Is Misty Fjords Flight Worth It?

[lucyjohnz]

We're doing two expensive shore excursions for the 4 of us in Alaska and haven't set anything up in Ketchikan yet. We thought about doing the Crabfeed and Crab dinner but $140/pp seems outrageous for that particular excursion. However, the Misty Fjords flight is about $200/pp - is it worth it? Our other excursions are Helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier (land on it and walk around for 15 minutes) in Juneau and the Wheeled Dogsled in Skagway.

[stephenandrew]

I hope so--we are scheduled to go in two weeks with Island Wings. I can let you know when we get back!

[tadjr]

I would vote with a yes it was worth it. It was the one big excursion I did this year and would do it again in a heartbeat. I only wish it had been a longer trip. I used SeaWind and Steve was great. Definitely a thumbs up from me.

[JeannetteC]

I'm probably the only person who will tell you that I was disappointed by the Misty Fjords trip. The scenery was beautiful but not uniquely "Alaskan." There are mountains and mountains of green trees, fjords and granite walls. I thought it was expensive for what it was. We had great weather and our pilot was wonderful. But, the sled dogging and other glacial helicopter trips were far better. My husband felt the same way. Ketchikan was our last stop so something more physical (canoeing or hiking) would have been a good change of pace.

[sljwilli]

If you are going with Michele and Island Wing it is definitely worth it. It was the excursion that made us decide we wanted to return to Alaska without a cruise this year. It is wonderful!

 

Sandra

Harlingen, Texas

[AGonzalez]

I would definitely recommend it. We travelled with a group of eleven. Everyone agreed that the Misty Fjords excursion was the highlight of the trip. We used Carlin Air.

[StillLooking4Adventure]

I went on the trip with Michelle and it was great. However, If you have to choose between this and doing the helicopter dogsled trip with TEMSCO in Skagway, I would do the dogsled in Skagway. It is an amazing experience riding those sleds with the dogs pulling you across the ice. Lots of fun too!!! It really makes you hold the Iditarod mushers in awe after doing it yourself.

[Budget Queen]

It is a tough cost choice. BUT all are very worthwhile. I have flown Misty Fjords with Southeast Aviation, Carlin Air and Island Wings, but have glacier helicopter landed 6 times, canceled twice with glacier dog sledding- but did the real thing twice in winter. :) SO go with what your budget will allow. There are plenty of regrets for these great tours- life is short. :)

[cruisequilter]

We just got back last night from the Island Princess. Did Misty Fjords floatplane through ship, used Promech Air. It was a great trip--my husband wasn't sure I would like the small plane so we didn't pre-book until we reached the ship. Afterwards, he said it was the highlight of the trip and he was glad we didn't miss it. The scenery is awe-some, truly, and the 75 minutes sped by. Landing on a lake 1800 ft above sea level, surrounded by huge mountains, waterfalls roaring straight down, and all that serenity--it's a great trip.

 

Budget Queen is so right--for what the trip costs to go that far, be sure you see the things you really want to see. You can shop anywhere--that is not the highlight of an Alaskan adventure. We were not able to see much in Fairbanks, Denali, or Mt Mckinley Lodge because of the smoke from distant fires but we saw enough to know we must go back--the tours through Princess were very well done--the guides/bus drivers were all excellent and we learned a lot. We also learned enough to be confident about planning the next interior trip on our own. DO NOT plan on renting a car without advance reservations--this is peak time in Alaska and vehicle rentals are reserved well in advance.

 

We also left someone behind--in Juneau. A couple didn't make it back on time and after being called for several times, the ship left--they were seen on the pier walking back as the ship left port. That was our early day, we left port at 4 p.m.

 

I'll write more when I'm unpacked and rested--it was a great trip and we loved the Island! Service was super--we booked an open booking to help with the feeling of withdrawal.

[ukcruisefan]

We chose the Misty Fjords with Michelle and Island Wings...well worth the trip. We would go with Michelle again but next time hope to add the bear watching and go later in the summer.

[55HudsonMet]

We had the opportunity to fly with Michelle from Island Wings during our trip the first week in June. The trip was spectacular. The scenery was breathtaking and Michelle has an IPOD full of music to choose from to listen to during your flight. Landing on a lake and standing on shore in such a remote area certainly added to the Alaska experience.

 

I will agree with a previous poster that having to decide between this tour and dogsledding would be a challenge. We went with TEMSCO in Skagway and had an outstanding trip as well.

 

Our shore excursion bill (White Pass RR and whale watching with Capt Larry as well) approached the cost of a caribbean cruise, but I can say we returned from Alaska with no regrets.

[unvrknow]

We just came back from Alaska and we did the Misty Fjord Float Plane with Island Wings. Michelle is unbelievable, we had a great time. I highly reccomend her. Alaska is fantastic, have a great time. By the way we also did Dog Mushing with Temsco and whale watching with Capt. Larry, they also were great excursions.

[Plut0]

Lucyjohnz,

We did the Misty Fjord in Ketchikan with Southeast aviation. We used a toursaver coupon and went 2 for 1. Our pilot was Jim and he did a great job. While I loved the trip, my son did not care for it too much. He indicated that the scenary was not as nice as some of the other scenary we had seen on our trip.

