Haines - Short Visit

[tj_shopper]

Our cruise ship, Radiance of the Seas, will be docking at Haines on Monday, May 27, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. and leaving at 11:00 p.m.  We're only there for a short time.  Can anyone recommend what we can do for that short period?

 

Thanks.

[oaktreerb]

Steve kroschel’s wildlife center if it is a  ship excursion.  No private tours. Hammer Museum is interesting.  Haines is very walkable.

[donaldsc]

You get into port at 7:00 PM and the ship departs at 11:00.  That means that you are probably off the ship at 7:30 and you have to be back on board at 10:30 which gives you a whole 3 hours on shore.  I can hardly make any comment w/o being cited by the moderator about why the cruise company would schedule such a visit except to be able to say that you will visit Haines.  IMHO it is hardly worth getting off the ship but  you might as well walk around the historic district and visit anything that might be able be open at that hour.  

 

This is from the Haines visitpr site - chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/hainesak/History_hound_web_site_1b928816-a1cb-4fda-aa15-008ef1ab6074.pdf.  

 

It is a shame since Haines is a neat little place that has not been spoiled by over tourism.  It is worth visiting.

 

DON

[tj_shopper]

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

You get into port at 7:00 PM and the ship departs at 11:00.  That means that you are probably off the ship at 7:30 and you have to be back on board at 10:30 which gives you a whole 3 hours on shore.  I can hardly make any comment w/o being cited by the moderator about why the cruise company would schedule such a visit except to be able to say that you will visit Haines.  IMHO it is hardly worth getting off the ship but  you might as well walk around the historic district and visit anything that might be able be open at that hour.  

 

This is from the Haines visitpr site - chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/hainesak/History_hound_web_site_1b928816-a1cb-4fda-aa15-008ef1ab6074.pdf.  

 

It is a shame since Haines is a neat little place that has not been spoiled by over tourism.  It is worth visiting.

 

DON

I totally agree with you about whether or not it will be worth it to leave the ship.  I have no idea why Royal Caribbean would give us such short time at Haines.  We would have been in Skagway the same day from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  I wished they would have just stayed the extra time in Skagway.  As it is, we have dog sledding in Skagway from 10:15 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  It doesn't give us much time to do anything else in Skagway before or after the dog sledding.  When we're done at 2:00, we're going to find someplace to eat lunch and when we're done, we'll have about an hour maybe an hour and a half to walk around.

 

We have dinner reservations at 7:45 p.m.  We might just go to the buffet to grab a quick bite and then head on out to Haines to walk around.  The Hammer Museum seems interesting.

 

Thanks.

[Notnew2cruising]

When my ship did this same thing, they offered shore excursions in Skagway that took you to Haines, ie, flight seeing. So we just got back on the ship in Haines. Haines is a neat town! My sister got off of the ship in Haines and went with a local 2 hour bear watching tour. So there are some options.

[Aquahound]

I'm wondering if RCI is just using Haines as a technical excursion stop to pick up folks like what the poster above said.  Sorta like how ships used to stop in Playa Del Carmen for excursions that started in Cozumel.  

Edited February 4 by Aquahound

[donaldsc]

10 hours ago, Aquahound said:

I'm wondering if RCI is just using Haines as a technical excursion stop to pick up folks like what the poster above said.  Sorta like how ships used to stop in Playa Del Carmen for excursions that started in Cozumel.  

 

It is more likely that the cruise lines do it so that they can include in their advertising that the cruise includes a port in Haines.  They assume probably correctly that most of their customers will not notice the ridiculous port time that they have on Haines.  On the positive side for the people of Haines they are probably better off not having thousands of people descending on their small town for hours.

 

I have been there not off a cruise ship for 4 or 5 days on photo trips and my wife and I stayed there several days on our 3 month AK drive.  We enjoyed our stay.  Haines is a neat small town that does not need cruise ship tourists to survive.  They have lived w/o them for years. 

 

Read this really neat book about living in Haines - https://www.amazon.com/Lived-Here-Know-Your-Name/dp/1565123166.  It is a great read.

 

DON

Edited February 4 by donaldsc