drinks (non-alcoholic) and snacks on the train? It will be a long day.

[Yukon]

We will be on the train on June 6, so expect it will still be cold. Is there any heat on the train? We'll dress in layers to be prepared for whatever.

 

Is it OK to bring drinks (non-alcoholic) and snacks on the train? It will be a long day.

 

You can bring whatever you like onto the train (though there is no storage overhead). The train cars are heated (and have washrooms) but bring a warm jacket and such so you can explore Bennett and go outside the cars if you choose. Be prepared for fairly dramatic climate changes (as you saw in my photos), possibly similar to glacier viewing days on the ship.

 

Murray

[ute_fan]

We also did this train ride last Wednesday, but we booked through NCL rather than going through Chilkoot. We rode the bus up to Carcross and the train back down to Ketchikan (for some reason I'd expected the excursion to do the opposite). An absolutely wonderful experience, but I do agree with LUV2Travel (hi Linda) that the two hour stop in Bennett was too long. They also need to get a little better handle on lunch -- we thought it felt rather rushed, and I thought the building was freezing! We only had sweatshirts (not too bright, I know), and with the wind blowing it got quite chilly in Bennett.

 

I'd rather see them shorten the time at Bennett to around an hour and take the bus clear to Emerald Lake, or allow time for photo stops along the way. If that's not a possibility, just shortening the time to allow for some shopping time in Skagway would be better than waiting around in Bennett for the train to leave again.

 

By the way, for those of you who may remember how disappointed my DD was three years ago when we never saw a bear, I've decided it's all her fault, as she wasn't with us this year. We saw 2 on the drive up the South Klondike Highway, including one about 15 feet off the road who didn't mind at all when the bus pulled over to watch him eat and another one climbing over the top of a small cliff. On the train ride we saw another bear right by the road while we were waiting for them to add more passengers to the train at the stop at the Canadian customs area.

 

With the exception of the too long stop at Bennett, I'd have no hesitation in taking this tour again.

[janmitch]

Thanks, Murray, for the great photos. We'll be on the long Chilkoot tour on June 6, and we can't wait!

 

Thanks to the others for your reviews. We are counting the days!

 

Jan

[NancyIL]

For those of you who did the train to (or from) Carcross, how long is the actual train trip from Skagway to Bennett, and from Bennett to Carcross - excluding the lunch break? I know it's about 6 hours total, with 2 hours allotted for lunch. Just wondering how long one is on the train for the longest portion.

[Yukon]

The total trip is scheduled for 6hrs 45 minutes northbound and 6hrs 30 minutes southbound, but for us southbound it was exactly 2 hours from Carcross to Bennett (10:05 - 12:05) and exactly 3 hours from there to Skagway (2:00 - 5:00).

 

Murray

[NancyIL]

The total trip is scheduled for 6hrs 45 minutes northbound and 6hrs 30 minutes southbound, but for us southbound it was exactly 2 hours from Carcross to Bennett (10:05 - 12:05) and exactly 3 hours from there to Skagway (2:00 - 5:00).

 

Murray

 

 

Thanks, Murray!

[ute_fan]

Great photos and review, Murray! One quick comment about Bennett. We were there on 5/23 -- two days before the "inaugural" trip. At that point in time, the Park Canada rangers weren't yet on hand. It might have made some difference in the way we felt about the 2 hour stop if they had been -- but I still think that's too long of a stop in Bennett.

 

With just lunch and the church to see, I'm really wondering why they scheduled that long a stop. Any ideas?

[Yukon]

Great photos and review, Murray! One quick comment about Bennett. We were there on 5/23 -- two days before the "inaugural" trip. At that point in time, the Park Canada rangers weren't yet on hand. It might have made some difference in the way we felt about the 2 hour stop if they had been -- but I still think that's too long of a stop in Bennett.

 

With just lunch and the church to see, I'm really wondering why they scheduled that long a stop. Any ideas?

 

Right now your opinion is the majority one, but once the snow is gone in a couple of weeks I think that most people will find that the 2 hours goes by very quickly. There is lots to see and lots of wonderful walking paths through the forest and along the beach and river - 3 hours would be better for me :)

 

Murray

[flamedic]

Wow, such beautiful scenery! I am schedule for this excursion thru HAL on 06/13/2007. I am glad I made the reservations. Which is the best side to be on for the train leaving Skagway? Which side is the best for leaving Skagway on the bus? I want to take lots of pictures.

