Alaska what would you do?

[Rambler5678]

Daughter wants to go go gold panning. For our family of four we could take a private tour which includes the Train, Yukon, puppies, and gold panning for $1,800 or go with a semi private tour and do everything except gold panning for a $1,000. We could do gold panning in Juneau for $400 and do whale watching in Icy Straight. We are taking the 9 night cruise.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

I don't know. Private tours are really nice with one on one time with your guide. It would end up being more than splitting the tours up, but would you have more time to do those things on the private tour? I think if the time spent on the private tour would be more and you are not losing time for the other parts of the tour so you can pan for gold, that I would go that route.

 

[dcar1]

Hello
We were on the Alaska cruise last year. My three kids 7,10,13 had multiple opportunities to do gold panning (it seemed to be everywhere in alaska). Each time they did it, it was for 5 minutes usually as they would then get a little bored. Thus would not recommend spending an extra $800 just to do that. One excursion we did in Skagway was an early breakfast for about $35 where they had a camp fire breakfast (made over an open fire - steak, pancakes, eggs, juice and coffee), sang songs (actors in Gold Rush outfits) and ended the session with gold panning at the end. In summary Gold panning is a lot of work for a speckle of a gold nugget usually. The stores in skagway also sell vials with small gold nuggets for less than $5 as well. This is what my children showed their friends (not their small vials from their true gold panning experience filled with a small nugget in murky water with dirt).

 

[Rambler5678]

What time did you leave and get back to the ship by doing the breakfast/gold panning? Really would love to do the train excursion also that why we haven't looked at the Disney gold mining excursion. It gets back around 12 pm and some have said Disney want let you book another excursion until 2 hours after your previous tour returns.

 

[Pens Fan]

$1800 seems quite expensive for four people. We generally go for the private tours as we greatly prefer them, but that seems awful pricey. We are using this company this summer in Skagway http://www.skagwayprivatetours.com. While they do offer suggested tours (including an option with the train), they will pretty much take you anywhere for $125 per hour. I noticed they did mention gold panning as well.

Having done gold panning in the past, I agree with the PP that it's not nearly as much fun as your kids think it's going to be. That being said, if my child had their heart set on it, I'd try to work it in at some point.

 

[Rambler5678]

That's the company that I was referring to for the $1800 for our family of four. That includes a one way train portion that you have to buy from the railroad. Also included in that price is lunch which would be an extra cost plus a larger tip than if we took a semi private tour. The $1,000 semi private tour includes train, lunch and visits the same places. Only big difference is we could go pan for gold at caribou crossing where the other tour does the dog sled rides. I really am going to talk to my daughter about gold panning, buying her a nice necklace will be much cheaper as the previous poster said.

 

[dcar1]

Hello
I don't remember exactly at what time the excursion for the Campfire breakfast left but I believe it was 7 and we were back either by 9 or 9:30

 

[Pens Fan]

Got it. I didn't realize the train would add that much cost. We are just sticking with the car version so it's strictly $125 per hour. We thought about the train, but decided we didn't want to be stuck on a train, liking the flexibility of the car. I didn't realize how much money we were saving!!

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful time in Alaska. You really can't go wrong whatever you end up doing.

 

[joycsk]

We did the tour you describe without the gold panning. BUT it included Emerald Lake, which was something _I_ wanted. We loved it. Drove out to the puppy farm and then trained back.

FWIW, our Favorite excursion HANDS down was Harv and Marv whale watching in Juneau. If you need to go to the glacier in Juneau, they might be able to suggest a different company in Icy Straight. (We did not go that high.) Whatever you do, Do NOT do DCL whale watch. It is a HUGE cattle ship and little ones can see nothing. Have and Marv was a Small bit more $, but worth EVERY penny.

 

[kgwoozle]

I'm not sure if you are spending any time in Vancouver, but the Britannia Mine Tour and Museam had gold panning and you get to go into the old mine in a mining train.

 

[RedSox68]

Honestly, we did gold panning as part of one of our excursions and it was okay -- but not sure if it's worth another $800 to do We did find some gold slivers and it was a lot of work, but I know it is part of the history there and your family may not want to miss it.