Alaskan Cruise Excursions

[hollnagelc]

For those that have been before. What are some of the “must do” excursions? It is just me and my wife going on this cruise. So we are planning on doing quite a few excursions. We can’t start making reservations until June 11, so I’m just trying to get an idea of what we might want to do.

Thanks in advance.

 

[minniebeth]

This thread is older, but towards the end, it gets a little more current. It would be great if it were updated.
However, when we planned our Alaskan cruise, it was such a valuable tool for me to plan excursions. I looked at the current DCL offerings and cross matched them with the posts. Lots of them have changed, but it will give you an idea of what is offered. I then also looked up excursions on TripAdvisor. Read through a lot of trip reports and found things to do outside of Disney run excursions.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/alaska-excursions-post-your-reviews-here.2723087/page-74

Many will tell you that the helicopter/dog experiences are a must-do, and I'm sure those excursions are incredible! But there are a LOT of other amazing things to do as well, you just have to find what interests you. Having it just be a couple's trip, you have a whole different set of options to you, and some you might not want to do since they are geared to families and younger children.

Best wishes planning!

 

[Colbyrsmom]

Juneau - taku lodge and 5 glacier flight

 

[jrabbit]

we only did excursions through the ship. Cruised Alaska twice with DCL.

Some of our favorites
Ketchikan: Zip Lines, Misty Fjords. There are "small boat" excursions that will get you closer to the wildlife (potentially). Talked to people on our last cruise that did those and were ecstatic (different groups of people, different excursions, everyone HAPPY)

Juneau: We are NOT dog people, but we did one of the summer dog camps and LOVED it!! Only takes two of the dogs to pull the cart (empty). They really love it!! In the camp ALL of the dogs are going "Pick Me, Pick Me!!". And we got to hold a puppy


We also have done the 5 Glaciers flight-seeing with lunch at Taku Lodge. Expensive but it was FANTASTIC!!

Skagway: our favorite excursion here was the "canoe to a glacier" (I think it was Davidson Glacier). Involved a boat ride back down the fjord, across to another island, got picked up in a bus for a short ride to the camp, geared up (hip waders up to your chest -"Farmer Johns", raincoat down to your knees, rubber boots (pro tip: wear a couple of pairs of socks - the cold comes up from the bottom of the canoe). Walk a short way to your canoe, paddled out from the dock area until the water was deep enough for the "outboard" and you got up close (but not too close) to a glacier. Was AWESOME!!

We've done the train thing - for us our time would have been better spent doing something else. Yes the scenery is really nice, but not necessarily that much different that where I live.

 

[scgustafson]

For those that have been before. What are some of the “must do” excursions? It is just me and my wife going on this cruise. So we are planning on doing quite a few excursions. We can’t start making reservations until June 11, so I’m just trying to get an idea of what we might want to do.

Thanks in advance.

In Juneau, the helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier to go dog-sledding. Best Port Adventure we have done on all 14 of our DCL cruises, including the Med twice, British Isles, Northern Europe, three different Bajas, both Caribbeans, and both 4 and 7-night Bahamas, each twice.

 

[ajo]

In Juneau, the helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier to go dog-sledding. Best Port Adventure we have done on all 14 of our DCL cruises, including the Med twice, British Isles, Northern Europe, three different Bajas, both Caribbeans, and both 4 and 7-night Bahamas, each twice.

I second the vote for the helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau (we did it without the dog sledding). Easily the best excursion we have ever done!!! It was amazingly beautiful and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Highly recommend it!

 

[Kennywood]

There are several reasons to go to Alaska:

• Snow/Glaciers
• Whales
• Salmon
• Dog Sledding
• Eagles
• Yukon

Once you figure out what most appeals to you, just select the excursions that fit within your interests and budget.

My wife & I will be taking our Alaskan cruise in 2 weeks. The #1 thing we want to see are whales. We're planning excursions around that. Then, we've planned other excursions around our other, less important interests.

 

[Chrispy97]

Loved the Misty Fjord seaplane even if the small plane terrified me (and they put me in the copilot seat up front!) Not sure what else in the world could get me in a seaplane again, but I'm still glad I did it.

When we went in 2018, it was in the middle of a run where the helicopter to the glacier to do dog sledding was cancelled quite a few times due to the conditions up at the glacier. We decided against booking it because we read it was being cancelled a lot, and it was again during our cruise. I'd love to be able to do that, but since it wasn't happening I don't feel like I missed out.

Second the sled dog summer camp in Juneau also. My daughter loved this one, especially since they had puppies who were about 2 weeks old when we arrived who she could hold and snuggle.

My MIL hiked up to the glacier in Juneau while the rest of us did the sled dog summer camp. She is the only hiker of the bunch but she thought it was a really good hike and loved getting up to the glacier.

