Alaska Excursions--post your reviews here!

[meajuly5]

Oh I was wondering if people had done this outside of Disney and if it was cheaper. Thank though!

About 480 per person on average

 

[luv2sleep]

I believe this is the company that our tour was booked thru: http://www.alaskahelimush.com/

Here's a pic from our adventure:

Just for the flight and dog experience it's $504/pp right now. Thanks for the link!

 

[zandlmom]

After doing that excursion, if we had missed it and heard someone talking about I would have been very upset to not have done it. It's a pricey excursion, but one that the memories will last a lifetime and you will have a blast.

eta - our's was by helicopter not plane

Thanks for the advice...that's what I figured!

 

[Tikifamily]

We did the taku lodge float plane tour. It was well worth the money and we had a wonderful time. Take lots of mosquito spray and believe the proprietor about where the bears are sighted. We went on a bear hunt the minute we were finished with lunch, only to find the bears in the front yard of the lodge 40 minutes later. You don't get to walk on the glacier, but the view over is incredible. I even got to be the copilot!

On the topic of whales-we saw dahls porpoise (look like mini orcas) and orcas from the ship several times. We did not see humpbacks, but it was not quite humpback season either. I don't know if anyone on our trip saw them.

 

[Spart02]

We did the taku lodge float plane tour. It was well worth the money and we had a wonderful time. Take lots of mosquito spray and believe the proprietor about where the bears are sighted. We went on a bear hunt the minute we were finished with lunch, only to find the bears in the front yard of the lodge 40 minutes later. You don't get to walk on the glacier, but the view over is incredible. I even got to be the copilot!

On the topic of whales-we saw dahls porpoise (look like mini orcas) and orcas from the ship several times. We did not see humpbacks, but it was not quite humpback season either. I don't know if anyone on our trip saw them.

Thank you! That is helpful!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Ok I finally read through this thread last night. Oh my it's long!

I am wanting to book the Alaska Whales and Science Adventure in Juneau. It is through DCL but run by Gastineau Guiding. Has anyone done this? My kids will be 13 and 16 and they love marine sciences. Is it too kiddish? The boat looks like a small one which is perfect. How long is the stop at the glacier? Is there any hiking near it, or is it just in the distance?

Thanks!

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

I believe this is the company that our tour was booked thru: http://www.alaskahelimush.com/


Here's a pic from our adventure:

Love this picture, what a memory to keep!!! Karen and Ron

 

[mickeyhereicome]

If anyone is interested, we just booked a tour with Beyond Skagway Tours. They have great reviews on tripadvisor. It is $120/hr for the whole car. The have minivans, and SUV and a 10 passenger van. Will post a review upon are return from our May cruise.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Has anyone done flight seeing out of Skagway over Glacier Bay? Mountain Flying Service does it at a reasonable price, and has excellent recommendations on trip advisor. Looks like that might be a way to see Glacier Bay...

 

[Spart02]

From what I'm reading, there is really only one helicopter company who operates out of Skagway - Temsco. Is this correct? For those of you that have used them, what was your experience with them? Do you recommend booking directly through Disney or trying to book separately on our own? If separately, was it hard to find where to meet for the tour? I have a 10 year old, a 5 year old and myself that are considering doing this. We would like to do a helicopter ride and land on a glacier for a little bit, then back. We have other excursions planned for Juneau and Ketchican, so it really needs to be done in Skagway.
Thanks in advance!

 

[CruznLexi]

As an agent try Shore excursion group. Type in the ship and sail date.

 

[Spart02]

As an agent try Shore excursion group. Type in the ship and sail date.

This is cheaper than what is offered through Disney as far as adult rates go, but they don't have child rates listed, so that won't work for me. When I try to put in our info, it quotes me for all adults.

