Alaska - time between excursions?

[PattyPsch]

We will be on the Crown Princess to Alaska in July. In Skagway, we want to do the railway excursion that will end at 11:40am. We would then like to do the Dog Sled excursion that starts at 1:00. The Princess website says that it is ok to do two excursions in one day if there is an hour in between. This would be 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Has anyone done this? Is 1 hour and 20 minutes enough time?

 

Patty

[JimmyVWine]

You will have no problem doing this as long as the drop-off point of one excursion is relatively close to the starting point of the next one. Skagway is a small town, so I can't see that being a problem.

[caribill]

Meeting time for the afternoon excursion will be by 12:45 PM. Don't know if it will be on or off the ship.

 

a) Ask the tour desk in advance where the meeting place will be for the PM excursion. If it will be on the ship, ask where to find the busses for the tour on shore since you might not have the time to get back on baord before the PM excursion.

 

b) Have the afternoon excursion tickets with you when you go on the morning excursion in case there is no time to get back on board and go to your cabin bteween the excursions.

 

c) Realize that there may not be time for lunch that day.

 

You should have no problem doing both excursions unless there is an unusual problem in timing with the first excursion. If the actual return of the AM excursion is late enough to prevent you taking the PM one, Princess should refund the cost of the PM excursion as it was their excursion's fault you missed the PM one.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Patty, that is exactly what we had booked too - both of those excursions through Princess.

 

Instead, we cancelled those 2 tours and booked just the one 7.5 hr. one that does everything the Princess tours do and much more through Chilkoot Charters. We saved $137 doing it this way. It's the same train but from what others have told me, you're in a much less crowded car. They pick you up at the ship (no walking to the train depot) and you get to see a lot more of the interior of the Yukon, have a nice BBQ lunch and do the dogcart ride. You might want to check it out at their website.

[Potstech]

Did this on our cruise in 2008. It makes for a very busy day. Be advised there are LIMITED food vendors in that area. You will not have time to go back to the ship and eat. Also the return time of the train is not set in stone and can vary. All said and done it was a couple of good excursions but would not do 2 of these on the same day.

[sherryf]

Meeting time for the afternoon excursion will be by 12:45 PM. Don't know if it will be on or off the ship.

 

a) Ask the tour desk in advance where the meeting place will be for the PM excursion. If it will be on the ship, ask where to find the busses for the tour on shore since you might not have the time to get back on baord before the PM excursion.

 

In my 5 Princess cruises to Alaska, I've never had an excursion meet ON the ship. Not to say that it can never happen. It might if you had to tender at a port, but you never do in Skagway. Where the tour meets will depend on which dock you are at. We've usually been at one of the RR docks, but last year we were at the Ore dock. Sometimes at the RR dock, the buses get up close to the ship, and other times you have to walk all the way down the dock to the parking lot. If you take the train (on a Princess excursion) from the RR dock, you board right there at the dock, not at the station.

 

I can second the recommendation for Chilkoot Charters. I've taken them twice, on the Yukon trip with dog cart ride and the Lake Bennett trip. Both are excellent but I preferred the Lake Bennett. No sled dogs on that one though.

[Thrak]

Patty, that is exactly what we had booked too - both of those excursions through Princess.

 

Instead, we cancelled those 2 tours and booked just the one 7.5 hr. one that does everything the Princess tours do and much more through Chilkoot Charters. We saved $137 doing it this way. It's the same train but from what others have told me, you're in a much less crowded car. They pick you up at the ship (no walking to the train depot) and you get to see a lot more of the interior of the Yukon, have a nice BBQ lunch and do the dogcart ride. You might want to check it out at their website.

 

What's the price range on this? I looked at the site and it didn't give me pricing. Apparently I would have to fill out all of the booking info before I could get that info.

[sherryf]

What's the price range on this? I looked at the site and it didn't give me pricing. Apparently I would have to fill out all of the booking info before I could get that info.

 

The 2014 prices have been posted in this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1947601

 

Scroll down to post #11.

[DrivesLikeMario]

What's the price range on this? I looked at the site and it didn't give me pricing. Apparently I would have to fill out all of the booking info before I could get that info.

 

I had to email them to get the prices. Wish they would post them.

 

$211pp for the Yukon Train & Bus with the dogcart ride.

Edited January 9, 2014 by DrivesLikeMario