Misty Fjords Wilderness Cruise & Flight

[sstoalaska]

We're considering the Misty Fjords Wilderness Cruise & Flight in Ketchikan. Would love to hear from anyone who has done this tour. Is it worth it and also do you recommend booking it through the cruise line or is it lots less $$$ to book it through private company? Also, any recommendations on who we should contact if we use private company? Is it something we can wait until the day of to book in case the weather is bad? Any information will be appreciated.:confused:

[Boobaby]

We haven't been yet, but are going on this tour from Ketchikan in June....

 

http://www.islandwings.com/sfs.html

[naplesam]

We did this tour 6 years ago while there and now have it booked again for this summer. IMHO one of the best tours we had in Alaska thus the desire to do it again. We booked through Princess so I am not aware of any direct company names.

[Coral]

We did this tour 6 years ago while there and now have it booked again for this summer. IMHO one of the best tours we had in Alaska thus the desire to do it again. We booked through Princess so I am not aware of any direct company names.

 

I have considered doing this one several times. Can you compare the boat ride with the flight - which did you prefer? Did you find the boat ride very scenic? Thank you.

[naplesam]

Ok, it's been 6 years so the memory may not be perfect on this, but here goes!

 

Some had flight, then cruise portion; we had cruise and then flight. Nice boat and we spent probably 2-3 hours getting to and cruising in Misty Fjords. Good speakers on board that were very informative. Great scenery. Then we kind of docked in this big lake area with some wooden floating docks. Then all of a sudden all of these floatplanes were there and landed and floated right up to the dock. Those of us on the boat then got on the planes and the folks who had just flown in got on the boat. The flight back was also good--but it is really two different experiences and hard to compare. Flying back to Ketchican over the mountains was great. Then you land back out near your ship and have good photo op to take a pic of your cruise ship from the plane.

 

A "pricey" tour, but worth it IMHO.

 

As said, we are doing this again this summer!

[Coral]

Thank you!

[sstoalaska]

Thanks for all the information. I booked through the cruise line today. I did find one local vendor that had the cruise/fly excursions but they didn't have a time that fit our port time. Boobaby, I checked with Island Wings and they said they only had the flight but did land for 35 minutes. GoldBelt Tours had the flight/cruise but could not fit our shore time. Thanks for all yall's help. :)

[Hate 2 W8t]

GoldBelt Tours had the flight/cruise but could not fit our shore time.

 

SS - How did you get in touch with Goldbelt? I sent an email specifically about this tour and have not received a response after two business days. I plan to call, but was surprised not to see a response yet. Did they happen to mention if they are the same company that does the cruiseline version of this tour? I only ask because the description on their website is awfully similar to the one on Princess' site.

 

We have already booked through the cruiseline, but thought I should do some due diligence and check the options. We don't leave until 8/29, so I will be looking forward to your review. ;)

 

Have a great trip!

[sstoalaska]

I called Goldbelt Tours 800-820-2628. I talked with Julie,very nice and very informative, and she advised going through cruise line because of the time in the port - 6am-12 noon. If I remember correctly it was about $45 difference in cost but that beats missing the boat! She didn't say they were the ones that do the tour for the cruises but I got their name on one of these threads that said they thought they did the tours for the cruises. Seems like that might be right since they were the only local tour that I found that had both. I'm not great on the computer though so could be other places and I just didn't find them. Anyway it's done and I'm happy - I wanted to do the fly/cruise to be able to experience both and finally talked myself into spending the extra money. I will be going in June so I'll let you know if it's worth it. :)

[rnjoel]

We did the Misty Fjords Cruise/Flight last year, and it was the best tour of the whole trip! We flew first, with wonderful views, and the cruise back was out of this world! Scenery and wildlife like you wouldn't believe!

 

We normally don't like ship tours, but I was unable to find this same excursion on my own. However, it was money well spent! You'll love it!

 

Happy Sailings!

