Alaska questions, lots.

[bones774]

I spoke to friend of mine who did the same itinerary, Skagway, Juneau, ketchikan, victoria and seattle that i will be doing at the end of this month. He told me not to be too concerned about booking excursions ahead of time that there is plenty of seating and when u arrive at port it is like a bazaar of sorts with people offering all kinds of deals for everything and negotiation of prices.

 

Some will say the best is sold out but i've been calling around and there is still availability for everything i called. Some even told me that they could easily put on extra capacity for more people.

 

He said that there may be benefits for preplanning but it is also some benefit to waiting till arrival and seeing the weather before committing.

 

Also that upon arrival you can go directly to the attraction and deal with the vendor w/o a middleman. He says that you could buy the White Pass rail ticket at the station w/o any middleman vendor, for instance.

 

How do you determine what to do where? For instance he says you could whale watch outta seattle or juneau , which one?

 

Thanks for any help and info.

[rjeffler]

Why wouldn't you want to plan ahead and have an idea of what you are doing. I think ALL of my vendors offered refunds if we weren't able to go. I wouldn't want to risk going all of the way to Alaska and having all of the tours I wanted to do be sold out.

[bones774]

Why wouldn't you want to plan ahead and have an idea of what you are doing. I think ALL of my vendors offered refunds if we weren't able to go. I wouldn't want to risk going all of the way to Alaska and having all of the tours I wanted to do be sold out.

 

weather! i wouldn't want to go to top of summit in a cloud covered day, or perhaps be out in the middle of the sea when it's a rainstorm. Vendors offering a refund would be at their discretion.

Besides it's not all about not planning, it's more if there are some changes on the fly, i have a son and daughters and they might no want same thing. I like the idea of flexibility. As to being sold hat's why i'm asking.

[sherryf]

First, if you let the weather control what you do, you may not see much at all. You have to go prepared for the weather and enjoy yourself despite the weather. If weather conditions are unsafe, vendors will cancel. Otherwise, just put on your rain jacket and have fun. Don't go all the way to Alaska and miss seeing the things you want to see because of a few clouds or a little rain.

 

Second, there are some vendors at the pier, but all the best vendors will be booked. Why accept second (or 3rd or 4th...) best? Yes, you can walk to the train station and buy a summit round-trip ticket, but if you want to do a longer bus/train tour into the Yukon, good luck booking anything last minute. Chilkoot Charters is an excellent vendor, but they do book up in advance. You might be able to book a whale watch last minute, but I've heard of people doing that and then coming back and complaining that it was a smelly old fishing boat. Also, you will only see humpback whales out of Juneau. You can book whale watching tours out of Victoria or Seattle, but that would be orcas, and sightings are not guaranteed.

 

I think you need to spend some time researching your options so you have a good idea of what you want to do. Determine which tours need to be booked ahead and what you can do at the last minute. Anything with limited seating should be booked in advance.

[Lisichka]

weather! i wouldn't want to go to top of summit in a cloud covered day, or perhaps be out in the middle of the sea when it's a rainstorm. Vendors offering a refund would be at their discretion.

Besides it's not all about not planning, it's more if there are some changes on the fly, i have a son and daughters and they might no want same thing. I like the idea of flexibility. As to being sold hat's why i'm asking.

 

Sounds like you already have made up your mind as to what you want to do. ;)

[bones774]

First, if you let the weather control what you do, you may not see much at all. You have to go prepared for the weather and enjoy yourself despite the weather. If weather conditions are unsafe, vendors will cancel. Otherwise, just put on your rain jacket and have fun. Don't go all the way to Alaska and miss seeing the things you want to see because of a few clouds or a little rain.

 

Second, there are some vendors at the pier, but all the best vendors will be booked. Why accept second (or 3rd or 4th...) best? Yes, you can walk to the train station and buy a summit round-trip ticket, but if you want to do a longer bus/train tour into the Yukon, good luck booking anything last minute. Chilkoot Charters is an excellent vendor, but they do book up in advance. You might be able to book a whale watch last minute, but I've heard of people doing that and then coming back and complaining that it was a smelly old fishing boat. Also, you will only see humpback whales out of Juneau. You can book whale watching tours out of Victoria or Seattle, but that would be orcas, and sightings are not guaranteed.

 

I think you need to spend some time researching your options so you have a good idea of what you want to do. Determine which tours need to be booked ahead and what you can do at the last minute. Anything with limited seating should be booked in advance.

