Skagway to Haines on the Fast Ferry

We will be in Skagway on August 28 from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Fast Ferry to Haines leaves Skagway at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and returns to Skagway at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The one-way trip is 45 minutes.

We would like to visit Haines, but I don't know if it's practical. The Haines website gives so many options that a 4-hour visit doesn't seem like nearly enough time.

If we stay the entire day and arrive back in Skagway at 7:45 p.m., is that cutting it too close to catch the ship for the 8:30 departure?

We are on Celebrity's Millennium if that makes a difference.

Would appreciate any input from those who have visited Haines while docked in Skagway.

I have not yet been to Haines. However we will be in Skagway in June on the Princess Coral and we booked a private tour with Rainbow GlacierAdventures to the Bald Eagle preserve in Haines. They pick us up at the pier and escort us to Haines via the fast Ferry at 8 am then we return probably on the 1 pm ferry. All included in the tour. We then plan to walk around Skagway. Hope this helps.

We will be in Skagway on August 28 from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Fast Ferry to Haines leaves Skagway at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and returns to Skagway at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The one-way trip is 45 minutes.

 

We would like to visit Haines, but I don't know if it's practical. The Haines website gives so many options that a 4-hour visit doesn't seem like nearly enough time.

 

If we stay the entire day and arrive back in Skagway at 7:45 p.m., is that cutting it too close to catch the ship for the 8:30 departure?

 

We are on Celebrity's Millennium if that makes a difference.

 

Would appreciate any input from those who have visited Haines while docked in Skagway.

I have not done it but if the ship departs at 8:30, that means that you have to be on board at 8:00 which leaves you a 15 minute window just in case the fast ferry is a bit late. How many minutes will it take to walk from the ferry terminal to the ship? I would not chance it.

DON

Haines is not really set up as a cruise ship port. The ferry will dock near the downtown area, but how do you plan to get around and what do you want to do? Frankly, my number one tour in late August is the hiking/birding tour through the ship. You are met at the dock in Skagway and walk to the ferry. Upon arrival in Haines you're met by the guides and get into an old school bus for a tour of town and then out to the Chilkoot River. The guides have spotting scopes and will show you eagles and other birds. However, the highlight is that the Chilkoot is a short river that starts in a lake and ends in the ocean. In August, the salmon are running and brown bears are frequently seen along this stretch of water. Last time I was there two years ago, a mom was trying to teach her two cubs to fish. Also included (if you don't take up too much time with the bears) is a short forest hike.

I should have mentioned in my original post that we have no set plans for Haines at this point. Maybe take one of the tours that has good reviews on TripAdvisor and/or explore the town on our own. It seems that the 4-hour window between arriving in Haines and catching the return ferry to Skagway at 1 p.m. is too short to do both. But catching the last ferry to Skagway also seems risky, and donaIdsc confirmed what I was thinking. I always appreciate his perspective and advice.

gma rae and wolfie11, we'll look more closely at tours. Woflie11, your photo is fantastic and the tour you took sounds amazing!

Thank you all for posting. I'm still open to suggestions and ideas if anyone else cares to comment.

We will be in Skagway on August 28 from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Fast Ferry to Haines leaves Skagway at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and returns to Skagway at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The one-way trip is 45 minutes.

 

We would like to visit Haines, but I don't know if it's practical. The Haines website gives so many options that a 4-hour visit doesn't seem like nearly enough time.

 

If we stay the entire day and arrive back in Skagway at 7:45 p.m., is that cutting it too close to catch the ship for the 8:30 departure?

 

We are on Celebrity's Millennium if that makes a difference.

 

Would appreciate any input from those who have visited Haines while docked in Skagway.

We have done it several times through the years, preferring to order room service breakfast that day and catch the first Fast Ferry out in the morning so that we can have a full day in Haines.

The dock for the Fast Ferry in Skagway is right beside the RR dock that Millennium uses, so it is an easy walk over or back.

We are the type who usually prefer to go off and do our own thing instead of being herded around on an organized tour (although we do take those as well from time to time).

In Haines, we usually rent a car and drive a good part of the Haines Highway for the scenery, then turn around in the afternoon and drive back to Haines.

Here is a link to

Murray's Guide to the Haines Highway

Then comes our favorite thing to do in Haines: to drive slowly out along the Chilkoot River and lake looking for bears in the late afternoon - early evening.

Going in late August, you should have a good chance of seeing them (although it has been several years since the last time we were there).

Here is a link to an old video somebody posted that I had saved. It can give you an idea of what you may see there if you are lucky:

On the Millennium, just go to Shore Excursions on deck 3 and check out the times of the ship's excursions to Haines to see if they are offering any that will return to Skagway on the last ferry.

If so, you know that the ship will wait for the ferry if it should be late.

So far, there has been at least one ship excursion on the last ferry back from Haines with us each time we went.

