JULIE A A

Mountain Flying Service was great to work with. We had already planned a full day in Skagway with a rental car driving up the Yukon Highway and they were willing to schedule our flight in the evening so we didn't have to rush back. (We were in port until 9 pm.)

 

When we booked, it was just the four of us but when we arrived at the airport there were two others who had booked separately and joined us for the flight. Each person had a window seat so even with 6 the views were great. I got the impression that they would have done the flight even with just the four of us.

 

We had hoped to do the longer flight over the West Arm of Glacier Bay National Park (where the ship sails), but Paul (the pilot) was unable to get over the mountain pass due to low clouds and snow. The one hour flight over the East Arm that we did still took us over several different glaciers.

 

You can get a better idea of what we saw by looking at the photos on my blog: My Souvenir Memories. There is also a link on the blog post to a video of our flight that I put on YouTube. (This trip was my first attempt at video so don't be too critical. ;)) You can see from the video that the airport runway was literally right next to where our ship docked so it was convenient.

Awesome :) Right or left side of the plane better? I like to sit a bit further forward (but not co-pilots seat) to avoid the reflections. Recommendations on camera gear - I shoot canon and guessing wide on one body and zoom on the other? Any other advice??? Thank you for your suggestions so far :) So excited - we leave Australia on Friday!

I felt like we hit the jackpot on wildlife on our Alaska cruise this past May...bears, otters, seals, sea lions, puffins, and many, many eagles. But...the best of all...whales breaching and bubble net feeding right next to the ship! I think it was a combination of luck and lots of time spent looking but I don't think it would be fair to say that there is less wildlife to be viewed in May. Here are some photos from our cruise...

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly...if you want a different view of glaciers, consider flying OVER Glacier Bay. We booked a flight with Mountain Flying Service out of Skagway and were in awe of the sheer magnitude of the glaciers...so much more impressive than just viewing them from the water.

 

AryMay - your photos are spectacular and I didn't realise there was a flight option over Glacier Bay! Thank you so much for that information as I am now considering trading another excursions for this opportunity :) Was there a minimum to book or set flight times?

I will be getting off the ship (Coral Princess?) the day you are boarding. Our ability to book shore excursions through cruise personaliser have now closed, as it is within 5 days before sailing. I would go through what they offer and book soon before they close online bookings - you can always cancel them when you board. Same applies for specialty restaurants and other online reservations. Enjoy :)

You say they didn't see ANY glaciers? I understand Glacier Bay was fogged in, but they should still have been able to visit other glaciers such as Mendenhall in Juneau?

I'll be there in 2 weeks and understand the risks of bad weather (especially September) but over the entire cruise/land tour I am hopeful to see some glaciers, pretty scenery, wildlife and even the Northern Lights! Its about the entire 3 weeks holiday, not just the 3 hours inside Glacier Bay.

Thanks Northern Aurora - that site is easier for me to use as its in celsius already :) Looks like I'll be needing that extra jacket in Fairbanks mid-September!

Thank you! Love the search by city and month ahead forecast, even if it is only accurate 50% of the time :) Thank you :)

When considering flights from Fairbanks, we were advised to book all of our international travel at the same time so that you get the international luggage allowance included - otherwise you will be restricted to 10kg or so with the Fairbanks leg of the journey. By booking all the legs at once we have 2 x 23kg each for all our trip - but it does also mean using partner airlines (i.e. Air Canada with Alaskan Airlines). The cheap flights are certainly midnight-1am but there are plenty earlier, just watch for connecting flight times or you will lose the savings in airfare on hotels and taxi's instead!

We too have Labor Day whilst in Ketchikan this year but have been informed that all tourist activities & shops will be open on that day, and shuttles etc still covered for entirety of our land tour which concludes mid-september this year. The only tourist event I found not open is the Salmon Bake & Theatre in Fairbanks which closes 8th September. The local markets in Fairbanks have their last day the weekend we finish the tour. We chose to stay 5 days after the tour, leaving Fairbanks 20th September in the hopes of seeing the Northern Lights and celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary at Chenna Hot Springs.

Enjoy the planning and research - ours was 2 years of planning (and saving) and starts in just 2 weeks!

Thanks - interesting thread and some excellent suggestions :)

I'm assuming you mean Sydney in Canada and not Sydney in Australia??? Australian taxi's all accept credit cards but cannot answer for Canada sorry.

Thanks :)

We did it again - booked a cruise to be in port during a public holiday.

Does anyone know what will be open in Ketchikan on Labour Day (Monday 4th September 2017)? Will the main souvenir shops and tourist attractions be open? Is there a surcharge for services on public holidays?

Thank you TinaLC - very much appreciated. Sounds very reasonable :)

Any idea what I should tip for a $400 aurora photography tour with 8 other paying clients? Or a $500+ helicopter flight & glacier hike excursion?

Tipping is a foreign concept to me (from Australia) but I am doing a cruise/land tour to Alaska and don't want to offend anyone by under tipping. Can you please offer some advice - internet search on tipping etiquette is confusing at best.

When and how much to tip? Is it everyone or just service staff (restaurants, taxi/bus & tour providers & hotels). Is there an easy calculator/phone app or formula to use? Some have suggested 3 x GST but that in itself is confusing as GST is different depending on which part of Canada you are in (5% or 12%). Do I still tip on the cruise if I have pre-paid them? The land component does not include tips, nor do the shore excursions I believe. Who do I tip? And how much?

I tipped a guy in Kenya - thinking I was giving him a generous $15 tip, turns out I gave him $150 (calculated the exchange rate very wrong - he wasn't that good!) I'm not trying to rip people off, I am a fairly generous person but can't afford to give all my money away either. I need to budget a reasonable 'baseline' and then increase or decrease depending on quality of service. Any advice welcomed. Thank you.

That would be most frustrating and upsetting. I was booked on the Princess Salmon fishing excursion from Ketchikan for my upcoming cruise in September but cancelled it yesterday (not because of your review but I had read you don't really fish, but reel the fish in after it has already been hooked). I'm glad they found an alternative excursion they were happy with, but still bad customer service from Princess! Makes you wonder doesn't it :/

Glad I downloaded the patters when I did then!

:) Yes I did. Sorry I didn't read who was posting. A link to the menus was included on the same post - use the link above

Here is the original post - from June 2017

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2508384

I downloaded the patters from a recent northbound coral princess cruise - do not have the link anymore but if you send me your email address I can forward them to you. The original post had menus as well but did not download them unfortunately.

Email sent - 24mb so let me know if it comes through ok.

Thanks do you think you could repost the link somehow I am worried it expired but we really want to see before our cruise in a few weeks!

 

 

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Nope, sorry. Do you have an email I can send them to? I downloaded them from this link earlier successfully and have them saved on my desktop as PDF's

Not sure this will work but will try:

Rich indeed! And while bank fees are highly predictable, had I thought it through a little better, I would be a little less poor :P

Thank you for that explanation - worth considering! Yes I'm travelling from Australia to US and was considering locking good conversion rates in now with my travel card, for spending. A little too late though as I have already paid for my cruise and land tour, shore excursions & even gratuities with my credit card getting hit for fees and bad conversion rates! Slow learner... but better to stop the fees from now on!

Can someone please explain the value in buying OBC? Is $1 = $1 OBC?

Fantastic review... See you tomorrow :)