 

So where is your whale watching recommendation? Whats the difference between booking chilkoot and ordering online from rail office?

thansk

[SparkleBee]

I have not done my AK cruise yet but here is my 2 cents... it seems like to the best/most popular vendors sell out, but if you are wanting to do a particular activity there will be a vendor that you can book with onsite. but you don't know what you are getting. for me, I'd rather choose what I want to do, find the best outfit and then book it. if the weather is no good they will cancel and you won't be charged. for example, I decided to rent a car in a couple of the ports and you can be sure I reserved the cars already!

 

if you don't mind going with the flow and booking once you are there I think that is a perfectly fine way to go. you just might not get the best - and that may not matter to you.

[bones774]

I do anticipate booking some vendors now bu would also like to hear from others who have already done these things which could be done on the fly. Again, still not sure where to go whale watching.

[Eaglecw]

Whale watching - Juneau

 

We've been to Alaska many times and still plan ahead, sometimes you can't save much by picking up a excursion on the Pier. Plan ahead you'll have a better vacation. Not knowing your interests/budget it's pretty hard to tell you what excursions you'd be interested in.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Eaglecw

[bones774]

Whale watching - Juneau

 

We've been to Alaska many times and still plan ahead, sometimes you can't save much by picking up a excursion on the Pier. Plan ahead you'll have a better vacation. Not knowing your interests/budget it's pretty hard to tell you what excursions you'd be interested in.

 

Part of the problem is i'm a single dad with a son and 2 daughters, each wanting their own thing. I know my son would love a fishing excursion(recommend any?) but the daughters no way. One daughter is only concerned with whale watching, so it looks like Juneau. I'm concerned with the railway excursion if they get bored. Sometimes(all the time ?) they may be impulsive and see something and say that's what we want!

thanks

[fishin' musician]

Part of the problem is i'm a single dad with a son and 2 daughters, each wanting their own thing. I know my son would love a fishing excursion(recommend any?) but the daughters no way. One daughter is only concerned with whale watching, so it looks like Juneau. I'm concerned with the railway excursion if they get bored. Sometimes(all the time ?) they may be impulsive and see something and say that's what we want!

thanks

 

I'm confident you will have the trip of a lifetime regardless if you pre-book or do things on-the-fly. You may want to consider renting a car in Juneau and going to Mendenhall Glacier and in Skagway and driving the Yukon Highway to Emerald Lake/Carcross. Fishing would be a challenge for one person, but in Ketchikan there is at least one place to rent equipment to fish for salmon when they are in. I'd suggest doing as much research as you can regarding options at the various destinations and this will also help determine if pre-booking is necessary.

[gdisney]

I can imagine it's tough trying to please everyone, especially with kids. There are plenty of sightseeing things to do which are easy enough to get to right off the boat - particularly in Juneau and Ketchikan. In Juneau it's easy to walk up and get bus tickets to Mendenhall glacier, or to take the tram to the top of Mount Roberts where there's hiking and a nature center and the views are amazing. Ketchikan has a nice historical walking tour with free self guided maps available near the pier, and visiting Creek Street is always interesting. If the salmon are running you can see them in the waterways. And there's hatchery and totem pole parks and whatnot as well. Maybe it's not your cup of tea, i don't know.

[mapleleaves]

You're putting a lot of weight to the words of your friend, who possibly cruised earlier than you, so before high season kicked in? and perhaps has never been to Alaska before so his 'knowledge' is based on a one-time experience?

 

Sure, you can wing it. But do you want to waste your valuable port time walking around to various vendor booths asking about the experience they can provide, how long it lasts, how much it costs? And you might end up with a fly by night vendor. OTOH you might get someone great whose trying to establish themselves. Why risk it when the trip reports provide you with the names of tried and true vendors?

 

I recall last yr when someone insisted on using a whale watch company because it provided a groupon. No one had heard of the company and advised agst it. The vendor never showed up, so they wasted time looking for another vendor who could take their group. Finally found someone and had a great experience, BUT, at the expense of doing anything else in town.

 

As to your ? about whale watching ..... Icy Strait Pt and Juneau are the best locations for whale watching.

 

With teens, i'd go for a rental car in Skagway. Gives you all an opportunity to stop whenever and wherever. Unless they have expressed a desire to use the train.

Edited June 18, 2014 by mapleleaves

[gdisney]

With teens, i'd go for a rental car in Skagway. Gives you all an opportunity to stop whenever and wherever. Unless they have expressed a desire to use the train.