That way we were relaxed about catching the last ferry back to Skagway, knowing it was extremely unlikely that the ship would leave without us.

Look for eagles around the Haines dock as you are waiting for the ferry to arrive. We also find it reassuring to see the other passengers from our ship waiting for the ferry there with us.

By the way, when you first arrive in Haines look around to see if a cruise ship is docked there. If so, the city usually provides a free hop on, hop off shuttle bus (actually an old school bus) that makes continuous loops around the town on days when a cruise ship docks there. Anyone can ride it, not only the people from that cruise ship.

I have been to Haines only once and was not impressed with my river wilderness excursion - saw and heard one eagle. The best part of the excursion was the great food at the end of the outdoor activity.

The walkway from the dock/pier down to the ferry adjusts with the tides and thus may be at an extreme angle which may cause great difficulty for passengers with any mobility issues.

Crew News, thank you for the heads-up on the walkway to the ferry. We don't have mobility issues, at least at this moment, so the angle will not be an issue for us. But it's good to know, and may be pertinent for someone reading this thread.

Varoo, your tips and advice are VERY much appreciated! Now I am more confident that we'll be able to enjoy an entire day in Haines instead of just a few hours. Like you, we usually go on our own or book independent instead of taking the larger ship tours. Your advice to check the ship's excursions for any that return on the last ferry is brilliant! If one is available, that would squash my concern over not getting back to the ship in time. Thank you also for the link to Murray's Guide and the bear video. We have used Murray's Guide in Skagway and it was invaluable. Bear video was great; we should be so lucky! Thanks again!

We did the Haines excursion a few years ago (while docked in Skagway on Coral Princess). The rafting thru the eagle preserve was awesome and we're planning on repeating this excursion (also thru Princess) again in May.

I would recommend doing it thru your ship due to the length of the tour and to guarantee your return to the ship without any problems. And as mentioned above, the ferry dock is adjacent to the cruise ship dock area, a short walk. And the town of Skagway is easily walkable, within an hour unless you make many shopping stops so that you can see a good bit of it before returning to your ship.

I'll be going in the opposite direction this June. Zaandam ports in Haines and I have a fast ferry ticket for Skagway at 6:45am. Can anyone tell me if the cruise ship and the ferry use the same dock in Haines? Thanks!

I have gone to Haines several times, but fly just as many times as I take the ferry I always. rent a car. What people don't realize is there aren't any more eagles here than anywhere else on the inside passage. Those massage amounts of bird photos you see are taken late Sept, since Haines has the latest salmon run, same with good bear viewing, starting after mid August.

As for the Ferry, VERIFY the Skagway dock schedule, you are best to be at the RR docks. Then it's a simple walk to the ship. Here is the ferry dock map. - http://www.hainesskagwayfastferry.com/maps--directions.html

Make sure you have plans for Haines and if you haven't been to Skagway before, make sure you look at everything there as well. It's a mistake, to just take the ferry to Haines and not know what you're going to do.

I have not yet been to Haines. However we will be in Skagway in June on the Princess Coral and we booked a private tour with Rainbow GlacierAdventures to the Bald Eagle preserve in Haines. They pick us up at the pier and escort us to Haines via the fast Ferry at 8 am then we return probably on the 1 pm ferry. All included in the tour. We then plan to walk around Skagway. Hope this helps.

Our college girls are doing the kayak tour with Rainbow glacier and these are the same times..

thank you for the ferry dock maps. I had seen those before but couldn't tell if the cruise ship docks nearby. Would you happen to know if that is the case for Haines? Thanks!

We did a private tour in Haines in 2015 that relied on the ferry. The tour had an option to extend by 2 hours, which we invoked (and got to see bears because of it, while other passengers who didn't extend didn't see the bears). That put us on the last ferry that'd be able to catch our ship before it sailed 49 hours south to Victoria BC. I was reasonably comfortable with it, on the assumption or hope that at least one passenger on that ferry was traveling on a ship-sponsored excursion, and therefore the ship would wait for them (and then us). Call it herd mentality, but my thought is if you can "latch on" to something that gives you "comparable status" as those who might get special dispensation, you'll be OK.

The whole ferry thing worried me enough to book through the ship. We dock in Haines so even the train excursion is upped in price, $249, I guess because of the ferry (?) I didn't realize it wasn't that much all the time until others pointed it out.

Anything i tried to piece together myself seemed dependent on the ferry arriving at almost exactly the scheduled time. I couldn't get enough information to make me comfortable it really was so precise.

I booked a helicopter tour from the ship with the ferries included.

I will be on the same ferries as those from the ship who are doing the train so that is the reason I booked the other tour but I do admit to a bit of nerves hoping it all works out. I opened a roll for the June 4th Zaandam and put my tour details in there hoping to entice a few more from the ship to join. :-)