[ute_fan]

We took the bus up from Skagway and rode the train down from Carcross. If you go that direction, I'd recommended the right side both ways. If you do it in reverse, I think the left side would be preferable.

[Yukon]

Heading north from Skagway, you want the left side if on the train and the right side if on the bus.

[Stacym]

Did you make it to Emerald? I heard that the Cruise lines buses can't move as fast (old slow buses) and that Chilkoot was making it to Emerald lake with time to spare?

 

Stacym

 

 

 

 

I was on the first trip running South - May 23, 2007- rode van/bus to Carcross then rode train back to Skagway (tour with Chilkoot Charters). Here are my personal views:

 

1. Disembarked Norwegian Pearl and met with Larry from Chilkoot at 7:30 a.m. (btw, Larry is a great tour guide). We left Skagway around 8:00 a.m. and returned around 5:30 p.m.

2. I made the summit excursion 10 years ago and really enjoyed it. However, I felt this trip to Carcross and back was worth every penny. Emerald Lake on the drive up was absolutely beautiful. The extra scenery as you travel along the lakes was stunning.

3. There are different sets of conductors depending upon whether you are in Canada or the U.S. (they changed at Lake Bennett). All were very friendly.

4. Lunch was at Lake Bennett and consisted of soup (which they said they are trying to make into stew :-) ), bread and apple pie...this lunch is of historical significance. I felt the 2 hour stop at Lake Bennett was a little long but still really enjoyed it.

5. I would highly recommend this trip.

[ute_fan]

Our cruise line bus didn't go to Emerald Lake. I don't know that it was a case of being too slow, because we did stop for about 10 minutes to watch a bear by the side of the road. The tour description doesn't say anything about Emerald Lake, so I wasn't expecting to go there this time.

[thawan]

Did you make it to Emerald? I heard that the Cruise lines buses can't move as fast (old slow buses) and that Chilkoot was making it to Emerald lake with time to spare?

 

Stacym

 

I was on the cruise lines bus/RR trip May 17 and the buses were far from old. The 3 buses were the ones you see on the Hal ads, with the animals on them. The princess bus (we were all at Carboo Crossing) looked fairly new as well.

 

p.s. we got to Emerald Lake

[Yukon]

There are lots of old cruise line buses in Skagway, but they're never used for the Yukon service - many of those fancy HAL buses are ony a few weeks old, have huge horsepower and cost $750,000 each.

 

Murray

[steveknj]

Our cruise line bus didn't go to Emerald Lake. I don't know that it was a case of being too slow, because we did stop for about 10 minutes to watch a bear by the side of the road. The tour description doesn't say anything about Emerald Lake, so I wasn't expecting to go there this time.

 

We are on the Pearl next week, and that's the reason we didn't book the train ride through NCL, we wanted to see Emerald Lake which everyone at CC seems to rave about. We booked through Chilcoot Charters. My fear of course is that we don't make it back in time, but it seems from this thread that we'll be ok.

 

This is the one excursion I am the most excited about (and I'm excited about ALL of them). The pictures look absolutely amazing and I'm already figuring that they are ALL candidates to be my computer wallpaper and screen saver when I take mine!

[ute_fan]

I hadn't realized when we booked that there was another option than going through NCL. I did see the info coming out about Chilkoot a couple of weeks later, but decided it wasn't worth the effort to cancel and rebook. We'd been to Emerald Lake 3 years ago, and from what I was understanding it was still iced over anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to us.

 

One comment about the Chilkoot tour. If you drive up in a bus, you catch the same train that the NCL tours do, just a different train car. If the NCL passengers are late, you will be too, but it won't matter since you're on the same train with them. If you're riding the train up and driving down, you'd have more potential for "missing the ship" since you wouldn't still be with the NCL passengers, but I wouldn't worry a lot about it. By the way, there were some issues with the shorter train rides the day we were there. The Star was almost an hour late leaving since they still had passengers on the bus, and I'm pretty sure we left later than scheduled too.

 

The second comment about the Chilkoot tours, is that their buses were much smaller, with larger viewing areas than the ones used by NCL. If I had it to do over again, after seeing the buses, I'd probably go with Chilkoot. Don't get me wrong -- our bus driver was great, and we thoroughly enjoyed it, but the Chilkoot buses did look like they would have had better viewing for the drive up.

[alaska2007family]

Go to this link http://redwingsfan.zenfolio.com/p833166765/ Then enter the password of nclpearl Photos 467-564 are from the train ride. The entire photo gallery is photos taken during Jun 17-24 when we went to Alaska on the NCL Sun.

 

:D