 

If you want to do this in Skagway…definitely reserve a car in advance. They tend to sell out. Here's a snippet from my review of that part of our trip:

 

...we had pre-reserved a car with Avis ($121 for the day, gas extra) to take a drive into the Yukon up to Emerald Lake (bring your passports, you need to show them both ways!). Note that Avis lists their location on their website as 2nd and Spring Streets, but there's nothing at this intersection. They are actually located on 3rd, in part of a little building that looks like a Motel. Despite the weather being cloudy, slightly foggy, and raining a bit up the pass, the drive afforded amazing scenery. We even saw three black bears along the road and took pictures (from our car of course!). We used Murray's Guide to help us find sites along the way (you can google this online, it's a $5 downloadable pdf). We stopped briefly in the little town of Carcross before heading to the Caribou Crossing dogsled camp. We did ride the wheeled cart pulled by he dogs, which at $30 per person for 15 minutes was a bit pricey, but it was a neat experience all the same. As it was pretty wet out you didn't want to snuggle with the dogs so much, but there were puppies you could hold and get pictures with and so forth. There's also a cafe and gift shop. After driving back to Skagway we also took the side road to Dyea and visited the cemetery there. The entire trip was about 7 hours, with frequent photo stops.

Edited June 18, 2014 by gdisney

[sherryf]

Part of the problem is i'm a single dad with a son and 2 daughters, each wanting their own thing. I know my son would love a fishing excursion(recommend any?) but the daughters no way. One daughter is only concerned with whale watching, so it looks like Juneau. I'm concerned with the railway excursion if they get bored. Sometimes(all the time ?) they may be impulsive and see something and say that's what we want!

thanks

 

What are the ages of the kids? Be sure you have a signed, notarized letter from their mother allowing you to take them out of the country. Depending on which cruise line you are on, you may all need passports. Princess requires this any time that minors are travelling with only one adult.

 

You may have to come to some compromises about excursions because you may not be able to send them all off to do their own things. There are age restrictions on unaccompanied minors on excursions. You can't just send one kid on a fishing trip and another on a different excursion alone. You can only be one place at a time, so unless the "kids" are over 18, you will all most likely have to do the same things. A few excursions may have lower age limits, but most I saw when browsing were 18, a few were 15-16. In order to keep everyone happy, it's probably best to figure out what you will do in advance and book it. Otherwise you may get off the ship and look at the options, and then have a fight on your hands when nobody can agree about what to do.

[daffodiliaz]

I'm concerned with the railway excursion if they get bored.

 

A valid concern. We did the roundtrip train out of Skagway and I fell asleep on the way back. It's not exactly inexpensive x 4. I don't think I'd recomend the roundtrip for teens. I've been to Skagway a couple times and I don't recall seeing vendors for other activities at the docks like there were in Juneau.

[karatemom2]

Part of the problem is i'm a single dad with a son and 2 daughters, each wanting their own thing. I know my son would love a fishing excursion(recommend any?) but the daughters no way. One daughter is only concerned with whale watching, so it looks like Juneau. I'm concerned with the railway excursion if they get bored. Sometimes(all the time ?) they may be impulsive and see something and say that's what we want!

thanks

 

We did a combined fishing and whale watching trip in Alaska a couple of years ago which was great as it satisfied everyone in our group. Perhaps you could book something similar with one of the small boat captains in Juneau. That would be something I would recommend you research online and book in advance. Tripadvisor is a great resource for private vendors with reviews. Personally if I'm going out on the ocean in a small boat, I like to know a bit about who I'm booking with and what their experience is which is why I would be a bit sketchy about picking up a tour with just anyone holding up a sign at the dock.

 

In terms of the train if you are concerned about boredom you may want to look at a trip that has the train up one way and a van ride the other as opposed to a roundtrip on the train. Again, this might require a bit of advance planning as I don't know if such a trip would be available at the dock. Certainly you could book roundtrip train upon arrival, but that is a lot of train riding. Train up, van down or vice versa breaks it up a bit. Another thought if you aren't sold on the train idea is to rent your own vehicle and do the drive on your own using Murray's Guide. That gives you more flexibility. You would want to reserve the car in advance though.

 

It's a little easier to wing it in Ketchikan and Victoria as there is much to do and see in a very walkable area, so maybe those can be the ports where you make your decisions on the fly so to speak. Still, a little research in advance might narrow down what types of things you want to do when you get into town.

[Glaciers]

You know your kids better than anybody but my concern would be if they will really enjoy an Alaska cruise. It is certainly endless scenic beauty with a little wildlife thrown in. As noted before there will be age limits so each may not be able to do their own thing in port. It’s also an expensive place if there is a chance they really wouldn’t enjoy the excursions, particularly when considering that you may wait until you arrive at the port to schedule anything. In some cases your selection will be the left-overs after many have booked the most popular excursions. I know I would have been a bit bored with an Alaskan cruise if I was in my young teens or younger.

