Alaska Newbie Shore Excursion Questions

We are booked on our 1st Alaska Cruise (7/15/16 NB ROS, 12 night cruise tour, Mountain Panorama 5A).

A couple of questions:

1) I see the shore excursions are quite pricey! We may be interested in doing no excursions or the smallest of excursions on a stop or two, to budget for some bigger excursions elsewhere. Also, sometimes we like to have a slower day with just a half day off of the ship, etc. Which of the ports are best for this, perhaps with a downtown to investigate on your own, etc. I assume there is not much to do at Icy Strait Point, so that may be an excursion day.

How about Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway ?

2) For whale watching tours, how rough are the seas? My wife complains about sea sickness occasionally but is not super sensitive.

3) General advice on excursions would be appreciated. Fishing doesn't really appeal to us. Nature walking, wildlife, and history would.

thanks.

I would agree that on your own options aren't great at icy strait point. So if I could only book 1 excursion I would do it there. We had planned on doing an on our own hike in Ketchikan but the weather wasn't very good so we wandered around in town for half a day. Bought some souvenirs etc.

We had pretty rough water on our Juneau excursion. But it was less rolling and more banging up and down! Our friend who normally gets sea sick was fine. But I would take something just in case.

Jwith2boys

Last year we finished our 7 day land excursion ( DIY ) with a Celebrity south bound trip from Seward last vessel of the season.

Icy Point Strait was a highlight for us. We did a whale watching boat tour for 3 1/2 hours from their small boat harbor. Lots of Humpback Whale activity & sightings are guaranteed. The weather was clam & none of the passengers experienced any sea-sickness. It was excellent & expensive. The other alternative is to go on a bear tour which you search for bears. Unsure of the success rate for seeing active bears.

We tendered at this port, however I think the new dock they are building should be ready during the 2016 season. Hoonah is very small & easy to walk thru town with some points of interest. This port is the real Alaska not loaded up with souvenir stores. We enjoyed most of our time on shore along with good weather. John

I agree. Icy Strait Point is wonderful. We also did a whale watch there, and in addition to whales, we saw these little fellas:

This will give you an idea of the sea conditions on the day we were there:

However, forewarned is forearmed, and I do advise taking something for seasickness whenever you're going out in a small boat.

We are booked on our 1st Alaska Cruise (7/15/16 NB ROS, 12 night cruise tour, Mountain Panorama 5A).

 

A couple of questions:

 

1) I see the shore excursions are quite pricey! We may be interested in doing no excursions or the smallest of excursions on a stop or two, to budget for some bigger excursions elsewhere. Also, sometimes we like to have a slower day with just a half day off of the ship, etc. Which of the ports are best for this, perhaps with a downtown to investigate on your own, etc. I assume there is not much to do at Icy Strait Point, so that may be an excursion day.

 

How about Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway ?

 

2) For whale watching tours, how rough are the seas? My wife complains about sea sickness occasionally but is not super sensitive.

 

3) General advice on excursions would be appreciated. Fishing doesn't really appeal to us. Nature walking, wildlife, and history would.

 

thanks.

Since you like history, Juneau has the State Capitol building. You can go on a free tour.

Ketchikan has some neat trails right out of the downtown area, plus the SE discovery center ($5).

Read about the Klondike gold rush before your cruise --it puts so much into perspective and adds to both Ketchikan and Skagway.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013J01OUM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Floor-Heaven-Frontier-Yukon-ebook/dp/B004GTLFLO/ref=pd_sim_351_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=51hk8aq4koL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&refRID=0S6MD5FDNTFP06XYE07Z

This is a great web site for Ketchikan http://www.experienceketchikan.com/ketchikan-walking-tour.html

In Skagway we had to go on the train to the Yukon -- fabulous trip https://chilkootcharters.com/package/yukon-rail-bus/

In Juneau we went to the State Museum and on a whale watch and Mendenhall glacier trip with Orca Enterprises (not rocky at all) --this year we will go with Harv and Marv in a 6 person boat. If it's nice we will stay at Mendenhall and walk the trails --when we were there before it was pouring down!

Thanks to all for such great advice.

Alaskanb, which of the two books would you recommend over the other?

Any other comments welcome !

thanks.

We also have a car rented in Skagway, to drive over to the Yukon ourselves. We saved doing that so we could spend the bigger bucks elsewhere. [emoji4]

We have a whale watching booked with a private vendor (small boat) in Hoonah too.

I get motion sickness off and on, and my doc prescribed meclizine for me. I plan to take it for our small plane Flightseeing before the cruise and the whale watching. It really helped when I let our son talk me into the 'full experience' of the spacecraft ride at Epcot. [emoji15]

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Thanks to all for such great advice.

 

Alaskanb, which of the two books would you recommend over the other?

 

Any other comments welcome !

 

thanks.

I loved Pierre Berton's book.

Hi

I am interested in how you include pictures with your reply or posts. Could you advise me or point me in the correction direction for some assistance. I not too good with a computer but I would like to try this process for some future posts. You can email me if you like at sfaigle@aol.com

Many Thanks John

Hi

 

I am interested in how you include pictures with your reply or posts. Could you advise me or point me in the correction direction for some assistance. I not too good with a computer but I would like to try this process for some future posts. You can email me if you like at sfaigle@aol.com

 

 

Many Thanks John

Hi Adele

Thank you so much for your time & information. I will give this a try soon.

Happy Travels, John

Icy Strait Point would be great for whale watching! We were there a couple of weeks ago and just from the dock the whale watching was fantastic. We could see the excursion boats getting even closer to the whales.

In Skagway I would highly recommend taking the White Pass train, either on its own or as part of a longer excursion. The views are spectacular.

I'm not sure what ports you are stopping in, but if you go to Sitka I would suggest exploring the Sitka National Historical Park. No need to take an excursion, you can walk there from downtown.

In Juneau, I would suggest going to Mendenhall Glacier, again either on its own or part of an excursion. We enjoyed hiking out to Nugget Falls and also the Visitor's Center.

If I had to choose only two excursions I could do, it would be whale watching in Icy Strait Point and the train in Skagway. They are both expensive, but worth the price. Sitka and Ketchikan can easily be explored on their own, and in Juneau you can get to Mendenhall Glacier on bus/shuttle/taxi.

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab204/onespots/009_zpsof2etidx.jpg

These pictures are fabulous! Can you clue us in on what plane ride you took, where you saw all the bears, where you picked up the tram or ski lift...did you take the whale watching cruise from Celebrity or did you go on your own.

Thanks for sharing these--they are awesome!

Cindi