Port times in Skagway - 7 - 4.30 too short?

We are considering whether to do a Northbound or Southbound in May 2015, and for various reasons a Northbound fits in better with our travel plans. The biggest negative that I can see is that on the same ship, a Southbound itinerary is in Skagway from 7am - 8.30pm, and Northbound is only 7am - 4.30pm. Is this a big negative, or is that long enough if we make sure we are off the ship as early as possible?

The other possible negative is that Northbound is at Hubbard glacier in the morning, and Southbound we're there in the afternoon.

Other than those 2 points it's all identical.

Thanks for any insight anyone can give me.

What do you want to do in Skagway? Have you looked over an excursion list to see if your activities will fit the port time?

I'm not sure why you would think that going to Hubbard in the morning would be a negative. :confused: I've been to Alaska 7 times and I think ALL of my glacier sailings have been in the morning. The only "negative" is having to wake up rather than sleep in, but most days in Alaska are early mornings, so that's not a big deal.

Since the first post on this thread mentioned Skagway I would appreciate info. about distance from the port to the train station. I found that our ship will dock at the Railroad dock and not the Broadway dock as I expected.

How far is it and how long will it take to walk to the train station for the White Pass train tour.

Thank you to those who have done this for any info.

Since the first post on this thread mentioned Skagway I would appreciate info. about distance from the port to the train station. I found that our ship will dock at the Railroad dock and not the Broadway dock as I expected.

How far is it and how long will it take to walk to the train station for the White Pass train tour.

Thank you to those who have done this for any info.

Skagway is tiny. It might take you ten minutes to walk to the train station from your ship. We docked at the Ore Dock and got on the train at the dock.

Since the first post on this thread mentioned Skagway I would appreciate info. about distance from the port to the train station. I found that our ship will dock at the Railroad dock and not the Broadway dock as I expected.

How far is it and how long will it take to walk to the train station for the White Pass train tour.

Thank you to those who have done this for any info.

To all intents and purposes, wherever you dock and the railroad station are just about the same place, from memory I'd say 250 yards apart, maybe less. Even if my recall is slightly awry, as lax says, Skagway is small and 10 minutes will easily cover it. I did this Yukon rail and bus excursion last month, and at 3.57 in the second video it shows a ship in the background from the bottom of Broadway Street.

[YOUTUBE]3WSaRzt5N0Q[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]aFpz4AHOcUs[/YOUTUBE]

To the OP, your port hours are sufficient to do even a long tour like the Bennett Scenic Journey, assuming it runs on the day you are there. If it doesn't the tour in the videos is 7.5 hours, so if you took the one that starts at 7.30 you will be back in good time, even if your all-aboard time is 3.30 pm. And of course there a several shorter tours than those that do not go into Yukon Territory. Whatever you decide I hope you enjoy you day there as much as I did. All the best, Tony

I think 7:30-4:00 in Skagway is enough time. If you're taking the train trip (one of the longest (time wise) excursions there) you will need a little over 3 hours.

Another popular excursion in Skagway is a helicopter tour but most of those are over in about 45 minutes or less.

We've been to Skagway 9 times and I find it to be my least favorite port stop in AK. That doesn't mean I don't like it, but we find less to do there than in the other ports.

I think 7:30-4:00 in Skagway is enough time. If you're taking the train trip (one of the longest (time wise) excursions there) you will need a little over 3 hours.

The train/bus combo tours are much longer than 3 hours. That would be the round trip train only. The combo tours are 7.5+ hours! The OP could probably fit in one of these tours, if offered for their port time, but they'd want to check to be sure. If they want to do one of these tours and cannot due to the short port time, then this itinerary would not be the best for them.

Skagway is actually one of our favorite ports because of the longer port times and opportunity to get into the Yukon, whether by rental car, bus or train.

Skagway is tiny. It might take you ten minutes to walk to the train station from your ship. We docked at the Ore Dock and got on the train at the dock.

Thank you.

Train Station from the Ore dock or the Railroad dock are about equal distance. However the train is within spitting distance of either dock...well is a bit closer to the Railroad dock. As for the time in port, longer is always better but is 0700 to 1630 to short. IMO not if you use your time wisely. You may care to do your train trip early in the morning (if you are doing one) and that will allow you several hours in the afternoon to explore Skagway...will you see it all, well no but you will get a real flavour of it and will likely want to come back sometime.http://www.yukoninfo.com/wp-content/uploads/skagwaydowntownmap.gif?5c02dd

That would be plenty of time, and much better than our upcoming 7am-1pm docking in Juneau.

Sounds like your considering the exact ship/itinerary we just returned from for the 3rd time...Take the northbound...docking at the RR dock is an easy walk and the time allotted in Skagway will work out just fine.

Thank you so much for this info - We haven't looked into exactly what we want to do at each port, still trying to decide which cruise! But at each port we would like to either hire a car or do a tour, but also have time to walk around the town for a bit. So it seems that in Skagway the 7.5 hour tour would be ambitious. Would we still have time to go in to the Yukon, or maybe it would be better to just do something shorter and then spend some time in town? We thought we may do a helicopter/sea plane in Juneau rather than Skagway. We also want to do a dog sled excursion of some kind at one of the ports, will need to look into that.

Sherryf - I have read on cruise critic somewhere that if you go to Hubbard Glacier in the morning it can be foggy, but in the afternoon the fog has often burnt off, but judging by what you say that's not always the case. Luck on the day I suppose.

Thank you so much for this info - We haven't looked into exactly what we want to do at each port, still trying to decide which cruise! But at each port we would like to either hire a car or do a tour, but also have time to walk around the town for a bit. So it seems that in Skagway the 7.5 hour tour would be ambitious. Would we still have time to go in to the Yukon, or maybe it would be better to just do something shorter and then spend some time in town?

Skagway itself is a nice little town but there's no comparison with seeing it (which you will do in any case if you leave or return by bus) and venturing into the Yukon. You will have enough time for a long excursion if that's what you want.

Since the first post on this thread mentioned Skagway I would appreciate info. about distance from the port to the train station. I found that our ship will dock at the Railroad dock and not the Broadway dock as I expected.

How far is it and how long will it take to walk to the train station for the White Pass train tour.

Thank you to those who have done this for any info.

I found it was a bit of a hike from the train station to the Railroad dock. I would set aside at least 20 mins, depending on how fast you walk. 30 mins to be on safe side. If you are doing a shore excursion train trip, they should pick you up at the ship. If you're going on your own, then natch, you'll have to walk.

As for the WP train tour, wish I had skipped that, but hopefully you will enjoy.

If you're thinking of doing a train ride of any sort, it's unfortunately not a question of how early you get off the ship. The trains have a set schedule, and the train going the farthest always has to leave first; shorter runs leave later. Two years ago, we did the Bennett Lake run, which is the longest run they offer, and therefore we were "first". We got to Carcross around 3:10 I think, and were due on the bus by 3:30 for the return. We did end up taking a few extra delays on the drive back, which meant we got back to the docks around 6:15 instead of 5:30, but I don't think it'd be possible to do the Bennett Lake run whatsoever if you're due back aboard the ship by 4pm.

(Remember that the port times are somewhat of a lie...if they say 7-4:30, you're due back aboard the ship at 4:00.)