[peety3]

Second, there are some vendors at the pier, but all the best vendors will be booked. Why accept second (or 3rd or 4th...) best? Yes, you can walk to the train station and buy a summit round-trip ticket, but if you want to do a longer bus/train tour into the Yukon, good luck booking anything last minute. Chilkoot Charters is an excellent vendor, but they do book up in advance. You might be able to book a whale watch last minute, but I've heard of people doing that and then coming back and complaining that it was a smelly old fishing boat. Also, you will only see humpback whales out of Juneau. You can book whale watching tours out of Victoria or Seattle, but that would be orcas, and sightings are not guaranteed.

 

On our August 2012 cruise, we saw one or perhaps a few orcas returning from Misty Fjords (or halfway there...) by boat, and then saw a pod of 25 orcas while on a whale watch from Juneau.

[sherryf]

On our August 2012 cruise, we saw one or perhaps a few orcas returning from Misty Fjords (or halfway there...) by boat, and then saw a pod of 25 orcas while on a whale watch from Juneau.

 

Sorry, when I said he'd only see humpback in Juneau, I meant that Juneau was the only port where he'd be able to see humpbacks. He will not see humpbacks from Seattle or Victoria. If he wants to see whales, humpbacks are guaranteed in Juneau. Orcas are possible but less likely. I've seen them a few times off the ship at random times, but not on either of my two actual whale watching trips. In Seattle or Victoria, the only whales typically seen are orcas, but they are not guaranteed. If his daughter really wants to see whales, booking a whale watch in Juneau is his best bet.

[Budget Queen]

It DEPENDS what type of tours you are going to look for, if you wait until you get to port.

 

Doing the "simple" stuff will have availability, the little bus tours, shuttle buses, tours that can take large numbers.

 

You are NOT going to get a lot of flight, or specific boat vendor, availability. There will be little if any long Skagway tours to the Yukon available.

 

If YOU don't want to book anything ahead, then don't. But, be well prepared in being flexible and not going on your first tour choices.

[Giantfan13]

Bones

 

Your friend is probably right, there will be vendors around for some of the ports you will be in. As others have said, but no one really asked you this question, Do you want to go with the best, or a particular outfit that comes highly recommended, or you don't care too much who takes you where ever, as long as you do what interests you?

Many here have already said, that for the time and expense of going to Alaska, they want to assure themselves of having great tours and really only want to use reputable people who are highly recommended. Whale watch tours like Harv and Marv, who are constantly mentioned here, you will not be able to just walk up and find a spot. Price wise they are all really about the same. You might find a cheaper vendor who is starting out and looking to make a spot for himself, but you also could get Joe Shmow who is there because no one wants to use him and he is hungry for people. That is your call and how you feel about any particular excursions.

 

Plus, you will NEVER be able to please the 'group' My suggestion is let one pick a tour in Skagway, an another in Juneau and the third in Ketchikan. With all agreeing to go with the others without complaining.

Anything with dogs, is always good for all kids, like a husky ride, or try a gold panning tour. sure it's corny, but hey, we did it and when we found our 'speck' of gold, we were trilled. :D:D:D

 

Personally, if it were me, I would not want to chance a bad tour, after going all that way. For a few extra bucks, you are assured a good time. Look, if the weather is bad, foggy etc. and you want to wait until you get there to see this, any reasonable tour won't go out then either, so you will still end up wandering about the town doing nothing, listening to the kids complaining. If all this fails, just book tours thru the ship.

 

Anyway, have a great time

 

Cheers

 

Len

[bones774]

What are the ages of the kids? Be sure you have a signed, notarized letter from their mother allowing you to take them out of the country. Depending on which cruise line you are on, you may all need passports. Princess requires this any time that minors are travelling with only one adult.

.

Are you certain of this? I looked over the edocs page at NCL and the consent form is required if the child is not traveling with at least One parent. We all have passports.

ages 16,17 and 19

Edited June 19, 2014 by bones774

[cruisin0218]

Are you certain of this? I looked over the edocs page at NCL and the consent form is required if the child is not traveling with at least One parent. We all have passports.

ages 16,17 and 19

When I traveled out of the country with my daughter a notarized letter from my husband giving his permission was required. People have experienced not being allowed to board the ship without this in the past. If you can obtain one it is the safest way to go.

[bones774]

When I traveled out of the country with my daughter a notarized letter from my husband giving his permission was required. People have experienced not being allowed to board the ship without this in the past. If you can obtain one it is the safest way to go.

 

Hmm, I just called NCL for clarification and was told that as long as i am the biological parent i do not need signed consent.