Which Helicopter tour did you use for dog sledding?

[TwingleMomFl]

I have tried reading through the Alaska port adventures, but it is rather length. I have seen coastal helicopters, alaska icefields, temsco, and era helicopters.

Have I missed anyone? I thought there was another company that I read that had an add on package to visit another glacier and now I can't find it.

Anyone have advice one company over another?

[lilpooh108]

My family members went through Coastal to do a glacier landing and loved it.

One reason they chose it (which I thought was smart) was b/c the cruise lines all use Temsco. They didn't want to be treated like 2nd class citizens by booking directly and getting bumped.

In fact on Coastal, their scheduled tour was delayed a bit since all of the morning tours were cancelled due to weather. The company squeezed in a family who'd been waiting all morning, and they had to wait an extra 30 minutes. But Coastal made it up to them by taking them alone so essentially they got a private tour.

[wallawallakids]

Originally Posted by lilpooh108

My family members went through Coastal to do a glacier landing and loved it.

One reason they chose it (which I thought was smart) was b/c the cruise lines all use Temsco. They didn't want to be treated like 2nd class citizens by booking directly and getting bumped.

In fact on Coastal, their scheduled tour was delayed a bit since all of the morning tours were cancelled due to weather. The company squeezed in a family who'd been waiting all morning, and they had to wait an extra 30 minutes. But Coastal made it up to them by taking them alone so essentially they got a private tour.

Did you do the Dog sled tour though them? THanks.

[thndrmatt]

Era were consummate professionals throughout our entire experience. To include when we helicoptered to dog sledding and got weathered in, had to spend the night on the glacier, got a bonus dog sled ride in the morning, eventually got helicoptered over to Taku lodge via a hole in the weather the next day, were served the salmon bake and were visited by bears as if we'd paid for that excursion also, later that day getting helicoptered back to Juneau, were handed the passports they pulled off the ship for us, given a hotel room at their expense in Juneau, and flying back to Vancouver via Seattle at their expense since it was no longer possible to catch up with the ship before returning to port. They also reimbursed us for incidentals (food and toiletries since we'd been in the same clothes for multiple days).

Your experience may vary, but their customer service skills won't.

Certainly an excursion we'll remember... Edit: They said guests had been forced to stay overnight on the glacier only once in 12 years... make that twice.

[meajuly5]

Wow! That was an adventure! Was that All in Juneau? Do you remember what time your excursion began?

[thndrmatt]

It was late morning I think, we had time to disembark, hike through Juneau and then all the way up the trail to the Gondola, and ride it down and were just in time for the shuttle to the helipad.

Normally on bad weather days if there's any risk of getting stuck they don't send the excursions at all, which is why you see so many people talk about theirs getting cancelled. Murphy really has to strike for it to roll in so fast that they can get you in and not get you out an hour later.

[meajuly5]

Originally Posted by thndrmatt

It was late morning I think, we had time to disembark, hike through Juneau and then all the way up the trail to the Gondola, and ride it down and were just in time for the shuttle to the helipad.

Normally on bad weather days if there's any risk of getting stuck they don't send the excursions at all, which is why you see so many people talk about theirs getting cancelled. Murphy really has to strike for it to roll in so fast that they can get you in and not get you out an hour later.

Adventure!!! How was your night on the glacier? I don't think I would ever hear the end of it from the rest of my party

[jlwhitney]

We used Coastal and love them. We did the dog sledding. They were easy to contact and promptly responded to emails and such.

The day of in Port we wanted to change our pick up spot and called them up and they were fine with it.

The day we went they weren't that busy, May sailing, and they gave us an extra long dog sled ride and such it was awesome. Actually we were the only ones there besides the pilot, and dog sled team.

I highly recommend them.

