Are Cruise lines taking over Alaska?

[angeleyes27]

I booked an Alaska cruise and wanted to visit several places. Many of the ship's tours don't fit into the times that I need. I tried to see about visiting Saxman Village. Apparently you can only book through the cruise line. Same thing with a salmon bake I tried, a gold rush camp, tribal dances in Icy Strait, etc. Very sad that it has become a monopoly and you can't get to do these things unless you play their game.

 

 

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[DarkJedi]

When the mega-ships come in to port they pre-book so many slots that normal tour operators can not handle more than the ships need. Since that is a guaranteed income they also can not turn it down. I expect many smaller guides will shortly be out of business, my understandig is that it is already almost impossible to get tickets for most days on the Skagway train as well do to pre-books.

 

Imagine, 3-4 4,000+ passenger ships in port, that is upwards of 16,000 passengers that the cruise line is looking to sell excursions to.

[bUU]

Yet passengers continue to cruise these cruise line.

 

 

 

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[angeleyes27]

When I was in Costa Maya, Mexico, the streets outside of the immediate area of the port were slums. We went with a private tour and asked the guide what happened as someone said that there used to be restaurants and stores and the guide told us that the ships had bought everything out and tore them down.

 

 

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[CruiserBruce]

I booked an Alaska cruise and wanted to visit several places. Many of the ship's tours don't fit into the times that I need. I tried to see about visiting Saxman Village. Apparently you can only book through the cruise line. Same thing with a salmon bake I tried, a gold rush camp, tribal dances in Icy Strait, etc. Very sad that it has become a monopoly and you can't get to do these things unless you play their game.

 

 

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There isn't an unlimited supply of everything in Alaska. That includes tour guides and related personnel. There isn't an unlimited supply of helicopters for flights, boats for tours, buses for tours (in fact the cruise lines have brought in many buses, and own them), etc. So if you are in that business, do you go with pretty much guaranteed business from the ships excursion programs, or you say "no", and hope for the independent travelers?

 

Pretty straight forward business decision. I am sure there are any number of people who make most of their entire year's income in the short tourist season.

[angeleyes27]

I understand that they need to make money but the greed of the cruise lines in making sure they have the monopoly is sickening

 

 

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[TwinMamainMN]

If you book your trip well in advance, booking excursions is easier and you will find more availability. We booked all our excursions independently, and 3 of the out of 5 are private excursions, and the 4th one is a car rental in Juneau to do what we want. We didn't have any issue with the cruise lines having a monopoly on excursions, but we booked everything about 10 months ahead of our cruise.

[angeleyes27]

I don't understand why they can't have admission to Saxman Village for both the bus tours and some places for independents. Same with the Salmon bakes. Mt Roberts and Mendenhall glacier does it. Maybe it is different somehow.

 

 

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[DarkJedi]

I don't understand why they can't have admission to Saxman Village for both the bus tours and some places for independents. Same with the Salmon bakes. Mt Roberts and Mendenhall glacier does it. Maybe it is different somehow.

 

 

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Limited number of seats, limited number of shows, limited amounts of food.

 

Mt Roberts and Mendenhall are both government parks.

[oaktreerb]

I understand that they need to make money but the greed of the cruise lines in making sure they have the monopoly is sickening

 

2018 will see larger ships in Alaska and that means more tourists. The ships provide excursions to their passengers as part of their cruise experience. Most ships stop at Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway and those ports are very crowded. Some cruise lines with smaller ships are branching out to other ports like Haines, Sitka, Icy Strait, and others.

 

You don’t need an excursion to enjoy Alaska but you do need to get away from the shops and hike some trails which are free.

[bUU]

I understand that they need to make money but the greed of the cruise lines in making sure they have the monopoly is sickening

If there is any greed it is on our part, as passengers, willing to enjoy the offerings of the cruise line at prices supported only by the business practices that you're criticizing. The cruise line is just making rational business decisions.

 

We passengers are supposed to be human beings making decisions that factor in moral considerations.

 

Before casting aspersions, you really should be sure that you're not casting them on yourself.

 

 

I don't understand why they can't have admission to Saxman Village for both the bus tours and some places for independents.

As others have pointed out, there is limited capacity. When there is limited capacity, it is better for those who visit the attraction to have capacity controls to ensure their experience is not seriously adversely affected by unchecked patronage. No one wants to end up having to stand in the Beaver Clan House. Imagine the chest beating that would go on! "I paid $XX and had to stand to watch the show because they let too many people in!"

 

When other people post complaints such as yours, often I think they're really saying is that they feel entitled to have a way that they think will allow them to pay less than what other people are willing to pay to visit the attraction. What "I don't understand" is that presumption that they somehow are entitled to a way to pay less than others pay.

 

That sense of entitlement is baseless, of course: Their house; their rules. Given that the attraction, in these cases, has decided that the charge the cruise lines assess is appropriate, so much so that they've contractually agreed to limit the attraction to those taking cruise line excursions, they'd charge that amount to walk-ins and those using private excursion operators, as well. Indeed, some of the complaints similar to yours are not about the outright limitation of the attraction to cruise excursions, but sometimes speculation that the attraction has agreed to charge walk-ins and those using private excursion operators the same as those taking the cruise line excursion, or about a public indication by an attraction that they have done so.

