Skagway Dog Sledding & Glacier Flightseeing

This 2hr duration excursion thru RCCL is around 500pp. I was thinking since it gets canceled often b/c of weather, I'd want to book thru cruiseline so I wouldn't have to wait until off ship and contact someone to know if need to plan a backup.

Is there significant savings to booking outside the cruiseline? Or is this one of the excursions hard to book indepentantly b/c they fill spots with cruisers?

Thanks.

You have some faulty thinking. The cruiseline doesn't run the tour, a vendor does, where it makes NO difference how you book, if you are going to need back up plans.

The cruiseline gets no "advance" notice over an independent booking. All you have to do is call the vendor, if you want to keep up dated. But, you can be in line with a ship excursion and ready to go and still get a very last minute cancelation.

Frankly, you NEED to be prepared with back up planning, no matter how you book. NCL isn't going to make any plans for you.

There can be savings booking independent, depends what "significant" means to you??

There is one company that is completely independent, so they always have available space for independents, until they fill it. You have to inquire directly of the other two companies what their openings are for your day.

You have some faulty thinking. The cruiseline doesn't run the tour, a vendor does, where it makes NO difference how you book, if you are going to need back up plans.

 

The cruiseline gets no "advance" notice over an independent booking. All you have to do is call the vendor, if you want to keep up dated. But, you can be in line with a ship excursion and ready to go and still get a very last minute cancelation.

 

Frankly, you NEED to be prepared with back up planning, no matter how you book. NCL isn't going to make any plans for you.

 

There can be savings booking independent, depends what "significant" means to you??

 

There is one company that is completely independent, so they always have available space for independents, until they fill it. You have to inquire directly of the other two companies what their openings are for your day.

I would have some backups listed and phone numbers and would imagine calling as soon as docked and knew we were cancelled. Skagway seems to have many great options; I was going to shoot for the once in a lifetime glacier dogsledding.

Not sure how great my coverage will be and wasn't planning on paying ship cell phone rates. The cruiseline is RCCL. I thought they might have their phones up and running even when sailing so might get word out sooner to pax that their excusion thru soandso has been canceled b/c of weather; ahead of when I could find out.

Savings of 30% might be worth it but for $10/$20 more per person, I'd probably stay with booking with ship. A friend mentioned some vendors only ran thru the cruise for their attempt at a glacier dogsled experience so thought maybe some of those low capacity/high cost excursions might only go thru cruiseline.

Can you recommend a glacier dog sledding tour out of Skagway to book independently? I'll look them up and compare prices. I was hoping more for a 300pp experience instead of 500pp but don't want to cheap out, but there are 4 of us.......... Thanks.

There is only one company in Skagway, Temsco, we did it direct and saved some money enough so to make it worthwhile as we were a party of 5. I think 479/person, yes very pricey :eek: In a brief conversation with the front desk ladies they do reserve a huge number of their flights for cruiseship exclusive and only if they dont' sell out return them back. The have a limited number of independent slots, but they are limited!

IMHO I agree with BQ your thinking is flawed a bit. Book independent if they have a good time slot and save money. I would suggest early in the morning or late day if you are indeed worried about it getting canceled and getting stuck with no port plans. You can see what Temsco has availble direct, or get on the ship and try and lock down an early or late flight. Neither direct or thru the ship will be easier, they likely will take you to the port and at the last minute make a decision to cancel based on clouds/wind. Of course if its really nasty you'll know and it won't matter which way you book. The one advantage of booking thru the ship you don't pay till the end of the cruise versus direct where they bill you at booking.

You are correct it is often canceled, I tried to get a % from them and if morning or afternoon or whatever was best, they weren't talking. On our day we went first flight of the day it was perfect, all they would say was "you were luck you weren't here last week" :eek: So don't put all your hopes on this. I'm surprised if you are going this year that it will still be available. When we were there in July they were already sure it was going to be a short season, but its the weather so who knows. Don't dispair as flights seeing and landings should still be available.

One last thing, as a group of 4 you might get combined with another party of 2 as the chopper holds 6. That also means you'll share on the sledding, just be aware. If you go direct who knows you might get the whole tour for yourselves, we were luck in that with 5, there was only "one" additional space and we had the helicopter and two sleds to ourselves.

Good luck

This 2hr duration excursion thru RCCL is around 500pp. I was thinking since it gets canceled often b/c of weather, I'd want to book thru cruiseline so I wouldn't have to wait until off ship and contact someone to know if need to plan a backup.

 

Is there significant savings to booking outside the cruiseline? Or is this one of the excursions hard to book indepentantly b/c they fill spots with cruisers?

 

Thanks.

I would have some backups listed and phone numbers and would imagine calling as soon as docked and knew we were cancelled. Skagway seems to have many great options; I was going to shoot for the once in a lifetime glacier dogsledding.

 

Not sure how great my coverage will be and wasn't planning on paying ship cell phone rates. The cruiseline is RCCL. I thought they might have their phones up and running even when sailing so might get word out sooner to pax that their excusion thru soandso has been canceled b/c of weather; ahead of when I could find out.

 

Savings of 30% might be worth it but for $10/$20 more per person, I'd probably stay with booking with ship. A friend mentioned some vendors only ran thru the cruise for their attempt at a glacier dogsled experience so thought maybe some of those low capacity/high cost excursions might only go thru cruiseline.

 

Can you recommend a glacier dog sledding tour out of Skagway to book independently? I'll look them up and compare prices. I was hoping more for a 300pp experience instead of 500pp but don't want to cheap out, but there are 4 of us.......... Thanks.

As noted TEMSCO (initials) is the only company in Skagway. They also operate out of Juneau, along with ERA, and Coastal which is totally independent.

I suggest you compare all the costs, and determine what is your preference. All the Juneau companies tranport you to the airport, and some will cobook a whale watch, which is very important as it saves an hour in transit time.

TEMSCO in Skagway does not pick up. Their airport is located at the Ore Dock, where NCL can be. Docking schedules are posted online. There is SMART bus, or about a 20 min walk from the farthest boat on the Railroad dock.

On our day we went first flight of the day it was perfect, all they would say was "you were luck you weren't here last week" :eek: So don't put all your hopes on this. I'm surprised if you are going this year that it will still be available. When we were there in July they were already sure it was going to be a short season, but its the weather so who knows.

Thanks. How did you handle getting to the airport?

TEMSCO in Skagway does not pick up. Their airport is located at the Ore Dock, where NCL can be. Docking schedules are posted online. There is SMART bus, or about a 20 min walk from the farthest boat on the Railroad dock.

Thanks, we are coming in on RCCL ship next year mid June. Found a port schedule but only for 2010; using that as a guide, it has RCCL ship with "RRA" labeled beside it in Skagway. Does that tell me anything about location? 20 minute walk doesn't sound bad but more than that I guess we need to look into transportation.

I was thinking whale watching was a big excursion for Juneau so I'd rather any dog sledding glacier attempt be in Skagway.

We walked, it was further then we thought but we did start early enough. I didn't mind the walk, but it wasn't exactly scenic. I thought it rather cheap of the cruiseline to limit the pickup for direct bookings, seems to be a ploy if you ask me

Thanks. How did you handle getting to the airport?