 

I thought that the scenary was great, landing on the lake was great and also taking off right along side of the cruise ship was pretty cool. I would recommend the trip. One note that the pilot told us was that many of the amazing waterfalls were created by melting snow whic may not be available in late August/early September.

[lucyjohnz]

We are leaving Friday for our July 16-23 cruise. Unfortunately, it looks like the start of the rainy season in Alaska will begin just in time for our cruise. I am so bummed. What we'll do is see if our helicopter ride to Mendenhall glacier gets cancelled on Sunday at 5pm. If it does, we'll definitely try to do the Misty Fjords flight on Wed.

 

I hope we're not in for a week of un-ending rain but I'll go ahead and pack for it and hope we get to see the sun occasionally.

 

Thanks for all the great advice.

[diego]

unvrknow-

How far in advance did you book your excursions?

I'm interested in the same ones that you chose.

The only one that I'm stuck on is choosing between whale watching w/ Capt. Larry or the glacier trek.

[showmeguy100]

We're doing two expensive shore excursions for the 4 of us in Alaska and haven't set anything up in Ketchikan yet. We thought about doing the Crabfeed and Crab dinner but $140/pp seems outrageous for that particular excursion. However, the Misty Fjords flight is about $200/pp - is it worth it? Our other excursions are Helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier (land on it and walk around for 15 minutes) in Juneau and the Wheeled Dogsled in Skagway.

I just returned from Alaska and took the Misty Fjords floatplane excursion and found that it was worth the cost. I booked the excursion with the cruise line but feel that the company, Island Wings would have been a better choice. It's my understanding from their website that the lake landing is about 30 minutes long with an opportunity to explore on the shore. Our lake landing was about 10 minutes long and there was another plane on the lake at the same time. Hard to enjoy the silence with another plane taking off.

 

I did the wheeled dogsled in Skagway and found that it wasn't worth the money. I only did it because I wasn't able to book a "regular" snow dogsled excursion elsewhere due to time constraints. The people were nice enough but it wasn't anything great. They have the dogs at the bottom of a large hill/mountain for petting,etc. and then we were taken by a 6 wheeler to the top of the hill, where the wheeled sled and dogs are waiting. After everyone was buckled in, we started off down the hill. The ride was much too short. We stopped after 2-5 minutes for what I thought was a rest stop for the dogs but in reality it was the end of the ride. We even had to walk the rest of the way down the hill to the dog camp.

 

I also did the Glacier Helicopter landing in Skagway, which was great. Some friends of mine on the same cruise took the train up into the Yukon and thought it was great.

 

Skagway is also a great place to shop.

 

We enjoyed the Salmon Bake in Juneau. Great setting and great food.

[rnjoel]

We also booked the Misty Fjords Fly/Cruise thru Princess. The flight was with Promech Air. I don't normally use ship excursions, but I wasn't able to find this tour anywhere else. It was wonderful to land on a lake and then cruise out!

 

There was 9 of us, and everyone said it was worth every dime!

 

Happy Sailings!

[lucyjohnz]

After our fabulous helicopter Pilot's Choice trip with Temsco in Juneau, we decided we wouldn't see that much more with a floatplane trip and that we'd save the $800 for the four of us. The glacier trip was awsome and I'm so glad we upgraded from the Mendenhall landing to the the Pilot's Choice 2-landing. We saw fantastic glacier-blue streams, fissures and water pools and the flying scenery was fantastic, including the ice fields. I didn't think the floatplane could top that scenery so we just walked around town in Ketchikan.

 

We also thought the Dog Musher's wheeled dogsledding was pretty lame for $100/pp. We, however, were the 1st group that morning and we were pulled up the hill, turned around and pulled down the hill. Our ride probably took 20 minutes altogether. As an aside, the rest of our 11-member family (7 of them) rented a van and drove out to Emerald Lake. On the way, they arranged a stop at a dog kennel (not really a kennel, but a place where they kept a lot of sled dogs). They visited all the dogs and just paid the guy there to meet them a pre-arranged reasonable fee - far less than $100/pp. They arranged this through a friend of Yukon's.

[hooked-on-travel]

Everyone else has been able offer opinions on the flying, so I'll just offer some food for thought about the crab feed. The two buildings used for it (I'm assuming there's only one crab feed excursion in Ketchikan) are at the southern end of the road. We went with Southeast Seakayaks on a custom trip for the four of us. We went in the same inlet as the crab feed, but on the other side and down a little further. While we paddled, our guide (an 18 year old local who was an absolute delight) told us about the buidlings and the crab feed they do for tourists. It sounded pretty lame, from the local perspective. It might be interesting and tasty, but not my idea of an Alaskan experience. The guide said they take people to one building and pull up the net showing them the crab they "caught" [but actually just put there that morning]. Then they take the group to the other building and feed them what they supposedly caught. Actually, the "caught" crab are lowered back down for the next group. Maybe this isn't true, but the guide was born and grew up in that town. It seems like a small enough town that everybody knows everything. I'm inclined to believe her. Anyway, you could have a good time at the crab feed, but the scale seems tipped the other direction.

[lucyjohnz]

We mainly turned down the Crab Feed because of the exhorbitant price - $139/pp to do just what you described - look at some caught crabs and then eat a crab dinner with one Dungeness crab per person. I know that for the cost of one $139 shore excursion, the 4 of us could buy a pretty nice crab dinner. So, we ended up just walking around town and had a pretty good (cheap) time doing that.