Juneau - Mendenhall or Mt. Roberts Tramway?

[derberg]

My toddler and I will be back from Orca whale watching after 12pm. Our curise won't leave until 4pm, so I guess I can only pick one between Mendenhall via local bus or Mt. Roberts tramway.

 

Please give me your 2cents of personal opinion, which one we should pick?

 

thanks.

[wolfie11]

Since either of these can be done "spur of the moment" wait and see what the weather is like and how cranky the toddler is after the whale watch. If it is cloudy, forget the tram.

[North2Alaska]

Orca Enterprizes will usually drop you off at Mendenhall so you'll only need a bus one way. This will save time too. If you only spend and hour or so at Mendenhall, you could still have plenty of time for the Tram.

[derberg]

Orca Enterprizes will usually drop you off at Mendenhall so you'll only need a bus one way. This will save time too. If you only spend and hour or so at Mendenhall, you could still have plenty of time for the Tram.

 

Really! Do I have to tell them I like to drop off at Mendenhall?

[brucory]

And we decided on Mendenhall Glacier...

 

When we got there, we realised we should have done nothing else. It was stunning and we only had an hour to spend there... Next time we will spend the day hiking around and over it if we have the time...

 

It is truly amazing...

 

:D :D :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done the Orca excursion -- it is great!!

 

We have also done Mendenhall Glacier on our own -- the bus is now $7 per person each way - Blue Bus. We spent over 3 hours walking around. The visitor center was $3.

 

Keep in mind that there isn't any food available for sale there. So should you decide to stop there after your whale watching, you won't be getting anything to eat and with a child, that could be a problem.

 

Also remember - you mentioned that your ship leaves at 4 -- you will have to be back on the ship by 3:30. That will not leave you a great deal of time to walk around Mendenhal and get back to town.

[KK11]

We have done the Orca excursion -- it is great!!

 

We have also done Mendenhall Glacier on our own -- the bus is now $7 per person each way - Blue Bus. We spent over 3 hours walking around. The visitor center was $3.

 

Keep in mind that there isn't any food available for sale there. So should you decide to stop there after your whale watching, you won't be getting anything to eat and with a child, that could be a problem.

 

Also remember - you mentioned that your ship leaves at 4 -- you will have to be back on the ship by 3:30. That will not leave you a great deal of time to walk around Mendenhal and get back to town.

 

I was also planning to spend most of my time walking on the trails on the glacier intead of a tour. I know this will not be as good as hte helicopter ride, but not enough time in Junea to do everything.

 

- any recommendations for the trails.

[mmmmm]

We were there June 18 and had Orca Enterprises dropped us off (you have to let them know when you check in). They said they would give us an hour, but we finagled an hour and a half and were really glad we did. We still didn't get to see the visitor center (that we paid for in our ticket price to them) and next time I would plan to spend longer and take the regular shuttle back rather than have them pick us up. There is a very simple short walk out to the lookout point (very beautiful and worthwhile and can be done in a brief time), but for us the highlight was walking to the waterfall, which was about 25 minutes each way (stopping to take pictures and "oh and ah" a lot.) There are other hikes as well.