?Whether to buy Mendenhall Blue Bus tickets on line before we go?

[flashdog_1]

I hate lines, and wonder if buying my tickets (for the Mendenhall blue bus) on line while I'm still sitting at home would have any benefit in being able to just jump on the bus?

 

Has anyone done this and found it beneficial or detrimental?

 

Thanks

[mali06]

I was thinking of doing the same thing! Any info would be appreciated by me too!

[flashdog_1]

I was thinking of doing the same thing! Any info would be appreciated by me too!

 

When are you going? We're going on the 9th July Golden Princess sailing.

[Budget Queen]

I bet you wouldn't be in line for more than 5 minutes. I have never seen any waits at the multiple dock booths. You hand over your money and get the ticket, it isn't much of a transaction.

[mali06]

We sail on the Carnival Spirit on Tuesday 7-19-11. We are a group of ten celebrating DH and my 40th anniversary with a vow renewal, 50 years of friendship with my bestest friend, and 2 years since the end of chemo. I am the group leader and have planned to take all of us on the "Blue" bus to Mendenhall for some hiking of the trails and glacier viewing and enjoying the visitor's center. Then returning to town for lunch at Tracy's Crab Shack. Is there room at the Shack for all of us to sit down outside? Would hate to have to eat standing up. I'm not very graceful! LOL Then those of us who are not too afraid of heights will go up in the Mt. Roberts Tram before being back on the ship by 2:30PM. One more question: The bus does not run until 9AM. Would the Taku Fisheries Store be open at 8AM so that we could shop before we take the bus? Thanks in advance for any info!

[PennyAgain]

Do not buy your Blue bus tickets or your Tram tickets in advance. If you get to the Tram when you are ready to ride and you can't see to top of the mountain from the bottom, hang on to your money! You can check later, but if there is no view, there is no point in going and no refunds given.

 

If for some reason your ship doesn't do this port stop, you won't get refunds for either in any case.

[frugaltravel]

We sail on the Carnival Spirit on Tuesday 7-19-11. We are a group of ten celebrating DH and my 40th anniversary with a vow renewal, 50 years of friendship with my bestest friend, and 2 years since the end of chemo. I am the group leader and have planned to take all of us on the "Blue" bus to Mendenhall for some hiking of the trails and glacier viewing and enjoying the visitor's center. Then returning to town for lunch at Tracy's Crab Shack. Is there room at the Shack for all of us to sit down outside? Would hate to have to eat standing up. I'm not very graceful! LOL Then those of us who are not too afraid of heights will go up in the Mt. Roberts Tram before being back on the ship by 2:30PM. One more question: The bus does not run until 9AM.

 

I would think some sort of van rental or two taxis would be cheaper and easier than blue bus tickets for 10 people. And if you take a taxi, you can get out to the glacier before the first bus, i.e. basically no one there besides you. Shop later :)

[PennyAgain]

frugaltravel is absolutely correct on his advice here. I failed to read the obvious on this (number of people).

 

As far as Tracy's is concerned, it is first come, first served.

[flashdog_1]

What about round trip or just one way?

 

In past years I've heard of people having a rt and a return bus would not accept their ticket (more than one company doing the town to Mendenhall trip, apparently), so they had to wait until their particular company bus came. I mean it makes sense, but does the competition also use a blue bus?

 

How about paying ON the bus for the return in case the other company's bus was there and the one you came on (blue) was not? Thanks

[mali06]

We were going to rent a van at first but the logistics of going first to the airport for the vehicle, then back to the dock, then sightseeing, then dropping everyone off at the dock and then returning vehicle to the airport is just too much for the time we are there and the expense as well. And they do not have one van that will fit 10. Plus the taxi would mean at least (if we squeeze) 2 taxis out and two taxis back and after checking the prices with them, again the expense becomes an issue for some of our group. The "Blue" bus is the cheapest and most efficient form of travel for 10 people. Trust me, I do my homework!

 

Also we won't have time to shop after the trip to Mendenhall if we are doing lunch and the tram because we must be back onboard no later than 2:30PM. So shopping is definitely for before the bus.

[pacificcoral]

If you rent a van from Rent A Wreck they have an office that is close to the docks. We were at the AJ dock and it was just a short 5 minute walk from the pier and I guess there is now an Avis office over there according to the person at the Rent A Wreck office.

 

For my family of 4 I was able to get a vehicle for about the same price after putting fuel into it as I would have been able to ride the blue bus out to Mendenhall and it gave us some great flexibility which is priceless. We were able to drive all over the place and see many different sites for the price of what it would have cost to just go out to Mendenhall.

 

The woman at the rental place was great also. She had a map that she gave us with a lot of different locations written in and went over the most popular destinations with us.

 

Of course even though we were in port for about 9 hours there is still so much to go back and see.

