Just home! Reviews, including Chillakoot Tours

[HockeyBoysMom]

My husband and I are just home yesterday from our wonderful cruise to Alaska on the Diamond Princess. We had a wonderful time and thanks to people on Cruise Critic, we made pretty good choices and knew at least a little bit what we were doing. I had promised a few people I would do a review of our tour in Skagway, so I thought I would just to a little review of everything we did.

 

We did the southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise on Princess. This added a little extra inconvience rather than a round-trip out of Seattle, but I would do it again like this in a heart-beat. We had a long time in Glacier Bay and College Fjord, both of which were spectacular. We also had longer in port than we would have otherwise. I highly recommend this route.

 

In Skagway, we took the Rail/Bus combo offered by Chillikoot tours. We took the White Pass Railroad up to Fraiser and then a small bus tour to Caracross in the Yukon Territory. There we had lunch and were able to have about an hour to explore the little tourist villiage we were in. It had sled dog rides, a taxidermied animal musuem (with some very good work), gold panning, a gift shop, horses, etc. The sled dog rides cost $30.00 per person for 15 minutes and it was a wheeled sled. The gold panning was %10. Lunch was good, and the people there were very nice. However, it was very crowded. We were the first tour to arrive for the day, but by the time we were eating lunch, there were many busses there. There was a Princess bus, so we could have taken a very similar tour through the ship. Then we got back on the bus and went to Emerald lake. We were only there for about 5 minutes to take some pictures. I give this tour a mixed review, as it was great in some aspects and not great in others. The White Pass Railroad was defiantely the highlight of the trip. The weather was great that day and the views were spectacular. When we boarded the bus, we were with about 15 other people, so the tour group was small. The tour guide was very nice and gave us a lot of information about the area. She stopped at a lot of spots for pictures in both directions. She took pictures of almost everyone at the photo spots. The tourist villiage at Caracross was cute, but I am not sure it was worth the lenght of time it took to get there. We were only there for a short time, but unless you were willing to pay and wait for the extras, such as the sled rides, that was enough time. Emerald lake was beautiful, but we only were able to stop on the side of the road to take some pictures and then we left. All in all, I don't think we will do this tour again in two years when we return with our son. It was a very long tour and the best part was definately the railroad. Next time we will take the railroad up and back and then do something else in Skagway. However, this is no fault of the tour provider, as they were wonderful. I just felt that the day was too long for what we got for the extra time and money.

 

In Juneau, we went whale watching with Captain Larry, and as everyone has said, that was a highlight of our trip. We saw a lot of whales, and had several surface right by our boat. The naturalist on board was great and even coaxed an eagle over the boat by throwing frozen fish. We would definately do that again. We also went to Mendenhall, which was beautiful, but after being in Glacier Bay and College Fjord, it was a little bit anti-climactic.

 

In Ketchikan, we went to the Rainforst Wildlife Sanctuary and enjoyed this tour very much. We had a guide who had grown up right down the street and he was very knowledgable. We learned a lot about the local vegitation. And despite some reports that no one is seeing bears, we saw a bear and her cub. We also saw numerous bald eagles. They were fishing in the creek and were definately a sight to see. We did not expect to see a bear, as we knew that the timing was not great given the salmon run not being in full swing, but we did, so I figure that bodes well for people in the next few weeks. We also went to the Totem Heritage Museum, which was just a short walk from town. It was very interesting. I wish we had enough time to go out to Saxman Village, but we are saving that for next time.

 

Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful trip. In fact, we placed an on-board deposit for our next cruise. We had such a wonderful time, that we intend to take our son on the same cruise in two years.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped me plan.

 

Dusty

[Coral]

Glad you had a great time! I agree that the one ways are worth the extra effort to do because GB and CF are just spectatular!

 

Skagway - your comments were very interesting. I have done the train ride 2x, the bus ride to the Yukon 2x and driven once to Emerald Lake. Last summer I had 2 different friends who went to Alaska. I recommended the combo trip (through the ship) to both of them. One came back saying they thought the train was so much better, the other thought the drive into the Yukon was so much better. Both were glad they did the combo drive though. I agree, it is a long day.

[Lynda90]

Thanks for the great review. Will be on the Diamond for a b2b in Sept. and can't wait. Will also be with Capt. Larry and taking the White Pass Railway tour.

[NancyIL]

Thanks for your review. How were the Skagway (not Yukon or BC) sights by bus?

 

I'm thinking ahead to our northbound cruise next summer. :) We won't arrive in Skagway until 8, so the Yukon rail/bus combo won't work. I think we will be happy with the 3.5-hour White Pass Summit Bus & Rail Excursion through Chilkoot Charters, or with the Fraser Meadows Sunday Steam train through the WP&YR.

[Coral]

Thanks for your review. How were the Skagway (not Yukon or BC) sights by bus?

