Mendenhall via Helicopter & Dog Sledding

[Sumy]

My husband and I are going on our first Alaska cruise in September on Carnival. Which excursion would you recommend that goes to Mendenhall Glacier and also does the Dog Sledding???

 

Is it worth going there via helicopter:confused:

[bjar719]

My sister and I will be taking a helicopter tour to Mendenhall Glacier to do the dogsledding and she made arrangements through Temsco Air (temscoair.com). Definitely check this site out, it looks awesome!!! This is my 50th birthday present from her, so I can't really tell you what the cost is other than to say it was considerably cheaper than what the cruise line (Princess) charges. I think she looked the info up online and then called and made arrangements over the phone. We leave for our cruise on the 26th (only 4 more days!!!) and our tour is on Monday the 30th. I hear the sights from the helicopter are amazing, but the one draw-back that I can see is that weather may affect the ride. I've heard/read on these boards that this tour has been cancelled in some instances. I'm really hoping/praying that this doesn't happen for us. When you call to inquire, make sure you ask about the possibility of this happening and what they will do for you if it actually happens. Good luck with your plans.

[seychellesdream]

We are booked with TEMSCO in Juneau. It is definitely cheaper to book on your own vs the cruise line. Depending on what company you use, you can save $65-105 pp (based on HAL prices).

 

I did a similar helicopter/dogsledding tour out of Seward at this time of the year several years back and it was awesome ! Could not have asked for better weather either.

[littlegap]

We are booked with TEMSCO in Juneau. It is definitely cheaper to book on your own vs the cruise line. Depending on what company you use, you can save $65-105 pp (based on HAL prices).

 

I did a similar helicopter/dogsledding tour out of Seward at this time of the year several years back and it was awesome ! Could not have asked for better weather either.

 

We booked the dog sledding tour directly with TEMSCO and it was about $70 less each than going through Princess. They do cancel the dog sledding tours a lot due to weather but in my opinion this was the best thing that could have happened to us. We were offered a refund, the Pilot's Choice, or Gacier Landing. We took the pilot's choice and it was amazing! We landed on 2 glaciers and the pilot was great about providing info, taking our picts, and describing things to us. Dod sledding is one of the most cancelled tours in Juneau. We may do it some day, but we will definitely do the Pilot's choice again when we go back. It was also $200 less than the dog sledding. :)

[flashdog_1]

In 2005 we booked through Mighty Great Trips and got Coastal helicopters. As everyone has said, it was much less booked independently. You fly directly over Mendenhall, so unless you wanted to see the displays at the Visitor's Center, or do some hiking there, you will have seen it twice, coming and going. We greatly enjoyed mushing the dogs. We were surprised that the dogs were not Alaskan Huskies, but mixed breeds who are bred especially for racing!

 

We also took the dog pulled cart excursion as a part of our Skagway tour to the Yukon thru SouthEast tours, and that was a blast, too.

 

Both of them were once in a lifetime experiences. Even though we are going back this year, we will not do those excursions again (cost and we've done them!) and will concentrate on other excursions. So, yes, it is worth it if you can squeek it out of your budget.

[Sumy]

Thank you....your comments have been very helpful. I think we are going to book with Temsco and just in case have a plan B :D