cpayne

If you have not already booked your White Pass Rail tour, I would strongly suggest booking this through M and M Tours. You will only save about $5 booking with them vs. the ship. However, you get a longer tour (distance), but shorter time (hours). Confused??

The tour they offer takes you to Frasier, British Columbia. The ships tour only takes you to the Summit. Frasier is an addt'l 7-8 miles. These addtl miles is where you will begin to see a different landscape than had you stopped at the Summit.

The other difference is the tour through M and M takes you back to Skagway via a coach bus instead of riding the train. Riding the bus gives you a different perspective than the train and allows you to see things the train did not allow you to see.

The ships tour takes 3 1/2 - 4 hrs and the train/bus tour takes 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. Many people have complained that sitting on the train for almost 4 hrs was a bit much so the tour through M and M alleviates that problem.

The train through the ship picks you up right at the cruise dock. The train through M and M is just a few blocks away depending on where your ship docks. We were on NCL Spirit and it may have been 2-3 blocks at the most.

M and M Tours is located in a red "shack" just past the cruise ship dock.

Couldn't sleep last night so turned on the TV. Lo and behold PBS was having a special about the White Pass Rail. Very interesting to watch now that I've been there myself!

I would strongly recommend using the operator that is located in the earlier of the two ports of call. We just ret'd from NCL Spirit last week. Early this summer I booked a helicopter/dog sled tour with Coastal out of Juneau. I knew these tours could be cancelled due to bad weather so I wanted a back up plan. I knew if Juneau did not work out I could then use TEMSCO in Skagway.

Late July I recd a call from Coastal that they would be closing the dog camp early due to the exceptionally warm summer. I then reverted to my backup plan with TEMSCO in Skagway. One week before we left they too had to end up closing the dog camp early for the same reason. We were still able to take the helicopter tour, but the dog sledding is what I was most looking forward to.

Plan on doing the tour in the first city and then have an alternate in place. Take both tour operators phone numbers and locations with you so you'll be prepared.