NCL Dream 6/9 - 6/20 Shore Ex & Port Review

My family and I are just back from our cruise on the NCL Dream 11 night Alaska cruise. Our group included me, DH and DD's (ages 15 and 12). We were traveling with another family consisting of husband, wife, sons (ages 15 and 11) and daughter (age 13). These are our thoughts and impressions of our shore tours and ports of call.

Ketchikan: Our family of four booked a 9:00 AM flight with Michelle at Island Wings. Misty Fjords is an awe-inspiring sight and should not be missed. Our flight with Michelle was perfect and very smooth. I had read several posts about people getting motion sickness on these flights, but it was not an issue for the four of us. The take-offs and landings were perfect. I wish land landings could be as smooth!!! Afterward, we met up with the other 5 people in our group and walked along Creek Street and then did some shopping across from the dock. Word to the wise, this was the port where we found the best souvenirs at the best prices throughout our cruise. I could kick myself for not picking up more of those 88 cent souvenirs at the Inside Passage store right across the street from the ship. The best selection of t-shirts was also to be found along the waterfront in Ketchikan. We decided to wait until later in the cruise to do most of our shopping and wish we had done otherwise! :(

Juneau: This was my daughters' favorite port. We took the shuttle from our ship to the downtown area. It drops you off right at the base of the Mt. Roberts Tramway. We took the tram to the top. All along the pier here and up into the mountain the trees were full of bald eagles, sometimes 4- 5 to a tree. The guy operating our tram, who is from Juneau born and raised, said he had never seen such a sight and did not know what was going on with the eagles. At the top we took the alpine trail to Father Brown's (?) cross. From there we took a trail that went further up a bit and the kids got to play in the snow, have snowball fights, make snow angels. . . This was a very big deal since the 5 kids are Florida natives and had never seen snow before!!!:D The views from the top are beautiful!

Later on in the day, we went on the Glacier Walkabout with Northstar Trekking. They are a top-notch operation and this experience was simply amazing. Words will never describe how awesome it is to land on a glacier and take an extended walk around. We booked the 1-hour walkabout instead of a longer one because of the age of our youngest child, but, believe me, it would have been no problem for him or for any of us to have done the 2-hour trek. Chris and Amanda were our guides and they were great and very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Don, our helicopter pilot, was very good, too.

The five kids in our group rated this as their favorite stop and rated our two excursions this day as the best of the whole cruise.

Haines: Haines is a town that is set in such a beautiful place that it will bring tears to your eyes as you look at it from the ship. That being said, there is absolutely nothing to do here. Our ship was originally scheduled to call on Skagway, but because there were so many ships going to Skagway on that day, ended up changing its itinerary and going to Haines instead.

We had booked a Float Trip at the Eagle Preserve through Dolly Varden and (I thought) Eco-Orca Tours, which had been recommended on these boards. When we got to the pier, I did not see either of these names waiting with a sign, so I asked a gentleman who was there with his bus waiting for some other passengers. When I mentioned Eco-Orca, he informed me that it was illegal for Eco-Orca or their owner to do business in the town of Haines. He lent me his cell phone to call the number on my voucher, which I did. The man I spoke to on the phone directed me to a bus parked at the far end of the parking lot. After we boarded the bus (which had about 15 other people on it) the bus was boarded by the Sheriff who demanded to know who had booked their trip through Eco-Orca!!:eek: Since my voucher was issued by Dolly Varden, my family and I were safe, but an older couple was taken off the bus and put in the Sheriff's cruiser and driven off!!

We ultimately reached our destination on the river and our group of 23 from the ship were placed in three different rafts. We had been told at the time of booking that our group of 9 could all be on the same raft, but were given a bit of a hard time about this, since the guides didn't want more than 8 people per raft. After some discussion, we did all end up on the same raft. This is billed as a pretty low-risk excursion, a nice trip on a slow moving river, but folks, this isn't Disney World. It is the real outdoors and there are risks in any undertaking. One of the other rafts had it's guide lose an oar and therefore lose control of the raft. The raft slammed into a low hanging branch and partially capsized. The guide managed to right it, but it took on a lot of water. One of the girls on the raft got hit in the head pretty badly with either a branch or an oar and her finger got wrapped up in the rope she was holding onto and got pretty badly bruised. The three rafts made an emergency stop at two small islands in the river so that the water could be bailed out of the sinking raft. The people on the raft were soaked through. The landing on the island was probably the coolest part of the trip, though (not taking into account of course, the reason we had to stop to begin with!). And to think that this was the one excursion I was not worried about from a safety standpoint!!! Call me crazy, but my big worry was the helicopter and the floatplane!! I can only thank my lucky stars that our group wasn't split up with some of us ending up on the ill-fated raft. The mother of two of the kids on the raft was actually on the third raft and I can only imagine how frantic she must have been as this played out.

