mouseclick1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2000
- Messages
- 2,791
Just back from the July 19th cruise. We were a party of 4, with our 20 and 21 year old sons. Here are the excursions we did:
Takshanuk 4X4 Adventure (Skagway): We woke up to a beautiful day in Skagway! We had a 7am meeting time and were off the ship pretty quickly. Took a shuttle to the near-by ferry. The ferry to Haines was about 45 minutes, and was a very pretty ride. At Haines, you board your bus with your tour guides. We had Ronnie and Angie, who were very funny! At the mountain, we split into 2 groups with 5-6 vehicles in each group. The ride up the mountain is beautiful, though I was a little nervous at times. It probably wouldn't be scary for most people, but I get very nervous along mountain edges! About half way up we stopped for cookies, hot chocolate and a bathroom break, then back into our vehicles. We finally reached our destination, and the view was stunning! We had enough time to walk around, take pictures, and enjoy the view before getting back into our vehicles and heading back down. We stopped once again at the lodge on the way down and had a delicious meal of halibut, chicken, potatoes, and fruit salad. After we returned to the base of the mountain, we got back into the bus and had a little tour of Haines. I think about 90% of the people on the ferry back to Skagway slept the whole way! We had a fantastic time!
Harv and Marv Whale Watching (Juneau): We booked this on our own and reserved the boat for our family of four. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of our entire vacation, and possibly one of the most exciting adventures I have done in my life. We started out by going to the Mendenhall Glacier on our own, and were picked up by Harv and Marv at 11:15. The weather was perfect, and we saw so many whales that we couldn't even count them. We were able to witness bubble feeding and breaching whales. It was beyond breathtaking. Our captain was trying hard to keep his distance from the whales, but there were so many they were everywhere, and some were actually coming up pretty close to our boat. I can't recommend this highly enough - it was as perfect as it could be.
Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles (Ketchikan): We did not plan to do an excursion today since we were supposed to arrive at 1:30. The plan was to simply to explore the town of Ketchikan. We found out that were were going to arrive around 11:00 instead, so I booked this excursion at the last minute once I realized we would have time to do both. I grabbed the excursion booklet at 9am on the morning of Ketchikan, found this excursion and booked it for the 4 of us without much thought. Our meeting time was 1:45 in the Walt Disney Theater. By 1:00 I was totally second guessing my actions, expecially since everyone was tired after 2 days of excursions and nobody really seemed excited about going. We were all very pleasantly surprised and had a lot of fun! After taking a 20 minute bus ride, we boarded a boat to begin our excursion. Our boat captain is the owner of the company and his sons(young adults) join him and act as the hosts. Their beautiful dog joined us as well. They were all so nice, and brought drinks to everyone, put out a nice assortment of cheese, crackers, fruit, and a delicious salmon spread, and even passed out stuffed animals to the children to keep at no extra charge. We saw a ton of eagles and were able to get some really good photos. Lots of places to move around on the boat for viewing. The trip was fully narrated, and the captain pointed out a lot of interesting sights along the way. If you are looking for a low-key excursion that is not overly expensive, this is a nice choice.
We were very pleased with all of our excursion choices and felt they were all worth every penny!
Takshanuk 4X4 Adventure (Skagway): We woke up to a beautiful day in Skagway! We had a 7am meeting time and were off the ship pretty quickly. Took a shuttle to the near-by ferry. The ferry to Haines was about 45 minutes, and was a very pretty ride. At Haines, you board your bus with your tour guides. We had Ronnie and Angie, who were very funny! At the mountain, we split into 2 groups with 5-6 vehicles in each group. The ride up the mountain is beautiful, though I was a little nervous at times. It probably wouldn't be scary for most people, but I get very nervous along mountain edges! About half way up we stopped for cookies, hot chocolate and a bathroom break, then back into our vehicles. We finally reached our destination, and the view was stunning! We had enough time to walk around, take pictures, and enjoy the view before getting back into our vehicles and heading back down. We stopped once again at the lodge on the way down and had a delicious meal of halibut, chicken, potatoes, and fruit salad. After we returned to the base of the mountain, we got back into the bus and had a little tour of Haines. I think about 90% of the people on the ferry back to Skagway slept the whole way! We had a fantastic time!
Harv and Marv Whale Watching (Juneau): We booked this on our own and reserved the boat for our family of four. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of our entire vacation, and possibly one of the most exciting adventures I have done in my life. We started out by going to the Mendenhall Glacier on our own, and were picked up by Harv and Marv at 11:15. The weather was perfect, and we saw so many whales that we couldn't even count them. We were able to witness bubble feeding and breaching whales. It was beyond breathtaking. Our captain was trying hard to keep his distance from the whales, but there were so many they were everywhere, and some were actually coming up pretty close to our boat. I can't recommend this highly enough - it was as perfect as it could be.
Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles (Ketchikan): We did not plan to do an excursion today since we were supposed to arrive at 1:30. The plan was to simply to explore the town of Ketchikan. We found out that were were going to arrive around 11:00 instead, so I booked this excursion at the last minute once I realized we would have time to do both. I grabbed the excursion booklet at 9am on the morning of Ketchikan, found this excursion and booked it for the 4 of us without much thought. Our meeting time was 1:45 in the Walt Disney Theater. By 1:00 I was totally second guessing my actions, expecially since everyone was tired after 2 days of excursions and nobody really seemed excited about going. We were all very pleasantly surprised and had a lot of fun! After taking a 20 minute bus ride, we boarded a boat to begin our excursion. Our boat captain is the owner of the company and his sons(young adults) join him and act as the hosts. Their beautiful dog joined us as well. They were all so nice, and brought drinks to everyone, put out a nice assortment of cheese, crackers, fruit, and a delicious salmon spread, and even passed out stuffed animals to the children to keep at no extra charge. We saw a ton of eagles and were able to get some really good photos. Lots of places to move around on the boat for viewing. The trip was fully narrated, and the captain pointed out a lot of interesting sights along the way. If you are looking for a low-key excursion that is not overly expensive, this is a nice choice.
We were very pleased with all of our excursion choices and felt they were all worth every penny!
I believe someone even asked him who we were when we were at Prospect Point. Gotta love it!
