Mariner Alaska Excursion Recommendations

[Joanandjoe]

We're excited about our upcoming northbound Alaska cruise, May 27, 2008, and are looking at the ship's excursions. We will also consider private excursions, particularly if other CC members on the cruise will join us.

 

For now, we're looking at excursions other than flightseeing, and would appreciate your thoughts. We also want to have at least one experience panning for gold, and one small boat excursion where we can see glaciers and/or wildlife (particularly whales).

 

Victoria - I would think we can do this city on our own. Any opinions on this?

 

Ketchikan. We'd like to see some totem ploes. Should we take the ship's Totem and Town Tour, the City highlights tour, or a tour on our own? Can we do this on our own after taking in the logging tour, which sounds like fun? Has anyone done the tour?

 

Juneau. We've done this city on our own before. The big question is whether to take the Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer, or one of the whale watching tours. While we could do both, we'd like some time on terra firma. Is the underground gold tour a good idea, or should we do our panning in Skagway? Can we get to the Mendenhall Glacier without a ship's tour?

 

Skagway. We'll probably do the railroad, maybe combined with the gold dredge. Is that a good excursion?

 

Sitka. We're thinking of doing this city on our own. Would we be missing a great ship's tour by doing so?

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

[RachelG]

Victoria--easy to do on your own. My favorite thing is the gardens. Don't really need a tour to do this. We had a rental car, but you could easily get a taxi.

 

Ketchican--easy town to walk around in and don't really need a tour here if you are going to stay in town. We hiked in the hills above town but that is pretty strenuous--would need to be used to hiking a lot.

 

Juneau--Tracy Arms Fjords for sure. It is probably the single best excursion I have ever gone on anywhere. Don't need to do a separate whale watching tour--we saw plenty on the way to the Fjords and the boat stopped for quite a while so we could watch them. Mendenhall glacier is right outside town and you can take a taxi there easily, but frankly, after Tracy Arms, it is a big let-down. Instead, if you have extra time in Juneau, go the the state historical museum, within easy walking distance from the dock. I love this little museum--have actually been there twice. Really nicely put together.

 

I have only been to Sitka for a couple of hours and didn't do anything there, so can't comment on it. And haven't been to Skagway at all.

[harbormaster]

Hi - you're going to love Alaska on Regent Mariner. We took the ship last August and it was one of the best trips we've ever done.

Definitely recommend the Tracy Arm excursion - it's worth it.

In Ketchikan, I hopped the city bus for $2 to the Totem Park and truly enjoyed the experience. Easy to get there and you can take what time you want to explore the park. There are written guides in the shop that you can follow.

I put a lot of details in my review of our trip, including Tracy Arm, Ketchikan and Skagway, which can be found at this link.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=615619&highlight=mariner+alaska+8%2F15

 

 

If I can answer any other questions, feel free to ask.