Alaska Excursions... some help and advice please!!

[Princess Jessie]

Hi everyone... sorry to possibly repeat what has already been said.. but i need some help!

 

We are doing the Sapphire Princess cruise out of Whittier 7 July. I am with my husband and two sons 21 and 23.

We are from the UK so very unlikely to return to Alaska!!

 

We have booked in Juneau .. because of all the amazing reviews the following excursions independently :

 

Juneau : Temsco Helicopter and dog sledding on Glacier in the morning

and Ziplining with Rachel at Alaska zipline Adventures in afternoon

 

Ketchikan : Alaska Seaplane Tours to go to Misty Fjords and Glacier in the morning.

 

I just cannot find what i am looking for .. or think i am looking for for the day we have in Skagway and for the afternoon in Ketchikan.

 

I was really hoping to do a bear / salmon viewing trip ... and also a whale watching boat trip.

 

But i could not find availability in Juneau .. so booked the helicopter and the ziplining.

 

Do these things exist in either Skagway or Ketchikan? Is there a place to view bears and or whales? can someone give me names of companies to try?

We DONT want another plane trip as they are so mega expensive...

 

Any advice please as time is running out! I really dont want to use any of Princess's tours as they are so large and i prefer to be in a small group ..

 

Thank you ...

PS in Skagway we have the whole day from about 8am to 8pm but in Ketchikan because of the floatplane we only have about 4-5 hours max until 5.30pm.

 

Jessie

[tbenson81]

Move your Dogsled / glacier landing to Skagway - book with temsco. 499 per person. This will open up Juneau for whale watching - book Capt Larry here with Orca enterprises.

[iluvnm65]

In Skagway we did the Chilkoot Charters rail and bus tour that went to Fraser via rail and then on to Emerald Lake by small tour bus, and for me, this was the best tour we took all week. The smaller tour bus was great; it held maybe 12 people with a large center aisle. You did not waste so much time waiting for a zillion passengers to get on and off. Should we go to AK again I will do the new tour they have that takes the train all the way to Carcross in the Yukon Territory. For all the territory we saw, the lunch included, and the amount of time actually spent on the tour, this was my best money spent.

[gg3]

Move your Dogsled / glacier landing to Skagway - book with temsco. 499 per person. This will open up Juneau for whale watching - book Capt Larry here with Orca enterprises.

 

Capt. Larry is excellent, but if he is booked you might try Harv and Marv, www.harvandmarvs.com . Both companies have received rave reviews on these boards. I was going to suggest bear watching out of Ketchikan, but the only folks I know to rec. are floatplanes: Family Air www.familyairtours.com, or Island Wings. Just look at some of these web sites and it might help you decide. gg

[fti]

Realistically, Juneau and Ketchikan are your best options for bear viewing. But since you have other excursions planned for those ports, you won't have time for bear viewing. Here are links to two items re: bear viewing.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=532381

 

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/nature/alaska_bear_viewing.html

 

John

[Budget Queen]

You only have 2 bear options from the cruise- Anan out of Ketchikan- search EVERY independent for available permits, http://www.visit-ketchikan.com

 

And Pack Creek out of Juneau Alaska Fly N Fish does get permits.

 

I also highly suggest MOVE your glacier dog sledding to Skagway and cancel your Misty Fjords floatplane trip. free up your time elsewhere.

 

Are you getting to Denali Park??? This is your BEST and cheapest option for bear watching. IF you aren't, again, only a suggestion, but I would change your flight arrival for at least 3 days sooner, and get there.

[Princess Jessie]

HI Budget Queen and everyone else!

 

I am now just a little confused...are you recommending i move the glacier dog sledding to Ketchikan because it is no good in Juneau?

 

And why do you suggest cancelling the Misty Fjords?

 

My problem is re Juneau i contacted by telephone all the whale watching operators and they were full... Captain Larry had space but that was at 9am and then it meant we couldnt do anything else in Juneau as we only have a short stop there... (ship leaves at 4pm) ..

Harv and Marv were full... so i decided that we might as well use the time to do two things which are two totally new experiences for us helicopter on glacer + ziplining.

 

Ketchikan ... i had to make a decision bear watching vs. misty fjords and glacier.

 

My reasoning was that although it is amazing to see the wildlife... we are reasonably well travelled and the scenery would be more important. Especially as wildlife being "wild" .. cannot be guaranteed!

 

Have i got this all wrong then? We only booked the cruise last week so i am frantically contacting all the operators to sort it all out..

 

Which leaves me back to my question... Apart from flying to Anan Creek .. is there an excursion that anyone knows of by boat which doesnt take too long?

 

And with regard to Skagway... as of yet i havent booked anything... Reading all the posts it seems to me that the option is a train / bus as in tour group.. or to hire a car for the day (if still available!) We are quite happy to hire a car but is there something else "better " that we should be doing?

 

Unfortunately Budget Queen we are limited in our time and will literally be flying in from Uk on the Friday for the cruise on the Saturday and flying back to London the day the cruise docks in Vancouver!!

