Which excursions

[Worldtraveler33]

Hello

 

we will be traveling on the Norwegian jewel from June 24 from Seward to Vancouver. 

 

Unfortunately, we do not go to Glacier Bay. We stop at icy point. I don’t know if it is worth to take the plane for a 2 hour flight to glacier bay or wait and pick a cruise that goes to glacier bay next time. The alternative excursion would be the whale watching. 

 

Also for Ketchikan, I’m between the lumbar jack show and touring the tone versus taking the float plane to Misty fords. I have the special $50 port credit with Norwegian. They don’t offer a float plane. Just the boat tour and the reviews are mixed. We were considering booking our own excursion. If we book the misty fords, which company do you recommend? 

 

Finally in Skagway, , we wanted to do the trip to Haines and the chillroot kayake but hear the Yukon train is also a must see. 

 

Any tils or asvice ice would be appreciated. Thank you 

[JerseyHorseLover]

The lumberjack show is so much fun!

[worldtraveller99]

If you have sufficient time, I am going to do the float plane as people are reporting that there are 11,000 cruise passengers all on one street in Ketchikan! We are going with Alaska Seaplane Tours - much cheaper than the ship tour. Cannot report back for a year though!

[tetleytea]

I would whale watch in ISP and fly in Ketchikan.  My reasons:

 

1)  flying twice is not cost-effective.  You see a lot of similar stuff.  If it was that amazing that you had to do it again, then you're better off returning on another cruise and picking up Glacier Bay.

 

2) Not a whole lot of other choices in ISP.  Juneau has good whale watching, but Juneau does also have lots of other good choices.

 

[misguy]

I just did that trip.  Hubbard Glacier is as magnificent as Glacier Bay, and it is the widest tidewater glacier in Alaska.  There is a great nature trail in Icy Straight Point. I interviewed a retired Alaskan tour guide and here are his recommendations for the those ports.  

 

 

[tetleytea]

I left Hubbard 2 days ago, and could not have had a more opposite experience.  They stopped the cruise ship 2 miles away, saying that due to a combination of wind (there was none) and ebbing tides (they knew the tidal schedule before they set sail), they could not safely get any closer to the icebergs.  However, for extra money you could certainly purchase an excursion where you could hop on a smaller boat and sail way closer.  Those returning from that boat said Hubbard was magnificent.  However we had fog and saw very little.

 

Glacier Bay had wonderful calving at Marjorie Glacier (almost as much as I have seen at Hubbard, during the 5 times I've been there), plus we saw AND HEARD lots of wildlife.  The deep blue color in Lamplugh Glacier (you get to see multiple glaciers in GB) added further to it.

 

Having a port-side balcony made a big difference (no matter whether your cruise is northbound or southbound--there is only one way into GB, so it doesn't matter).  Port side is clearly better.

[masterdrago]

Completely agree with tetleytea. Whale watch in ISP w/Glacier Winds Charter. Shawn and Teresa are simply awesome to work with and Shawn has a sixth sense about finding the whale. In Ketchikan, try to get the Island Wings flight into Misty Fjords. Michelle just bought another Beaver and hired Adam to fly it. She is extremely experienced at what she does - fly the float plane.

 

We spent a full day in Prince William Sound with Lazy Otter and also did Hubbard Glacier on Radiance and saw zero calving glaciers. I'm considering next time to ditch the cruise and fly into Anchorage only for private glacier tours. Clearly one has to be at the glacier at the right time to spot any calving. We just were not at Harriman or Surprise or Hubbard at the right time.

[Glaciers]

10 hours ago, tetleytea said:

I left Hubbard 2 days ago, and could not have had a more opposite experience.  They stopped the cruise ship 2 miles away, saying that due to a combination of wind (there was none) and ebbing tides (they knew the tidal schedule before they set sail), they could not safely get any closer to the icebergs.  However, for extra money you could certainly purchase an excursion where you could hop on a smaller boat and sail way closer.  Those returning from that boat said Hubbard was magnificent.  However we had fog and saw very little.

 

We had a similar experience at Hubbard a couple weeks ago. We got about 3 miles from the face. There was little ice, no wind. A bit disappointing. As we sat there for an hour or so another ship sailed on in, within 1/2 mile it appeared.  I’d like to see stats on which captains get closer. It’s not all due to ice and wind, just the captain’s choice.