I understand from previous posters that on a clear day the vistas from the river are spectacular, but the mountains were shrouded in clouds the day we were there. We saw only 4 eagles, max, but we knew going in that it was too early in the season for the salmon to be running, so we probably wouldn't see many eagles. Other than the mishaps with the sheriff and the sinking raft, this was a pleasant enough tour, but my least favorite of the trip. I am glad, though, that we did something to get us out of Haines, or it would have been a completely wasted day. I'm sure Haines is a perfectly wonderful place to live. It represents a true Alaska town, unspoiled by tourism, but, that being said, once you've gone in and out of the three or four artist's studios there is very little for the tourist to do in town. This is my opinion only, please don't flame me if you feel differently.

Hubbard Glacier: Beautiful, amazing, humongous. What else is there to say?? We had beautiful weather. It started off cloudy and ended up with brilliant blue skies. I would have liked to have gotten closer, like we were able to do in Glacier Bay on our last cruise, but still the Glacier put on quite a show!!! Lots of calving, many seals floating by on the icebergs!!! Very cool!!

Seward: I loved this port!! We booked the Kenai Fjords Cruise with lunch at Fox Island through the ship. This is the only excursion that we booked through NCL. The boat that we were on, the "Kenai Explorer", is a very clean, well kept boat. The crew was very good, friendly and informative. Fox Island is a gorgeous facility and the lunch provided was very good. Make sure to have some of the rice. It was wonderful!! We spent some time on the beach there, which is made up of an interminable supply of great skipping rocks. The kids had a great time trying to see who could make their rock skip the most times! We watched a sea otter play. Resurrection Bay is made up of beautiful coves. The Kenai Fjords is spectacular!! We saw abundant wildlife on this trip: humpback whale, grey whale, seals, sea lions, puffins, bald eagles, mountain goats, two black bears on the shore by Holgate Glacier, cormorants. We sat by Holgate and Surprise Glaciers for a while and Holgate did a bit of calving. After seeing Hubbard, Holgate is significantly smaller, but in our small boat we were able to get much closer (I think under 1/2 mile). I had thought that this tour would go all the way back to Aialik Glacier. If you book the 8 1/2 hour tour directly with Kenai Fjords that is what you get. I had called Kenai Fjords to verify that that is what we would do through NCL, but between the time I talked to Kenai Fjords and the time we took the excursion, NCL re-negotiated their rate to go only to Holgate Glacier. Still, this is an awesome excursion, another one not to be missed and my favorite of the whole trip.

Sitka: We did not do an excursion in this port. We walked from the ship to the free aquarium and hatchery less than 1/4 mile from the dock. This was a nice stop. They allow you to reach into the display tanks and handle the starfish, anemones and other sea animals. The hatchery was also interesting. We were given a tour by one of the students at the school, which was very infomative.

We then walked to the Totem Park, and as suggested by Budget Queen, purchased the guide book that explained the different totems. We bought the family membership that, for fifteen dollars, which provided admissions to the park and also to the Russian Bishop's House. We loved our time at the park. Unfortunately, due to our limited time in this port, we had to choose between the Bishop's house and the Raptor Center. Since we had already paid for our admission to the Bishop's house and the Raptor Center was an uphill climb, we went to the Bishop's house. They do tours every half hour with a maximum of 12 people per tour. We booked ourselves for the 12:30 tour, which gave us a little time to shop. The Sitka Rose Gallery right next door has some really beautiful things. There is a two story shopping mall next door to the gallery. Upstairs they have a store that sells beautiful Russian nesting dolls, Santa's and icons. They have, by far, the best selection, but you may find prices slightly lower across the street from St. Michael's Cathedral a little further down the road. We enjoyed our tour of the Russian Bishop's House and our visit to St. Michael's. Then it was time to rush back to the pier so as not to miss the last tender to the ship. I wish we had had a few more hours in this beautiful port!!!

Prince Rupert: We didn't have any excursions booked in this port, but found it to be enjoyable despite all of the negative comments we had read on this board. We visited the Native Museum, the Fireman's Museum (Basically one room next to the fire station), the train station museum, and Cow Bay for shopping. We tried to visit the totem carving shed, but it was closed. We also messed up on the timing and didn't make the Native Storytelling. We found the pricing for souvenirs to be reasonable in Prince Rupert. We much preferred Prince Rupert to Haines.

Seattle: Our port of embarkation and debarkation. We spent two days here before the cruise and a day after. Our favorite things to do here as a family were: visiting Pike Market (We loved it here!! We went twice during our first two days here and would have gone again after the cruise but we couldn't find a parking space), REI Sporting Goods Store (Yes, my oldest daughter climbed the pinnacle all the way to the top!!!), Chittendam Locks (Don't miss this!), Gas Works Park, Red Robin at pier 55 for lunch, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.