[lilpooh108]

Originally Posted by thndrmatt

Era were consummate professionals throughout our entire experience. To include when we helicoptered to dog sledding and got weathered in, had to spend the night on the glacier, got a bonus dog sled ride in the morning, eventually got helicoptered over to Taku lodge via a hole in the weather the next day, were served the salmon bake and were visited by bears as if we'd paid for that excursion also, later that day getting helicoptered back to Juneau, were handed the passports they pulled off the ship for us, given a hotel room at their expense in Juneau, and flying back to Vancouver via Seattle at their expense since it was no longer possible to catch up with the ship before returning to port. They also reimbursed us for incidentals (food and toiletries since we'd been in the same clothes for multiple days).

Your experience may vary, but their customer service skills won't.

Certainly an excursion we'll remember... Edit: They said guests had been forced to stay overnight on the glacier only once in 12 years... make that twice.

I actually think you got the better end of the bargain.

Can you imagine the price on the the excursion you actually ended up getting?

"Glacier Landing, Dog Sledding, Glacier Overnight, Overnight in Juneau, Taku Lodge & Private Transfer to Vancouver."

That's worth about $2500/pp right there. If Adventures By Disney packaged that it'd be $8500

[meajuly5]

Originally Posted by lilpooh108

I actually think you got the better end of the bargain.

Can you imagine the price on the the excursion you actually ended up getting?

"Glacier Landing, Dog Sledding, Glacier Overnight, Overnight in Juneau, Taku Lodge & Private Transfer to Vancouver."

That's worth about $2500/pp right there. If Adventures By Disney packaged that it'd be $8500

Exactly! Premier Disney adventure!

[wallawallakids]

Originally Posted by thndrmatt

Era were consummate professionals throughout our entire experience. To include when we helicoptered to dog sledding and got weathered in, had to spend the night on the glacier, got a bonus dog sled ride in the morning, eventually got helicoptered over to Taku lodge via a hole in the weather the next day, were served the salmon bake and were visited by bears as if we'd paid for that excursion also, later that day getting helicoptered back to Juneau, were handed the passports they pulled off the ship for us, given a hotel room at their expense in Juneau, and flying back to Vancouver via Seattle at their expense since it was no longer possible to catch up with the ship before returning to port. They also reimbursed us for incidentals (food and toiletries since we'd been in the same clothes for multiple days).

Your experience may vary, but their customer service skills won't.

Certainly an excursion we'll remember... Edit: They said guests had been forced to stay overnight on the glacier only once in 12 years... make that twice.

That actually sounds crazy cool!! I would pay to do something like that. Great to know that they handled it so well. That earns them major brownie points in my book.

[wallawallakids]

Originally Posted by lilpooh108

If Adventures By Disney packaged that it'd be $8500

So true!!

[thndrmatt]

The main disappointment was the "loss" of 3 nights of the trip. The first night was in the hut on the glacier, the second night in Juneau, and the third night in Vancouver which was also at their expense by the way, in a nice hotel, as well as getting a private car from the airport to the hotel. We missed out on our Palo reservations, and three days of planned ship activities. The only excursion we missed was the flightseeing one in Ketchikan, but after hearing our story that company refunded us as well, and the multiple helicopter rides (including the trip into the dog sled camp, failed trip out, third trip to Taku lodge, and fourth trip back to Juneau finally) needless to say gave us plenty of glacier viewing...

Our poor servers thought they'd done something wrong, as we were at a table by ourselves and promptly just didn't show up to meals for the last half of the trip... But we saw them after boarding to pack our bags on disembarkation day and explained it all. Everyone involved said they had never heard anything like this ever happening... Another member of the marooned group was actually a DCL cast member! It had been her day off... Someone had to pick up her serving shifts until we made it back, yikes!

All this being said, while this might have been an ideal excursion for the hardy types, I will say that sleeping on a glacier in a hut is in fact (not shockingly) quite cold, and fifteen people crammed in and snoring in a small tent does make for a poor sleep cycle.

[TwingleMomFl]

Wow! That is once in a lifetime story! Amazing!

[TwingleMomFl]

I thought I read that DCL uses ERA?