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Alaska Cruise advice.....again
I posted a few months ago, looking for advice on a cruise. I changed our plans a bit, and am hoping to get some more feedback.
We will be on the Island Princess. Flying into Fairbanks and doing a 3 day land tour from Fairbanks to Whittier (Fairbanks, Denali, Whittier). We'll board the ship in Whittier and go to: Hubbard Glacier, Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and ending in Vancouver. We plan to take Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle, and fly out of Seattle.
Any advice on excursions, especially in Fairbanks? I'd love to see the Northern Lights. Do you know if we'll have enough time in Denali to do a tour? (schedule says travel in the morning, afternoon in Denali). Any time to explore before getting on the ship? There is no time schedule listed on the website for the land tour portion.
Any advice for excursions in port? A friend suggested getting off of the boat, and booking with a company on shore. Any good experiences with non-cruise ship companies? My H and I are usually adventurous, but don't like anything too physically exhausting (he's also deathly afraid of flying, so any small aircrafts are a no-go). We've looked at gold mining areas, rafting, general tours of the areas, etc. We're open to most ideas, and just want to see the best of Alaska.
Any advice on the ship itself?
I am reading Cruise Critic.
Please school me on vital information for the trip.
Re: Alaska Cruise advice.....again
I think you and I are booked on the same cruise on different dates/ships. We are on the Sapphire starting our tour on June 6.
None of our plans are set yet but these are the things we are leaning towards:
Fairbanks - we will prob rent a car. Drive up to Chena Hot Springs, and visit the Museum of the North (I think that is the name) at the Univ of Alaska. Not sure what else we will do yet. Seeing the Northern Lights is not something you can predict. We will have such long days while on this trip I hope we get a chance to see them too.
Denali - I also wonder if we will have enough time for a tour. I hope so. Considering a helicopter flight above.
Skagway - right now leaning towards a car rental. Follow Murrays Guide (available on the internet) and drive up into the Yukon territory and Emerald Lake. I've heard great things about the railroad there (White pass maybe?) but just not sure my DH would like it. Also considering visiting a dog musher camp.
Juneau - likely whalewatching with Harv & Marv or Orca Expeditions.
Ketchikan - perhaps the deadliest catch tour. Don't know yet.
You will get a ton of information on cruise critic. It will be a valuable resource. I planned everythign on our last cruise with advice from that board and it was perfect! I'd recommend planning in advance. On our trip we will have 4 ships in port each day.
We went on a sternwheeler in Fairbanks and had a nice tour. Don't bother panning for gold - I would skip that next time.
We arrived in Denali at around 3pm and promptly began a tour. We got back to the room at around 11pm, which was fine since it's light so late.
Do the car rental in Skagway with Murray's guide. We did and it was fabulous! So nice to be able to go at our own pace and be away from annoying people from the cruise ship! The Klondike Hwy was absolutely gorgeous. Be sure to go all the way to Emerald Lake. This was our favorite part of the trip last summer as far as shore activities.
Ketchikan is my favorite city there. They have great shopping and the totem pole state park was gorgeous (don't go to the museum in town - take the public bus to the park instead).
Do not book a trip to Mendenhall on Juneau Tours. We didn't even make it out of town b/c the defogger on the bus wasn't working and the passengers started freaking out. We got off, hooved it back to the booth and demanded for our money just as the owner told the salesgirl over the radio to, "Get the heck out of there before everyone starts asking for their money back again..." Needless to say, Juneau left a real sour taste in our mouths.
Be sure to check for the Patsy Ann dog statue by the docks in Juneau
Enjoy your trip!
I'm from Juneau, and there's lots of great things to see in Juneau and in all of Southeast Alaska. I would say definitely do a whale watching tour somewhere, a sled dog experience if you can, if you like hiking there are lots of trails in each port to go on short hikes.
Here in Juneau there's also the Mt. Roberts Tram - I know you said your DH doesn't like flying, so you could take the tram to the top of one of our mountains to get the sky view (takes about 3 minutes). Also in Juneau we've got the Mendenhall Glacier, you can take a bus/cab to the glacier. There's a visitor's center and if you're adventurous you can walk pretty close to the face of the glacier.
It's a total guess as to whether you'll be able to see the Northern Lights at all, there's no guaranteeing with that. Also with the weather - Southeast Alaska is a temperate rain forest, so you'll want to pack rain gear and lots of layers.
