Skagway excursion timing question in regards to rock-slides construction

[StrikeEagle]

Hello everyone,

I'm going to be arriving on the Ovation of the Seas in Skagway on June 12th, 2023.  I'm planning to book the White pass summit rail & Yukon Suspension Bridge excursion from a local company. This excursion starts with the train first and the depart time is 7:30 am.   Our ship dock schedule is 7:00 am.   With the rockslide being repair/construction and alternatives like the tendering.   Do you think excursion departure at 7:30 am is doable with the ship docking at 7:00am.  Keep in mind I'm booking this from a local company not from the ship.   Thank you 

[naturelovergirl]

There is honestly no way to know how doable it would possibly be until all of us start hearing from Skagway about the absolute plans for the Railroad Dock Aft and Forward... there are still no news reports about the tests results they are going to do in April regarding the rock slide mitigation and the transportation for that dock.

So that is the first hurdle. Finding out how those tests go.

Next

I believe that we will have to start hearing from passengers once the cruises start about how the timing goes. Getting the honest accounts from the people who are experiencing it.

Your cruise (right now- it could always change- is scheduled for the RRA Dock... so Railroad Dock Aft) Honestly, I would talk to your local company you are hoping to book with about the concerns about the timing. See what they have to say.

[StrikeEagle]

Thank you for your inputs.   I look at this website,  it shows Ovation will dock at Rail Road Aft on June 12th.   Like you mention,  right now who knows until things get repaired and settled down.  Talked with the owner of the shore excursion tour on the phone,  she said 7:30am is do-able for us on that day.  She also said she in this business for a long time and wouldn't have that schedule if it is not doable.
https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SKG-Skagway-2023.pdf

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by StrikeEagle

[JT1962]

The situation in Skagway is still unknown at this point.  Based on this article, some larger ships could now see a shorter day in Skagway with one ship using the Railroad Dock in the morning and another large ship using it in the afternoon. 
 

https://khns.org/rock-throws-wrench-into-cruise-ship-docking-schedule

[eileeshb]

First ship of the season will be Norwegian Bliss next Tuesday which is scheduled to dock at railroad Aft which seems to be the pier at highest risk of disruption. I’m not sure if anyone is doing a live review on that sailing but there’s definitely one for the week afterwards. 

[SuzieQ521]

More info here: 

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/one-large-rock-changing-visit-times-for-popular-alaskan-port/98671

[SuzieQ521]

Our ship (Royal Princess) is scheduled to be at RRF 7 am to the evening; there are two other ships scheduled to be in Port that day: Solstice and Koningsdam. We have a 10 am tour on the train. 

 

Based on that article, they may make some ships cut their port times (i.e. one ship in the a.m. and one in the p.m.). I guess we will have to see what happens with our port times...hopefully we won't have to cancel our tour. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by SuzieQ521

[brnsofia]

we are scheduled for July 27 to RRA and I will cancel my private excursion if I find out its too iffy and hopefully the ship will still have something available. looking forward to maybe a review on it from ships soon

[wolfie11]

17 minutes ago, brnsofia said:

we are scheduled for July 27 to RRA and I will cancel my private excursion if I find out its too iffy and hopefully the ship will still have something available. looking forward to maybe a review on it from ships soon

The independent excursion companies depend on cruise ship passengers to make a living.  Call them and tell them the situation.  I'm sure they will be working with their guests to get them out on their tours.  After being shut down for Covid and now with the docking issues, they need your business to stay in business!

[brnsofia]

1 minute ago, wolfie11 said:

The independent excursion companies depend on cruise ship passengers to make a living.  Call them and tell them the situation.  I'm sure they will be working with their guests to get them out on their tours.  After being shut down for Covid and now with the docking issues, they need your business to stay in business!

