Iafarmer

I second the suggestion of Kat915--we've enjoyed several LandSea city tours.  They will pick you & your luggage up at your hotel & narrate sights around the city and give you time at Stanley Park & Granville Island; then drop you at cruise terminal.  I think the tours are 3.5 hours & start at 10, pending hotel pickup timing.  

Of course, it sounds hard to beat a massage for kicking off your cruise!  But Vancouver is a beautiful city and it is so nice to see a bit of it before embarking.  

Our family of 13, 8 adults & 5 children, reserved Alaska Tours & Transfers all day private tour/transfer from the cruise ship to Anchorage this summer.  The price is less than $2000 & includes the narrated tour, admission to AK Wildlife Conservation Center, Girdwood Tram ride & lunch, plus Anchorage city tour.  We also added/paid for an additional hour at the end for the small children to play at a park/playplace or whatever works, before being dropped off at the airport. 

The nice thing is your group will be private and have a driver, luggage transfer & narration, as well as activities & lunch.  This price was cheaper than booking the shorter tour through the cruise line.  

I should say that our family's flights don't leave until later that evening.

We have not experienced this yet, but hopefully it will work as well as planned!

Driving yourself also has some benefits--enjoy.  

23 hours ago, KruisinKath said:

MissMet, I downloaded it before the site got taken down.  If I'm doing things right, the PDF should be attached to my reply.

Skagway_Murray Guide.pdf 2.92 MB · 4 downloads

Thank you, I too, appreciate this wonderful resource!

Hope you're able to get something worked out~

It will be nice to take advantage of the longer time in port, unusual for Ketchikan, to explore with a car.   

We are  meeting them in the Tongass parking lot, not far from the pier.

In Juneau we will be renting from Juneau Car Rental--we've rented from them several times.  The thing to note is they are located at Dock A and our ship will be docked at E in August, making for a trek or taxi ride to get there.  In previous visits, we've been docked very close to them.  

We have a rental car booked for this August with Tongass Car Rental in Ketchikan.  We are to meet them/car at 8:30.  We could have met at 8, but I wanted to allow for a little extra time in the morning since we are there until 4.  

This is our first time renting in Ketchikan.  We will also be renting in Juneau.  

thank you for that info...I was under the impression it was a misc. AK code.

Perhaps we will get rerated or get to keep the quoted/reserved price. Either way, it will be a great drive.

I used this coupon code at Skagway Avis last Fall to get a rate of $99 plus tax for this summer's rental:

Avis coupon code for Skagway:

W046000

Not sure if it will still work, but doesn't hurt to try.

Iowa Farmer

Last June on the NCL Sun, the captain announced at the Latitudes meeting that because conditions were most favorable, we would be sailing the "inside" inside passage that day. We very much enjoyed sailing through Grenville Channel.

Very simple, you will just wait for them in the Fraser parking lot. Book the one way Fraser White Pass tickets independent- direct from the White Pass RR.

The White Pass web page says the following for the Fraser 1 way:

•Departures from Skagway at 7:40 AM and 12:10 PM require .5 mile bus transfer to train departure

Where do they get on the bus (and do they get on the bus at 7:40? )

Is a ship with a 7:00 scheduled arrival, early enough to allow passengers to get off and get to the bus/transfer?

Thanks

"

The woman I spoke with at Juneau Car Rental said the kiosk was to the right as we leave the ship and is less distance than the length of the ship from the point of disembarkment from the ship. (The kiosk is a beige trailer). The cars that are reserved are also there in the lot waiting for us and we self-return the cars at the same place when we arrive back to board the ship in the late afternoon/evening."

 

We have rented from Juneau Car Rental the last 2 years. In 2013 it was up the hill a little distance but last year it was just to the right beside the parking lot where NCL was docked at AJ. The satellite office trailer and cars were both there. The cars were clean & a little older, but very reasonable and we were satisfied.

Even though we were close, we had 1 person pick up the car and drive around the loop to pick us up as one in our party has difficulty walking and we wanted to save her steps for viewing the sites.

When we go back next year, we will definitely reserve a car with them again.

It is a wonderful way to see the sites of Juneau on your own timetable!

I was curious about same thing?

We would be taking tour back to port.

Is this easier & more informative than trying to do on our own?

I started reading this thread a couple hours ago, and wondered how there could be 14 pages to it......now I see how & why! What a fun couple hours I've had vicariously vacationing with you!

We were on the PoA in January this year and while agreeing with many of your ship observances, I thankfully don't need to include roaches in that!

I so enjoy the reviews and information that people like you take the precious time & energy to share!

It is also such an encouragement to hear & read about like-habited creatures who plan, plan, plan for our cruises and take our folders with! I would feel lost if I had to go on a cruise w/out my binder and all the info I've prepared & accumulated! Yes, preparing & researching is alot of the fun!

Oh for some Maui chips......

Mahalo

Iowa farmer

Not knowing what the stops are on your tour this year, I might mention some places that we stopped along our Copper tour in 2008:

It was raining, so we had no visibility on our catamaran ride thru PWS:(

Valdez....suggest the Halibut house for lunch...simple yet good---our bus driver ate there. Research what you might want to see here....the bus stopped for a certain time and we just walked around. We went to a Safeway here to pick up snacks for post-cruise:)

Just outside Valdez, we stopped at Bridal Veil & Horse Tail Falls for photos, then stopped at Worthington Glacier, then the Alaska pipeline. These were all stops we could get out and take photos---our driver was most accomodating.

From Copper to Denali, our driver stopped several times for wildlife photo ops & a scenic viewpoint. We also stopped after lunch for pie/icecream...not sure if that was on the itinerary or not.

Obviously the train to Fairbanks (if on your itin) won't stop, but MY, what gorgeous scenery after leaving Denali! We had Fall foilage at it's best!

Your tours at Fairbanks are pretty set without much room for improvising.

As others say, be sure you get the longer tour in Denali....we cancelled the short one included in our tour, and reserved the shuttles on our own.

I would suggest lining up some kind of excursion or transportation while at Copper since you are not close to anything. There are nice views of the Wrangell/St. Elias mtns from the lodge there as well as some trails to walk around.

Hope you enjoy it even half as much as we did!