What WOULDN'T you do in Alaska?

[lovesublime]

Well, we've been twice and I wouldn't want to flightsee again. It's just not all that safe IMO. BTW, DS is a pilot and concurs.

[bottom-dragger]

Well, we've been twice and I wouldn't want to flightsee again. It's just not all that safe IMO. BTW, DS is a pilot and concurs.

 

at least once a week i can turn on the news and see a commercial flight that pancaked. i can't remember the last time i heard of a flightseeing trip that augered-in. comfort and safety are two different things.

[larry the lobster]

I would never book tours through the ship, I would only book tours through the operators myself.

[Choozin Croozin]

I would not book a tour with Homer Ocean Charters again. They canceled my tour just 2 hours before the scheduled departure.

 

I am wondering if you would elaborate on this a bit. Did they not give any reasons or anything. I was interested in booking with them. Just curious. Thanks.

[vbmom87]

As an Alaskan resident, I would skip the one hour cruise at Portage Lake and drive to Whittier and go with one of the three companies to see the glaciers of Prince William Sound. I'd also skip the Natural History Tour at Denali; pay extra and either go on the longer tour or take the park shuttle at least as far as Eielson Visitor Center.

 

We enjoyed the Portage Lake Cruise. Again, different strokes for different folks.

[Markanddonna]

the one thing I would not do is pay even $5 for a tour of an old whorehouse like the one in Ketchikan, Dolly's House I think. I remember the girl standing outside trying to convince visitors to come insider there told us that we could see the original stained wallpaper. EEWWWWWW!

 

Can you imagine those nice girls going back to college and people saying "What did you do this summer?" Oh, I pretended I was a prostitute!

[whale-watcher]

I would not leave unscheduled/unstructured time in most of the ports. On our first cruise, we only scheduled one excursion per port in order to leave time for shopping and exploring the town...we felt this was a mistake and a waste of precious touring time (especially for Skagway, which was overwhelmingly toursity). The next time we carefully planned our days to spend as little time in town as possible!

[Choozin Croozin]

We enjoyed the Portage Lake Cruise. Again, different strokes for different folks.

 

Did you also do the Kenai Fjords tour? I was told if you do that one that you would be bored with the Portage Lake Cruise. We have a coupon so I thought we would do both. Any comments? Thanks.

[mtnbikechick73]

I definitely would NOT do the AJ Gold Mine Tour in Juneau. It was the most boring, cold 3 hours of my life. I felt trapped, too, because once you're underground and the miner starts going on and on and ON about mining, you cannot leave until the whole group does. My husband and I both couldn't WAIT for that tour to be over!

 

The only good thing about the tour was this little chipmunk that hangs out at the little "general store" at the mine. They have peanuts you can feed him - he ran right up my leg to grab the peanut out of my hand! I watched that little chipmunk for an hour while everyone else "goldpanned".

[redsox99]

Hi All,

 

I've read everything about what to do in Alaska, but I'd really like to hear from those that have recommendations on what not to do. For instance.....snorkeling because you don't see much and the water is cold ;)

 

 

Are you kidding? Snorkeling was one of the highlights of the trip for us. That water is cold, but I was toasty warm in my wet suit and we saw lots of stuff. No tropical fish, of course, but lots of interesting sea life. There were only three passengers on the tour, but we were told that it is consistently the highest rated tour of all. I highly recommend it.

[cruzin4us]

I really appreciate those taking the time to respond to this thread. I realize there are "different strokes for different folks", some people with physical limitations can't hike, are afraid of flying, etc., but it's nice to know when someone has taken a tour or an excursion and spent money on something they felt was a complete waste of time and money.

For example: Many years ago, we took a bus ride to a place outside of Mazatlan where they made adobe bricks. The ride was something like 2 hours each way on a bus with no air conditioning and a toilet that emptied right out onto the street. Nothing like seeing the pavement rolling by as you are doing your duty :eek:. The adobe making was fine, but time and money spent was not worth it IMHO. However, I still do talk about it, so maybe in retrospect it was worth it??

[frugaltravel]

I am wondering if you would elaborate on this a bit. Did they not give any reasons or anything. I was interested in booking with them. Just curious. Thanks.

 

They don't tell you this, but they reserve the right to cancel your tour up to the time of departure, without warning, without recourse, just a "sorry, not enough passengers today." They called me on my cell phone about 2 hours before the tour was scheduled to begin to say that it was canceled. When you have a limited amount of time in a city, you want to maximize it. And with such a short cancellation notice I had no chance to find another tour. I stopped into the flightseeing office, but a tour had just left less than 1/2 hour before I got there. Hard to plan when a vendor operates the way Homer Ocean Charters does.

 

Note that this was Memorial Day weekend - a VERY busy time in Homer. If they couldn't find the minimum number of people that weekend for a tour, when would they?!