I did call them and they know nothing more then everyone on here. they said when it gets closer they will be able to refund or do what is needed. skagway is my primary reason to want to see alaska. the railway and inside tour on way back. sounds like we wont know till real close which stinks

[wolfie11]

Wow!  Is that Chilkoot?  Hopefully once a few ships have been in, they'll get it figured out.  
 

I'm actually curious if they will allow the ship excursion buses to pull up to load on the aft part of the dock with the shuttle buses.  It would certainly save some time.

[SportsFanatic]

1 hour ago, brnsofia said:

we are scheduled for July 27 to RRA and I will cancel my private excursion if I find out its too iffy and hopefully the ship will still have something available. looking forward to maybe a review on it from ships soon

 

[SportsFanatic]

Just now, SportsFanatic said:

 

 

[wolfie11]

30 minutes ago, SportsFanatic said:

 

Thanks for posting this.  It explains a lot!  So the city-owned busses are doing the shuttles.  Interesting and good for them!  I'm sure it will help fill the town coffers.  I am curious if they will discontinue or reduce the town Smart shuttle to accommodate the ships' needs.  Merchants at the far end of town get a lot of their business from people riding the shuttle as does the gold dredge and Jewell Gardens.

 

 

[wolfie11]

Speaking of Skagway shuttles - there's a dog bus in Skagway too.

 

[EmilyJay]

On 4/9/2023 at 5:32 PM, StrikeEagle said:

Hello everyone,

I'm going to be arriving on the Ovation of the Seas in Skagway on June 12th, 2023.  I'm planning to book the White pass summit rail & Yukon Suspension Bridge excursion from a local company. This excursion starts with the train first and the depart time is 7:30 am.   Our ship dock schedule is 7:00 am.   With the rockslide being repair/construction and alternatives like the tendering.   Do you think excursion departure at 7:30 am is doable with the ship docking at 7:00am.  Keep in mind I'm booking this from a local company not from the ship.   Thank you 

We are in the same situation as you on this cruise! We've booked Chilkoot Charters tour and are worried about getting off the ship in time!

Seems like we'll hear more information the first week of May when more ships are in port and using the Railway Dock to see what is happening.... Not sure what Royal's protocol would be in terms to letting non-royal based excursions off early as we'd have to be off asap too. 

[brnsofia]

4 hours ago, EmilyJay said:

We are in the same situation as you on this cruise! We've booked Chilkoot Charters tour and are worried about getting off the ship in time!

Seems like we'll hear more information the first week of May when more ships are in port and using the Railway Dock to see what is happening.... Not sure what Royal's protocol would be in terms to letting non-royal based excursions off early as we'd have to be off asap too. 

we also are in that situation and suppose to be at train station by 745. I keep wondering if I should rebook through the ship but I wanted the all day excursion

[brnsofia]

20 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

Wow!  Is that Chilkoot?  Hopefully once a few ships have been in, they'll get it figured out.  
 

I'm actually curious if they will allow the ship excursion buses to pull up to load on the aft part of the dock with the shuttle buses.  It would certainly save some time.

if you are referring to me its alaskashoreexcursions.com and they said they have no idea what is happening with the ships and docking. just try to get off early which is hard with 5,000 other people

[wolfie11]

2 hours ago, brnsofia said:

if you are referring to me its alaskashoreexcursions.com and they said they have no idea what is happening with the ships and docking. just try to get off early which is hard with 5,000 other people

This is a tour broker and book hundreds of tours all over the state.  They are not the actual people that are local and run the tour and would be unlikely to know anything specific.

[LB_NJ]

On 4/9/2023 at 12:32 PM, StrikeEagle said:

This excursion starts with the train first and the depart time is 7:30 am.   Our ship dock schedule is 7:00 am.  

Even without the issue of rockslides you are talking about 30 minutes to get off a 4,000+ PAX ship and get to your meeting place.

 

With the rockslides you have to add in time to board the buses, buses go down the dock, and then get off the buses.

 

Plus, the ship may try and give priority to PAX that have excursions booked through the ship.

