What your plan of attack for excursions?

[kingsgirl]

I'm feeling the stress of the impending vacation. Time for another poll to ease the anxiety!! :p

[kruisecat]

We are doing an excursion in every port (2 in some :eek: ) and everything is all booked. Which truly is a bummer because I have nothing to do :( . Although now the family is starting to ask questions so I guess I'll do round 2 with them :p

[cjnky]

Same here (and yes it is a bummer - all I can do now is mark off the days! :eek: + Plan where we'll go next! :D )

 

Ketchikan - Island Wings Misty Fjords

Juneau - Orca Whalewatch and Coastal helicopter

Skagway - train up, bus back

 

RV reserved in Anchorage for two weeks.

Denali - Savage River CG reserved along with Fish Creek Shuttle.

Rest of land trip will be "winged" so that we can go at our own pace! ;)

[Quilting_Cruiser]

You don't have a category for us. :( While we don't have an excursion in every port, we do have plans in every port.

 

Sitka: Captain Davey (Esther G) Wildlife tour

 

Juneau: On our own, but planned--Mendenhall Glacier and a planned out tour with the rental car

 

Skagway: Renting a care and driving to Emerald Lake

 

Ketchikan: Misty Fjords and Glacier flightseeing with Island Wings

So, I'm going to respond with the combo answer for excursions and winging it, but there's really no winging involved at all because planning's in my blood!! ;)

 

Jayne

 

:)

[kingsgirl]

You don't have a category for us. :( While we don't have an excursion in every port, we do have plans in every port.

 

Sitka: Captain Davey (Esther G) Wildlife tour

 

 

Juneau: On our own, but planned--Mendenhall Glacier and a planned out tour with the rental car

 

 

Skagway: Renting a care and driving to Emerald Lake

 

 

Ketchikan: Misty Fjords and Glacier flightseeing with Island Wings

So, I'm going to respond with the combo answer for excursions and winging it, but there's really no winging involved at all because planning's in my blood!! ;)

 

Jayne

 

:)

 

 

Sorry! I did try to think about everyone, but alas I did forget you. My deepest regrets!! Sounds like you have great plans.

[NancyIL]

I agree with Jayne. :) I have plans for every port, but no "excursions" booked for Juneau other than plans to do a walking tour of downtown and take the shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier. (I cancelled our rental car reservation for Juneau today.) We're also doing Misty Fjords flightseeing in Ketchikan and taking the 3.5-hour bus/rail (in that order) excursion in Skagway.

 

Hey - I have something left to do...it's called PAY for all this stuff! :eek:

[Host Caroline]

So if you are doing bus/rail you will be going down to Skagway.. so you will want to be on the right side of the car.. we are doing Best of Skagway after much discussion since combines train up/bus back, lunch and a guaranteed seat upstairs at the brothel (Red Onion) for a while which is touristy but still:rolleyes: ... DH has never been and leaves time to get up to Lower Dewey Lake and get souvenirs for all the grandkids etc at SOS... Next visit we will just rent a car, hike etc. -- gettin' all the tourist stuff done this trip:)

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Sorry! I did try to think about everyone, but alas I did forget you. My deepest regrets!! Sounds like you have great plans.

 

No apologies necessary! :)

 

We cruised northbound in 2001 and had an excursion in every port except Sitka (it was a very short port stop then). I hadn't found Cruise Critic yet and we booked only three weeks before we went so not much time to research so we went with Carnival's excursions. Six years and four cruises later, we're older and wiser and know better than to plan too many or too few excursions.

 

Our 2001 Alaska cruise was the cruise we enjoyed most, and we're all so excited about going again this August. I'm sure this one will be even better! :D

 

Regards,

Jayne

[denneym1]

We went last summer and did at least one excursion in each port. We are going again this year, and are going to "wing it" more. There were a couple bad things about the ship excursions, first, while the driver will offer some narration they will not stop, sometimes not even where they are supposed to. For instance, in Victoria, our excursion went to Mt. Tolmie and was supposed to stop, which would have been nice, I would like to have taken some pictures from there. The bus driver could not find a easily accessible parking place, so he would not stop. In Juneau, the tour was running a bit late, and so we got cut short on time at Mendenhall Glacier. That wasn't the bus drivers fault, as he offered us extra time there, but some of the people wanted to get back on schedule. I'm not sure if they had other excursions they needed to make or just needed to get back to the bar. But anyway, we are going to go with a little more free-form schedule this time so we can see some more things. I think its a lot easier to do that when you have already been there before, though, and have an idea whats worth seeing and what to expect.

MD

[star7228]

We are booked in every port (with the exception of Victoria, B.C. only because there aren't any real "active" excursions and we're only there in the evening from 6pm to midnight. So, we figured we would just walk around and see what there is to offer, unless NCL offers a good excursion.

 

But we are already booked, have been since January. :D I'm a big planner!

[krish2]

I'm pacing myself, one stop at a time. The planning is fun and interesting and I don't want it to end. In Ketchikan just planning on a walking tour of the town since we're there for just a half day. Last week booked our helicopter glacier trek in Juneau. The tour drops us in the parking lot of Mt Roberts Tram when we're done so if the weather cooperates we'll take the tram and hike. This week I'm working on Skagway. Still have to make plans for a day in Coopers Landing (horseback riding or hiking?) and white water rafting at Denali. We're going in June and I'm really surprised at how quickly the time is flying by! :)

[qiangf2]

I did excursion in Skagway, Juneau.. But don't really know what to do in Ketchikan and Victoria other than walking about the town. I am going to re-attack those two towns during my next trip

[davis0056]

Armed with red glow of our mouse we planned our attack, check each site to ensure the ground forces were in agreement along with the burning glow of red from our mouse and frendly froces we engaded with the excurions of our attack.

 

Day 1. Flight to Alaska and overnight in Anchorage

Day2. Train to Denali, afternoon free, evening dinner show

Day3. Eight hour Tundra tour / overnight in Denali

Day4. White Water Rafting morning / Train back to Anchorage afternoon

Day5. Rent car and tour Anchorage area or go to Glacier

Day6. Train to Seward / Afternoon free

Day7. Northwest Fjord Cruise / boarded cruise ship

Day8. Cruising Hubbard Glacier

Day9. Either Mt Robert tram or Mendenhall Glacier / afternoon Taku Glacier Flight Seeing tour and lunch

Day10. Car rental and off to Emerald Lake

Day11. Whale watching & Bear viewing

Day12. Wilderness Exploration & Crab Feed

Day13. Inside Passage Cruising

Day14. Disembark Vancouver/ car rental and tour city highlights / return car and take train to Seattle

Day15. The attack is over and we left many a Geroge behind as we take our wounded pocket books and we fly home

 

Dave & Elaine

[fti]

Day2. Train to Denali, afternoon free, evening dinner show

Day3. Eight hour Tundra tour / overnight in Denali

 

Just curious why you opted for the Tundra Wilderness Tour compared to taking the shuttle bus? With the shuttle bus, you can go further and it costs 1/3 of the price of the tour. Shuttle bus drivers are very knowledgeable and though not "guides" are excellent in this regard.

[davis0056]

Just curious why you opted for the Tundra Wilderness Tour compared to taking the shuttle bus? With the shuttle bus, you can go further and it costs 1/3 of the price of the tour. Shuttle bus drivers are very knowledgeable and though not "guides" are excellent in this regard.

 

FTI

We will be traveling with another couple and we are not young people anymore, yes the shuttle bus offer going into the park more and etc, but we feel that with the limitations we have to deal with the tour fit us better. Thank for your concern one must do as one must even those the cost is higher.

 

Dave