 

I ended up making lemonade from lemons and left Homer earlier than planned, making stops along the way and visiting Hope, which is an incredibly scenic town on Turnagain Arm.

 

On the same trip to Homer I used Rainbow Tours to go to Seldovia. They were excellent and if they offered any tours that were similar to those of Homer Ocean Charters, I would use them again in a heartbeat. And though I didn't use them, I was in EMail contact with Smoke Wagon Water Taxi. Their attitude was incredibly helpful, even saying "we will make it work" when I inquired about a water taxi to do some hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park (ended up going to Seldovia instead so didn't have time for this too).

 

After that experience, one question on my list of "questions to ask vendors when making a reservation" (besides cancellation terms and fees, payment/deposit policy, etc) is "How far in advance will you advise me if you need cancel the tour?" If they say anything less than 24 hours in advance, I will not book with that operator. Some operators specifically state on their website what their policy is if they need to cancel. Homer Ocean Charters told me later through the BBB that they refuse to do that.

[yyzken]

How about skipping all the jewellery stores?

 

Ken

[Markanddonna]

Ships cancel excursions too. I was in Juneau on the 4th of July in 2006 and the ship cancelled most of the tours because the operators look at that day like Christmas. It is also a madhouse getting around and many tour operators don't think it is worth their while.

 

I rarely go on ship excursions. They try to make you think that the independent tour operators are not reputable and will cause you to miss the ship!

 

I second the idea of not spending any time in those port jewelry shops! Also, the gold panning thing is individual. My husband of 58 LOVED it because he has two degrees in geology and never did that before. To me, it was COLD and hurt my back with all that bending and stooping, but to each his own!

 

Connie

[Snafflebit]

Returned from cruising the Inside Passage on Zuiderdam July 11. IMO (and DH and the people next to us on the boat) whale watching. I booked the excursion based on enthusiasm of the Alaska Message Board. But...we found it rather dull. Please don't take it amiss if this is YOUR favorite excursion. We did get exactly what was promised and the Juneau Allen Marine crew was excellent. The whale surfaces, you see the top of the head, a spout, a bit of fluke and the whale goes under. Over and over, for the half-hour watch limit allowed. Additional sights were lazy sea lions (or seals?) basking on a buoy and a dot in the sky identified as an eagle. We later had many whale sightings from the deck and our verandah-whole pods spouting and breaching-the excursion became redundant.

 

We heard nothing but compliments from people who did the glacier tour. I will do it next time.

[Yukon]

at least once a week i can turn on the news and see a commercial flight that pancaked. i can't remember the last time i heard of a flightseeing trip that augered-in.

 

You apparently have a very short memory, b-d ....

[mtnbikechick73]

Well, we've been twice and I wouldn't want to flightsee again. It's just not all that safe IMO. BTW, DS is a pilot and concurs.

 

I don't like flying at all. I'm not that comfortable in a commercial passenger jet, so you can figure.....I am TERRIFIED of small planes. Somehow, though, my husband talked me into taking a flightseeing tour over the glaciers in Juneau. Because he wanted to do it so much, I finally agreed to go. I thought I was going to barf most of the time - but we used L.A.B. Flight Services (they were on the dock in Juneau when we got off the ship), and our pilot had 35 years of flying experience. He was very good at what he did, and I felt safe with our pilot. It was beautiful up there, even if I was a nervous wreck the whole time.

 

You can't say it's not safe to fly JUST in Alaska....it's not truly "safe" to fly anywhere, anytime. A plane can go down for any reason in any locale with any pilot. If you get on a plane, you are taking a risk, period.

 

We are now talking about taking a flightseeing tour to Mt. McKinley...help me!

[Yukon]

You can't say it's not safe to fly JUST in Alaska....it's not truly "safe" to fly anywhere, anytime.

 

It's not truly safe to DRIVE anywhere, anytime, anymore... :(

[Choozin Croozin]

They don't tell you this, but they reserve the right to cancel your tour up to the time of departure, without warning, without recourse, just a "sorry, not enough passengers today." They called me on my cell phone about 2 hours before the tour was scheduled to begin to say that it was canceled. When you have a limited amount of time in a city, you want to maximize it. And with such a short cancellation notice I had no chance to find another tour. I stopped into the flightseeing office, but a tour had just left less than 1/2 hour before I got there. Hard to plan when a vendor operates the way Homer Ocean Charters does.

 

Note that this was Memorial Day weekend - a VERY busy time in Homer. If they couldn't find the minimum number of people that weekend for a tour, when would they?!

 

I ended up making lemonade from lemons and left Homer earlier than planned, making stops along the way and visiting Hope, which is an incredibly scenic town on Turnagain Arm.

