Crown Princess 06/18 - 06/25 Questions

[GadgetRick]

First time cruising with Princess and first time to Alaska. Been asking questions regarding excursions and everyone has been very helpful but they also mentioned I should post here.

 

Anyway, looking at excursions and not afraid to book with 3rd party tour operators. Here are some questions for each port of call:

 

Juneau

We want to see as much of glaciers as we can--we're from FL. Not really interested in whale-watching. Some suggest just taking the bus to the visitor center for Mendenhall Glacier. Wondering if it's worth it to do one of the many helicopter tours. Are there 3rd party operators who are less expensive than the ones booked through Princess?

 

I also know the weather may not cooperate so I need a backup plan.

 

Skagway

Definitely want to do the train. However, I was under the impression it was a train ride only but it seems they're all train/coach. Then Chilkoot Charter looks good. Someone else mentioned it. What about this one?

 

Ketchikan

Really like the idea of Misty Fjord. Is boat the only way to get there? Is that the best way if so?

 

Thinking about the Married Man Trail and taking the gondola back down as well. Time for this as well as a trip to Misty Fjord?

 

Is there time for the Lumberjack show as well? The George Inlet Lodge looks good. All-you-can eat crab works for me.

 

I know someone mentioned we want to do a lot because, well, we do. :) We're in Ketchikan from 7am-1:15pm so not sure how much we can squeeze in. Are there other things you might suggest better than what we're looking at. Which would you suggest for someone who's never been there and probably won't be able to go back for quite some time?

 

Victoria

We don't have much time there (7pm - 11:59pm). So not sure what we should do to maximize our time.

 

General Ideas

We're looking for any and all suggestions. From what I've read, it seems like the things we're looking to do are what most people seem to enjoy. If there are any tips for cool spots to see while in any of the ports, I'm open. :)

 

Thanks a bunch.

[dhk 4537]

Good morning GR,

We're going to Alaska aboard the HAL Westerdam. We've been there 2 other times and really enjoy it. In Juneau we're renting a car (Avis downtown) and driving to Mendenhall, Auke Bay, Eagle beach and road end. We really like to hike and take in the scenery. Maybe you saw this site on page 1 of this post http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...highlight=west.

In Ketchikan we are doing the float plane this trip but did a kayak trip across the channel to Pennock Island. It's a great trip!

In Skagway, if you look across the channel where the ships dock there is a walkway that will take you out around a point (I think it's Yakima Point) and you'll see smugglers cove and a pretty easy single track to follow. You can take as much time as you need then make your way back to town and the train. Also a neat little cemetery and short trail on the back side of town.

Keep checking through these boards there's always something that will appeal to you. Have a great trip!

[Alaskanb]

This is what we will be doing in June 2016:

Juneau: Harv and Marv whale watch plus drop off at Mendenhall if not rainy. In 2012 we did a whale watch with Orca Enterprises and visited Mendenhall in the rain --no fun at all. We also visited the museum in Juneau which is excellent.

Skagway: Bennett Lake excursion with Chilkoot Charters. We used them in 2012 for their Yukon excursion and it was worth every penny!

Ketchikan: George Inlet and crab feast through Princess --sounds good to us too. We will be back in time to have a wander around Ketchikan. In 2012 we had a glorious sunny day.....

I suggest you look at the trip reviews at the top of this page for more ideas

Edited April 9, 2016 by Alaskanb

[peety3]

Juneau

We want to see as much of glaciers as we can--we're from FL. Not really interested in whale-watching. Some suggest just taking the bus to the visitor center for Mendenhall Glacier. Wondering if it's worth it to do one of the many helicopter tours. Are there 3rd party operators who are less expensive than the ones booked through Princess? I also know the weather may not cooperate so I need a backup plan.

 

I did a helicopter tour with glacier landing in 2010. I loved it and felt that it offered an awesome perspective, but oddly I haven't felt an urge to repeat it. As far as third-party operators, you can always try, but you're going to have a tough time. I bet the cruise lines offer a higher payout to the operators if they agree to not sell direct/independent to their passengers. There's also the challenge of logistics - the helicopter groups REALLY (I mean REALLY) want the aircraft to fly full, so they're going to offer "capacity blocks" to the cruise line and negotiate to move people around so the birds stay full (or stay parked). If they contact the cruise line and say "hey, let's drop the available seat count for the XYZ flight by 3", it's somewhat obvious that they've booked someone else. Since helicopter operation is quite expensive (typical helicopter prices for twin turbine helicopters are $2000/hour if you want the bird to yourself), the operators either contract with the cruise lines or they leave...there's just not enough other business to stay around while the competition flies 2-8 helicopters daily for the cruise lines.

