Hubbard Glacier Cruise: Which Glacier Excursion?

[VPescado]

My Girlfriend and I are going on the Seven Day Hubbard Glacier Cruise on Infinity in early September. This is our first Alaska Cruise (and only our second cruise ever) and we are very excited.

 

More than one person has told me that the once-in-a-lifetime thing to do is to take an excursion that puts you on a glacier and lets you romp around.

 

Now looking at the excursions offered by Celebrity, it appears (unsurprisingly, yet to my girlfriends dismay) that this will involve a helicopter. However there seem to be six different options involving flying to and tromping on glaciers:

 

A) JU03 Four Glacier Adventure via Helicopter ($295/2 hrs approx): Fly over four glaciers during 35-40 minutes of helicopter flightseeing. Your pilot will choose a remote glacier where you may step out and explore for 15-20 minutes.

 

B) JU06 Mendenhall Glacier: Ice Age by Helicopter ($274: 2:15 approx): Explore the Mendenhall Glacier with 30 minutes of helicopter flightseeing and 20 minutes on the glacier.

 

C) JU07 Pilot's choice Glacier Exploration ($390 2:45 approx): This Exclusive 50 minutes of helicopter flightseeing includes two landings totaling 30 miutes.

 

D) JU09 Helicopter Glacier Trek ($399 4:15 approx, strenuous): Join a glacier adventure that includes 30-35 minutes of flightseeing and 2 hours of glacier trekking through glacial icescape.

 

E) JU10 Extended Helicopter Glacier Trek ($514 5:15 approx, strenuous): Enhance your glacier experience with 3 hours of glacier trekking and climbing over the glacier's rugged terrain. Approx. 30-35 minute flight.

 

F) JU28 Helicopter Glacier Walkabout ($349 3:15 approx, moderate): Your pilot will choose a landing site on one of the 36 glaciers borne of the 1500 square mile icefield, where you will have a 1 hour interpretive walk covering 1 mile. Approx 30-35 minute flight.

 

My questions:

 

1) Can anyone give me any advice on which of the above to pick (or is there another company not affiliated with celebrity that I should look into contracting with?

 

2) What I have figured out is the E is simply D with and extra hour of walking around - Is it really that interesting to walk around on the glacier, or is it just like walking on an icy sidewalk for a very long time? Beyond the "Hey this is cool I'm on top of a freaking big block of ice" is there anything to explore or see (the interpretive nature of the walk in F gives me hope, but I take everything in these descriptions with a large grain of salt)?

 

3) Based on the number of references to the Mendenhall Glacier in various excursions, I get the feeling that it might be a bit crowded and not as interesting as some of the more remote ones - I don't want to go to a Disneyfied glacier, I prefer something more pristine. - Is this a valid concern?

 

4) How strenuous is strenuous - The three hour trek (E) seems like overkill, but will we be hating life if we sign up for the 2 hour Trek (D)?

 

5) What to wear - will tennis shoes be ok, or will we need boots (and are they provided)?

 

6) I heard mentions of weight limits on the helicopters, but didn't see mention of them in the guide. Are there limits? What are they, (and do the include just me, me and my clothes, or me, my clothes, backpack, camera, etc.)?

 

7) Anything that would encourage my girlfriend that the helicopters are safe (to quote her: "But helicoptors can't glide if they have engine problems - they will fall like a rock into the icy sea"), would be greatly appreciated. :)

[Drew B]

Whichever one takes the smallest number of people. No matter how good the excursion is, if you have to fight a crowd and adjust to other people's varying speed/abilities, it's likely to diminish your enjoyment. I would think the pilot's choice would be good and more likely to go off the beaten path.

 

There are also multitudes of independent options (some with the same companies X uses, only without paying X as a middleman). Check out the Alaska board in the ports of call forum, and there will be plenty of people who can answer your question there.

[Bruin Steve]

For our 2004 Alaska cruise, after considerable research, we opted to go with an independent helicopter tour company--Coastal Helicopter:

 

http://www.coastalhelicopters.com/t_icefield.htm

http://www.coastalhelicopters.com/t_adventure.htm

http://www.coastalhelicopters.com/t_dogsled.htm

 

We did that first tour--the "Icefield Excursion"--$199 per person (now, it was $180 back in 2004)... a considerable savings off the cruise lines' offerings...It's the approximate equivalent of that "JU03"...an hour of total time in the helicopter and on the glacier and approximately 45 minutes in each direction by van from the ship...and a little time on the ground at the airport--figure it actually takes about 3 hours total...

 

Six passengers to a helicopter...and, after comparing notes with tablemates who did the similar trip via the cruise line, ours took longer in the air, went further out over the icefield and seemed superior in just about every comparison...

 

We picked these guys after reading countless reviews on Cruise Critic and after checking out as much as we could on their safety record...(You can also read up on their website under "about us" and "maintenance" and get an idea as to what they're all about. We thought they were absolutely first rate.