 

On the same trip to Homer I used Rainbow Tours to go to Seldovia. They were excellent and if they offered any tours that were similar to those of Homer Ocean Charters, I would use them again in a heartbeat. And though I didn't use them, I was in EMail contact with Smoke Wagon Water Taxi. Their attitude was incredibly helpful, even saying "we will make it work" when I inquired about a water taxi to do some hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park (ended up going to Seldovia instead so didn't have time for this too).

 

After that experience, one question on my list of "questions to ask vendors when making a reservation" (besides cancellation terms and fees, payment/deposit policy, etc) is "How far in advance will you advise me if you need cancel the tour?" If they say anything less than 24 hours in advance, I will not book with that operator. Some operators specifically state on their website what their policy is if they need to cancel. Homer Ocean Charters told me later through the BBB that they refuse to do that.

 

THANK YOU, that was very helpful and I WILL plan accordingly. Some companies don't realize that word of mouth can help you, but it can also destroy your business. With sites like this one, trip advisor, and fodors you can really reach a lot of people. Thanks again for taking the time to come back and elaborate.

[bottom-dragger]

You apparently have a very short memory, b-d ....

 

yeah, you're right. i do have selective amnesia. for a multiple of reasons i'm trying to forget '07 and '08.

[tranceFusion]

yeah, you're right. i do have selective amnesia. for a multiple of reasons i'm trying to forget '07 and '08.

 

are there alot of flightseeing accidents? After booking the tour, I have been concerned and questioning whether we should do this. At least on a commercial airline there is a co-pilot and various other checks and balances.

[cardbucfan]

We just got back last Tuesday and the things we loved were the flightseeing trip to Mt. McKinley (saw it-WOW!), the helicopter glacier trek with North STar Trekking-best excursion ever, Eielson shuttle in Denali and the 6 hour Kenai Fjords tour. I would do any one of those again in a heartbeat. The let downs were the two excursions we did in Haines. We had two boys with us so we looked for active excursions (Haines was the first stop after 2 sea days) and chose the biking tour and the wilderness kayak excursion. Yes, we can do both of these things here in Florida but chose them for the scenery. Sadly, both tours went to the same place so we saw the same scenery! The bike trip was fun but the first 3 miles were just on a paved road (the main one!) and it wasn't until we turned off that the scenery really wowed us. The kayaking was fun, (except for the bickering with DS14!) but since it was the same lake we had seen that morning, a little bit of a let down.

[msd360]

Returned from cruising the Inside Passage on Zuiderdam July 11. IMO (and DH and the people next to us on the boat) whale watching. I booked the excursion based on enthusiasm of the Alaska Message Board. But...we found it rather dull. Please don't take it amiss if this is YOUR favorite excursion. We did get exactly what was promised and the Juneau Allen Marine crew was excellent. The whale surfaces, you see the top of the head, a spout, a bit of fluke and the whale goes under. Over and over, for the half-hour watch limit allowed. Additional sights were lazy sea lions (or seals?) basking on a buoy and a dot in the sky identified as an eagle. We later had many whale sightings from the deck and our verandah-whole pods spouting and breaching-the excursion became redundant.

 

We heard nothing but compliments from people who did the glacier tour. I will do it next time.

 

Two interesting points here.

 

1. I am truly sorry your whale watching experience was suboptimal. We took a Kenai Fjords tour from Seward and snapped the following, with significant coaching from the boat captain who truly knew whale behavior.
   
2. You were extremely lucky to see whales breaching from your cruise ship veranda. Many ships transit the Pt. Adolphus area in Icy Strait, where whale sightings are pretty much guaranteed, but few publish the timing of this event. Unless you can extract this information prior to your cruise, you will have much better luck seeing whales on a tour out of Juneau or Icy Strait Point, than from the cruise ship.
   

[bottom-dragger]

are there alot of flightseeing accidents? After booking the tour, I have been concerned and questioning whether we should do this. At least on a commercial airline there is a co-pilot and various other checks and balances.

 

no, no accidents. some bad decisions. the charter airplanes are commercial aircraft with stringent operating regulations. this is why lab is not flying this year.

 

five months of the year i get 1-2 hours a week of flight time in small aircraft. half of that time i am blissfully asleep. i also send out 6-15 persons a week to remote camps via small aircraft without even thinking that there's a more safe method.

 

but you are the best judge of your own comfort level. it's a holiday, not an endurance contest.

 

oh, i'm afraid of heights. you can't get me near the railing at the san jacinto monument or the cape hatteras lighthouse..........but i love looking out of small airplanes/helicopters.

[tranceFusion]

no, no accidents. some bad decisions. the charter airplanes are commercial aircraft with stringent operating regulations. this is why lab is not flying this year.

 

I'm not following.. What do you mean bad decision?