 

[dahuffy]

 

[goeva]

I believe this is the company that our tour was booked thru: http://www.alaskahelimush.com/


Here's a pic from our adventure:

Beautiful.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[meajuly5]

We are also booked with Family Air Tours for our Ketchikan excursion! We booked the Anan Creek Bear Observatory tour with the Misty Fjords add-on http://familyairtours.com/page2_Anan.html. They also have a glacier add on, but we are doing a glacier in Juneau so we opted for Misty Fjords.

We are so excited to see the bears up close and personal!! I like, too, that they use a 4 passenger floatplane, so our family of 4 will have a private air tour. Combine that with the fact that there are a limited number of permits the Forest Service issues per day for the Bear Observatory. I'm glad we were able to get in on our Ketchikan port day.

Has anyone who has already cruised been to Anan Creek Bear



Observatory? Any reviews/advice on the excursion?

How was this tour! We have the same one booked!

 

[jackieinJuneau]

From what I'm reading, there is really only one helicopter company who operates out of Skagway - Temsco. Is this correct? For those of you that have used them, what was your experience with them? Do you recommend booking directly through Disney or trying to book separately on our own? If separately, was it hard to find where to meet for the tour? I have a 10 year old, a 5 year old and myself that are considering doing this. We would like to do a helicopter ride and land on a glacier for a little bit, then back. We have other excursions planned for Juneau and Ketchican, so it really needs to be done in Skagway.
Thanks in advance!

If a helicopter tour is a must do for you I would book it early in the trip. Almost every port has a helicopter tour that goes over glaciers and honestly it’s beautiful but one glacier from above looks a lot like the next so which tour you take doesn't matter. I recommend booking early in your trip because it is not uncommon for the helicopters to not be able to fly if the cloud cover is to low or the winds to high. Winds we don't have an issue with in the summer so much but low clouds cancel a lot of tours. If you book at the front of the trip and get weathered out, you get your money back and can try calling to the next port and booking again. I volunteer in the information booths here in Juneau in the summer and we would help people do this when the weather was bad. All the fight tour companies are tightly regulated and I have flown with most of them and had nothing but good flights.

 

[jenna7394]

Has anyone done the Hunting for Halibut excursion in Ketchikan? My husband would love for us to do this one but I have yet to find any outside information on it. Also, we would be willing to book outside of DCL if that would be recommended. I can find information on salmon fishing but not a lot on halibut. We are cruising June 3, 2013 and I would love to confirm what excursions we will be doing soon! Any input would be helpful! Thanks!

 

[schmity]

We're doing dogsledding & -glacier-flightseeing in Skagway.
Whale watching with harv & marv in Juneau
Kayaking (some of us kayak fishing) in Ketchikan.
I have an embarrassing question about the helicopter excursions. Do they weigh you? Is it private or a big ole scale in front of everyone? All of us are well under the 250# limit, but still don't need the stress!
Also, how cold was it dogsledding? We're on the June 14th cruise. Looks like the temperatures keep creeping up in the ports. Don't know about on the glaciers though.

How was the kayaking in Ketchikan. We just signed up for it. What time of year did you go?

TIA

 

[meajuly5]

Has anyone done the Hunting for Halibut excursion in Ketchikan? My husband would love for us to do this one but I have yet to find any outside information on it. Also, we would be willing to book outside of DCL if that would be recommended. I can find information on salmon fishing but not a lot on halibut. We are cruising June 3, 2013 and I would love to confirm what excursions we will be doing soon! Any input would be helpful! Thanks!

I think I saw an excursion like this on shore trips or shore excursions. Com

 

[Hanover]

Did anyone do 2 DCL excursions in one day? We did 2 DCL excursions in one day on the Baltic cruise a couple of times, and it worked out because there was a decent amount of time between them. We are looking at doing 2 in Skagway (gold panning/salmon bake and White Pass Railway/Suspension Bridge) and according to times I've seen on another thread, we'd only have between 15 and 45 minutes between the 2 different combinations of the excursions offered. I know times can change between now and when we go in 2014, I was just trying to figure out if it's doable.