Alaska excursions - a few questions

[spankswife]

Do all the excursions fill up? We are silver club members, and I’m curious if the Alaska excursions fill up right away? Or which ones are more popular and tend to fill up? Donald gold rush? Hubbard Glacier? Zip line? ATV tour?

Is it possible to do two in one day? Like if one is only 2 hours, can you do two in one port? Or is it logistically impossible? Do you suggest saving time to walk around the towns?

Thanks!!

 

[QueenW]

I am going in two weeks (FINALLY!) and with our sailing there are quite a few options still available. Things that go fast are helicopters (especially those including dog sledding on a glacier), the glacier explorer excursion(s), and Palo brunch lol. You can book multiple in one day but I believe I read that they need to be 90 minutes in between. I have 2 in Skagway with time in between to grab lunch and wander around. I am trying to snag two in Ketchikan but the timing isn't working out and I really want to explore the town as this is my first Alaskan cruise. We are at the end of the season which isn't as popular so if you are going in the prime times more things may sell out and faster.

 

[spankswife]

Thanks, good to know! I’m afraid of helicopters so that takes care of that! Palo I get the desire. For Hubbard glacier I’m not sure if they have an explorer option, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the 90 min suggestion. I saw some for say 2 hours, but we are in port for 6-8 so I wasn’t sure how that worked. Makes sense.

Have a GREAT trip!

 

[Graymoon]

I’m going to 2 weeks also, see ya there QueenW! Palo brunch is the only thing we wanted to do that is booked up. Some excursions are sold out, but you can still book them direct outside of Disney.

We are excited to explore on our own. There’s a nice local company in Scagway called Klondike Electric that rents electric bikes and cars. We are renting a car and driving up to the Yukon instead of doing the train in Scagway.

 

[brent02139]

We are first time cruisers and have no status with DCL, sailing to Alaska in 2 days, we were able to snag a helicopter excursion and others that we wanted. The only ones we couldn’t get was Galcier excursion at Dawes and Palo brunch. Just this week I was able to snag Dawes Glacier excursion.I would say about less than 5 excursions per day were sold out by the time it was our booking window.

 

[MomOTwins]

Thanks, good to know! I’m afraid of helicopters so that takes care of that! Palo I get the desire. For Hubbard glacier I’m not sure if they have an explorer option, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the 90 min suggestion. I saw some for say 2 hours, but we are in port for 6-8 so I wasn’t sure how that worked. Makes sense.

Have a GREAT trip!

I think it depends on the excursion. The reason to leave a lag time between is because things can run late (e.g., traffic jam, someone spent too long at the gift shop and holds up the bus), the dropoff for excursion #1 might be somewhere not close to the pickup for excursion #2 (e.g., the excursion lets off downtown and you have to make your way back on the ship, board and meet in the ship's theater), or something could go wrong (e.g., someone recently posted how they were on the White Pass train and a boulder was on the tracks, so they were stuck on the train for hours while the cleanup crew was sent up the tracks to clear the obstruction).

I think to the extent you can control those variables with your first excursion by picking something pretty low key in terms of risk something could go wrong and strand you far from the ship (e.g., the lumberjack show at ketchikan), and/or leaving a good buffer between them, you'll be fine.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Just got off the Wonder last week. We went excursion heavy, just one in each port, but a long one. I would have liked to see more of Skagway and Ketchikan but I was honestly too tired and just didn't have the energy. Juneau had a nice harbor area (though the Wonder docks further south so you have to take a shuttle bus, though that bus is very frequent), but it seemed more kitchy tourist shops than actual nice old buildings.

Palo brunch I got on board, which I was surprised about. And I think we had a choice of times/dates, so it worked out perfectly for us on the last sea day. We did the Glacier Excursion and it was absolutely amazing!