Dejagirl

Cruise_More_Often - you have been getting some great advise. Don't be scared out of hiking, just learn to be smart and aware. We did the Tundra Wilderness tour last year - bus of 40ish. We stopped at Polychrome Overlook where we cloud climb up steps to get a better view. We were the 4th bus to arrive, and we walked up the steps. Lots of people there, they all left a bit later, and there was just 7 of us still up there from our bus. One from our bus said "bear". We all scanned the horizon looking, and she said "No, BEAR". Just about 50 yards away, looking at us was a grizzly. We backed away, slowly with regular voice chatter. The bear had stood up on its hind legs, decided he was not interested and went off in another direction. I had purchased bear spray from Wal-Mart in Anchorage, but left it in our room because we were on a tour. We ended up mailing the spray home to ourselves with our souviners from Denali.

I have not had any luck posting photos on here, but I'll give it a try. Yes, I took photos while I was concerned for my life. I was already taking photos, so no extra effort needed to take them :). Looks like I could only post a link to it :(.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x56cd0ed31531f7a9%3A0x8f54ba1f2707d4bd&hl=en-US&viewerState=lb&imagekey=!1e3!2s-hR5GNetlczs%2FWWmv81jrA1I%2FAAAAAAAAKM0%2Fug6hzWrlAFgk-g8c_09qZwifa-Yr544bACLIBGAYYCw

We did a land + sea with HAL last year (11 land & 4 sea). Loved it! Went with my parents, Aunt & Uncle. We are planning our second trip there for Sept 2018 and we are looking at Princess from Whittier to Vancouver (with a few pre cruise days in Kanai). Layers are smart, but not heavy layers. I was just fine with my $20 rain jacket from Target, but we didn't have much rain until we got on the cruise. Binoculars or monocular are a must. Does your family share well? Maybe one or two good ones and a few cheaper ones? We have an older Rebel and we love our "big camera" photos, but we also love the ones we took with our phones. On the cruise we embarked at Skagway - my favorite, but probably because we had 2 full days there. So much history with the gold rush - do some research. The town was cute, but full of the typical cruise shops. There are historic buildings in between or housing the shops, so look around. Loved that we rode the White Pass into town. We also rented a van and drove around to Dyea and up to Emerald Lake (passport required). We saw Glacier Bay. Breath taking, but I honestly liked the Glacier Quest day cruise out of Whittier more - we got closer to glaciers and it felt more "personal". Glad we saw both :). In Ketchikan we did the Duck Tour - ok for a ride around town with some history and cheesy jokes thrown in. It's not a "must do" by any means, but I didn't feel ripped off either. What I wanted to do was a seaplane ride to Misty Fjords - I am doing this next time. We saw the inside passage and then arrived in Vancouver. We only had that day there, so we did the hop on/hop off Trolley. If you do that, don't get off unless you have time to watch several full trolleys pass you by with no room. It was a great was to see some of the sights quickly. I could go and on about our land portion, but that's not what you are doing (though I highly recommend you make it to Denali at least once at some point in your life). Enjoy your trip!

Ship skeleton?

 

 

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Yes, it's what's left of the S.S. Tushi.

It's a freight & excursion paddle wheel that traveled between Carcross and Taku Landing from 1917 until it was beached in Carcross in 1955. It was being restored, almost completed, and burned in 1990. So they built a steel skeleton to show its size and where it would have sat. The bow of the ship is still there.

We did this too. We also drove around Dyea to take in more sights/history (the start of the Chilkoot Trail). We stopped at the local grocery store before we headed out of town and bought sandwich makings - but maybe you can bring stuff from the ship. We had a picnic lunch in Carcross under the ship skeleton.

We just returned from Skagway and rented a 4 door jeep from Alaska Green jeeps. It comes with an audio guided tour, and a guide book with maps, history and directions. We went all the way to Emerald Lake, with stops at Carcross, Caribou Crossing to see the Sled Dogs, Bridal Veil & International Falls. We rented at 8am, drove straight through to Carcross, stopped for about 30 min. Then on the Caribou Crossing to see the dogs. ($8.50 to go through the tour, petting zoo. We didn't do a sled ride). Then continued to Emerald Lake. After returning to Skagway, we went out to Dyea and the tidal flats area. We returned the jeep by 4:30-ish. Then spent a little time heading back to the ship. We had a great day!!

