Alaskan dog sledding tour

[Tiffins]

Hello! Ok I did a few cruises here and there but this will be my first Disney cruise. I'm so excited! So me and my husband booked a Alaskan cruise May 25th of 2020. I was reading lots of tips and forums about Disney cruises but I wanted to see what other people thought of this. So me and my husband really want to do the dog sledding in Skaway. Should that be done later in the day? Also I herd it can be canceled for the weather. In that case should we leave Juneau(that is the next day) port day open in case they need to rebook for that day? Lets say we do get to do the dog sledding in Skaway once back on the ship can we go to Port Adventures and book something in Juneau? Dog sledding is the one tour I really wanted to do and so hopefully everything goes well. By reading up on things I'm pretty sure they do have dog sledding offered at the end of May. Also since we are first time Disney cruisers we are the last to pick our tours. Does the dog sledding tours sell out pretty quickly? I know it is a possible to book with other people then Disney but I would rather book with Disney. if they do sell out I can keep checking the website since it was 3 days before leaving people cancel some tours since that is the cut off date for canceling tours.

 

[mrsxsparrow]

I can't answer many of your questions, but I'm 54 days out from an Alaskan cruise and none of the dog sledding Port Adventures are sold out. Obviously, things are different for each cruise, and I haven't checked to see how many spots are open on each one, but I'm assuming you'd be able to find something that fits, even as a first time DCL cruiser!

 

[EllinK]

We were like you -- first time cruisers and the only tour we were 100% set on was helicopter/dog sledding. I was afraid it would sell out so booked it independently with Temsco. I chose Skagway with Juneau as a backup in case of cancellation. The Temsco office was less than a 1 minute walk from the cruise ship. The tour was absolutely astonishing. $$$ but worth every penny.

 

[jnsma]

We did DCL Alaska last year and the helicopter dog sled was the one thing I wanted to do. We booked it in Skagway and it got cancelled because of the weather, wind and fog in early August so it can happen anytime of the year. It was iffy all day. The early morning flights got off but the weather was not great. I think we were scheduled at 11 (or 1). We actually made it to the meet up location when we got the news. They sent us directly to Port Adventures to see if there was a back up that we wanted to do. There was nothing really that we wanted to do in Skagway so we walked around the town that afternoon. The helicopter dog sled excursions in Juneau were sold out (I believe but my son actually got pretty nervous about doing the helicopters after seeing them). Instead we booked non-helicopter dog sled excursion where they pull you on a cart. We already had excursions booked in Juneau but let us cancel those and rebook the dog sled because of the cancelation. I have to say the rest of my family was just as happy with that as you got dog time as well as the ride. I would have preferred the helicopter and glacier version.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

We are on the first May Alaska cruise this year, and booked the heli dogsled tour independently for the afternoon in Skagway. We also booked a green jeep self-guided tour for the morning. We won't have enough time to drive all the way to Emerald Lake but I wanted to have done something that day in case the heli tour can't go because of weather. We will drive ourselves to the gold panning place and the kids will get to play with sled dog puppies, so they'll get some time with the dogs either way. But if the heli tour doesn't go we will probably not rebook for Juneau as we have a whale watching tour there and I also really want to go spend some time at Mendenhall Glacier. This is our first-ever cruise and we booked ALL of our excursions independently except for the Glacier Explorer on Endicott Arm day which can only be done through DCL.

 

[jeffbeardreams]

There's some general thought that the weather tends to improve a bit as the day goes on, which would make the sled dog camp adventure less likely to be negatively impacted by weather if you do it in the afternoon. When my wife and I did that excursion through Disney on our last Alaska cruise (late July 2015), we asked the folks at the helicopter pad about that and they told is it was touch and go regardless of time of day. The weather comes and goes and it's just not predictable enough to make that kind of decision months and months in advance. So ... pick a time and roll with it.

 

[Jkpark]

I would leave Juneau open since that is the one must-do excursion for you. In Juneau, there are so many different tours and when you take the shuttle to the main excursion pick up there are plenty of vendors to book with once there if Disney can't accommodate you. You can also just head to Mendenhall and explore on your own. We were on the late May cruise last summer and booked directly with Temsco in Skagway and had an earlier time (9 am I think). We had great weather so no problems - but of course it greatly varies.

 

[swooshbear]

On our first Alaskan cruise, this was a must do for us as well. Unfortunately weather would not cooperate and it was cancelled, no one was flying that day due to clouds and rain.

For our second cruise, I booked the excursion for two different stops and kept an eye on the weather leading up to the cruise. Weather in Alaska is unpredictable so I rolled the dice and went with Juneau, cancelling the other one before the deadline. Luckily the weather cooperated but there was a power outage in Juneau that day so our flight was a little delayed.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

I don't want to be a downer to anyone's trips, so just read this for the information that it is.

My husband was born and raised in Alaska - Anchorage. On our many, many annual Alaska trips I've always wanted to go to see the puppies and dogs of the dog sledding teams and my husband is more than vehemently opposed to it. He states that often times those dogs are not truly treated humanely and we are not to contribute to that in any way, shape or form -- including monetarily.