When will they tell you if excursion is cancelled AK

[Kohara]

Specifically in Alaska where weather in unpredictable, how soon will you know if excursion is a no go. Have a seaplane tour at 8:30 am will be in port at 7am. Booked through cruise, will they contact me or is it something I need to ask about? I don't to wait until our meeting time to discover it was cancelled when I could,d find something else to do. NCL

[punkincc]

Specifically in Alaska where weather in unpredictable, how soon will you know if excursion is a no go. Have a seaplane tour at 8:30 am will be in port at 7am. Booked through cruise, will they contact me or is it something I need to ask about? I don't to wait until our meeting time to discover it was cancelled when I could,d find something else to do. NCL

 

If you don't get responses here, you might ask your question on the Alaska board. I have done Alaska with NCL, but all our excursions were with outside vendors. Unless it is a case of a very bad storm, or very bad visibility, I doubt you will get much advance notice. Weather changes very quickly and the tour operator ( not NCL ) will want to wait as long as possible to see if conditions improve rather than cancel unnecessarily.

 

My guess is that most tours in Alaska go rain or shine, even the ones involving a flight.

Edited July 29, 2015 by punkincc

[gatorliz99]

They will cancel right up until take off... if the weather is truly awful they will let you know earlier, but if things are iffy they will wait as long as possible in hopes that you will be able to go on the excursion. In Ketchikan (is that where your seaplane is?), there are a number of tour operators set up right at the dock so you can find other options if your excursion is cancelled.

[www3traveler]

When and where is seaplane excursion? Weather can be an issue at any time of the season and some ports are more difficult than others.

 

Shore Excursions will try to give you as much notice as possible. All of the ports have lots of things to see and do depending on the weather.

[punkincc]

One piece of advice you will see often for Alaska is to always have a back up plan. If your sea plane to the Misty Fijords is grounded, you can maybe get on the boat tour. We did that one, and the weather was truly miserable. Cold, rain and wind. But that's Alaska, right? We just put on our waterproof pants and windbreakers and away we went!

[GORDONCHICK]

You might or might not get much notice, but I'd say usually not with flightseeing. It's based on weather and they really doesn't want to cancel if they don't have to.- it's their income. They will always hope and pray for the weather to clear up even if its at the last minute.

[Budget Queen]

There "may" be advance notice, but the cancellation can happen as late as already being on the flight. So, sorry, you are going to have to invest all this time with this tour.

 

Figure out now, your back up plan, and have the contact information with you. Weather can and does change very quickly, so there usually is little advance notice.

[Budget Queen]

They will cancel right up until take off... if the weather is truly awful they will let you know earlier, but if things are iffy they will wait as long as possible in hopes that you will be able to go on the excursion. In Ketchikan (is that where your seaplane is?), there are a number of tour operators set up right at the dock so you can find other options if your excursion is cancelled.

 

They actually will cancel in flight. I have personally have had this happen.

[zqvol]

Specifically in Alaska where weather in unpredictable, how soon will you know if excursion is a no go. Have a seaplane tour at 8:30 am will be in port at 7am. Booked through cruise, will they contact me or is it something I need to ask about? I don't to wait until our meeting time to discover it was cancelled when I could,d find something else to do. NCL

 

 

You might not find out about that one until right at 8:30 since it is weather dependent. Unfortunately the AK with is constantly changing and you have to be prepared to roll with the punches, especially for things involving flights. You really don't want to meet a mountain head on in the fog.

[bonvoyagie]

It is not just flightseeing tours that can be canceled - we were on the Pearl and scheduled the Tracy Arm Excursion. This tour leaves just after the one on the Jewel. That captain reported very rough conditions getting to Tracy Arm as a squall went overhead. They came on the bus and announced that the tour may not go and that we could get off and get our money back or take another excursion. No one took them up on it and we proceeded to the dock, there we were told we may not reach the glacier and there were going to be some rough waters. Again no one backed out so we boarded the boat and took off - the squall passed in a few minutes and we had a wonderful trip - got to see both glaciers and still made it back to Juneau on time.