To the PP about Juneau Tours, I know the owner and while I am certainly not surprised whatsoever about how you were treated, I am very sorry it clouded your opinion of Juneau as a whole. To the OP, please feel free to PM me with any questions you might have, and I hope you enjoy my beautiful state!!
I wouldn't bother with a Northern Lights tour even if there's one offered, because I assume you'll be there in the summer? The long daylight hours in the northern latitudes make it very difficult to see the aurora during the summer months. If you do want to put the Northern Lights on your travel bucket list, there are some great resources online to help you maximize your chances of getting to see them. Here is some information specific to Fairbanks:
http://fairbanks-alaska.com/northern-lights-alaska.htm
It includes a link the Aurora forecast, which I love.
As for cruise port excursions, at the suggestion of the CruiseCritic forums, we booked a whale-watching excursion in Juneau with Harv & Marv, and I loved it. If you don't mind being on a very small boat, potentially with a couple of strangers, they are a fantastic company! If you want to go whale-watching, this was an excellent way to do it. And since it was a half-day tour, they offered to drop us at the Mendenhall Glacier, so that we could save time and a bit of money, since we only needed to pay the bus fare back to the port.
In Skagway, we did a full-day trip with Chilkoot Charters all the way to Carcross in the Yukon. For a lot of people the highlight is the White Pass Railroad, but I loved the scenery farther into Canada. My recommendation would be to rent a car and drive the route yourself, so that you can stop for photos whenever you want and because I didn't really like being on a mini-bus with a lot of other people. The downside is that you don't get to ride the railroad, but honestly I found it crowded and the scenery not much different from the drive up.
In Ketchikan, I was a little interested in the native art & history, so we caught a local bus (found the timings and stop location on the CruiseCritic forum) to the Totem Bight Historical Park, and we'd brought along a printout of their self-guided tour from their website. I thought the totem poles were quite striking and interesting, and it was pleasant to walk around early in the morning on our own, because there were very few other visitors at that time, despite multiple mega-ships in port that day. It didn't take long, so after that we did a little bit of hiking outside of town (again with directions and suggestions gleaned from the CruiseCritic forum).
In Skagway we did the rental car (book early!!) and drove out to Emerald Lake, it was really an amazing drive and probably our favorite stop because of the beautiful scenery the entire day.
Juneau I would second Harv & Marv for whale watching, we originally had a helicopter tour scheduled but had bad weather in Juneau on our port day and everything was cancelled (helicopters and whale watches included). Also a huge perk of Juneau was Tracy's Crab Shack. Seriously amazing crab that will ruin you for all other crab for the rest of your life.
Have a great trip!!
Thanks for all replies!
We are purposely taking one of the last cruises of the season, with the hope to overlap a good chance at seeing the Northern Lights. We'll be in Fairbanks mid-September, so it looks like our odds are much better. Thanks to PP for the predicter website! If a good show is predicted, will the view from a hotel in town be good, or should we try to book something that day?
Whale watching tours - how choppy was the ride? My husband usually gets seasick. He's tried a few different meds, but will hopefully get a prescription for something stronger this time. I'd LOVE to see orcas, but I don't want my husband to be miserable. How bad was it? Or, any suggestions on meds that work for you?
I got the patch the last time we went on a cruise and it was awesome. I don't know the name of the med, but it's pretty common so any doc should be familiar with it.
ETA: You asked previously about a Denali tour. We are going in June, so we already have our detailed itinerary info. We are scheduled to arrive in Denali around 1pm, and we do have several options for tours that afternoon
The travel time from Denali to the ship is 8 hours so I dont think there will be time to explore before we embark.
Whale watching tours are a must, even if your DH gets a little sea sick. Just have him get a prescription and hope for the best! It totally depends on the weather for how choppy it gets - I would suggest a bigger boat since they handle waves better than some of the smaller boats. *Note - I also just confirmed this with my DH, who is a 100-ton boat captain (he doesn't work in the tourism industry, but he runs a boat about the same size as the ones I would suggest). So take a look at Allen Marine in Juneau, at least, those boats will be your best bet with the sea sickness issue.
Regarding orcas, there is no place to guarantee seeing orcas (they're completely transient whales). The majority of the whales we have here are humpback whales, and they're all around this area. And all of the whale watching tours give you guarantees of seeing whales. There wasn't a single time I went out on our boat last summer for pleasure boating or fishing that I didn't see at least one or two whales.
GL with your planning, and again, if you have any other questions or want any other suggestions, let me know!