Dog Sled Tour Cancelled - Desperate!

[cpayne]

We had a helicopter ride/dog sled tour booked with Coastal Tours in Juneau for 8/24. I just recd an email today that effective 8/19 they are closing camp due to the warm temps. I am almost in tears! This was the one excursion I was most looking forward to for the entire trip!!

 

Does anyone know if Norwegian is still offering this tour?

 

Has anyone done this tour lately? How were the conditions?

 

My fear in booking through the cruise ship is the conditions may have deteriorated, but they'll still offer the tour to get your money even though it's not the best quality.

 

Any suggestions?????

[lynn1]

I just checked Diamond Princess dog sled tours out of Juneau and Skagway and all of them are closed. A few weeks ago they were all open and accepting Princess online reservations.

 

Lynn

[augie]

When our dogsled excursion with Coastal was cancelled in June due to weather conditions that made flying to the camp unsafe our hearts were broken too. It was my wife's birthday the day before we left on our trip and one of the gifts I had given her was a "snowbabies" that featured a dog and a dogsled.

 

The people at Coastal offered us an Icefield Excursion as an alternative. My wife's first inclination was to decline since she had her heart set on the dogsledding so much, but we decided to go ahead and take it.

 

We had a blast! Once you're in the helicopter, and walking around on the glacier, you just enjoy the moment.

 

We plan to go back again someday to give the dogs another try.

 

If we can't that time we may just have to try again!

[lucyjohnz]

They've had an unseasonably warm summer in Alaska this year. I think what you'll find is that ALL the glacier dogsled tours are being cancelled, probably due to predicting they won't have enough snow on the glaciers. So, no matter which cruiseline you book with, they all have the same problem - not enough snow in August.

 

I'd recommend you replace this tour with a helicopter glacier tour - they're less expensive and you still get the marvelous helicopter rides and if you pay a bit more, you can land on glaciers and with some tours, even hike on them for an hour or two. These tours typically start at $200/pp and go up to $375 for tours with 2-4 hour hikes in them. Our 2-landing glacier tour (1 hour 45 minutes) was about $275. Tours with hikes were more. We dealt directly with Temsco, but there are lots of other reputable companies out there.

 

If you're more interested in the dogs than the glacier, you can always do the wheeled/musher dogsled tour in Skagway - no glacier, no snow, but lots and lots of dogs.

[sfjldj]

I agree with the others and strongly recommend you book a glacier landing. we did the dog sled helicopter ride in juneau on june 28th and it was the highlight of our trip but more for the helicopter and view of the glaciers than for the dog sled. the dogs are fun and we had 4 kids who really loved it but you dont go very fast or very far with the dogs. next time we will do longer helicopter flight and glacier walk about for sure.

[rduke]

Don't forget that if you are going to Seward there is an outstanding wheeled dog sled !ididaRide is info on www.ididaride.com We are doing that one in August!

[Budget Queen]

This happened last season too- all dog camps were closed by end of August. It is a good notation for those considering trips next year. I too would also suggest you take a glacier helicopter landing- it is indeed a "TOP" tour, the best in Alaska- my opinion only. :) I am so sorry for your disappointment- I never made it either- was canceled upon twice, but fortunately did it in the winter. If you are going one way- then also look at option with Godwin's in Seward- if their camps are still open?? Check with TEMSCO out of Skagway for their dates too?

[two cruisers 723]

They also had glacier dogsledding in Skagway. I know it was cancelled the day we were in Skagway due to weather (6/28/04). And we were really worried that it would be cancelled for our scheduled dogsledding tour with Coastal in Juneau the following day. Especially because we heard from someone from another ship in Skagway that the Juneau tour had been cancelled the previous day. But I guess we just really got lucky. Because ours was not and we were able to take the tour on June 29th and it was a lot of fun. I'm sorry yours was cancelled. I would have been bumming really bad also. In Ketchikan, our Misty Fjords flightseeing tour was cancelled at the last minute. So I know how disappointing it can be to look forward to something so much and then not be able to do it. Go ahead and check Skagway if you're stopping there because you never know. There is also dogsledding on wheels in Skagway. It's about $100 a person. And the one on wheels in Seward is only about $46 a person. At least you have time to find something different to do. If you have enough time in Juneau, you could book 2 tours. One helicopter glacier landing tour and one dogsled on wheels tour and get the best of both worlds. We had originally booked the glacier ice trekking and then dogsled on wheels tour and got an email before the cruise that the glacier ice trekking was cancelled. That's when we decided to go with the glacier dogsledding and Captain Larry's whalewatching that day instead. Good luck! You will have a blast no matter what you do. Alaska is awesome.

[Folgy]

I booked the Helicopter/Dog sledding in Juneau for Aug . We sail on the 8th

I booked this cruise almost a year and a half ago. This was to be my highlite excursion as it is very expensive. I stiil have received no cancellation notice from RCCL .

I certainly hope it will still be a go on the 11th(my 50th birthday) :eek:

[mrsbojamp]

We did the dogsledding with Coastal last week and it was great so I can understand your disappointment. But to echo what others have said, the helicopter ride is AWESOME. I have never experienced such incredible scenery. And there are plenty of opportunities within Alaska, either in the ports or a land tour to have some interaction with sled dogs, if that's what your looking for. Good luck and happy planning!

[cpayne]

Anyone have any recommendations for tour operators in either Juneau or Skagway that offer the "snowless" dog sled tours? That would be an option. We already had another excursion booked with the helicopter tour so I'll get that experience, but really wanted the dog sledding!

[Coral]

We did the wheeled dog sledding in Dyea, Alaska (from Skagway). It was $99 and we booked it through the ship. They only had 12 people per time slot and our ship only had 3 time slots - so the ship's tours booked up very quickly.

 

Here are some pics:

 

http://homepage.mac.com/tlassek/alaska2004/PhotoAlbum35.html

 

It was probably worth the $99. Definitely not the same as a glacier landing and dog sledding on a glacier but I didn't want to spend $400. The dog musher that we had was named "Hugh" and he was awarded "Rookie of the Year" during this year's Iditarod. When I spoke to Libby Riddles the following day (First Female Iditarod winner in 1985) - she spoke highly of Hugh as a musher.

[Coral]

I believe this is the company that Princess used for our wheeled dog sledding:

 

http://www.alaskasleddog.com/

[Veloran]

cpayne,

 

I completely agree with what sfjldj said. The dogsledding is a unique experience, but one that I would pass on in the future. The helicopter portion is really the highlight of the trip. I'd recommend a helicopter flight with a glacier landing (trek or exploration). The views from above is just spectacular.

 

As for conditions, they were still good last Sunday (July 25th) when we did our "heli-mush".

 

The snowless dog sledding is a different kind of experience. You have a larger team of dogs pulling a wheeled sled crammed with a bunch of people on it. Not quite the same as watching the snow being kicked up by the dogs.

[kimba595]

My husband and I were booked for the dog sled with Coastal on July 21st. After being postponed 2 hours, they cancelled it completely and offered to give us a full refund or go on the glacier walk for $180 per person. My husband was so bummed about the cancellation that he didn't want to go on the glacier walk. I, on the other hand, was bummed that I wouldn't get to see a glacier since we'd already wasted too much time waiting for the tour to start. I dragged him on the helicopter and when we got back, he thanked me for forcing him to go. Granted it wasn't what we had planned, but it was still awesome and definately a good substitute.