Whale Wathcing, Dog Sled, and Helicopter Suggestions?

[Freya4000]

Hi All, First post sorry if this is redundant I am still drigging through the forum.

We will be taking the NCL Jewel southbound in mid-July.

Our bucket list items are  1) see Orcas 2) Helicopter ride 3) Dog sledding 4) walk on a glacier

Secondary objectives: breweries, kayaking, wildlife viewing

 

Any advice for the best opportunities to do these activities would be great. I am planning to book most independent of NCL so any suggestions for companies to use or avoid would be appreciated! If any port is better or worse for the events we've planned please let me know! 

Port Itinerary:

Anchorage ------- fly in, breweries and explore/DIY, AirBNB, train to seward morning of departure

Seward (depart 9pm) ------- explore/DIY

Icy Strait Point (9-6) ------ whale watching?

Juneau (7-1) ------- heli to glacier dog sledding

Skagway (7-5) ------- backup day for heli to glacier dog sledding* (if not white pass railway)

Ketchican (1-8) ----- lumberjack show & pubcrawl / explore DIY

Vancouver ----- disembark/ explore DIY

 

*plan to book the excusion for Juneau and if it's canceled  due to weather, have backups we can call in Skagway to see if we can hopefully get booked short notice. Not ideal but I know this is a very unpredictable excursion.

 

[chipmaster]

Good luck, your planning looks great, and having backup for the Heli/dog is a good approach, the challenge will be the high demand low supply for the dog/heli combo.   

 

Perhaps pre-book the second day thru the cruise, don't recall if what their cancel policy is, but would be surprised to see ability to book 24 hours before for a heli/dog, in my cruise to alaska those always seem to sell out.

 

[Italy52]

In Juneau, we really like Jayleen's Alaska and in Icy Strait, we like Glacier Wind.  Both vendors are well organized and provide an excellent experience.  Here are the links so you can get general information and see reviews.  More reviews can be found in this Alaska thread and in TripAdvisor.

 

https://jayleensalaska.com/

https://www.g-wind.com/

 

As for Orcas,  we have only experienced a few sightings during our 27 trips to Alaska. We never go with high expectations; just thankful for whatever we see.

 

Also, take a few moments to look at the wonderful link that "mapleleaves" has been kind enough to put together to help those who are looking for help with their Alaska planning --- a great tool for kicking off the process.

 

 

 

[ljmandelbaum]

I'm following along to help with planning my Alaska trip as well.

[Freya4000]

On 1/12/2020 at 3:33 PM, chipmaster said:

Good luck, your planning looks great, and having backup for the Heli/dog is a good approach, the challenge will be the high demand low supply for the dog/heli combo.   

 

Perhaps pre-book the second day thru the cruise, don't recall if what their cancel policy is, but would be surprised to see ability to book 24 hours before for a heli/dog, in my cruise to alaska those always seem to sell out.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. NCL offers no cost cancellation 48 hours prior to arrival in port so if we book the heli excursion in seward on the first day and it isn't canceled  we'll have time to cancel in seward or Juneau. Looks like the way to go!

[Freya4000]

On 1/12/2020 at 3:46 PM, Italy52 said:

In Juneau, we really like Jayleen's Alaska and in Icy Strait, we like Glacier Wind.  Both vendors are well organized and provide an excellent experience.  Here are the links so you can get general information and see reviews.  More reviews can be found in this Alaska thread and in TripAdvisor.

 

https://jayleensalaska.com/

https://www.g-wind.com/

 

As for Orcas,  we have only experienced a few sightings during our 27 trips to Alaska. We never go with high expectations; just thankful for whatever we see.

 

Also, take a few moments to look at the wonderful link that "mapleleaves" has been kind enough to put together to help those who are looking for help with their Alaska planning --- a great tool for kicking off the process.

 

 

 

Thanks! I have been reading through all of mapleleaves great info. Would like to do a glacier winds whale watching tour but we may have up to 12 people in our party for that excursion and will need a bigger boat (for size of party and comfort of some less adventurous participants) 

[20YearsBetweenCruises]

On 1/18/2020 at 11:35 AM, Freya4000 said:

Thanks for the suggestion. NCL offers no cost cancellation 48 hours prior to arrival in port so if we book the heli excursion in seward on the first day and it isn't canceled  we'll have time to cancel in seward or Juneau. Looks like the way to go!

 

You would probably want to book with NCL now  as it may be sold out by the time you board.

[SightCRR]

To walk on glacier without a helo ride you could do Matanuska glacier two hour drive north of ANC. It would involve one extra day in ANC, rental car for easy four hour round trip drive, and guided hike on the glacier. sightcrr