Any gold panning land excursions on Alaska cruise?

[fletcher57]

Hi, I've done some gold panning at Reed Gold Mine in NC and would love to find a gold panning shore excursion on an Alaska tour or cruise tour. Does anybody know if one is available through Princess? I'd also like to kayak. Thanks. Joyce

[Toto2Kansas]

We haven't been to Alaska in many years, but when we did, it was on Princess. It seemed that almost every port there was some sort of gold panning excursion offered. So, I think you will find many to choose from. ;)

[scranger]

We took the El Dorado Gold Mine Tour out of Fairbanks as part of a land/cruise tour on the Coral last year. Along with a train ride through the mine, it included an opportunity to pan your own gold. Everybody got something, and one lady in our party found a nice sized nugget. The operators obviously discovered some time ago that the mine was more profitable as a tourist attraction than as a working mine.

[Mrs.Right]

My daughter and I sailed Princess to Alaska in August 2009 and panned gold in Juneau. Seems like just about every port offered gold panning and kayaking. You might decide to stay :D

 

Barbara

[Loonbeam]

I recall options in Skagway and Juneau, that said if you do the cruisetour, the Fairbanks one is supposedly the best, and there are so many neater options in the first two towns :)

[vmom]

On our last cruise on the Golden we had dinner with some people who had done the gold panning in both Juneau and Skagway and were really disappointed. They said it was a high priced tourist trap.

 

I would suggest you go to the Alaska boards on this CC website and get some more feedback as to which gold panning excursions have decent reviews and which to avoid.

[spongerob]

The El Dorado gold mine (Fairbanks) is one of those high-priced tourist traps, in my opinion.

 

There was one that we went on out of Juneau to an abandoned gold mine south of town. We had time to pan the mine's tailings to our heart's content. I'm not even sure that tour is offered because there actually wasn't much to see except for the tunnel that is still in use for mine safety training. But there was a decent amount of gold in the tailings if you were willing to work for it.

[Stevesan]

Hi, I've done some gold panning at Reed Gold Mine in NC and would love to find a gold panning shore excursion on an Alaska tour or cruise tour. Does anybody know if one is available through Princess? I'd also like to kayak. Thanks. Joyce

 

 

You'll find a gold panning trip at Ketchikan. I still have my "nugget":p.

 

Go to the Alaska board to find other opportunities:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55