 

I thought this particular tour was sufficient to give us the proper "experience". The flight back and forth over the icefield was fantastic and the time trudging around on top of the glacier was sufficient...It may have only been a couple of hours, but it was the experience of the cruise...

 

Good luck...

[wvufan]

We also went with and highly recommend Coastal,

 

We booked through ORCA Enterprises at no extra cost. They also booked other Alaska excursions for us. Here's the neat part: it was foggy the day we went to Juneau and they coordinated everything so that we were able to take the trip-we were the only ones to go out that day. Obviously, all the ship tours were cancelled.

 

We suggest you visit the Alaska port of call board-one of the best on Cruise Critic.

 

Happy Sails to You

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

[VPescado]

Thanks Bruin Steve and wvufan.

 

Coastal helicopters did look good to me. Until I did some checking. In some of the photos on the website, a particular helicopter has its registration number prominently displayed: N6099S

 

The company no longer flies N6099S as it crashed into a glacier in 1999 killing all aboard.

 

From the NTSB accident brief:

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

The pilot's continued VFR flight into adverse weather, spatial disorientation, and failure to maintain aircraft control. Factors

associated with the accident were pressure by the company to continue flights in marginal weather, and the "flat" lighting leading to

whiteout conditions. Additional factors were the pilot's lack of instrument experience, lack of total experience, inadequate

certification and approval of the operator by the FAA, and the FAA's inadequate surveillance of the emergency instrument procedures in use by the company.

 

The full National Transportation Safety Board report can be found here: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=ANC99FA073&rpt=fa

 

In light of the above, I am not surprised that wvufan was on the only helicopter to go out that day. On the other hand I'm not sure its a good thing.

 

This doesn't mean I won't use these guys (after I have some chats with them) but I really question their judgment (not to mention taste) in proudly displaying pictures of the helicopter involved in this tragedy.

[wvufan]

Well, that report is quite an indictment, but that was years ago and very atypical. We also researched, and the reason we went with Coastal is because they are a year around outfit with pilots who fly there all the time. The reason we were able to take our tour is because they changed the schedule and flew us before the fog came in. They did not fly in any hazardous condition at all. Not only would I fly with them again, I would let my granddaughters do so too;)

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

[Charlie/Jen]

Hi Bob & Phyl:

 

Just seen you posting & thought I would come on and say HI. I know you two had a good time on the Helo in Juneau & also a good time whale watching. We haven't heard from anyone except Gunnar from the Alaskan cruise & was glad to see you guys still posting.

 

We are heading to the Panama Canal in December on Celebrity's Summit.

 

Well you two keep cruising & good luck to the WVU football team this year.

 

Charlie/Jen

[wvufan]

Hi Charlie and Jen:)

 

Glad you guys are still cruising. Since Alaska, we have been on cruises to Hawaii, Bermuda, and the Zenith's last sailing. We are going on a Grandeur repo next April and back to Alaska on 9/22/08 on the Millie.

 

We also exchange occasional emails with Gunnar and also with Albert and Linda who were our wonderful tablemates.

 

Wasn't that a great cruise!

 

[i apologize to the OP for hijacking the thread, but there was no other apparent way to say hi to old friends]

 

Whatever you and your girlfiend decide, add binoculars to the etc on your list. By the way, I spent a lot of time in helicopters in Vietnam and I can assure you these are a lot safer;). While glaciers are magnificent (the face of the Hubbard is about the height of a football field!), they are not pristine white-there is a lot of beautiful blue coloring plus some "dirty" parts from the glacier picking up whatever was on the terrain in its path. One of the things we thought was so cool was drinking the pure water that puddled here and there. If my info is right, you are also very much in luck to have the naturalist Brent Nixon on board with you. Don't miss any of his presentations, and don't hesitate to ask him stuff if you see him on board. He's the real deal-for example, he has kayaked the inside passage something like 10 times. He is fantastic.

 

Anyway, relax, have fun, and don't worry. Here's some info that you might find reassuring-read the part about autorotating.

 

http://www.helicopterpage.com/html/unique.html

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

[cruiseknotter]

I did an Ice Field helicopter tour w/Coastal in July. It was 13 of us who did the tour at the same time in 3 helicopters. BEST experience!

Coastal's customer service was excellent! I was given their cancellation policy upfront which made me feel comfortable booking in advance (for originally 17 ppl). I couldn't convince 4 of my family to go on a helicopter, so called their 1-800 # in Ketchikan using a pay phone. All my calls were promptly answered by a real person who processed cancellation with full prompt refund. At the last minute (just before going on their van), we added one more person that made a total of 13, which required Coastal to have to get another helicopter. They handled it right away! All the staff were very friendly and extremely helpful! We spotted a mountain goat, a bear, waterfalls upclose on the way to a glacier, and our pilot helped every one of us walk on a glacier safely and showed us one by one holding our hands a deep deep BLUE hole with water running underneath. It was AMAZING! I highly recommend this tour.