Please Help us Pick an Excursion

[Disney Girl 202]

Okay, all you CC Experts, can you please help us decide? We are going to Alaska in September. We have a Whale Watch booked in ICP, but can now afford one more. However, we just can't decide between 3 of them. Due to coupons, etc. they are all about the same price. There are 4 of us, with a 13 year old daughter and 10 year old son. We all want to try all three. The choices are:

 

Sitka Wildlife Tour

Bering Sea Crab Tour in Ketchikan

Ziplining in Juneau with Alaska Zipline Adventures

 

Please Help!!

[bqkali]

I tend to prefer wildlife-oriented excursions so I would pick the Sitka tour, but I understand everyone has different interests. So assuming you like all tours equally - I'd suggest the Juneau excursion.

 

My reasoning is because Ketchikan & Sitka offer plenty to do in town, within walking distance, without an excursion. If you can, budget $20pp per port and use that money for admissions to museums, historical sites, etc. and also print out self-guided walking tours. That will easily give you plenty to do for the day for an affordable price. If you wanted, you could be so busy you wouldn't even have time for lunch or shopping, but obviously you can leave some free time for that, too :):)

 

Juneau also offers plenty to do in town without an excursion as well - but since you will have 11 hours in port, it will be harder to fill an entire day without some sort of guided tour (not impossible, just harder). If you spend a few hours of your day at the zipline, you'll still have plenty of time to walk to the capitol building, museums, and the other places on a self-guided tour and if of interest (and still in your budget), Mendenhall glacier or the Mt. Robert's tram.

[Keith1010]

Of the three, I would go with the Sitka excursion.

 

Ketchikan and Juneau offer a lot more to do in town than Sitka. There are a few things to do in Sitka but much more in the other two places.

 

Keith

[Minoushka]

I loved Sitka

Walk around in morning .Go to aquarium past church .Let the kids enjoy the little hands on pools full of marine life .Keep walking to Totem Pole Park .Do the trail

Go back to town go on widlife excursion in pm ...we saw seals sealions and whales with Capt Mitch of eco adventures .The islands around Sitka are AWESOME

We were on Spirit it left late enough for us to do it all

The raptor centre admission price IMO is expensive for nothing I believe 10$ pp . A lady will come and talk about an eagle on her wrist ....sorry not worth it

Walk OUTSIde it is free see the birds in cages Do the trail around the centre .I enjoyed it

LOTS of Kodak moments in Sitka

Wear comfortable shoes !!!!

Enjoy

[Birder6]

Another vote for Sitka wildlife adventure. We really were interested in seeing wildlife, so this was a must for us. We were on a small boat with Jim Seeland (Sitka Sea & Sound), who was excellent. He took us to St. Lazaria Island, where we saw nesting puffins and other seabirds. We also saw pods of sea otters close up, as well as sea lions, some whales and bald eagles. My nephew also got a chance to fish for awhile. My kids went on a different small boat with my sister-in-law's family (The Esther G with Captain Davy) and had a similar time). The great thing about these smaller tours, is that the Captains will normally tailor things to your interests.

 

If you are not that interested in wildlife, or are mostly interested in whales, then perhaps one of the other tours would be a better fit.

[msd360]

I vote for none. Instead go kayaking in Ketchikan. It was great fun, and the couple with us had their three year old between them in their kayak. This would also be ideal for the older kids.

[boulders]

We just got back from an August 14 sailing. My kids are about the same age as yours including a ds13 and a dd11. We didn't do any of the tours that you are thinking of, but I overheard lots of people raving about the Bering Sea Crab trip.

 

I did a bear excursion in Icy Strait, which was a bust. We saw salmon swimming upstream, but that was it. Whale watching in Juneau was great. The excursion where we saw the most varied and up close wildlife was sea kayaking at Orca's Cove with Southeast Sea Kayaks. We saw bald eagles (and nest), sea lions really close, sea nettle and kelp. It was my ds4 and ds13's favorite excursion.

[Disney Girl 202]

Thank you all so much for your input - I love hearing the reasons and ideas. I am so excited for Sitka too, and that is probably my gut feeling but my husband is leaning toward one of the others. I will let you know when we decide - please keep the opinions coming!

[bqkali]

Thank you all so much for your input - I love hearing the reasons and ideas. I am so excited for Sitka too, and that is probably my gut feeling but my husband is leaning toward one of the others. I will let you know when we decide - please keep the opinions coming!

 

Given that you and your husband are leaning in opposite directions, have you considered splitting up? For example, you and child #1 could do the Sitka excursion while your husband & child #2 walked through town and saw some other attractions/shopping. You could meet up for lunch in port or on the ship and spend the remainder of the day together as a family. Then on the other day, your husband & child #2 could do their excursion while you and child #1 could have a leisurely morning in town before again meeting up for half a day. Just make sure you decide on a time and place to meet up or a way to get in contact with each other when the tour is over (cell phones are probably a viable option since it is in the US).

 

That way, both of you could do the excursion that interests you - similar to how Mom & Dad might go to the casino in the evening while the children are in the kids club. Everyone is happy doing their own thing for a portion of the cruise but you still have lots of time to do activities together as a family :) Later on, you would have different stories and photos to share with each other, which adds to the fun IMO.

 

If you would prefer to tour as a family, please disregard my post. It is just another option you may not have considered, but I completely understand if it is not the experience you are looking for on a family vacation. Whatever excursion you decide on, I am sure you will have a fantastic time in Alaska!

[cruiser113]

You can zip most any place and have you read the description of the zip?? lots of long zips!

 

We did the zip in Barbados and loved it but I think I would go to Alaska to enjoy the beauty of the territory so I would choose between the wild life tour and the sea crab.

 

Heard good things about the sea crab but have also done a wild life excursion and it was totally enjoyable.

 

hope this helps!

[MercedMike]

There are many places that do whale watching, but Sitka is one of the few places in the world you can see the sea otters. We loved this trip.

 

Check out our review and pics at http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/volendam.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[snedecor]

We LOVED the BCSFT.

 

 

We got to see, touch, and hold (if we wanted to) three different types of crab, fish, and were able to see octopus and wolf eel. We lured eagles down to take herring from the side of the boat, watched demonstration of long-line fishing, and hauled and launched 3 different types of crab pots.

 

The more important part was the people. They truly cared about their way of life, and loved sharing it with people. They talked about how their jobs were good (and bad) for their families, they talked about finding God in the cold seas waiting to die after a boat capsized. They talked about finding family the most important part of life, about the importance of hard work.

 

They took as much time as we wanted taking pictures, talking about their jobs and their families, and we never felt talked down to or rushed at any point during the tour.

 

My wife did not want to go, due to the short stay in Ketchikan, but at the end she was teary-eyed at one point in the tour, and stated that it was much better than she ever expected.

 

It met all our expectations, and the fact that we got one ticket for free with our Toursaver coupon was just icing on the cake!

[Disney Girl 202]

Thank you so much for all of your input. We finally decided to ... do 2 of them. We are going to do the wildlife tour and the sea crab tour. Who cares if all of our excursions are on boats - that is what a cruise to Alaska is all about, right?:D