Alaska Tour questions

[CCKelly]

We already have a Med cruise booked next May on Mariner, but there are some good prices on the Navigator Alaska cruises next year, particularly the first of September.

 

For those of you that have been to Alaska this year, I am wondering about the free tours:

 

Could you only book one tour at each port pre-cruise on the website?

It appears that some of the tours are quite short, such as the floatplane,etc. So if one tour is only 2 to 3 hours, were you able to do another tour in the afternoon? Did you have to wait until you were on board to book another tour for the same day? Were there any problems getting the tours that you wanted?

 

Thanks for any insight into this. The Regent cruise would seem to be a good price with airfare and tours included, if you are really able to take advantage of a lot of the tours.

[San Jose King]

First of all, not all the tours offered are free. For example tours on floatplanes

or dog sledding are at additional cost.

You may choose as many tours as your schedule permits. You may do a morning and afternoon tour so long as you have an hours interval between tours.

Early use of the website affords the best chance of getting your first choice of tours.

[DaveFr]

Originally, you could only book one tour per day online. However, that was changed to allow multiple tours per day to be booked online as long as there is at least one hour free between tours. Remember that a number of the tours are not "free." Basically, all tours that used to cost up to about $200 are now included at no additional charge. More expensive tours are now greatly reduced in price. Reduced charge tours must be paid for at the time of booking and you cannot use shipboard credits to pay for them unless they are booked on the ship. This has been a sore point for some posters.

 

Most reports are that passengers are getting the tours they want either through booking online or after the ship sails. Take a look at some of the earlier threads for more information.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Dave

[CCKelly]

Thank you SJK and DaveFr for the replies. Your clarification on the tours does help a lot! It looks like you are able to do something short but expensive somewhere (like a helicopter ride that you pay extra for), and perhaps still fit in a free guided walk or boat tour in the afternoon. Seems to be lots of options to choose from in Alaska.

[debbie ann]

Just got off an Alaskan cruise. We booked all our tours through our TA early & got everyhing we wanted. I thought I booked an extra online & it never got confirmed. My advice is to talk to someone or you could be shut out. Didn't go on a heli & was sorry. Don't bother with Denali.

[Lsb58]

Just returned on 7/22 from Mariner and our group of 8 had no problems booking our excursions online. Be sure to do it as soon as permitted as they fill up quickly. I only did one per day, but the ones I selected were at least 3 hours. I think Regent warns you if you are cutting a tour too close to another at the time of booking. I deliberately avoided booking an excursion in Juneau since I was doing the Tracy Arm that day from 7:30-1:30. A few in our group booked the evening whale watch from 6:15-9:45. I did regret not booking that excursion also since they saw LOTS if whales. So, if the policy is the same next year, you could do multiple excursions in a single day, as long as the timing is right. One thing to keep in mind is you will probably we waking up quite early since sunrise is about 4:30am. Sunset was quite late too, so you'll have a lot of daylight.

[poss]

Lsb: How did you spend your time in Juneau after Tracy Arm? Was the town interesting to explore? Did you go up on the tram? (Did you hear from others who did?) Did people enjoy Mendenhall Glacier?

[Lsb58]

Poss: We walked around the part of downtown closest to the dock. I remember saying to my husband "Gee I wonder how they cope in the winter with only a few hours of daylight." As we walked down the street it seemed like every third building was a bar. Hubby turned to me and said "Well, now we know what they do!" What struck me about Juneau is how little it was considering it's the state capital. Granted, we only saw what was visible from the ship, and the areas we walked around, but there just didn't seem to be much to it. Lots of shops, and the aforementioned bars. The Red Dog Saloon seemed to be a big attraction. I pooped out by late afternoon since it was my second morning of waking up at 4:30am and I was still adjusting to that. My big regret in Juneau was not going on a whale watching tour. Those in our group who did the Evening Whale Watching Quest said it was an amazing excursion. The departure time from Juneau is 11:00pm so there is plenty of time in port after the Tracy Arm excursion.

Speaking of excursions........I remember when Regent announced the "Free Excursions" program there was a thread about whether passengers would abuse the offer once on board by booking several then not showing up for the ones they didn't feel like doing. I'm sorry to say there must have been quite a few because around the third day of the cruise there was a note in the Daily Passages indicating there was a high incidence of passengers not showing for excursions. They politely asked that everyone be considerate and turn tickets in to the travel desk instead of being a no show. I mention this because it may give those of you who are on an excursion wait list hope!

[Rally]

Poss: We walked around the part of downtown closest to the dock. I remember saying to my husband "Gee I wonder how they cope in the winter with only a few hours of daylight." As we walked down the street it seemed like every third building was a bar. Hubby turned to me and said "Well, now we know what they do!" What struck me about Juneau is how little it was considering it's the state capital. Granted, we only saw what was visible from the ship, and the areas we walked around, but there just didn't seem to be much to it. Lots of shops, and the aforementioned bars. The Red Dog Saloon seemed to be a big attraction. I pooped out by late afternoon since it was my second morning of waking up at 4:30am and I was still adjusting to that. My big regret in Juneau was not going on a whale watching tour. Those in our group who did the Evening Whale Watching Quest said it was an amazing excursion. The departure time from Juneau is 11:00pm so there is plenty of time in port after the Tracy Arm excursion.

Speaking of excursions........I remember when Regent announced the "Free Excursions" program there was a thread about whether passengers would abuse the offer once on board by booking several then not showing up for the ones they didn't feel like doing. I'm sorry to say there must have been quite a few because around the third day of the cruise there was a note in the Daily Passages indicating there was a high incidence of passengers not showing for excursions. They politely asked that everyone be considerate and turn tickets in to the travel desk instead of being a no show. I mention this because it may give those of you who are on an excursion wait list hope!

 

We were not able to book the Sea Otter excursion online because it was sold out, so called Regent and were put on a wait list. I inquired on board and was told Regent was trying to secure another ship (pretty impressive for "free tours" don't you think?) So, sure enough, in a few hours, the confirmed booking showed up on our door. IMHO Regent is sincere in this offer of free excursions, doesn't cut back on quality, and does whatever they can to insure as many passengers as possible can take advantage of them. In some cases (Tracy Arm, for instance) the capacity is just not there and cannot be increased.) We were very inmpressed with the way Regent handles the entire situation. Yes, the excursions that used to cost $499.00 now might cost $199.00, but the ones that used to cost $199.00 are now free, really truly free.

[Lsb58]

I agree 100% Rally! After spending hours on this forum prior to our cruise I was a bit apprehensive about whether the excursions would be crowded, or somehow diminished when provided at no cost. Admittedly, being a novice cruiser I have no comparables, but the excursions I booked certainly met my expectations. A couple of people in our group had excursions cancelled and Regent gave them a credit on thier shipboard account! To get credit for something you didn't pay for is quite a unique bit of custmer service!