 

There is also the issue of the ship might not start letting people off right at 7AM.  It might be early but it also might be late.

[SportsFanatic]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:39 PM, brnsofia said:

we also are in that situation and suppose to be at train station by 745. I keep wondering if I should rebook through the ship but I wanted the all day excursion

The tour companies will be monitoring the situation and make allowances. The majority of the people on the tour will be coming from the cruise ship.

[wolfie11]

There is a good possibility that the ships will be hot berthing.  One ship will come in and tie up for 5-6 hours and then leave while the other ship comes in and stays their 5-6 hours.  Operationally, this is the safest solution, since if there was a major slide, the forward ship would have little chance to get off the dock before being hit.  This would negatively impact passengers' experience in Skagway, as given that at least an hour would be needed to get people off and bus them to the parking lot and then back, maximum time for tours would be limited to 3 or 4 hours.  Another possibility might be to dock and discharge passengers then anchor out and allow another ship to dock, but I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.  

 

Many of the tours go over to Haines.  I don't know how these will operate given that it is around 1.5 hours transit to Haines and back unless the ship stops by Haines to pick them up.

 

I don't think anyone knows for sure how this will be resolved.  It will probably evolve during the season or there could be a big landslide and the dock could close permanently.  I think we just have to wait and see and roll with the punches..  

 

Please support local tour companies and businesses if you can.  Covid literally closed the town down and now this.  

[SuzieQ521]

4 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

There is a good possibility that the ships will be hot berthing.  One ship will come in and tie up for 5-6 hours and then leave while the other ship comes in and stays their 5-6 hours.  Operationally, this is the safest solution, since if there was a major slide, the forward ship would have little chance to get off the dock before being hit.  This would negatively impact passengers' experience in Skagway, as given that at least an hour would be needed to get people off and bus them to the parking lot and then back, maximum time for tours would be limited to 3 or 4 hours.  Another possibility might be to dock and discharge passengers then anchor out and allow another ship to dock, but I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.  

 

Many of the tours go over to Haines.  I don't know how these will operate given that it is around 1.5 hours transit to Haines and back unless the ship stops by Haines to pick them up.

 

I don't think anyone knows for sure how this will be resolved.  It will probably evolve during the season or there could be a big landslide and the dock could close permanently.  I think we just have to wait and see and roll with the punches..  

 

Please support local tour companies and businesses if you can.  Covid literally closed the town down and now this.  

 

Yes, I think I read in the most recent Skagway update that was exactly the plan--basically a full day port stop would be cut in half to accommodate two ships in one dock per day.

 

The question is: how to determine which ships would do this and when are they going to let passengers know? We sail on Royal Princess in less than 4 weeks and as of now, we have a full day in Skagway.

[Buckeye10640]

9 hours ago, SuzieQ521 said:

 

Yes, I think I read in the most recent Skagway update that was exactly the plan--basically a full day port stop would be cut in half to accommodate two ships in one dock per day.

 

The question is: how to determine which ships would do this and when are they going to let passengers know? We sail on Royal Princess in less than 4 weeks and as of now, we have a full day in Skagway.

I am also on Royal in uner 4 week. I really hope this 'hot berthing'  does not affect us. We are booked with Chilkoot for a full day van/White Pass tour and I really cutting port time in half will make it impossible. I would rather just be tendered in (and I hate tendering)!  I am a little worried as they moved our arrival time to 6am. What the heck are we to do at 6am off the ship!

[eileeshb]

Norwegian Bliss docked at railroad Aft last week and will be there again this week. One of last week’s cruisers said it was about 45min wait for the shuttle bus if you didn’t have an NCL excursion ticket or bus ticket. NCL’s newsletter advised guests to book a bus ticket if they wanted to be off the ship before 11am. AFAIK the pier shuttle bus ticket is free, similar to tender boat tickets.

The guest doing the live review this week just got notified his white pass railway excursion has been shortened by 45mins due to snow.