I hope this information helps future cruisers!! I got so much information from this board that helped to make our Alaska Cruise a completely awesome and unforgettable experience. If anyone has any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. My best piece of advice is to enjoy Alaska, whatever you decide to do. Savor every minute because the time just flies by!

By the way, I'm ready to go back tomorrow!!! I can be packed in an hour!:D

We had booked a Float Trip at the Eagle Preserve through Dolly Varden and (I thought) Eco-Orca Tours, which had been recommended on these boards. When we got to the pier, I did not see either of these names waiting with a sign, so I asked a gentleman who was there with his bus waiting for some other passengers. When I mentioned Eco-Orca, he informed me that it was illegal for Eco-Orca or their owner to do business in the town of Haines.

I'm one who recommends the float trip, but through the ship. I've never read any recommendations to go through Dolly Varden--actually the opposite. They're a middle man and should be avoided. Sorry for your hassle! Did you have Scott and Liam or different raft guides? Just wondering if it was a totally different company--I'm thinking it had to have been.

I love Hubbard too. :)

Thanks for the well-written review!

I'm one who recommends the float trip, but through the ship. I've never read any recommendations to go through Dolly Varden--actually the opposite. They're a middle man and should be avoided. Sorry for your hassle! Did you have Scott and Liam or different raft guides? Just wondering if it was a totally different company--I'm thinking it had to have been.

 

I love Hubbard too. :)

 

Thanks for the well-written review!

Our guide was John, whose uncle owns the company. The guy on the raft that capsized was Tlingit and the other raft was guided by an old salt who looked like Santa Claus. The tour itself was good, except for the unfortunate incident with the oar I have no complaints. I guess a mishap on the river could happen to anyone . . . But the sheriff incident was a bit over the top!!!

Getty I've read both of your reports and enjoyed them very much. I sailed the Dream on her first trip on 5/19 and your reports were almost like going again.

Getty said......

"After we boarded the bus (which had about 15 other people on it) the bus was boarded by the Sheriff who demanded to know who had booked their trip through Eco-Orca!!:eek: "Since my voucher was issued by Dolly Varden, my family and I were safe, but an older couple was taken off the bus and put in the Sheriff's cruiser and driven off!!"

Yikes !! I'd sure like to know the story behind that, what did the older couple do to be taken away? Thanks for the enjoyable report, and I too can have my bags packed in an hour or less!!

I'm glad it wasn't Scott and Liam, they are very experienced (weeks and months long rafting experience) and I just don't think they would have let that happen.

I booked them through the ship, but would like to know what company they work for so I could recommend it.

Getty I've read both of your reports and enjoyed them very much. I sailed the Dream on her first trip on 5/19 and your reports were almost like going again.

Getty said......

"After we boarded the bus (which had about 15 other people on it) the bus was boarded by the Sheriff who demanded to know who had booked their trip through Eco-Orca!!:eek: "Since my voucher was issued by Dolly Varden, my family and I were safe, but an older couple was taken off the bus and put in the Sheriff's cruiser and driven off!!"

 

Yikes !! I'd sure like to know the story behind that, what did the older couple do to be taken away? Thanks for the enjoyable report, and I too can have my bags packed in an hour or less!!

Calee: I, too, have read many of your posts and found them extremely helpful in planning my cruise. I waited anxiously for reviews off of the 5/19 cruise of the Dream and was very thankful to you that you posted your thoughts!:)

The older couple did nothing more than stand up when the sheriff asked who on the bus had booked their tour through Eco-Orca. I wish I had run into them on the ship later in the cruise to ask about their experience, but I didn't see them again.

Just so you all know, I am an obsessive planner and very careful about who I choose to book through. Eco-Orca/Dolly Varden tours is listed as an approved vendor on page 27 in the Vacation Planner that I received from the Haines Visitors Center in March 2005. I also asked the opinion of those on these boards who had used them in the past and received favorable responses.

Anyway, I chalk the whole thing down to experience and now have an exciting tale to tell. All's well that ends well, I suppose.:rolleyes:

Fox Island is a gorgeous facility and the lunch provided was very good. Make sure to have some of the rice. It was wonderful!!

What was served for lunch. Was there an entree choice other than salmon?

Thanks

Great review! Thank you so much for posting it!

What was served for lunch. Was there an entree choice other than salmon?

 

Thanks

They also give you an option of having grilled chicken, but you can't have both the chicken and the salmon. There was some very good rice with vegetables in it, corn on the cob, and some other items that I don't remember. They also offer some small cakes for dessert, which were very good. They give you a choice of many different flavors. Its served buffet style and is pretty much all you can eat.

To Host Caroline:

I'm glad you enjoyed the review. It was fun to post!! It helped to mitigate the usual post cruise depression!:D