[Love Cruis'n]

I was on our Princess web site earlier today looking over the excursions, and this one looked great - and you folks kind of confirm that BUT on the Princess site it has a foot note - "This tour available to Diamond Princess passengers only." And we're on the Coral Princess. So I shot off a mail to our TA - but was wondering in anyone had any insight they could share - or options to suggest if we canot get this shore ex.

Thanks,

[sstoalaska]

Thanks RNJOEL you made my day! I'm really can't wait to go on this tour now.

We don't usually do tours by the cruise line either - but they seem to have a corner on this tour.

Love Cruis'n - I'm on the Princess/Diamond but in the Princess Excursions book page 69 it makes no mention of it being only for the Diamond. If you can't book through cruise line try Goldbelt Tours 800-820-2628. Maybe your port times aren't as bad as mine were. (6am-12 noon) Good Luck.

[rnjoel]

You're welcome! And you're right....except I think the cruiselines have a corner on most of the tours in Alaska. We cruised the Mediterranean in 2003, and we're about to cruise the Baltics in June. We took ONE ship tour in the Med, and we have NONE booked in the Baltics. All private tours. The only private tour I was able to find in Alaska was with Captain Larry. Everything else was either made inconvenient unless you were on the ship's tour (White Pass Railway - couldn't get on at the ship if you didn't book thru the ship, had to walk all the way to the station), or wasn't available that I could find (Misty Fjord Cruise/Fly). But, we had a wonderful time and saw some beautiful scenery.....

 

Have a great trip!

[naplesam]

I just reviewed the Princess excursion reservation website and I did not see any mention of not for other ships. We are on Island Princess, southboard and were able to book this tour on-line at the Princess website. I looked at my list of excursions already booked and it is there.

[Hate 2 W8t]

I just reviewed the Princess excursion reservation website and I did not see any mention of not for other ships. We are on Island Princess, southboard and were able to book this tour on-line at the Princess website. I looked at my list of excursions already booked and it is there.

 

Ditto for the Sun Princess. Confirmation in hand! :D

[Coral]

I was on our Princess web site earlier today looking over the excursions' date=' and this one looked great - and you folks kind of confirm that [b']BUT[/b] on the Princess site it has a foot note - "This tour available to Diamond Princess passengers only." And we're on the Coral Princess. So I shot off a mail to our TA - but was wondering in anyone had any insight they could share - or options to suggest if we canot get this shore ex.

Thanks,

 

The excursion to Misty Fiords that is only on the Diamond is a boat ride to Misty Fiords and back.

 

The other ships do not offer this. The other ships do offer a combination boat ride/flight or just a flight but not a RT boat ride to Misty Fiords.

 

At least this is how I understand it.

[Cathleenen]

I'm so jealous of all you guys who are able to do both the fly/cruise to Misty Fjords. I did a bit of research on the issue as there are 3 of us in the group, 1 who refuses to fly.

 

The reason there is usually only floatplane OR cruise options on most cruises is because there is only ONE dock in Misty Fjords, and it's owned by 1 of the 2 (yes, there are only two) companies that cruise Misty Fjords. The dock that exists pre-dated 1970-something...when Misty Fjords became a national monument. So basically, Goldbelt (rather, their parent company) has a monopoly on the fly/cruise b/c they own the dock.

 

I tried to book an independent floatplane tour and they tried to arrange for a landing at the dock. But the only cruise to Misty Fjords that day is the other cruise company and since they don't have property rights in the dock there's no way the company could arrange the transfer to or from a floatplane.

 

And as luck would have it, Goldbelt isn't offering a Misty Fjords cruise the day NCL is in Ketchikan so the fly/cruise isn't an option for me. It would have been perfect--3 of us cruise to Misty Fjords and then 2 of us fly back...with plenty of time to meet the 3rd person when we return to the dock.

 

That's not the only monopoly I became aware of in my research. Apparently the fast ferry is the ONLY company with ferry transport between Skagway and Haines (they bought out the other operator and had them sign a non-competition clause in the agreement). Once they discovered what ship I was on, they refused to sell me an independent tour because they were unwilling to undermine NCL's business.