I forgot about the jeep tour! My niece did that when they went and loved it - I looked into it, but with needing 6 seats we opted to rent a van and do those same things on our own. Sounds like we were both out exploring about the same amount of time. We skipped the kennels and the fog was thick at the border so we missed International Falls.

Hi! We had a forward window, thinking that would be best ... we were barely in our room when there were sights to see. Personally I would say save the money for excursions - one you really want to do, but wouldn't normally spend that much for (like a float plane, helicopter glacier landing or the White Pass Train). We were on HAL Neiuw Amsterdam and spent most of our time in the crows nest (inside with large picture windows, up high in the front of the ship & there was a bar there 🙂) or up on an upper outside deck. You will have a fabulous time no matter what room you choose!

Also, don't forget about the town of Skagway itself!

We rented a van (6 of us) and drove up to the cemetery, walked around and back to Lower Reid Falls, then drove out Dyea Road. We stopped at the lookout (view the cruise ships from there) and kept going down the road stopping at the Chilkoot Trail and the Dyea Ghost Town. We then turned around and drove out to HWY 98 and headed toward Canada. Along the route we stopped at Pitchfork Falls, Dead Horse Trail, Bridal Veil Falls and William Moore Bridge. Just part the Bridge stop and gaze down the Skagway River Valley (to the left is Sawtooth Mt. and to your right is the Cleveland Glacier), look up the gorge and view the White Pass Summit. Head on up to the summit and across the border (passports required at the customs stop further up the road) and drive through the Tormented Valley toward Fraser. You will pass the suspension bridge sometime after this. As you head to Emerald lake you will pass Mt. Racine and the Lake Tutshi (TOO-shy), stop and visit in Carcross if you are needing a potty break (we took a picnic lunch and ate in the ship skeleton) and just past the town is the "Worlds Smallest Desert" the Carcross Desert. Emerald Lake is a few miles up the road. This trip took us approx 7 hours round trip. We were not worried about time as we were staying the night in Skagway, but you may be concerned with time if it's not a long port day for you. We stopped at most pullouts, read the signs and took in the beautiful scenery. I loved that we did this. That evening back in town we ate pizza at the Red Onion Saloon. Deep, rich history.

Hi! We were just in Alaska last year and truly loved every moment! We did a land + sea package. We flew into Anchorage a day early - we walked around town and took a trolley tour that day. The next day we booked our own excursion to Seward and the Glacier Quest to get up close to a few glaciers. Our land tour started the next day with a train ride up to Denali (we spent 3 day there). We went on the Tundra Wilderness tour. We were extremely lucky and clear skies let us see Mt. Denali all 3 days! Next we bussed up to Fairbanks and did an excursion to Gold Dredge No. 8. The next day we boarded a plane to take us to Dawson City Canada. This is where the gold rush of 1898 started, and we did an excursion to see how modern day gold mining is done. From there we bussed down to Fraser and boarded the White Pass train and rode that all the way down to Skagway. Amazing scenery! In Skagway we learned more about the 1898 gold rush ( I honestly could have cared less about this history, but once you are there ... wow, I couldn't get enough of it). The town of Skagway is small and cute (lots of cruise ship port stores), so we rented a car and explored the outskirts. My favorite cruise port of the ones we spent any time at. We boarded our ship here and saw Glacier Bay (stunning, but I'm glad we did the excursion in Seward too) before heading to Ketchikan. Ketchikan was more of a "normal" town away from the port, and not what I thought it would be. I can't say I liked or disliked this port. I was feeling a bit sick that day so didn't enjoy anything like I should have (not the ports fault by any means). Next we cruised the inside passage - not exciting, but we were there at the end of the season so it's possible that it would have been more breathtaking earlier when there was still snow melting. Our cruise ended in Vancouver - a large city with some cool history we learned while on one of the hop on/hop off tours. I do not recommend getting off though as you may not be able to find room to get back on. I would love to go back. My wish list includes Juneau (Mendenhall Glacier), Haines (Davidson Glacier), Sitka and Hubbard Glacier. Of course I want to go back to Denali too! If you have any specific question ask!

My personal preference is disembark because debark sounds like something you'd do to a tree; and when you get on a ship, we don't say you've "barked".

 

 

 

I'm dying (laughing) right now! I know this is an old post, but we were just having this discussion. I will forever say that "I have barked" when I get on a ship! Thank you for making my day!