Alaska Excursions--post your reviews here!

[Crecia27]

Originally Posted by DenverVal

I am wondering if anyone has done the kayaking in Juneau?

We did, many moons ago and it's still one of my favorite memories!!

[pamama]

Has anyone taken younger children (6 yrs) on any of the helicopter trips? Or can you even do that?

[poohj80]

Originally Posted by pamama

Has anyone taken younger children (6 yrs) on any of the helicopter trips? Or can you even do that?

I believe there are some trips open to younger kids, but we didn't take ours as we didn't think she would get as much out of it for the price.

[son3disfan]

How about the river rafting in Juneau?
Near the glacier?
Has anyone taken it that can give a review?

I understand that it is quite mild( that's ok for us) but I am having trouble finding reviews...even on cruise critic.

It is offered by Disney, but it is cheaper to do privately.
Would love to hear what it was like....

[mmmears]

Originally Posted by son3disfan

How about the river rafting in Juneau?
Near the glacier?
Has anyone taken it that can give a review?

I understand that it is quite mild( that's ok for us) but I am having trouble finding reviews...even on cruise critic.

It is offered by Disney, but it is cheaper to do privately.
Would love to hear what it was like....

I believe that I found some reviews on TripAdvisor for this one when I was researching Juneau last year. You might want to check on there. From what I remember, I was interested until I read the reviews. Then we booked a kayak trip in front of Mendenhall instead (through a private co.) and that was absolutely amazing.

[pixie08]

Originally Posted by son3disfan

How about the river rafting in Juneau?
Near the glacier?
Has anyone taken it that can give a review?

I understand that it is quite mild( that's ok for us) but I am having trouble finding reviews...even on cruise critic.

It is offered by Disney, but it is cheaper to do privately.
Would love to hear what it was like....

I was looking into this, but I read some pretty negative reviews on this thread and on trip advisor. They said you do not see much, you go through what looked like a residential area- not scenic? Not sure. Seemed like there were a lot of better options in Juneau

[stitch_mama]

Originally Posted by pamama

Has anyone taken younger children (6 yrs) on any of the helicopter trips? Or can you even do that?

We are taking our DS5 and DD8 on the Glacier Adventure by Helicopter next week in Juneau. They are super excited! I booked it directly through Era Helicopters, and there was no mention that it wouldn't be okay for the little guy. I guess I can let you know in 2 weeks how it went!

[son3disfan]

Originally Posted by pixie08

I was looking into this, but I read some pretty negative reviews on this thread and on trip advisor. They said you do not see much, you go through what looked like a residential area- not scenic? Not sure. Seemed like there were a lot of better options in Juneau

Thanks for the responses...I could not find any reviews on here.. I did do a search. Would love to read them...
I will keep searching. We are trying to decide between the float trip or canoe.

ETA: I originally googled "rafting trip, this time was "float trip." and I did find one review.
Only 2 replies. One not so good, one ok .
For anyone else interested:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...au_Alaska.html

[Disjanny]

This is my first Alaska cruise and I'm confused about a shore excursion. I hoping someone can help.

Does anyone know what the difference is between the Classic Misty Fjords float plane excursion and the Magnificent Misty Fjords float plane excursion? Other than a $1.00 difference in cost of course!

[Skylarr29]

Originally Posted by Disjanny

This is my first Alaska cruise and I'm confused about a shore excursion. I hoping someone can help.

Does anyone know what the difference is between the Classic Misty Fjords float plane excursion and the Magnificent Misty Fjords float plane excursion? Other than a $1.00 difference in cost of course!

It appears it's the same tour just offered by two different companies, one is Taquan and I'm not sure of the other.

[Disjanny]

Originally Posted by Skylarr29

It appears it's the same tour just offered by two different companies, one is Taquan and I'm not sure of the other.

Thanks!

Has anyone ever done this excursion? Any recommendations on which one to book? This is my last excursion decision and I just can't seem to tell the difference between them to pick one over the other.

[Skylarr29]

Originally Posted by Disjanny

Thanks!

Has anyone ever done this excursion? Any recommendations on which one to book? This is my last excursion decision and I just can't seem to tell the difference between them to pick one over the other.

I've done this tour and its very good. Last time I booked independently with island wings air and I am booked with them again for our upcoming trip in August. In Alaska you can feel very safe booking outside excursions if you want. We are only paying $239 a person. I'm sure both are great it's just that the demand is probably too high for one company to handle it.

[twinstars]

There will be four kids in our group, 3 yr old, 4 yr old, 6 yr old and 8 yr old. We are thinking of doing the Yukon Suspension Bridge, City and White Pass Rail in Skaway. For Juneau, my husband is thinking of doing the whale watching. Will the water be rough? He says it won't, but all I can remember is whale watching many years ago in Boston and I was sick as a dog.....I am usually fine on cruise ships, but nervous about going on a smaller boat.....
Any other suggestions on excursions? We will probably skip excursions in Ketchikan and Victoria given the very short port times.
Thanks!
Twinstars

[Skylarr29]

Originally Posted by twinstars

There will be four kids in our group, 3 yr old, 4 yr old, 6 yr old and 8 yr old. We are thinking of doing the Yukon Suspension Bridge, City and White Pass Rail in Skaway. For Juneau, my husband is thinking of doing the whale watching. Will the water be rough? He says it won't, but all I can remember is whale watching many years ago in Boston and I was sick as a dog.....I am usually fine on cruise ships, but nervous about going on a smaller boat.....
Any other suggestions on excursions? We will probably skip excursions in Ketchikan and Victoria given the very short port times.
Thanks!
Twinstars

In Juneau whale watching is in Auke Bay so you're not out in the open ocean. I don't recall it being rough at all. Would it be possible for your group to split up? It'd be a shame to be sick and not enjoy your day. You could also research and book your whale watching tours on your own so you know exactly which boat/size group/etc. that you are getting. Last time I went out with Captain Larry at Orca Enterprises and this time we are booked for Harv and Marv's which has a smaller boat that only holds 6 people so you get a very personalized experience. Have you been over to cruisecritic.com? There Alaska board is a wealth of knowledge.

[poohj80]

Originally Posted by twinstars

There will be four kids in our group, 3 yr old, 4 yr old, 6 yr old and 8 yr old. We are thinking of doing the Yukon Suspension Bridge, City and White Pass Rail in Skaway. For Juneau, my husband is thinking of doing the whale watching. Will the water be rough? He says it won't, but all I can remember is whale watching many years ago in Boston and I was sick as a dog.....I am usually fine on cruise ships, but nervous about going on a smaller boat.....
Any other suggestions on excursions? We will probably skip excursions in Ketchikan and Victoria given the very short port times.
Thanks!
Twinstars

We did the rail and suspension bridge with 5 year old last summer and she LOVED the bridge but fell asleep on the train. The bridge was a bit disappointing to us as we thought there would be more than one, but the scenery was beautiful.

The only excursion we booked outside of DCL was whale watching in Juneau. The water was pretty flat except when racing to get us back to shore since we stayed out a bit longer than we should because we found a pod of orcas. I highly recommend Captain Chris and Rumm Runner Charters (you can read my review and see pix on Trip Advisor). Booking a smaller boat than the larger excursions offered through DCL allowed us to get closer to the whales and we didn't have to camp out for rail space to get good pix.

In Ketchikan, we did the raft/hike tour of the forest and DD LOVED this. She still talks about teaching the DCL crew members how to roast marshmallows (she couldn't believe they had never done it before even though they were from another country). We saw seals and lots of bald eagles along the way.