What to do in Alaska

[dyddles]

My husband and I are taking a cruise to Alaska in July 2012. We will be stopping in Haines, Juneau and Ketchican. We want to be able to leave Alaska and say we saw the beauty of each city. Does anyone have any good shore excursions they can recommend? Either with the cruise line or otherwise. We are sailing Princess for this trip.

 

So many times we have arrived at a port and just walked in the small shopping area by the docks. I feel we have traveled all that way and not seen all that there was to offer.

 

Price is not a concern right now but the $500-$600 Helicopter trips may be a little out of our budget.

 

Any goods options you may have will be looked into. Thanks!

[dustyroad]

where do we start ??. first, have you done any research about alaska and your cruise ???. go too the carnival site and look at the excursions. there are many of them too choose from. i use the independent tour guides in alaska. they are very reliable, cheaper, less crowded and more personal than the ships tours.

 

my favorites are flight seeing over the fjords in ketchikan along with totom bite for the totom poles and beauty of the park. whale watching in junea along with mendanhall glacier. there are wonderful tours from haines plus you can catch the ferry and go too skagway for riding the train, gold panning, glacier landing and going up the white pass summet by vehichle. keep reading the post here you will find out about hundreds of things too do.

[mapleleaves]

Why not visit the library and pick up a few travel books on Alaska, like Frommers or Fodors. There are even a few books specific to cruises which offer descriptions and recommendations for excursions. If the cruise books aren't at the library, buy a copy. An investment of $20 is an insignificant cost. You can spend big bucks on expensive excursions or you can do free walking tours of Ketchikan plus a city bus to the totem parks, $14 shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. But in order to learn about the options you need to research.

[vbmom87]

To see the beauty of Alaska I recommend you get away from the towns.

 

I have not been to Haines, but some do take the fast ferry over to Skagway and either rent a car to drive the Klondike Highway or take one of the White Pass Railroad tours with the train up and the bus down. This is a very, very scenic tour that gets you into the wilderness of Alaska. We took the train all the way to Carcross which included Lake Bennett..just gorgeous scenery both up and down. Here is the tour company we used:

 

http://www.chilkootcharters.com/

 

I have read of people renting a car in Haines. Do some searches on this forum for Haines as well as check out the shore excursion list for your cruise. That will give you an idea of the highlights of Haines.

 

 

For Juneau, if you don't take the dog mushing tours, the helicopter tours over the glaciers will be less expensive than what you are quotiing. If you have enough time in Juneau, there is the Adventure Bound tour to Tracy Arm Fjord. This is an amazing all day tour with majestic scenery.

 

http://www.adventureboundalaska.com/

 

For Ketchikan you could take a Misty Fjords boat or floatplane tour. The only boat tour I have found is through the ship. It gets very good reviews.

Others like to go see the totems at Totem Bight Historical Park (google it). Many really enjoy the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour. Some like to Kayak in Ketchikan.

 

Definitely lots you can to so experience the beauty of Alaska in your ports. Good luck with your planning.

[bearsmama]

When I started looking in to each port on our cruise I felt like there where more tours offered then rides at Disneyland. Very over whelming.

We narrowed it down to the MUST DO in Alaska for our family. We where on a budget so the dog sled and Helicopter to the to of an ice glacier was unfortunately out. ( I really wanted to do the dog sled tour, maybe net time)

 

Fishing was a MUST for my hubby and son. Ketchikan was the spot to fish, they even have a sign in town " the Salmon capital of the world"

We loved the Whale watching tour in Juneau and the Ice Glacier in Tracy Arm was breath taking.

Hope this helps get you started.

[dyddles]

When I started looking in to each port on our cruise I felt like there where more tours offered then rides at Disneyland. Very over whelming.

We narrowed it down to the MUST DO in Alaska for our family. We where on a budget so the dog sled and Helicopter to the to of an ice glacier was unfortunately out. ( I really wanted to do the dog sled tour, maybe net time)

 

Fishing was a MUST for my hubby and son. Ketchikan was the spot to fish, they even have a sign in town " the Salmon capital of the world"

We loved the Whale watching tour in Juneau and the Ice Glacier in Tracy Arm was breath taking.

Hope this helps get you started.

 

 

What time of year is the whale watching season in Alaska? :confused:

[Budget Queen]

What time of year is the whale watching season in Alaska? :confused:

 

Humpbacks are seen the entire Alaska cruise season.