I think i need to swop jobs and work for NY State...!!!!!:)

Desperately trying to sort this as i dont want to have to worry about it at all on the cruise.

 

Thanks everyone in advance

[boricua2007]

HI Budget Queen and everyone else!

 

I am now just a little confused...are you recommending i move the glacier dog sledding to Ketchikan ...they said Skagway, not Ketchikan.... because it is no good in Juneau....Is good on both, I believe they were just trying to give you ideas of making time in Juneau, since you haven't book anything on Skagway yet....?

 

And why do you suggest cancelling the Misty Fjords?

 

My problem is re Juneau i contacted by telephone all the whale watching operators and they were full... Captain Larry had space but that was at 9am and then it meant we couldnt do anything else in Juneau as we only have a short stop there... (ship leaves at 4pm) ..

Harv and Marv were full... so i decided that we might as well use the time to do two things which are two totally new experiences for us helicopter on glacer + ziplining.

 

Ketchikan ... i had to make a decision bear watching vs. misty fjords and glacier.

 

My reasoning was that although it is amazing to see the wildlife... we are reasonably well travelled and the scenery would be more important. Especially as wildlife being "wild" .. cannot be guaranteed!

 

Have i got this all wrong then? We only booked the cruise last week so i am frantically contacting all the operators to sort it all out..

 

Which leaves me back to my question... Apart from flying to Anan Creek .. is there an excursion that anyone knows of by boat which doesnt take too long?

 

And with regard to Skagway... as of yet i havent booked anything... Reading all the posts it seems to me that the option is a train / bus as in tour group.. or to hire a car for the day (if still available!) We are quite happy to hire a car but is there something else "better " that we should be doing?...We did a hike (light one) and float with Skagway Float Tours in the morning and we enjoy it a lot. Bob was our guide and he was great! We almost encountered a bear...he was living a trail of you know what (poo..poo) but we never saw him!!! :p I was planning to take the train in the afternoon, but I was too tired!!!

 

Unfortunately Budget Queen we are limited in our time and will literally be flying in from Uk on the Friday for the cruise on the Saturday and flying back to London the day the cruise docks in Vancouver!!

I think i need to swop jobs and work for NY State...!!!!!:)

Desperately trying to sort this as i dont want to have to worry about it at all on the cruise.

 

Thanks everyone in advance

 

Enjoy your trip! (Can I go on your luggage? :D )

[Princess Jessie]

:) you can definitely come in the luggage especially if you solve my excursion dilemmas!

 

I see my mistake now... but even if i do move to Skagway the glacier dog sledding doesnt really help me because the whale tours are full!

 

So i feel am better to keep what i have but still need to find something for pm in Ketchikan and all day in Skagway!!!

 

What problems we have !! :confused: :)

[Budget Queen]

OK, IF you take a 9am whale watch, out of Juneau, you have time in the afternoon for something else, the whale watch should have you back by 12:30pm. TEMSCO also will pick up or Orca Enterprises will drop off directly. Cobooking will save an hour in shuttle time. OR what time is your current zip line tour?? Can the whale watch go within that timeframe? TEMSCO is also out of Skagway. But before you change anything, verify the availability.

 

There are NO boat bear tours, being that you state wildlife isn't the priority over Misty Fjords and glacier flightseeing, then go with that choice. My reason for suggesting cancelation was for a bear priority.

 

Car rentals out of Skagway, is a fantastic choice- see if Avis has any cars available first- if they do, reserve it. Then print out Murray's road guide for the South Klondike Highway. http://www.explorenorth.com

[jakehyr]

I live in Singapore and had the same problems as you when i was choosing my shore excursions for my alaskan cruise. In skagway, i suppose the best thing you could do would be to choose the yukon exploration and white pass combination excursion. Maybe we were just lucky, but whilst in the comfortable coach, we saw 2 black bears just metres away from us and the scenic white pass rail was astounding. We saw another black bear whilst on the train too! Don't miss this!

[Budget Queen]

Maybe we were just lucky, but whilst in the comfortable coach, we saw 2 black bears just metres away from us and the scenic white pass rail was astounding. We saw another black bear whilst on the train too! Don't miss this!

 

This is because you were early in the season. Very unlikely for any sightings in their timeframe.

[ahoys]

We saw no bears on any part of our cruise last week, but we saw 6 of them this morning in Denali. Fabulous trip! Mother bear was nursing her two cubs. Try to get to Denali, as Budget Queen suggested. Couldn't have asked for a better day--lots of moose, bear, a few caribou, some sheep; and the mountain was out this morning!

[alaska 6/4]

We saw no bears on any part of our cruise last week, but we saw 6 of them this morning in Denali. Fabulous trip! Mother bear was nursing her two cubs. Try to get to Denali, as Budget Queen suggested. Couldn't have asked for a better day--lots of moose, bear, a few caribou, some sheep; and the mountain was out this morning!

can I as what you did in Denali?:)