Juneau Excursions

[disprincess4ever]

Hi all!

As always I'm turning to you trust worthy Disboards members for advice. I'm trying to book an independent excursion in Alaska. I usually use Disney Excursions, but the one we wanted was full. We wanted to do a 2 hour Glacier trek. So, we went looking for some independent companies. Well, we found the company Disney uses to charter their tour, NorthStar Trekking. We called and found out that Disney had only reserved 20 seats through them! Much to small a quantity in my opinion. Anyway, the main issue was that when booking independently through the company they wanted a full payment immediately over the phone! This did not seem like a great business practice. They weren't even including a contract or any form of confirmation that would prove the transaction. With a lawyer in the family, this seemed a concerning business model.
My question/ proposition is for some past experiences. Is this usual for companies to ask for payment over the phone? Has anyone been able to travel with a company that doesn't charge till day of, provides a contract, or only asks for 10%? Just trying to get an awesome glacier experience will also being a safe consumer. Thanks

 

[artnerds]

NorthStar is a reputable company and has nearly 100% 5-star ratings on TripAdvisor. I would ask them for a confirmation of some kind, but even absent that you will have your credit card bill as proof that you paid them. I would book it.

 

[sharksfinatic17]

We have paid 100% for our Skagway excursion and 50% for our other two excursions. I did get confirmations from all three companies.

 

[glk2009]

We just paid in full for one excursion and received an email confirmation and for our other two excursions, they took a cc# but don't charge until the day of the excursion and received email confirmations from both, as well.

 

[jtba]

we're doing a whale watching and glacier private tour in juneau this summer; paid 50% over the phone when we booked last summer, and will be paying the other 50% in a couple weeks. we paid 100% over the phone for our excursions in skagway and ketchikan.

got email confirmations for all three, one with cancellation policies clearly printed (the others i had to inquire over the phone).