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Which Tours to Do in the 3 Alaskan Ports

brightfeather

By brightfeather,
in Princess Cruises

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brightfeather

brightfeather

Posted
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Hi everyone,

 

First time doing an Alaskan cruise, but this will be my 11th overall.

 

I'd truly appreciate some help choosing the best tour in each port for the following from Skagway, Juneau & Ketchikan:

Best wildlife viewing via boat

Best floatplane experience to view glaciers

Best wildlife viewing on a land tour

 

Price is not an issue, so It's more about getting the best experience from each port incorporating a plane (or helicopter) ride, wildlife viewing via land and whale/sea life/wildlife via boat.

 

I greatly appreciate anyone's input. I'm asking for your experience and what YOU think is best. Thank you.

~~ Diane ~~ :D

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JoRoy218

JoRoy218

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We did this cruise in 2011 and about to repeat this May. Will share our activities:

Skagway - did Haines Eagle preserve river rafting (through Princess). This was an awesome trip, took a catamaran from Skagway, saw a few whales on the way and left out of Haines. There were eagles everywhere! They are so used to people, they just look down at you from a low branch as you float beneath them. I got some unbelievable pictures. We're thinking of repeating this trip in May.

Juneau - we had reserved whale watching with Harv and Marv but the weather that day was almost tropical storm-like and was cancelled. We instead took public transportation to Mendenhall Glacier and enjoyed it.

Skagway - we took float plane and crab feast (again through Princess). We were shuttled to the location (forgot name) about 30 min bus ride away. Had a very tasty all you can eat crab lunch, walked around outside near the water afterwards and got on a seaplane back to the ship. The pilot took us via the scenic route back, through the mountains and then back out to sea. Fortunately weather cooperated. Was one of the highlights of our trip!

Enjoy and take lots of pictures!

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

Posted
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We did this cruise in 2011 and about to repeat this May. Will share our activities:

Skagway - did Haines Eagle preserve river rafting (through Princess). This was an awesome trip, took a catamaran from Skagway, saw a few whales on the way and left out of Haines. There were eagles everywhere! They are so used to people, they just look down at you from a low branch as you float beneath them. I got some unbelievable pictures. We're thinking of repeating this trip in May.

Juneau - we had reserved whale watching with Harv and Marv but the weather that day was almost tropical storm-like and was cancelled. We instead took public transportation to Mendenhall Glacier and enjoyed it.

Skagway - we took float plane and crab feast (again through Princess). We were shuttled to the location (forgot name) about 30 min bus ride away. Had a very tasty all you can eat crab lunch, walked around outside near the water afterwards and got on a seaplane back to the ship. The pilot took us via the scenic route back, through the mountains and then back out to sea. Fortunately weather cooperated. Was one of the highlights of our trip!

Enjoy and take lots of pictures!

 

 

You went to Skagway twice?

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ggprincess2004

ggprincess2004

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Absolutely the Taku lodge float plane and salmon feast out of Juneau. Spectacular flight over the Mendenhall Ice Field, which is huge, and the best salmon we have ever enjoyed. Keith is so right about this one.

 

I second the flightseeing and crab feast at George Inlet from Ketchikan, the Dungeness crab is spectacular and the flight over the Tongass National Forest was great.

 

And, I also agree the from Skagway head over to Haines and do the do either the Eagle Preserve or the air boat on the river. Both are excellent. Great wildlife sightings.

 

We've been blessed with the opportunity to enjoy quite a bit of Alaska cruising and do a variety of shore excursions, these are by far our all time favorites.

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dtb55

dtb55

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What Triptolemus said. We used Temsco Helicopter Tours. Absolutely amazing and the highlight of my trip.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Edited by dtb55
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dtb55

dtb55

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The helicopter and sea plane trips look fun, but is there only one pilot? What happens if he has a medical emergency while flying? What is the safety protocol, is there an auto pilot? :confused:

 

 

Just one pilot on our helicopter tour and on the floatplane to Neets Bay. Frankly, those things never occur to me.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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jeromep

jeromep

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I'd truly appreciate some help choosing the best tour in each port for the following from Skagway, Juneau & Ketchikan:

Best wildlife viewing via boat

Best floatplane experience to view glaciers

Best wildlife viewing on a land tour

 

~~ Diane ~~ :D

I can tell you what we did when we visited Alaska in all of those ports, but it doesn't really fit with exactly what you are asking.

 

We like Juneau, but we were with a group of friends traveling and they did the "excursion" booking, which ended up being a handful of rental cars for the day and us bouncing around Juneau on our own, going up to the Glacier and visiting the visitors center and walking out onto a mud-flow at the base of the glacier. If I were to do it again I'd do a helicopter tour.

 

Consider that if you do a helicopter tour to visit the Mendenhall Glacier it probably won't use your whole port day. Take some time to walk into downtown Juneau and take the Mt. Roberts tramway up to the hiking paths at the top. It's a good way to kill a couple of hours and catch some great views of the city and fjord below.

 

Skagway is totally touristy. In fact, the whole town is basically a National Park; the Klondike Goldrush National Historic Park, of which part of the park is also located in the Pioneer Square neighborhood in Seattle. Anyway, we did the round trip on the White Pass and Yukon railway. The tour is excellent. The sight seeing is spectacular and if you like trains, the restored vintage passenger cars are a lot of fun to ride on. Although WP&Y has steam in their fleet of motor units, most excursions are pulled by diesels. They pick you up right by the ship on the dock.

