Ketchican Wilderness Exploration & Crab Feast vs. Bearing Sea Crab Tour

I'm torn between these two excursions - which do you recommend? The Crab Feast seems to have fewer participants, is less expensive, and includes a meal which I've heard (read) is wonderful. The Bearing Sea is more expensive, has more people, doesn't include a meal, but has a larger/more stable boat and still gets rave reviews. I'm active and enjoy the outdoors and want to do something that is unique. I'm considering having a crab lunch in town prior to the tour if I select Bearing Sea. Any thoughts and recommendations are very much appreciated! Sailing RCI...

Well, we did the wilderness crab feast and it was fabulous. We did it last year and were going to do it again this year, but our friends have something else planned. The boat ride and fishing expedition (you might say), pulling up crab pots and finding the surprises other than crabs in the pots, the scenery, and the wonderful meal was just great. We have traveled all over the world, and we did so enjoy it. We were on Princess last year, as well as this year for Alaska.

do the crab feast please

how much is the crab feast? I was going to do the bering sea tour but this sounds interesting. I looked it up and I think you can book it independently also.

Well, going back and reading my shore ex. from RCCL I found this and yes, it is cheaper than the Bering sea tour but I have a coupon for that. which does make the bering sea tour cheaper.

Well, I can save this crab feast tour for next time we come to ketchikan. I love cruising Alaska so hopefully my husband will go for another time in a few years.

So much to do and not enough time.

I do not know he price as i went in 06 and the price went up. not sure about doing it indenpent as they work with the cruise ships but try. so worth it.

I just did the Bering Sea and totally worth it. I never watched the show, but to hear their stories and to see all the wildlife close up is worth it. Bring a blanket as it can be cold.

I'm doing Bering Sea for the same reason - have a coupon. I called and left a message and they were really sweet and emailed the instructions and confirmed they had space. Let them know you are using TourSavers as there may only be limited spaces for that. Then I booked the tour one person (me) and received my boarding pass via email with a unique ticket #. Once you're confirmed you reply to their email with that # so they could issue a second ticket with a unique number to use with the coupon.

They were very nice and I'll tip to make up part of the difference. We're on a budget and the ability to do 2 for 1 really made it possible for us to do an excursion.

I just did the Bering Sea last week. It was worth every penny and we did not have a coupon. Let me say that I am a Deadliest Catch fan, but anyone would find it interesting. The two captains who describe their experiences will bring a tear to your eye.

We saw and handled rock crabs, brown king crabs, jumbo spot shrimp ($35.00 per pond in the Asian markets), and some random other crab varieties. We saw eagles swoop to get a fish, long line fishing, and a creature that was so bizarre and ugly that it looked like it belonged in a horror flick.

We were late returning; but they had contacted our ship, so the Radiance did not sail away. And they even provided rides in a SUV, back to the ship for those who had mobility issues.

We were given a snack--not crab!... not even one of those tasty looking shrimp. But I had eaten king crab at Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau; so the tour was super even without eating crab.

Maybe next time I might try the catch and eat crab tour.