Shore excursion advice, please!

[Luci lu]

Hello Cruise Critic Wise Ones! We've decided to take our second Inside Passage cruise to Alaska on 5/25/14. We will be going to the same ports and want to do something different from our last cruise. The following are shore excursions we are considering: Ketchikan-Misty Fjords & Wilderness Explorer Cruise or Back Country Jeep & Canoe Safari. Juneau-Dog Sled Summer Camp or Whale Watching. Skagway-Eagle Preserve Rafting & Wildlife Quest or Haines Wilderness River Adventure. What are your recommendations, please? Also, last trip we had good luck with independant operators which cost less than Princess shore excursions. Any advice there? Thank you so much!

[Budget Queen]

Skagway, both your tours are in Haines. You are way too early for the "eagles" you see in the fall. Comparing rafting, in my opinion, having done both the Taiya and Chilkat the Tayia was superior.

 

All of your tours are certainly enjoyable and worthwhile, depending on individual interests.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Budget Queen

[Koali]

We went on the misty fjords boat cruise. It was offered by the cruiseline and was about 5 hours long. We were in Ketchikan for only 7 hours or so, and with such a long excursion we didn't get a chance to walk around. Anyways, the boat they have is very nice. We sat at the upper deck and on the back deck is open so you can take really good pictures. The scenery was really nice when we got to the fjords but overall the narrative was not interesting. They gave samples of the smoked salmon and a cup of soup. Both delicious. I personally would not recommend as I felt it took a really long time to get to the nice scenery and getting there was not interesting.

 

If you are interested in seeing wildlife, we had a lot of luck in Juneau. We saw whales, seals, eagles, doll porpoises, orca whales. We're planning on returning to Juneau and going back on the whale watching tours. All of the boat captains are on the same radio frequency and will let other captains know where there are whale sightings. Everyone benefits!

 

On our next trip, we're looking at doing tours with independent operators, but haven't made any solid plans.

 

 

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