[Budget Queen]

I suggest you do your port homework, Find out the gems in each, there are hundreds of excellent tours to consider. Head to your library, get Alaska By Cruiseship, Ports of Call- Fodor's Alaska, etc.

 

Don't be in ANY rush to make the choices now, or book, until you have rehashed it over and over. It is very common to get all gung ho, jump into bookings, then keep reading, finding something better, cancelation fees etc etc.

 

Get the entire itinerary together, first. 2012 is a LONG way off. I don't have all my reservations in place and I'm going in May/June, this year.

[Orlando Vic]

Yes, more self research is needed. If you are spending hundreds of dollars on your cruise, invest a few bucks more and get a book like Fodor's Alaska Ports of Call 2011 or something similar.

[chipmaster]

Research, research, research!!1

 

You got the boards like this, you got the excursion list from the cruiseline, you got "google"

 

Then there are the traditional "books" from the library and bookstore you can buy but in this day and age sometimes loaded with pages and information that may or may not be relevant.

 

DO NOT just roll of the ship and do the shopping unless you are on a budget that allows no spending. Even than some research and a little walking will yield some good stuff besides Made in China souveniors :D

 

Juneau: whale watch and Mendenhall glacier for 100-150 bucks

Skagway: Train, time around the town for 100 or so bucks

Ketchikan: Many options from 150 bucks and change for flight seeing to less are on the list of many.

 

Happy researching!

 

My husband and I are taking a cruise to Alaska in July 2012. We will be stopping in Haines, Juneau and Ketchican. We want to be able to leave Alaska and say we saw the beauty of each city. Does anyone have any good shore excursions they can recommend? Either with the cruise line or otherwise. We are sailing Princess for this trip.

 

So many times we have arrived at a port and just walked in the small shopping area by the docks. I feel we have traveled all that way and not seen all that there was to offer.

 

Price is not a concern right now but the $500-$600 Helicopter trips may be a little out of our budget.

 

Any goods options you may have will be looked into. Thanks!

[bbwex]

I cannot give you definitive information for all possibilities, but I will tell you what we did, and what we thought of it.

 

In Haines, we took the fast ferry to Skagway and took Dyea Dave's tour to Emerald Lake. The guide/driver was excellent, the scenery different than other areas (up close and personal with granite mountains). The old Cinnamon Cache bakery/restaurant is now closed -- it was quaint. The stop in Carcross was OK, it is a very poor town, so there isn't much to do. Of all the tours we took and did, this was the one that made the least impression on me, but bear in mind that Alaska offers so much that this might be a relative thing.

 

In Juneau, we went whale watching first thing upon arrival and it was awesome. We used Harv and Marv, and they can be equaled but would be hard to beat. The guide was fantastic, and I liked the small boat and opportunity to talk with him a lot. The whales were incredible -- we actually saw so many that I finally stopped taking pictures. Tons of eagles too. We then had a one-hour glacier trek with Northstar Trekking. It is expensive -- about $350 or so per person, but we felt that we are there once, and there would not be many more opportunities to do it. To me, it was well worth it. The view of the glacier from the helo is itself a very different view, and the trek, though we chose a short one, certainly gave you enough time to see what it is like, hear some interesting information, and walk around a little. It was a rainy day, and that sort of argued against thinking we should have had the longer trek. This all made for a long day, but one that was unforgettable.

 

In Ketchikan we took Island Wings' flight to Misty Fjords, which includes a landing on a small lake and time to stretch your legs on a minute island in the lake. This too gave us a different view of the carving of the land by the glaciers -- leaving one lake at one altitude and another hundreds of feet above it! Michelle was fantastic.

 

One other thing I think I have to mention. We took the Kenai Fjords tour out of Seward. That was perhaps one of the very best tours we took. Getting up close and personal with a glacier was incredible. On a cruise ship you don't get any closer than a mile away, and you are not able to hear the noises that the glacier makes at that distance, nor are you able to see as much calving since you don't stay still that long. Being on a 100-passenger boat gives you a very different perspective on the glaciers. You also see lots of wildlife -- birds, seals, sea lions, etc.

 

I suggest lots of lurking on the Alaska board to get a sense of what you want to do.

[BlueBerry Picker]

What time of year is the whale watching season in Alaska? :confused:

 

May - Semtember Allen Marine tour that we went on "guarantee's you will see a whale or a $100 refund"

We where there in the peek season, July.