 

I'd chatted last year with a gal from Allen Marine, who operates many 150-pax catamaran boats for various tours, and asked how they handle filling up a 150-pax boat with people from different cruise lines. She said they give each line a preliminary capacity number, and then adjust as the sailing gets closer. Perhaps 50 to Ruby Princess, 50 to HAL Whatsitsname, and 50 to NCL Pickaship. If NCL sells all 50, they'll ask for more, and the vendor will decrease Princess and HAL to 45 each, etc. They have it easier than the helicopters, but this is likely the game that goes on every day for so many ships/ports/stops.

 

Skagway

Definitely want to do the train. However, I was under the impression it was a train ride only but it seems they're all train/coach. Then Chilkoot Charter looks good. Someone else mentioned it. What about this one?

 

Lots of people seem to recommend third-party vendors for train offerings. There are definitely round-trip-train runs available, and realize that almost all of the train-up XYZ-back tours could potentially go in the reverse order (bicycle rides are the obvious exclusion - who'd want to bike up and train down while on vacation?).

 

Ketchikan

Really like the idea of Misty Fjord. Is boat the only way to get there? Is that the best way if so?

 

Thinking about the Married Man Trail and taking the gondola back down as well. Time for this as well as a trip to Misty Fjord?

 

Is there time for the Lumberjack show as well? The George Inlet Lodge looks good. All-you-can eat crab works for me.

 

I know someone mentioned we want to do a lot because, well, we do. :) We're in Ketchikan from 7am-1:15pm so not sure how much we can squeeze in. Are there other things you might suggest better than what we're looking at. Which would you suggest for someone who's never been there and probably won't be able to go back for quite some time?

 

In 2012, DW and I tried to do Misty Fjords on a boat-out-plane-back tour. The boat warned us that conditions were iffy for flying, and sure enough, about halfway out they got the call that there'd be no flying, so we had to turn around and almost race back to town for the NCL passengers to make their ship (but the tour was free). In 2014, DW did Misty Fjords round-trip via plane with an engine-off stop on the water and an option to step out onto the pontoon to smell the clean air, etc. She liked it, but felt it was actually disappointing when compared to Tracy Arm Fjord. In 2015, we did the round-trip-via-boat to MF; we enjoyed it, but the boat ride back became naptime since we'd essentially seen everything on the way out. So...not sure what to say beyond that mixed review. :)

 

We prefer to get out there and do/see/photograph, so we've passed on the Lumberjack show and the totem parks. We'd passed on the Deadliest Catch Fisherman's Tour thinking it'd be cheesy, but we attended a lecture by the boat's captain in September and it's definitely the next tour we'll do in Ketchikan.

 

Victoria

We don't have much time there (7pm - 11:59pm). So not sure what we should do to maximize our time.

 

Again, not exactly sure what to tell you. In July 2014 we did a whale watch and had a good time...not as good as Juneau, but good. In August 2015 we did the same whale watch, and were utterly disappointed; sunset was too early to make it worth our time/money, and we really felt the tour shouldn't have been offered. The captain was in a hurry to get back, and it was already way too dark to get "reasonable" pictures (and this is coming from the guy with the most capable photography gear on the tour by a long shot), but the tour was 30 minutes shorter than what we were expecting. :( Admittedly, we're biased, as we live in Seattle and easily could go up to Victoria almost whenever we'd like, so we'd probably do Butchart Gardens on our own with more time.

 

General Ideas

We're looking for any and all suggestions. From what I've read, it seems like the things we're looking to do are what most people seem to enjoy. If there are any tips for cool spots to see while in any of the ports, I'm open.

 

Thanks a bunch.

Everybody has their own style, but I usually open up the cruise line's excursion webpage per port, and basically open up a browser tab for every excursion. I then flip through the tabs doing lots of A/B comparisons ("would I pick this one, or the previous one?" if this one, then I rearrange the tabs to put this one in front of the previous one. Rinse/repeat until you've sorted them in the order you want to do them.), paying close attention to how big they are (we prefer smaller crowds), how they compare to another tour that's almost the same but not exactly the same (you'd be surprised at some of these comparisons: two tours in Ketchikan that appear to be almost the same except one has an all-you-can-eat feast and a price hike of $80pp, or two tours in Ketchikan that both go through the rainforest but one adds a walk to see bears and has a price hike of >$120). Other things to look for: how much "logistics" is involved? We did a tour one time in Haines while our ship was in Skagway. That tour involved a 45-minute ferry ride, a 30-minute school bus ride, a 1h15m boat tour (if it really was that long), a rushed 20m lunch offering, then a 30-minute school bus ride and a 45-minute ferry ride. Planes, trains, and automobiles already! Too much logistics for the length of the tour, and the tour boat was six rows of four-across bench seats and you couldn't stand up at all. Now I know to look at that kind of thing...

[GadgetRick]

Peety

 

Thanks for all of the great info! We're still deciding on the details. Plan to have the worked out in the next week or so.