Booking glacier sled dog tour through RCL or directly?

[JSSpence]

Hi all, thanks for all the inputs as we refine our June 2022 trip! A bucket list item for us is glacier-based sled dog excursion. We recognize that this is the most cancelled excursion and are ok with that risk. Booking through RCL adds about $700 to the cost for my family of 3 vs booking directly with the tour company. What are the pros and cons of each? I searched in the boards and saw one anecdote about a group getting stranded on the glacier and those who booked directly had to pay to catch up with their ship, but I wasn't sure if that was .1% type occurrence. Our plan would be to book earlier in the day, so that other than type of freak occurrence we're safely back on the ship in time. Thanks!

[Kapsgirl]

A few years ago we booked directly through the cruise line.  The morning of our flight in Juneau it was delayed twice and then ultimately cancelled due to fog.  After the flight was cancelled we booked a flight with a company that was doing the same type of flight/dog sled on a different glacier for an hour later.  It was cheaper and they took a different flight path to a different area that wasn’t grounded due to fog.  It was an amazing experience.  We were fortunate that we didn’t have any issues.  Now, we are going back to Alaska June 2022 and bringing our two kids and want them to experience it.  We are currently looking to book independently.  We do  also have travel insurance for the whole trip.  If for some reason we get stuck and miss the ship we would hope that would fill the cost.  I agree with booking for earlier in the day to give yourself room. We are also booking in Juneau so that if the worst case scenario happens and all flights are grounded we could still to it in Skagway after leaving Juneau.  We just won’t plan anything non refundable for Skagway.  It truly is an amazing and surreal experience.  Once or twice in a lifetime.  😉