Alaska - ship excursions vs. independent

[Yokelridesagain]

Have been to Alaska with DCL twice. On both occasions, we booked the White Pass railway through DCL--the discount via independent booking (less than $50, IIRC) was not enough to justify the extra hassle to me. YMMV--check prices. For the rest (helicopter/whale watching/Mendenhall glacier in Juneau, float plane in Ketchikan), booking outside DCL both saved a lot of money and often got us on better excursions with less people.

I wouldn't worry about being left behind--even the largest of the Alaskan ports (Juneau) is relatively small and the flight operators are very risk averse. Flights get cancelled for fog all the time. Book with a reputable company with decent reviews and I would have no worries.

 

[SundayGirl]

We tend to cruise as a large group (at least 12) and have only ever done independent excursions. In our experience, the excursion providers are experienced dealing with cruise passengers and they know the score about getting us back in time.

Last month at Victoria (last stop on our 9 night Alaskan cruise), we joined a whale watching tour on a whim when we arrived and were let off the boat first as we were very clear about when we needed to be back. We were on the second to last shuttle headed back to the ship.

Actually for our Alaskan cruise, most of the excursions we did were arranged when we got in port - we saw what was on offer and got carried away. We had only booked the Mendenhall rafting at Juneau with Alaska Shore Tours 1 month prior to sailing... If you can handle the spontaneity and the risk of some popular tours selling out beforehand, you can get really good discounts by booking then and there when you get to the port - for us this was the Misty Fjords seaplane tour at Ketchikan.

We have no hesitation in continuing to arrange our own excursions - the cost is almost always lower than what's offered via DCL.

 

[aggiedog]

We've haven't been to Alaska, but our cruises to the Med, the Baltic, and French Polynesia we did non-cruise ship excursions all but twice. They are almost always cheaper, or the same price but for a longer tour, smaller group, etc. We travel in a multigenerational family group of 8. With 11, you may be able to get fully private tours for some things. The one thing I wouldn't do with a group of 11 is wait to see what you wanted to do once you got to the pier. Just thinking about trying to corral everyone to make a decision gives me hives. If you are the main planner, I'd pick 2 or 3 things in each port months ahead of time, and get the group to vote on them, set up the winning excursion in each port, and just get everyone to the meeting destination the day of. Anyone who really doesn't want to do something is always able to bow out before you make the reservations.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

We booked independently. This allowed our group much more flexibility and the ability to book more than one excursion in each port. We worked with M&M Tours and told them what excursions part or all of our group wanted to do in each port and M&M worked directly with the vendors to schedule them in a way that allowed us to do everything we requested. The only exception was our private whale watch tour that we booked separately. DCL won't let you book multiple excursions unless there's at least 1.5 or 2 hours between them (I think that's the required gap). That's a lot of wasted time, IMO, and would have limited our options significantly. Happy planning, whatever route you choose. Our Alaska sailing was amazing. It lived up to the very high expectations of those of us who dreamed of visiting and far exceeded the expectations of those of us who went reluctantly. An absolutely fantastic trip!

 

[anjuan]

We booked 2 out of 3 of our excursions independently and had no issues at all. The only one that we booked through DCL was the Bearing Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour because it wasn't offered independently. The tour company did offer it independently on other dates, but it appeared that DCL had purchased all of the seats for the day we were in port so it was the only option.