Denali Flightseeing vs Juneau Helicopter Dog Sledding

[Prolificc]

Hey All, I'll be in Anchorage a few days before my southbound cruise and we were consdering driving up to Denali for a couple nights. I was wondering if anyone has experience doing one of the flightseeing glacier landings out of Talkeetna and/or the Juneau Helicopter ride to Dog Sledding on a glacier? Since these are both premium events we can only afford to do one. Also, I never did a cruise before, do all excursions fill up? Does pricing change once you get on the ship (I love a deal!)? Thanks!

[RSF Cruiser]

Yes, ship excursions do fill up, especially the popular ones. I always book as soon as I think I might want to go an excursion. They are fully refundable until a day or so before. Often the price goes up, and if the excursion isn't selling well, it might go on sale - in which case you can rebook. We booked a glacier landing in Denali, but weather prohibited the landing - we had the option of not going on the flight for a full refund, but we decided to do the flight, too, and it was spectacular. We've also done dog sledding in Juneau. They both are incredible experiences. Google these excursions and look at the online photos and videos - that might help you decide between the two. The scenery in Denali was probably more spectacular - I thought it looked like what Yosemite must have looked like when there were glaciers there. The dog sledding experience was fantastic - wonderful scenery, and then being at the dog camp and riding on the sleds was a Wow! experience. We've also taken a helicopter ride in Juneau where we landed and walked around on the glacier. Another incredible excursion. Maybe you'll be like many people on thses boards and go back to Alaska multiple times, so eventually you'll get to do all of the excursions 🙂

[Crew News]

3 hours ago, Prolificc said:

Hey All, I'll be in Anchorage a few days before my southbound cruise and we were consdering driving up to Denali for a couple nights. I was wondering if anyone has experience doing one of the flightseeing glacier landings out of Talkeetna and/or the Juneau Helicopter ride to Dog Sledding on a glacier? Since these are both premium events we can only afford to do one. Also, I never did a cruise before, do all excursions fill up? Does pricing change once you get on the ship (I love a deal!)? Thanks!

 

No excursion "deals" once on board.  Any excrusions with limited seating (helicopters and bush planes) fill up fast and need to be booked ASAP.

 

Dog sledding in the snow is only slightly more enjoyable than landing in a snow-covered Denali mountain pass.

 

 

[masterdrago]

We had a morning air flight w/Talkeetna Air Taxi to fly around Denali w/glacier landing. Things were looking swell – weather, schedule, and crew ready. We got really lucky. We were getting to land at the climbers Base Camp because we were picking up a hiker that had been there a week and dropping off one of the pilots and her daughter so they could ski a few days! Very cool! Also, on our Otter, was a young female F18 WSO. Thanks for her service. I got her to pose with me for a pix! The flight was just over 2 hours and it was surreal. The scale of the mountain is hard to comprehend. It always looked as if we were drifting by the snow covered peaks and passes in a hot air balloon in slow-mo. Clay, our pilot, said we were doing 120mph! Included a pix of base camp and one of the Otter we flew up in.

 

 

Base Camp – consist of numerous tents, a custom heli-pad, and an igloo built by a Japanese climbing team. When we were there 63 had attempted the summit and all had failed for various reasons.