 

I'm thinking ahead to our northbound cruise next summer. :) We won't arrive in Skagway until 8, so the Yukon rail/bus combo won't work. I think we will be happy with the 3.5-hour White Pass Summit Bus & Rail Excursion through Chilkoot Charters, or with the Fraser Meadows Sunday Steam train through the WP&YR.

 

Nancy - Princess will have a combo tour through them if you really want to do both.

[NancyIL]

Nancy - Princess will have a combo tour through them if you really want to do both.

 

You are probably right, but I think I'd prefer a shorter tour for our first time in Skagway - since our ship is in port from 8:00 - 6:00. I would really like to spend some time at the National Park Service Visitor Center and go on a Park Ranger walk around town. The Days of '98 Show sounds fun, and when the first show is over, we could take the 12:00 or 1:00 rail/bus tour (3.5 hour) or the 12:00 Sunday steam train.

[HockeyBoysMom]

I think one of the things that I failed to think about in Skagway was the other things to do in town. I had figured that the tour to the Yukon would return me at 3:00 and we didn't have to be back on the ship until 7:30, so we would have plenty of time. However, by the time we were dropped off, and went back on-board to drop our stuff off and then went back into town, we didn't get to see everything we had wanted to in town. We did a little shopping, and then went to go to the Red Onion, and musuem part upstairs was closed and the visitor center was closed, etc. That may have been because we were in town on the 4th of July and things were closing even though there were still ships in port, but I am not sure. Next time (we are taking our son back in August 2008) we will do the railroad and then leave some time so see some of the things in town.

 

Don't get me wrong, the Yukon tour was nice, I just missed doing some of the other things because it was such a long tour. In every other port, we had more time to explore on our own, and really liked that. In Skagway, we felt very rushed and still didn't get to see some of the things we wanted to see. That seems odd, as that was actually our single longest port day.

 

Dusty

[jimcat]

We did the same Chilcoot tour. We did not find it long ( We knew how long it was to before we booked:) ) anyhow we went all over.. the museum where we ate was nice to go into. The food was good, yes it got crowded ,but we did not feel crowded, the folks there knew how to handle crowds. So no one waited for their food nor a place to sit,:)

The train was fun.. we stood out side and took a lot of pictures.. only one other passenger in our car stood outside as well, so it was not crowded for us.. I Liked going thru both tunnels, standing outside.

 

Emerald Lake is worth seeing, as was stopping off in Carcross. Would I do it again? Not if there were other things I have not done, that I wanted to do. Juneau for example.. would I see Mendenhall Glacier again? Not really since I have done that.. I would do something else.. what? I do not know at this time

 

Our driver was very nice, experienced, took a lot of photos of us and had us back in town by 3:30 PM, we started at 7 30 AM.

We walked around town, only to find some of the local shops closing early with 4 ships in town.. hmmm. But that was ok.. we got free coffee as the gal said heck I was getting ready to close and was going to toss it out, take what ya want.:)

 

.

[yoshi]

Was the gold panning offered at the Caracross stop somewhat realistic or was it the cheezy fairground-type gold panning? My sons 10 & 11 really want to do the gold panning and I was hoping in Alaska it was a little bit realistic. It sounds like the 1-way train ride should not be missed, I also like the idea of the Husky stop & Emeral lake pictures.

We are also doing Captain Larry-Orca Enterprises but not until late August, hope it is not too late in the season.

[HockeyBoysMom]

It was the cheesy fair kind, but to be honest, I wish I had done it. People on our tour did it and then had a little bottle with their gold. Gold panning was the one thing in Alaska I wanted to do and didn't. I kept thinking another opportunity would present itself and didn't. I talked to someone who went on the gold dredge tour in Skagway and really liked that. They had gold panning. We might do something like that next time. The only tour I know of that actually does it in the creek, I believe is in Juneau and is combined with a salmon bake I think. I searched gold panning on this board and found it.

Dusty

[yoshi]

I know I had read about panning in an actual river or stream, that was what I was hoping for. We live in California and there are gold panning booths at many historical sites/fairs/malls, we are already booked with Captain Larry in Juneau so I doubt there is time for the Salmon Bake tour too. It is all good though, so many choices-this may be our first trip but probably not our last to Alaska.

[travelpeon]

It was the cheesy fair kind, but to be honest, I wish I had done it. People on our tour did it and then had a little bottle with their gold. Gold panning was the one thing in Alaska I wanted to do and didn't. I kept thinking another opportunity would present itself and didn't. I talked to someone who went on the gold dredge tour in Skagway and really liked that. They had gold panning. We might do something like that next time. The only tour I know of that actually does it in the creek, I believe is in Juneau and is combined with a salmon bake I think. I searched gold panning on this board and found it.

Dusty

 

Funny, Gold Panning isn't something I'd do again, even though it was novel for my 9/10 year old self when I first went to Alaska. Mostly, I recall the really cold water and cold hands. The amusement factor quickly waned for me after that. However, I'm a person who thinks camping is better done in a hotel room, so YMMV.