Alaska Tour Times questions

[niklynn1]

We sail to Alaska in July. I have two questions as I'm trying to plan for port adventures:
1. We are Silver members. Are most of the port adventures booked up by the time the Silver window opens?
2. Is there a way to know the time frames of the DCL excursions? We are a family of 6 adults and one baby. I was wondering if it's possible for 2 people to do a tour that's listed last as 2-2.5 hours and then make it back to watch the baby on the ship and still have time for the other 2 to do an excursion?

Thanks for any insights...

 

[daedelus]

We did Alaska when we were silver and had no issues booking excursions. Individual results may vary, consult your physician, batteries not included... LOL.

When you book the excursion, you will see the start time for each and the duration. So it is technically possible for your scenario to work - keep in mind that you don't want to cut it too close as there could be delays in getting back for group 1 to take over from group 2, etc. That, of course, assumes that you can find excursions that start late enough to make that doable.

When in doubt, call DCL and ask them to help you plan that. Port Adventures desk on board can help as well, but by that point it's probably too late.

 

[auntlynne]

 

[kcool]

We are silver and had no issues getting excursions for our May trip. We even were able to get the glacier explorer boat with a choice of 2 times. We also got Palo brunch for 5.

 

[soniam]

We didn't have any issues for our upcoming June 7 night cruise for silver, except that the dogsled/glacier/helicopter excursion for Skagway was sold out before silver. I knew this from my cruise's social media group and was able to book the same thing outside. It's only 2 hours and early in the day, so I wasn't concerned about being back to the ship late, especially since Skagway is a long day. I would join the social media group for your cruise and ask someone with a higher tier if specific excursions are available and the times. This has occurred on our last cruise and this cruise. Is your cruise a 7 night? The 9 night is more special and could book up sooner due to more platinum passengers.

 

[niklynn1]

We are silver and had no issues getting excursions for our May trip. We even were able to get the glacier explorer boat with a choice of 2 times. We also got Palo brunch for 5.

I'm glad to hear that. I hope we have the same luck. We are traveling with my son and daughter, their spouses, and our first grandbaby who will be 20 months.

We hope to also be able to schedule Palo brunch at 2 different times or days so that 2 of us can stay with the baby while 4 brunch, and then the other 2 can brunch at a different time.

My daughter and her husband were hoping to the the "rib boat" tour, but obviously cant take the baby. I am trying to figure out if they can do that while we stay back with the baby, and then my husband and I still have time to do a tour before or after theirs.

Complicated.

 

[bigAWL]

Is it the rib boat tour in Skagway? It looks like all the Alaska sailings this July stop in Skagway for over 12 hours. I have to think there will be options for you to double up. Good advice to join a group with Platinum/Gold cruisers to ask them what excursions and times are available when their booking windows open.

 

[Kesohio63]

On our Alaska cruise in 2017, one of our excursions had an issue with the whale watching boat. They had to take us off the original boat and put us on another one, which meant an extra trip to the dock and a delay of the actual whale watching portion of our excursion. We got back to the ship on time, but just barely (this was a mid-day/afternoon excursion in Juneau). They were literally shutting down the metal detectors behind us as we came on board. If we hadn't booked the excursion through DCL, I would have been very nervous! All this just to say that you want to make sure you have a comfortable cushion of time between excursions because you don't know what might cause a delay in getting back.

 

[blabbermouth]

I think it's possible, we're going in May and are doing the train and suspension bridge in Skagway and it doesn't start until 12:30 when our dock time is 7:15.

Also, I'm a first timer and I think the only things sold out were the dog sledding excursions when I was able to book!