[bdog01]

When are you going? We're going on the 9th July Golden Princess sailing.

 

National Car rental has a location at the Cruise Ship Dock in Juneau. Since there are 4 of us going I reserved a car. I had a free rental day to use for National, but I think the Full size would have been about $65. It looks like there are several other things to see around Juneau besides the glacier and we will have more flexibility.

 

We are also on the Golden Princess 7/9 departure cruise.

 

Location:

 

Juneau Cruise Ship Dock (JNUP01)

Date & Time:

 

Monday, July 11, 2011 @ 12:30 PM

 

Address:

Jacobsen Drive - Aj Dock

Juneau, AK 99803

 

Phone: (907)7899814

 

 

Hours: Sun-Sat: 08:00 am - 08:00 pm

[mali06]

Sorry, won't deal with Rent A Wreck (for personal reasons). But the National office near the dock must be new since I booked because I called National in Juneau direct when I booked just to be sure. I will go to their site and check into two full size cars (and a car seat) and see what I can find. Thanks for the heads up. . . but I will not hold my breath! LOL Plus remember we don't want to go anywhere else and we still have to replace the gas at about $4.50 per gallon there right now. I'll let you know if I can beat 16.00 pp on the bus.

[mali06]

Well, yes, now we can pick up at the dock with National. But by the time we get 2 full size cars plus tax, car seat (extra), and gas, we are well over the 160.00 for the bus. So guess we will stay with our plan. But thanks for the info guys.

[flashdog_1]

What about round trip or just one way?

 

In past years I've heard of people having a rt and a return bus would not accept their ticket (more than one company doing the town to Mendenhall trip, apparently), so they had to wait until their particular company bus came. I mean it makes sense, but does the competition also use a blue bus?

 

How about paying ON the bus for the return in case the other company's bus was there and the one you came on (blue) was not? Thanks

 

Please, any one with experience, please tell me if you can pay as you get on the bus at Mendenhall, to avoid the scenario above with more than one company having buses to go out there. Thanks

[fleckle]

.......How about paying ON the bus for the return in case the other company's bus was there and the one you came on (blue) was not? Thanks

Ask the driver if the bus is going where you want to go. If so, hop on and pay the driver the $8. The color of the bus does not matter, unless you feel a personal loyalty to a particular company.

 

We have done this and found another advantage to be that when a blue bus and a white bus showed up at the same time, we could take the one that was less crowded.

 

Someone recently said that you can do the same thing going out to Mendenhall. Instead of buying your tickets at a booth and needing to wait for that company's bus, you can take whichever bus comes along first and pay the driver. Just be sure to ask if the bus is going to Mendenhall Glacier before you pay.

 

I don't see any advantage to buying the tickets on line in advance. It would only give you one more unnecessary thing to keep track of and need to remember to bring along from home. Once we get there, we might change our minds and decide we don't even want to go out to Mendenhall if the weather is bad or one of us is not feeling well that day.

[disneylover89]

Are you all talking about the Mighty Great Trips Blue Glacier Express?

 

http://www.mightygreattrips.com/tours/

 

 

It says the buses run every 30 minutes between the hours of 9am-6pm.

[flashdog_1]

Yes, but there are other companies, and I don't want to get left behind in the rain not having the right ticket, so I think we'll just pay as we go, to the driver.

[Linsuesue]

We were in Juneau last August. The Spirit arrived and was unloading at 7:00, and we were one of the first ones off the ship. We couldn't find anything in town open at that hour except for McDonalds. I think I read that the McDonalds has since closed. We just walked around and did a bunch of window shopping and waited for someone to man the kiosk that sold the blue glacier bus tickets. They weren't there that much before 9:00, and we were on the first bus out to Mendenhall Glacier. It was a bit of a drive to get there. Many people were already in the visitors center and hiking all around when we arrived. There were some big tour buses there already. On the way back, we caught the blue bus back to town. The bus driver took our tickets, but I'm sure some people just paid in cash for the return trip. If the first thing you are doing is riding the blue bus to the glacier, don't hurry off the ship. As long as the car rental places open at 7:00 it seems like an advantage to rent a car and not have to hang around town for a couple of hours waiting on the blue bus. We passed a big Walmart and some interesting looking restaurants on the way. There was an eagle sitting on top of a telephone pole on the highway out of town, but the windows in the bus were too dirty to take pictures of anything.

[jimgII]

No need to buy your tickets early. We were there a week ago and just walked up to the ticket booth, no lines. Also, they have AAA discount if you present your card.

[flashdog_1]

No need to buy your tickets early. We were there a week ago and just walked up to the ticket booth, no lines. Also, they have AAA discount if you present your card.

 

Did you notice if they had any other kind of discounts, like senior, AARP? Thanks