White Pass Railway & Yukon Expedition

[gatorchinsky]

I was looking at doing this excursion through NCL and wondered if anyone has done this exact one and what you thought. It is 8 1/4 hours long so I want to make sure it would be worth it. Thx!

 

 

[BirdTravels]

It is also $380 per person. Don’t forget that you need a passport to cross the border. 

[1025cruise]

People do this excursion all the time. You take the train up, then get on a bus, go further in. Have lunch at a compound you can explore afterwards, then head back to the ship. Always a chance to see wildlife. 

[gatorchinsky]

51 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

It is also $380 per person. Don’t forget that you need a passport to cross the border. 

We have passports. Don’t know if we’re talking about same excursion but this one is $289 per person.

[quillwercruisers]

We did it in May when we were on the Jewel. We took a bus for the first part into the YT. We made several stops along the way to where we had the included lunch. Then drove out to Emerald Lake for another photo stop. Then returned to catch the train back into port. It was a very relaxing enjoyable trip and glad we did it. We got to see wildlife and our tour guide was a wealth of local information.

[Ellis1138]

It was a decent expedition, although it turned out to be cheaper to book direct with the train company than with NCL.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, gatorchinsky said:

We have passports. Don’t know if we’re talking about same excursion but this one is $289 per person.

Sorry. We’ booked on WHITE PASS BENNETT LAKE & YUKON ADVENTURE which is $380. 

[mjkacmom]

52 minutes ago, Ellis1138 said:

It was a decent expedition, although it turned out to be cheaper to book direct with the train company than with NCL.

Isn’t that usually the case?

[LatinaInTexas]

Did this excursion in May and it was a great excursion! The bus ride was comfortable and 2 bears were spotted on the side of the road.

We stopped at Wild Adventure Yukon for the BBQ lunch and some free time. The lunch was great, one of the few excursion meals I enjoyed. There were a few things to see and do here and there was a large, very nicely stocked and priced gift shop.

The train ride was fun. We had cold and windy weather but we went outside on the platform for better pic opportunities. And the scenery was amazing. 

I thought it would be a long day but if flew by and we weren't tired at all. Afterwards we got on a shuttle and went back to town to shop.

 

[The Traveling Man]

4 hours ago, gatorchinsky said:

I was looking at doing this excursion through NCL and wondered if anyone has done this exact one and what you thought. It is 8 1/4 hours long so I want to make sure it would be worth it. Thx!

 

 

The White Pass & Yukon Railway offers three different excursions.  NCL regularly lists two of them, plus NCL also packages other tours with the train ride for a greater variety of options.  We have taken each of the three tours on the WP&Y and have really enjoyed them all, but then again, I'm an avowed "train nut" or more properly a rail fan. 

[gatorchinsky]

1 hour ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Did this excursion in May and it was a great excursion! The bus ride was comfortable and 2 bears were spotted on the side of the road.

We stopped at Wild Adventure Yukon for the BBQ lunch and some free time. The lunch was great, one of the few excursion meals I enjoyed. There were a few things to see and do here and there was a large, very nicely stocked and priced gift shop.

The train ride was fun. We had cold and windy weather but we went outside on the platform for better pic opportunities. And the scenery was amazing. 

I thought it would be a long day but if flew by and we weren't tired at all. Afterwards we got on a shuttle and went back to town to shop.

 

This is great information. The scenery looks amazing which is what we were looking to see.

[bonvoyagie]

I booked a similar tour through Chilkoot and had a great time. Rode the train in a special car with only a dozen people. In Carcross we boarded a small bus and proceeded to Emarald lake and then back down to Skagway. At this time this tour was not offered by NCL and the front cars were packed with Princess people.

[rtkenmore]

Love the train tour!

[MrsTocko]

On 7/12/2024 at 9:53 AM, gatorchinsky said:

I was looking at doing this excursion through NCL and wondered if anyone has done this exact one and what you thought. It is 8 1/4 hours long so I want to make sure it would be worth it. Thx!

 

 

This is our favorite Skagway excursion and have done it multiple times.  

[Illbcruzn4life]

We booked with these guys a while back.

 

Https://chilkootcharters.com/yukon-rail-bus/

 

Edited July 19 by Illbcruzn4life

[ajtraveler66]

I did one that wasn't nearly that long.  And it was great!  Check to see if there's an option of shorter length.  I've done it twice, and I'd do it again!  (Seems it was only 3-4 hours total).

[GORDONCHICK]

6 minutes ago, ajtraveler66 said:

I did one that wasn't nearly that long.  And it was great!  Check to see if there's an option of shorter length.  I've done it twice, and I'd do it again!  (Seems it was only 3-4 hours total).

going further up offers many other options - like lunch at Wild Adventure and hanging out with the sled dogs plus the museum.

[GORDONCHICK]

We booked with Chilkoot for September.  We will do the tour up in a shuttle bus, then back on the train.  We've done their tour before.  Less expensive than NCL and a much more personalized bus tour.  If you want to stop for photos, just yell out and the driver stops.

[ldlewis45]

I did the White Pass Railway, Bennett Lake, and Yukon Territory one.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  But to be honest, if you're on a north or southbound cruise, the Alaska Railroad trip between Seward and Anchorage had better scenery, was cheaper, and if you get the Gold Class Service, includes more modern seating in a glass dome cab with better food (with menu choice!) and a couple of alcoholic drinks.  The White Pass train had a prepacked box lunch of an inedible (to me, as I have some aversions) turkey sandwich with a weird sauce, cookie, chips, a few grapes and cubes of cheese, and a bottle of water.  Apparently, they don't serve many vegetarians or vegans.  While the scenery was admittedly very beautiful and the lakes fantastic, it didn't compare to what we saw coming south from Anchorage.

[Middleager]

We also booked with Chilkoot, cheaper than NCL.

 

My phone plan was good for Canada, and did not have roaming for US.  When we got to Canada, my phone did work.  I called and texted to family in Canada.

[Southern Dan]

We did it through NCL, we enjoyed the train ride a bunch but the Yukon Expedition place reminded me of a tourist trap like South of the Border, BBQ lunch was decent at least.  The bus ride back down took us to another little town Carcross which was kinda cool, got some ice cream.  I think we didn't enjoy the bus portion as much because the AC wasn't working and it was incredibly hot/stuffy on there and a guy behind us was coughing up a lung the entire trip. 

 

Next time we're in Skagway we look forward to enjoying the town walking around as we didn't get a chance this past trip.

[Sandakan]

We are booked through Chilkoot for the Yukon Bus and Train Tour in Sept.

Doing the bus first so I can grab a coffee 🙂

[olemissreb]

Back in 2013, we booked Chilkoot Charters. We did the train up and bus back. We got to stop at a off the beaten path area with a lake that wasn't on the planned stops and too small for the big cruiseline buses to get in. It was gorgeous! Such a great surprise.

 

On the train, we were in the last couple of cars, so we were able to get pictures of the front of the train going into the tunnels and over the tressels. Pretty cool pictures.

 

It was also much cheaper than thru the cruiseline and we had a coupon to use on top of that and got it even cheaper. Not sure if they still have the coupon books.