My first helicopter ride too. Took my wife and five year old...and didn't feel anything but awe the whole trip. If you are scared of heights...well, that is another story ;-)
I felt as safe as you could be in a small air vehicle. Actually, the only time I felt fear was walking on the glacier...and looking down into crevasses a few hundred feet deep!
We are doing Alaska with
DCL in August, but DH and I have previously done land/cruise tours with Princess in 2005 and 2008. That is affecting the excursions we have booked for this 2011 trip.
Skagway: 2005 we did the Whitepass railway and trip into Yukon. Up on a bus, lunch at Carribou Crossing, over to see Emerald Lake, back on the train. Loved the trip! The versions they have now have the added meeting with dog sledding puppies which would be a great addition.
2008 we did the 9 hour tour on our own with taking the train to the end of the line and eating lunch in Bennet. My DH is a big Gold Rush fan and I have to admit, it was very cool to see the area left as it was when the miners were there. Again, it was a bus ride back with lots of stops for pictures. I don't know that this trip is available because the train tracks had washed away awhile ago but if it has been rebuilt, I'd highly recommend booking this through Chilkoot tours.
2011 with DCL: Highly tempted to do the steam train version of the White Pass as it is rarely available. But the chance to see brown bear on the evening Wilderness excursion has won our first pick, especially since we can do the summer dog sled camp with it. If anyone is debating though and this is your one trip to Alaska, definitely don't miss the White Pass railway.
Juneau: 2005 we did the Pilot's Choice helicopter trip. For everyone that can afford it, flying over the glaciers is really something to see. Standing on a glacier is amazing. I agree 100% that the walking on the glacier was much scarier than the helicopter ride to get there and I am normally afraid of heights. The sense of distance is SO messed up on both the helicopter and the glacier. It really is a once in a lifetime excursion. We also did the Fish Hatchery and Mendenhall glacier tour.
2008 we tried to do the dogsledding on a glacier tour but it was canceled due to weather. This is THE most canceled excursion in all of Alaska. Anyone doing a helicopter flight out of Juneau, especially one with dog sledding, needs to have backup plans ready in case of cancellation. Our day was not a loss because we did whale watching with Harv and Marv in the morning. They use a 6 person boat and you get VERY close to the whales. While the boats must stay a certain distance away from the whales, they can shut their engines off and let the whales come close to the boat on their own. We had one whale that made me jump because it surfaced SO close to us. I thought it was going to treat our boat as a toy! We went back to Mendenhall Glacier to see how far it had receded since 2005.
2011 We are doing whale watching and the Mendenhall Glacier again, but going with Disney. We are on the smaller boat though (less than 36 passengers). It sounds like the glacier has receded very far from where it was originally. We want to see how far that is.
Ketchikan: 2005 we did a jet boat trip out of a fishing camp and loved it. It was May, so it was way too early to see bears and salmon. We did the Lumberjack show and thought it was okay, but wouldn't do it again. Kids would love it though.
2008 we flew with Island Wings to Traitor's Cove in late August to watch black bears fishing for salmon. We flew to see Misty Fjords on the way back. I highly recommend any float plane trip to Traitor's Cove. The bears are fun to watch and you are quite close to them. The salmon swimming upstream are also very interesting.
2011 we are doing the float plane tour to Neets Bay to see the bears fishing again. Since we've already been to Traitor's Cove, we picked the Disney excursion to Neets Bay.