The boat on the glacier arm day to get off and head up closer to the glacier (Glacier Explorer) was about a 3-4 hour process in all. We stayed on the boat (transfer issues and DD8 on a smaller boat for a few hours were concerns) and were able to get great views and pictures from the Wonder, but I'm certain the view up close was spectacular. I think that fills up pretty quick.

The only one we felt like we missed out on was the whales. We thought we would see some on our ferry trip over from Butchart Gardens (pre-cruise self-booked), and got unlucky. Then we thought we could find an opening when we got back into Vancouver on the back end and couldn't find a tour opening that matched our time frame.

Aside: unless you're on a 9 day I don't think it's a port excursion, but I definitely recommend taking a day trip to Victoria and Butchart gardens on the front or back end of the cruise. We flew out to Victoria and then the whale watching company took our luggage, bused us up to Butchart, then took us on a ferry back over to Vancouver and delivered us our luggage from underneath. They also do day trips that are round trip from Vancouver (ferry, time in Victoria, bus to gardens, ferry back to Vancouver.)

 

[minniebeth]

I guess I should have posted what we did too

We also did the excursion that jrabbit mentioned in Skagway~ It was Glacier Point Wilderness Safari. It was fabulous and took you into the true wilderness of Alaska.
In Juneau, we had Taku Lodge excursion booked but it was cancelled due to weather which we were incredibly disappointed about! We went to Mendenhall Glacier instead. It was great but I know Taku Lodge would have been fantastic. Make sure to have a backup in mind if things don't go as planned.
In Ketchikan we booked privately with Southeast Sea Kayaks for kayaks and we definitely loved this!

We also spent 4 days in Vancouver prior to our cruise and did a lot there, so make sure to take advantage this beautiful city!

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

There are several reasons to go to Alaska:

• Snow/Glaciers
• Whales
• Salmon
• Dog Sledding
• Eagles
• Yukon

Once you figure out what most appeals to you, just select the excursions that fit within your interests and budget.

My wife & I will be taking our Alaskan cruise in 2 weeks. The #1 thing we want to see are whales. We're planning excursions around that. Then, we've planned other excursions around our other, less important interests.

See you onboard soon! Woohoo! OP, I promise to report back about which excursions ended up being worth the time and cost.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Glacier Explorer on glacier day. My husband and I and two young adults. We loved it!

 

[pixiedustedme]

For those that have been before. What are some of the “must do” excursions? It is just me and my wife going on this cruise. So we are planning on doing quite a few excursions. We can’t start making reservations until June 11, so I’m just trying to get an idea of what we might want to do.

Thanks in advance.

In Juneau, we really liked going to Mendenhall Glacier on our own. That was my favorite thing we did off the ship.

 

[jtntx34]

When we went to Alaska, we did not go on DCL, and we booked most of our excursions independently (which I would recommend).

Some excursions will be time of year dependent like bear watching or salmon runs. Others, like whale watching, are not. Helicopter trips with glacier landings have a high probability of cancellations, so always have a back up plan.

To be honest, Alaska is so awesome I cannot see how you could not enjoy it, but I will say that you should get out of the town in Skagway as it’s a very small town and usually has three ships a day which takes away from the authentic feel. This is one consistent complaint I read over and over again from people who did not realize this beforehand. Some let it ruin their experience.


We did salmon fishing in Ketchikan with Nick at Chasin’ Tail Charters (an amazing guide who put us on fish at a time of year when others swear “no one catches fish...too early.”) And we had an amazing time with the eagles!



We went with Beyond Skagway Tours in Skagway who took us into the Yukon on a private tour specifically designed to our interests.



Juneau was our one ship-based excursion which was an underground gold mine which was very interesting. We did this mainly because my mom wanted to gold pan and we needed an accessible excursion. Our guide, John, was a Native Alaskan and a font of knowledge.

The best thing about booking independently is smaller group sizes and being able to really talk to locals and get a feels for what life is like year-round and e actually what kind of people live in the great land.

Enjoy your trip! I cannot say enough how AMAZING Alaska is.

 

[anjuan]

Our Alaska cruise is in less than 3 weeks. Two of our excursions we booked independently- in Skagway the train and dog camp and in Juneau we booked a small whale watching boat.

For Ketchikan we ended up booking through DCL for the Bearing Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour since it was only offered through DCL for that day. I'm Silver and booked it right away and I noticed that it was sold old later the day I booked. It was the only excursion that was sold out for any day at that time. So if you're at all interested in this tour I would recommend booking it early.

 

[curias]

We really enjoyed the excursion from the ship on Glacier day. We go up close to the glacier and waterfalls and wild life. I would do the first tour that leaves at noon. You get amazing shots of the Wonder with the Alaskan backdrop too. We had a seaplane excursion over the glaciers booked but it got cancelled. That would have been amazing. We did the Misty Fjords, but after already doing the earlier excursion, it wasn't as impressive in my opinion. And it was really long. We literally were running back to the ship to make our Lobster dinner, on first dining. We also did the excursion to the Yukon, but we are Canadian and figured we wouldn't go to the Yukon any other time.