PCL or Independent tour for Tracy Arm Fjord?

[LHARTWICK]

Should we do the PCL Tracy Arm Fjord tour or would it be better to wait and catch a Tracy Arm Fjord tour from Juneau? Not sure if any tour companies can accommodate a 12:30 PM arrival in Juneau?

[ikirumata]

I don't know how long you will be in Juneau, but a tour of Tracy Arm from Juneau is a 10+ hour trip! We did Adventurebound from Juneau and we left around 8am and got back around 6pm.

 

Looks like your best bet is to just do the PCL tour.

[Coral]

Go with Princess.

 

There are not any independent companies that will do the Tracy Arm tour during your time slot.

[Budget Queen]

Should we do the PCL Tracy Arm Fjord tour or would it be better to wait and catch a Tracy Arm Fjord tour from Juneau? Not sure if any tour companies can accommodate a 12:30 PM arrival in Juneau?

 

OK think about it, why not just take advantage of your time and book an add on Tracy Arm tour direct?? Makes the best use of your time.

[Coral]

I would book it ASAP.

[xlxo]

The PCL option is preferred with the mid-cruise transfer. This saves you 50 miles of not needing to retrace the distance from Juneau to Tracy Arm. Valuable hours that can used for other Juneau activities (eg Mendenhall? Whale watches? Crab shack?).

 

There is limited seating for this small boat excursion. Of all the Alaskan excursions.... this is always a sellout before the cruise begins.

Edited January 26, 2016 by xlxo

[TheCalicoCat]

Should we do the PCL Tracy Arm Fjord tour or would it be better to wait and catch a Tracy Arm Fjord tour from Juneau? Not sure if any tour companies can accommodate a 12:30 PM arrival in Juneau?

 

Not sure about PCL or your cruise specifically, but on my first HAL cruise there was an excursion to Tracy Arm - we left the ship at the mouth of Tracy Arm on to the tour boat. We returned to Juneau onto our ship - then we could go to Juneau itself.

 

Other options, the ship itself will tour Tracy Arm (this is what is planned for my next HAL cruise), with a full day in Juneau the next day. (I'm on a 14-night sailing, so there is more "time" to do this on 2 days rather than one.) In Juneau, there is an excursion to Tracy Arm - all day.

 

So there are 3 possibilities...

 

I can't recommend the small boat experience enough. It was hands down my FAVORITE excursion.

[LHARTWICK]

OK think about it, why not just take advantage of your time and book an add on Tracy Arm tour direct?? Makes the best use of your time.

 

I only asked the question so that we can get information to help us decide what to do. I couldn't "think about it" since we didn't know.

[LHARTWICK]

The PCL option is preferred with the mid-cruise transfer. This saves you 50 miles of not needing to retrace the distance from Juneau to Tracy Arm. Valuable hours that can used for other Juneau activities (eg Mendenhall? Whale watches? Crab shack?).

 

There is limited seating for this small boat excursion. Of all the Alaskan excursions.... this is always a sellout before the cruise begins.

 

 

 

99% sure we will book this...soon! But, on the PCL excursion reservation page, there are 2 different prices listed for this: $229 and $209. It doesn't indicate what the difference is. Anyone know? They both say "adult" after the price. Also, anyone know how large the boat is? Right now it says there are 20 spaces left.

[LEtue]

99% sure we will book this...soon! But, on the PCL excursion reservation page, there are 2 different prices listed for this: $229 and $209. It doesn't indicate what the difference is. Anyone know? They both say "adult" after the price. Also, anyone know how large the boat is? Right now it says there are 20 spaces left.

 

I only see one adult price and two departure times for my cruise in July. It could be a mistake? Or they have added another operator/departure?

 

 

Select Excursion Time:

 

Price: Space Available:

 

07:30AM - 01:00PM

Adult: $209.95 | Child: $159.95 20

 

07:35AM - 01:05PM

Adult: $209.95 | Child: $159.95 20

[LHARTWICK]

Mine shows a 7:30 AM departure for $229 and a 7:35 AM departure for $209. Weird.

[Coral]

Mine shows a 7:30 AM departure for $229 and a 7:35 AM departure for $209. Weird.

 

I think they are playing with pricing structure - when a certain percentage of the trip is booked, it increases in cost......

[xlxo]

I remember looking at the prices at one time. The cheaper one departs from the ship. The more expensive one appears to be a Juneau round tripper.

[LHARTWICK]

I went ahead and reserved the cheaper one. :) According to the page I'm seeing, the only difference is a departure time of 5 minutes later than the more expensive one. Oh well - at least I have our spots reserved! This is a splurge for us, but it looks/sounds amazing!

[TheCalicoCat]

This is a splurge for us, but it looks/sounds amazing!

 

Just curious, based on this comment, what else do you have planned to do while in AK?

[LHARTWICK]

We haven't booked any other excursions yet. We've cruised AK twice before, so we've done the more popular excursions such as the train in Skagway, the Yukon, Mendenhall Glacier, whale watching, the Juneau tram. We've had a float plane booked in Ketchikan on both of our previous visits there, but the first was cancelled due to 9/11 (happened the day before, so ALL flights were grounded); the second was cancelled due to bad weather. Both times we just walked around town, which we really enjoyed. We also took the shuttle out to Wal-Mart just to kill time - man, that was a hoot!!! I was mobbed by a bunch of cruise line employees trying to get IN the shuttle while I was still trying to get OUT of it! We still laugh about it!