How Much Money can be saved booking direct?

[JackN]

As veteran carribean cruisers, we have no experience with Alaskan cruises. We are interested in a helicopter tour. How much money can one save booking direct with the company as opposed to booking through Princess? As always thanks in advance for what I know will be great advice.

Jack in South Bend

Song of America '93
Monarch '96
Legend '97
Sun Princess '98
Voyager '00
Millennium '03

[sboh]

We booked directly with Temsco in Skagway for a helicopter glacier landing tour that had the exact same name as the cruise line brochure. Cruise line charges $215., our price was $199. The big savings, however, was the fact that we're a family of four taking this tour and our youngest received a child's rate from Temsco of $99.50 that the cruise line did not offer. This made the difference in even being able to do this tour. Also note since we booked independently we have to get to their office ourselves rather than being picked-up at the dock. For $163.50 we can walk! We only saved a few dollars on other tours that we booked ourselves.

[Coral]

Sometimes, there isn't a savings cost wise. But in other ways - it is much better to go with independent excursions.

Captain Larry's whale watching is about the same price as the cruise line's whale watching trip. The difference is that Capt Larry uses a small boat (about 23 passengers) and several cruise lines use a larger boat with 100 plus passengers and several levels. It is all in what you prefer.

[mscloyd]

We are also new to Alaska but saved quite a bit by booking independently.

(Ketchikan) Princess Misty Fjords seaplane $209pp - booked independently using toursaver coupon $199 total = $219 savings

(Juneau) Princess whale watching - $109 pp - independently $105 pp = only an $8 savings but on a smaller boat that is supposed to be very good.

(Juneau) Princess helicopter glacier landing - $199 pp - independently $180 pp = $38 savings, but they also coordinated the two trips and provided transportation from the boat to the helicopter saving us transit time.

(Skagway) we booked train through ship for convenience only and reserved a rental car for the afternoon. Could have saved a little more by booking the train on our own.

Most differences seem to be small but they add up. Also, by booking independently you can do it farther ahead of time and be assured of the exact time/trip that you want.

[miraclemet]

The other advantage Ive read (and we'll see when we go this august for the first time) is that often the cruise chartered excursions are larger groups, while the independant ones are more intimate.

We are trying to decide on a kayaking experience in Ketchikan and one of the independant kayaking groups maxes its outings to 6 people. So you get a smaller more authentic experience (or so I would imagine).

1st Cruise this August!
Infinity to Alaska

[pieshops]

if you purchase the toursaver book at [url="http://www.toursaver.com"]www.toursaver.com[/url] you can save a ton of money booking independant excursions.

the book is 99 dollars but my wife and i have saved over 1,000 dollars so far for our cruise critic group cruise in august

Until our Cruise Critic Group Alaska Cruise
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;08;06;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-1000[/img]

Come check out the links below for our Cruise Critic group cruise to Alaska - August 2004

[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=frm&s=927093444&f=9693034447"]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=frm&s=927093444&f=9693034447[/url]

[url="http://www.cruisecritic.com/interests/groups.cfm?ID=43"]http://www.cruisecritic.com/interests/groups.cfm?ID=43[/url]

Carnival Holiday 1991
Norwegian Sea August 2001
Carnival Triumph August 2003
Celebrity Horizon October 2003

[Budget Queen]

Coastal helicopter is $180 in Juneau, but an EXCELLENT well run tour that is more personal than ship tours. There is more to the the "savings" than money. I want more contact with personal guides that are natives. Some ship tours use way too many seasonal workers. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I also want contact with other traveler's rather than all ship tourists.

[santaharry]

In 2002 we were on the Legend of the Seas and booked the Eagle Valley Raft Excursion and town tour of Haines through Eco-Orca (Dolly Varden) and saved about $100. This tour had 2 guides and only 4 tourist and we recieved real personal service. The tour with the cruise line had 15 passengers per raft and was not as long of a tour and did not include the town tour. When we went to Sitka we tou the town tour $10 per person ($25 from the cruise line) and once again were impressed with the local operator. This tour involved no preplanning.
Last year in Juneau we stepped off of the ship and did the deluxe town tour and Mendenhall Glacier excursion $29 per verses $35 per from the cruise line.
With the exception of a few excursion the local operators do a good job and in a lot of cases the cruise lines use each other (RCCL uses princess for some of their tours) and exclude the local operators and you will miss the local experience and get a summer student as your guide.
Wish I was going this year but maybe next.