Edited April 9, 2018 by bUU

[newcruiser1956]

I understand that they need to make money but the greed of the cruise lines in making sure they have the monopoly is sickening

 

 

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Greed? They are making sure the people on their ships are able to have a fun time. It is not a monopoly, the companies offering the events are able to say yes or no. They choose to say yes to large groups guaranteeing them an income. Why not Blame all the people on the cruise ships for wanting to take excursions.

[bUU]

It is not a monopoly...

Claims of "monopoly" are so far from reasonable in this case as to be be barely worth responding to, but since you did, let's dig into it a bit. A monopoly exists only when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity. NYSE:RCL, NYSE:CCL, NASDAQ‎:NCLH, private:MSC S.A., private:ACL, etc., all offer Alaska cruises, so there is nowhere close to monopoly in the Alaska cruise market.

[F22mom]

when I will be in Juneau I want to go on the Mt Roberts Tramway. I heard the cruise lines have special price tickets. Is that true or do you have to have an excursion booked there. Yes i am seeing an monopoly going Alaska and I haven't gotten off the ship.I will be sailing on The Eurodam on May 19th

[DarkJedi]

No excursion needed for the tram. from the office $34 for an all day ticket.

[kerry1379]

I have booked 5 excursions so far for our upcoming Alaskan cruise (June 2018) and not one of them did I book through the cruise line. I reached out to the exact vendor I wanted and was able to book directly through them. Some I booked as soon as their 2018 bookings opened, one I booked just yesterday. So I have not experienced what the OP has.

[Coral]

Pick one of the one way cruises, the times in ports (at least with Princess) are pretty good. I had the worst times in port with RCCL on a RT out of Vancouver cruise, I couldn't do anything.

 

The main thing to do is look at times before you book. Too many don't and have awful 2-10 in Juneau where you can barely do much.

 

Or better, pick one of the speciality lines Uncruise or some of the other ones.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Coral

[JT1962]

We used only independent vendors in May last year and had no issues booking. I know more and larger ships are cruising Alaska this year. As others have said, it is a limited supply / high demand issue. It sounds like a great time to open up an excursion business in Alaska.

 

 

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[Coral]

We used only independent vendors in May last year and had no issues booking. I know more and larger ships are cruising Alaska this year. As others have said, it is a limited supply / high demand issue. It sounds like a great time to open up an excursion business in Alaska.

 

 

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Also, the ships arriving are larger. I have always tried to use independent vendors also.

[aknursemom]

I don't understand why they can't have admission to Saxman Village for both the bus tours and some places for independents. Same with the Salmon bakes. Mt Roberts and Mendenhall glacier does it. Maybe it is different somehow.

 

 

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I think you can go to the village regardless. Not sure about the native dancing. But if if it's the totems you're interested in, you can get in to see those. Will you be in Anchorage at all? The Alaska Native center is a great place to visit and they have dancing there, too.

[bUU]

One other thought. Many years ago there were concerns expressed in Alaska that portions of it will be taken over by oil drilling companies. Alaskans had no problem taking that into hand and doing what they felt was right for themselves. If such Provisions were deemed it necessary they would have already been put in place. Alaskans would not be shy about that.

 

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[wolfie11]

The cruise crowds aren't really a big deal for Alaskans. I lived in Juneau near downtown and unless you go into the "gift shop zone" that stretches about 6 blocks long and 3 blocks wide near the docks, you would hardly know they're in town if it weren't for the buses driving around. Alaskan who aren't involved in the cruise industry aren't interested in the "zone" and generally have no reason to go there so we really don't care. Same thing in Ketchikan, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Haines, and Sitka.

[angeleyes27]

I just wanted to see the totems basically. I don’t mind that there may be certain things that only cruise ship passengers have access to and that is fine. I also would have paid the price as well but my main problem is that we only had so little hours in the ports and they put the times at the middle of the port time so that there was no time at all to see anything else in the port. I may be able to work out some of this though. That being said in some other areas other than Alaska, I have seen prices on shore excursions jacked up a lot. In one, we paid $100 for the same tour that the ship was offering for $299. Another we paid $225 for what the ship offered at $700. Not sure why but I doubt that the vendor gets the difference. The ones we looked at for Alaska (non flightseeing, not helicopters, etc) were okay in price but timing was bad for us. We like to see the little guy stay in business and believe me, I have no problem with those who need to make sure that they have a steady income

 

 

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[angeleyes27]

We won’t be in Anchorage and I basically wanted to see totems and a clan house. I will pay admission fee ( not looking for anything for free or to cheat anyone) just basically wanted to walk around and see totems and a clan house but also be able to see a bit of the town.

 

 

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[wolfie11]

Angeleyes, as far as I know (at least last year) you could take the city but out to Saxman Village and pay the entry fee to go in and see the totems. I don't know if the dancing and clan house are included, but the problem with going on your own is that the bus only runs once an hour, so if you miss the bus, you have to wait almost an hour for the next. I believe there are a number of vendors who offer private tours that include Saxman Village if you want to check with them. For example, the Trolley Tour (1.5 hours) goes to Saxman and stops long enough for you to learn about/take pictures of the totems and, of course, visit the gift shop. If you are just looking to see some totem poles, you can take the funicular up to Cape Fox lodge. They have a nice but small collection there. There is very little in the way of savings between private tours and ship excursions in Alaska. The season is short and the demand is high. Quite frankly, if someone offered me a float plane or helicopter tour for hundreds less than the shore excursion price, I would want to see the pilot's log, a recent Certificate of Airworthiness, and would demand to inspect the aircraft myself!