Klawock, Alaska, population 804.

[jonthomas]

We are off to Alaska again in September. Vancouver to LA.

 

O just cancelled a port and substituted Klawock, Alaska for it.

 

NO tours are available in this port.

 

Anyone been here? Anyone ever hear of it?

 

Nope not a joke. 

[patty1955]

5 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

We are off to Alaska again in September. Vancouver to LA.

 

O just cancelled a port and substituted Klawock, Alaska for it.

 

NO tours are available in this port.

 

Anyone been here? Anyone ever hear of it?

 

Nope not a joke. 

I have sort of the same problem on my Sept. cruise. They substituted a port and the new port doesn't have any excursions. Except it really does. Look up your cruise on Oceania's website without logging in. Look under excursions and choose Klawock as the port. There are 4 excursions and you'll have to call to book them. 

[jonthomas]

will do that...

 

but we have already used up our quote for booking in Ketchican and Port Rupert. 

 

thank you.

[jonthomas]

yes you are right there are 4 tours, with no prices.

 

hope to be able to walk about...as of now, it is still not ready for Visitors. 

 

we have a whale watch tour from Victoria, maybe it would be better from Klawock, if they get it organized in time.

 

We are on the sept 14 sailing. 

[patty1955]

1 minute ago, jonthomas said:

yes you are right there are 4 tours, with no prices.

 

hope to be able to walk about...as of now, it is still not ready for Visitors. 

 

we have a whale watch tour from Victoria, maybe it would be better from Klawock, if they get it organized in time.

 

We are on the sept 14 sailing. 

Yep, no prices unless you're logged in. Our Bermuda cruise is Sept. 18th. The excursions available for all the ports are different when I'm logged in and not logged it. I asked on social media if anyone know the price of the Newport excursion I'm interested in but got no reply. I hate to call just to ask the price, but if that's what I have to do, I guess I will. 

[AMHuntFerry]

I'm going from memory so please excuse any mistakes (I may have an old brochure...maybe later)...Klawock was supposed to be a new port in 2023 for some of the itineraries, and O was going to be its first cruise ship. Obviously that didn't happen and a different port was subbed for Klawock. It looks like they may now be ready for customers, but I would expect services to be very limited.
Edit: Hmm...Klawock instead of Wrangell. I like Wrangell, may like Klawock too...hmmm.

Edited February 17 by AMHuntFerry

[AMHuntFerry]

If you can't get prices from O, I found a June Seabourn cruise going to Klawock. They have three example activities: https://www.seabourn.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/a4n10a/4437
Klawock Highlights
Starting At $ 140

Taste of Klawock and Totem Park
Starting At $ 190
Prince of Wales Whale and Marine Mammal Quest
Starting At $ 200

I'm keeping an eye on May/June cruises (waiting for a potential conflict to be scheduled before selecting dates...sigh) and the Wrangell->Klawock switch affects at least one. Thanks for bringing this up!

 

Edited February 17 by AMHuntFerry

[Jim_Iain]

I'm on the same cruise.   This is our first Oceania cruise and finding a negative with Oceania.   We had a rather expensive excursion planned that cost us additional than our OBC.   Now I find there is no way to cancel and rebook something else.    So far Oceania has not cancelled the excursion and refunded so I guess I will have to call in on Monday.    

 

Just seems logical to a non-Oceania veteran that if you cancel a port and excursion it would automatically be refunded.

 

Does Oceania usually have a long wait time when you call in. 

[Snaefell3]

8 hours ago, jonthomas said:

NO tours are available in this port.

From  https://www.oceaniacruises.com/shore-excursions

• Prince of Wales Whale & Marine Mammal Quest (KLK-001)

• Taste of Klawock and Totem Park (KLK-002)

• River Hatchery and Lake Kayaking (KLK-003)

• Klawock Highlights Tour (KLK-004)

 

 

[jonthomas]

Thank you to all.

I'm ok with the new port.

But if I had booked a tour in Wrangel and it was cancelled, I would expect a refund without any issues.

The other issue I have is that O let us know in an email that they were dropping Wrangel because of berthing issues. Now I see that they planned to go to K if the port was finished on time. Seems shady.

[osandomir]

6 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

 

Does Oceania usually have a long wait time when you call in. 

When I call Oceania I usually choose the option for the customers booked through the TAs. Never had to wait too long for my call being answered. Also I’m trying not to call on Monday or right after the long weekend. 

Edited February 18 by osandomir

[Snaefell3]

10 hours ago, jonthomas said:

Thank you to all.

I'm ok with the new port.

But if I had booked a tour in Wrangel and it was cancelled, I would expect a refund without any issues.

The other issue I have is that O let us know in an email that they were dropping Wrangel because of berthing issues. Now I see that they planned to go to K if the port was finished on time. Seems shady.

Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence"

 

Submitted for perspective:  Vista was supposed to overnight in Norfolk on her March 16th voyage, but that was cancelled because of a "berthing conflict".  Seems they planned to use a berth which Carnival Sunshine has using for years on a day she had booked years ago.

[Jim_Iain]

9 hours ago, osandomir said:

When I call Oceania I usually choose the option for the customers booked through the TAs. Never had to wait too long for my call being answered. Also I’m trying not to call on Monday or right after the long weekend. 

 

I guess I will have to wait until Wednesday since this is a Holiday weekend.

[cluso]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I guess I will have to wait until Wednesday since this is a Holiday weekend.

 

Have you tried taking it out of your cart or cancelling the tour--both from your account?  I wasn't sure from your first post.

[basor]

Since your cruise isn't until Sept and you received the email on Friday before a 3 day weekend, I would wait until the middle of next week before assuming that O is not refunding your money, etc. 

[cluso]

12 hours ago, jonthomas said:

 

12 hours ago, jonthomas said:

The other issue I have is that O let us know in an email that they were dropping Wrangel because of berthing issues. Now I see that they planned to go to K if the port was finished on time. Seems shady.

 

Sorry about the repeat at the beginning of this.

Anyway, the first invoice I received for this cruise said:

"Schedule Change-Notification sent 6/8/23

Due to a berthing conflict, please note the call to Juneau has been replace with Wrangell."

 

They must use that phrase a lot.

 

 

[jonthomas]

Yes. I guess they use this phrase, no matter what the real reason is.

If they cancel Victoria, or Ketchikan,  we will be done  unless they do it post final pay,  that too is possible.

We booked whale watching out of Victoria but now that we will be in K, does anyone know if the whale watching is better there?

[Snaefell3]

3 hours ago, cluso said:

They must use that phrase ["berthing conflict"] a lot.

Two comments:

• The Juneau city government has decided they've got too many cruise ships coming, and are limiting berthing support.  Monterey did the same in '23.

• O has a history of not checking that a berth they plan to use isn't already booked by some other cruise line.

[Jim_Iain]

23 hours ago, cluso said:

 

Have you tried taking it out of your cart or cancelling the tour--both from your account?  I wasn't sure from your first post.

It isn't in the cart as I already paid for it.    When I go to the excursion there is no option to cancel.    The only thing I can do is book another excursion but of course my $600 OBC is showing fully used.  I will have to call in and have it credited.

[EJL2023]

7 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

It isn't in the cart as I already paid for it.    When I go to the excursion there is no option to cancel.    The only thing I can do is book another excursion but of course my $600 OBC is showing fully used.  I will have to call in and have it credited.

I just got off the phone with them. Booked 10 excursions and it took about 10 minutes. 

[cluso]

8 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

It isn't in the cart as I already paid for it.    When I go to the excursion there is no option to cancel.    The only thing I can do is book another excursion but of course my $600 OBC is showing fully used.  I will have to call in and have it credited.

 

Being O newbies, I guess we will be learning a lot on this first cruise.  🙄

[EJL2023]

1 minute ago, cluso said:

 

Being O newbies, I guess we will be learning a lot on this first cruise.  🙄

With excursions, always go through them. So much easier. 

[AMHuntFerry]

On 2/18/2024 at 1:21 PM, jonthomas said:

Yes. I guess they use this phrase, no matter what the real reason is.

If they cancel Victoria, or Ketchikan,  we will be done  unless they do it post final pay,  that too is possible.

We booked whale watching out of Victoria but now that we will be in K, does anyone know if the whale watching is better there?

The Victoria whale watching tends to be orca-centric. If I were a whale, I'd prefer nice, quiet Klawock to Victoria, but in reality it probably depends on current migration patterns over noisy ships/boats. 😉

[jonthomas]

Yes I agree with you...

The K environment would seem much more ideal. But that is human thinking. Who knows what the whales think.

We are booked for Victoria.

Would have to call O, to unbook one and book the other. Could end up being a mess. Probably just need to leave it alone.

[AMHuntFerry]

1 hour ago, jonthomas said:

Yes I agree with you...

The K environment would seem much more ideal. But that is human thinking. Who knows what the whales think.

We are booked for Victoria.

Would have to call O, to unbook one and book the other. Could end up being a mess. Probably just need to leave it alone.

Orcas are quite awesome even if they are petite.

I've done the cancel/book another shorex before (Sept 2023 Vancouver to LA as it happens) in order to trade kayaking for whale watching in Juneau. It was even more complicated since the kayaking was an O-Life shorex and the whales were not, so I also had to add an O-Life qualifying shorex elsewhere. O handled it just fine and I had my updated, itemized shorex pdf that day.

Short version - do what you want! 🙂

 

(Last little add-on...there are a bazillion companies in Victoria offering orca watching, so it should be easy to do DIY there)

Edited February 20 by AMHuntFerry
bazillion etc.