Which Flightseeing?

[silverjoe]

If you could only pick one flightseeing adventure, would you pick Misty Fjords with lake landing, or Mt. McKinley with glacier landing. Also, if you took the Misty Fjords flightseeing off of a Princess cruise, did you find you had to go really early, and missed the rest of the sites at Ketchikan.

 

I am leaning towards Mt. McKinley trip, because I can schedule it on our day of leisure at the Mt. Mckinley lodge during the tour portion of our cruisetour.

 

Any personal experience on this, or observations would be greatly appreciated.

 

PS. This is our first time to Alaska, and our first cruise also

 

Thanks

 

Joe and Renee:)

[NancyIL]

I booked a Misty Fjords flight independently with Island Wings. We were in Ketchikan from 6:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., and our pick-up time was 7:30. The skies were very overcast in the morning, and I wondered if we would fly at all. We did indeed fly, but when we got to Misty Fjords, the cloud ceiling was too low for us to go very far, and we had to turn back. Most people whose reports I've read had a much better experience in Misty Fjords, but I personally won't pre-book that flight again before arriving in port to see what the weather is like. It was an expensive and disappointing flight at $209/pp.

 

I reserved a Mt. McKinley flight with glacier landing for next August. Those flights seem to get cancelled fairly frequently. I'm sure that's disappointing, but better to have the flight cancelled than to fly (and pay!) and not be able to see anything.

[silverjoe]

That seems like pretty good advice, but do you think that all seats would be booked for flightseeig if you waited until getting to port and trying to book?

 

Joe and Renee

[cjnky]

I know NancyIl had a lousy experience, but our trip with Island Wings was absolutely the highlight of our 3 week AK trip. It was absolutely an "emotional experience" - I was actually in tears over the sheer beauty all around us!! We also did a helicopter glacier landing in Juneau that was also awesome! You're going to have a FABULOUS trip no matter which you take!!

 

(I know Island Wings already has several days completely booked for next year, so your chances of booking with them when you arrive in port would be NIL!)

[NancyIL]

That seems like pretty good advice, but do you think that all seats would be booked for flightseeig if you waited until getting to port and trying to book?

 

Joe and Renee

 

As cjnky said - you might have a difficult time booking a Misty Fjords flight if you wait until you arrive in port. What I should've said was that I have no interest in going on another Misty Fjords flight any time soon. Misty Fjords was our most expensive excursion in 2007, so I plan to be a miser when in Ketchikan next summer by taking the city bus to Totem Bight for ~ $3/pp roundtrip.