Floatplane Tour of Misty Fjords

[Guest]

We're on the RCI Serenade of the Seas in August. The ship's itinerary has a line item for "Misty Fjords", but in fact the time is only two hours. It's a drive-by. If you look at a map, what the ship does is pass by the very southwest edge of the national monument on the way back to Vancouver. In essence, if you want to see the monument at all, you won't see it from this cruise ship.

 

Assuming all the cruise lines are similar, the RCI shore excursion for the flight to Misty Fjords is in a DeHavilland Twin Otter, essentially a commuter plane on floats. It carries a relatively large number of people.

 

I did some checking on private operators. Go into Google and input "Misty Fjords Flightseeing" and you'll get a whole bunch of them. Most of them have websites where they go into the services they offer in detail. They all do similar things, and they all charge pretty much the same, which is about $200 per person.

 

The advantage of using your private operator vs. the cruise line's own private operator is that the former use smaller airplanes, the excursions costs less, and they stay longer when they put down on one of the isolated alpine lakes in the monument.

 

We booked a tour today, and there will be just four of us on a DeHavilland Beaver, a floatplane well-suited for this kind of flying.

 

I also found out that their August dates are filling up fast, so it is probably a good thing to act on it quickly if you have a summertime cruise coming up.

 

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Platinum for Princess, for Royal Caribbean and for Celebrity.

[Budget Queen]

For clairfication- the independents allow you OFF the plane on land- the ship tours allow you a step out on the pontoons. There are some hiking tours you can also arrange. Southeast Aviation has a 2 for 1 coupon in the toursaver book. I have also gone with Carlin Air and Island Wings.

[dustyroad]

hi paul

 

i dont know who you booked with but you will not be sorry you take this tour. i went last year with michelle of island wings and it was a wonderful trip. it is gorgeous and we saw lots of waterfalls, sheep on the mts., and beautiful land/sea sites. we landed on a lake and stayed there for almost 1/2 hour. any co. you choose will give you a great tour and you will really enjoy it. make sure when you take off and you are over the water you look down and try to see any wildlife in the water. you just might see a whale. the next time i go i want to do the helicopter tour over the glaciers. that is if i can talk my friend into it. have a wonderful time on your cruise and seeing alaska. i cant wait to go again.

 

DUSTY

 

Carnival Spirit, 9/10/03 Alaska glacier bay

 

Carvival Spirit, 5/11/05

Alaska glacier bay again

[C-breeze]

We are hoping to do a floatplane excursion in Ketchikan and a helicopter excursion in Juneau.

I was was wondering how cold it would be inside each of these in mid May?

[lovetotraveltx]

For clairfication- the independents allow you OFF the plane on land- the ship tours allow you a step out on the pontoons. There are some hiking tours you can also arrange. Southeast Aviation has a 2 for 1 coupon in the toursaver book. I have also gone with Carlin Air and Island Wings.

 

What do you think of Taquan Air?

[cruisingjodi]

We are hoping to do a floatplane excursion in Ketchikan and a helicopter excursion in Juneau.

I was was wondering how cold it would be inside each of these in mid May?

It was around 50 at 8 am but comfortable with proper clothes