Gastineau Gold Mine Tour

[Sail away MK]

Has anyone ever done the Gold mine tour in Juneau?  Hubby is interested but I'm not sure.  Yes we have been to Mendenhall 15 years ago and he wants to remember it the way it was.  Thank you for your input.

[donaldsc]

A couple of cruises ago we did the mine tour w our granddaughter.  It was very interesting and a good time was bad by all.

 

DON

[Northern Aurora]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

A couple of cruises ago we did the mine tour w our granddaughter.  It was very interesting and a good time was bad by all.

 

DON

 

I've actually met Don and his wife while on a cruise in Europe.  He has a very dry sense of humor.  So Don -- did you enjoy it or not?

[disneyochem]

We just did the tour last month.  Booked it independently (about $25 cheaper per person than through the cruise line!) with M&M Tours.  Caught a shuttle from the pier to the mine.    We arrived at the gold mine, had about a thirty minute mine tour, bused back down to a ‘mining camp’ for a short history lecture about the mine and then panned for gold.  There’s a small store there as well.  Afterwards we were taken back to the pier.  Took about three hours.

 

Would I recommend this tour?  No.  It’s still a pretty small operation that seems to be trying to enter the tourist market in Juneau.  The employees, while friendly, spent most of the laughing and joking amongst themselves; the two shuttle drivers got in an argument and were yellling at each other.  Our shuttle driver apologized to us for losing his temper, and yelling and cursing….  The mine tour was just a walk into the tunnel, the gentleman was very knowledgeable but was difficult to hear (no mic, large group of people who were talking).  He demonstrated how a couple of the mining tools worked.

 

The gold panning was meh (but they had seeded it was some gold)  and took about ten minutes.  We just stood around waiting for transport back to Juneau.  The mining camp was just a number of wooden store fronts painted to look like a town (the port a potties were located behind one of them).  The whole experience just seem amateurish and one of the worst tours we’ve ever been on.
 

My undergraduate degree is in geology so I’ve been on many mine tours.  I really wanted to like this tour but it wasn’t very good.  I just asked hubby if he would recommend it; he said no, save your money and time.

[donaldsc]

3 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

I've actually met Don and his wife while on a cruise in Europe.  He has a very dry sense of humor.  So Don -- did you enjoy it or not?

 

Typo 

1 hour ago, disneyochem said:

We just did the tour last month.  Booked it independently (about $25 cheaper per person than through the cruise line!) with M&M Tours.  Caught a shuttle from the pier to the mine.    We arrived at the gold mine, had about a thirty minute mine tour, bused back down to a ‘mining camp’ for a short history lecture about the mine and then panned for gold.  There’s a small store there as well.  Afterwards we were taken back to the pier.  Took about three hours.

 

Would I recommend this tour?  No.  It’s still a pretty small operation that seems to be trying to enter the tourist market in Juneau.  The employees, while friendly, spent most of the laughing and joking amongst themselves; the two shuttle drivers got in an argument and were yellling at each other.  Our shuttle driver apologized to us for losing his temper, and yelling and cursing….  The mine tour was just a walk into the tunnel, the gentleman was very knowledgeable but was difficult to hear (no mic, large group of people who were talking).  He demonstrated how a couple of the mining tools worked.

 

The gold panning was meh (but they had seeded it was some gold)  and took about ten minutes.  We just stood around waiting for transport back to Juneau.  The mining camp was just a number of wooden store fronts painted to look like a town (the port a potties were located behind one of them).  The whole experience just seem amateurish and one of the worst tours we’ve ever been on.
 

My undergraduate degree is in geology so I’ve been on many mine tours.  I really wanted to like this tour but it wasn’t very good.  I just asked hubby if he would recommend it; he said no, save your money and time.

 

3 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

I've actually met Don and his wife while on a cruise in Europe.  He has a very dry sense of humor.  So Don -- did you enjoy it or not?

 

Typo in my post.  We took our granddaughter on the tour.  She loved it and Carole and I enjoyed it.  Yes - we knew that the gold was seeded but it was still fun.  We did not have any of the issues that disneychem had,  The guides were interesting.  The shuttle drivers had no arguments with each other.  I have taken all of the grandkids to AK and did my last grandchild this summer.  The mine did not work out w our ship schedule and with the other tours we took in Juneau but I think he would have enjoyed it if we had done the tour.

 

Hi Northern Aurora.  Hope that you are doing well.  I think that we have done our next-to-last AK trip.  We are going to so oine next spring on Princess' 1st cruise of the season.  We have never done a really early AK cruise.

 

DON

[sherryf]

We did this tour about 10 years ago.  My husband is into history things, and he really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed it too, mostly because the guide was really good and made it interesting.

[Sail away MK]

Thank you all.  I think I'll book it

[tetleytea]

If you drive to Whistler, there's a better, cheaper mine tour on the Sea-to-sky highway.  The Britannia Mine museum.   The biggest trucks I have ever seen are there.