 

Keep in mind, that during the cruise season, it isn't atypical to have 3 or 4 cruise ships docked at one time in Skagway (or any of the other ports you are visiting). This means that you'll be sharing what is a rather small city with 8000-9000 of your fellow cruisers. We found that by midday in Skagway that it is nearly impossible to get lunch in town as there are lines at nearly all of the restaurants. We walked all the way down Broadway until we found the Skagway brewing company and were lucky enough to find two barstools at the bar that had just opened up. The food was very good and so was the beer. If it hadn't been for those two bar stools, we would have walked back to the ship and had lunch on board.

 

We hastily booked a tour in Ketchikan called Lighthouses, Totems & Eagles. The port stay for Ketchikan was very short on our sailing, so this excursion was a real find, took up most of the port time, leaving us about an hour to visit the tourist shops near the dock. I have some really excellent wildlife photos I took... someplace on this computer... The narration was excellent and gave a lot of insight into Ketchikan and the surrounding geography and wildlife. It was fun being out on the water for a couple of hours being shown wildlife in their native habitat.

 

Hope this helps.

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cruisehappy001

cruisehappy001

Posted
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Ketchikan- Bering Sea Crab Fisherman Tour- It takes you onboard a fishing boat from Deadliest Catch and shows you how commercial crab fishing works. You see lots of eagles, an octopus, and crabs of course. It was a really cool experience.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I second the above for Ketchikan, one of our top favorite excursions that we have done, especially since we are Deadliest Catch show fans. The Eagle portion of the tour was amazing... I get goosebumps thinking of it!

 

http://alaskacrabtour.com/

 

Also in Ketchikan is the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary that is nice as well. We saw bears, salmon and eagles on the nature walk.

 

http://spiritofalaskatours.com/Tours/Wildlife-Sanctuary.html

 

Juneau is great for Whale Watching and the Mendenhal Glacier as others have mentioned.

 

In Skagway we love to take tours with DYEA DAVE, especially the trip up to Emerald Lake. Dave is a local and a great guy!

 

http://www dot dyeadavetours dot com/

Not sure why it took out the link below other than it had tours in it and assumed travel agent???

http://www.******************/

 

One thing that we have not done yet that we want to do is to visit a sled dog training camp. We were unable to book it on our last trip.

 

There is so much to do on Alaska Cruises, and I hope that you have an awesome time! Please do come back and let us know what you chose to do and how you liked it!

 

Happy Cruising!!!

 

Mark

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Papa Yoda

Papa Yoda

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Just one pilot on our helicopter tour and on the floatplane to Neets Bay. Frankly, those things never occur to me.

 

 

Commercial pilots have to pass annual medical checkups. Of course anything can happen...

 

But this is why I like to sit in the right seat. Pretty sure I'd get us down safely.

 

We also loved the Taku lodge flight/lunch like Keith and Ginger.

 

Crab in Ketchikan sounds like a plan.

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brightfeather

brightfeather

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You've all given me much to think about. Thank you very, very much. I'm going to make reservations in the next few days and I'll let you know what we decided. What I love most about these forums is the free information exchange. And when you've done a tour that you're still talking about years later or about how awestruck you still get thinking about it now. ...that's what I'm looking for. Thank you again. :-)

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Forums mobile app

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ggprincess2004

ggprincess2004

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The helicopter and sea plane trips look fun, but is there only one pilot? What happens if he has a medical emergency while flying? What is the safety protocol, is there an auto pilot? :confused:

 

One pilot - hoping that the person that has the right seat on the plane has a private pilot's license, one pilot on the choppers as well.

 

But there is also only one driver on the bus tours, kids. It might not seem lie that is as important as having a co-pilot, but recognizing the driver has a problem does not ensure that a passenger could do something quickly enough to prevent a potential disaster. Are you ever alone behind the wheel of a car?

 

I am torn between wanting a young pilot who looks darn healthy, v. an older pilot with many years of experience........:eek:

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Potstech

Potstech

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"I am torn between wanting a young pilot who looks darn healthy, v. an older pilot with many years of experience........:eek:?"

 

If there is a problem I would take age and experience over youth and inexperience any day. Not that the young pilot can not fly the plane BUT when it comes to the Alaskan wilderness and a problem give me experience any day of the week.

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Cruiserkenn

Cruiserkenn

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The helicopter and sea plane trips look fun, but is there only one pilot? What happens if he has a medical emergency while flying? What is the safety protocol, is there an auto pilot? :confused:

 

I have taken 14 Princess Alaska cruises, and 4 Princess Hawaii cruises.

 

I have found Princess float plane and Princess helicopter tours to be safe and reliable. I like the pilots. I have done at least seven of these kinds of tours.

 

The float plane and helicopter trips are all gentle, and they feel safe. The pilots are great tour guides.

 

Enjoy!

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Thrak

Thrak

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If you can't quite swing the cost of the helicopter (it's pretty pricey) there is also a float plane excursion that flies over 5 glaciers. Not as cool as the helicopter but likely quite a bit less expensive.

 

5-Glacier Seaplane Exploration

JNU-800 Approximately 1.25 hours / From $229.95

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clearwaters

clearwaters

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One pilot - hoping that the person that has the right seat on the plane has a private pilot's license, one pilot on the choppers as well.

 

But there is also only one driver on the bus tours, kids. It might not seem lie that is as important as having a co-pilot, but recognizing the driver has a problem does not ensure that a passenger could do something quickly enough to prevent a potential disaster. Are you ever alone behind the wheel of a car?

 

I am torn between wanting a young pilot who looks darn healthy, v. an older pilot with many years of experience........:eek:

 

Copy that, makes sense. :)

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