Alaska Shore Excursions Can Pan Out--if You Weigh Options

On a foggy, rainy June Sunday in Juneau, Alaska, a passenger aboard Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas hurried past us down the corridor toward her cabin, shouting: “Reggie, we’ve been canceled! The dogsleds aren’t going!”

Reggie and his companion, who will be refunded or offered a substitute for the canceled excursion, had a choice of 23 shore trips when they selected the Glacier Panorama and Dogsled Ride ($329 per person), one of the most popular Juneau outings and one of the most expensive. Dogsleds can operate in fog, but helicopters getting you there often can’t, so bad weather can spoil your plans.

Rhapsody of the Seas passengers who had chosen the Mt. Roberts scenic tramway, the least expensive shore excursion in Juneau, clutched their $19.75 tickets, which are good any time all day, and waited for the fog to lift and open the view from the top of the mountain.

With the weather in Alaska changing not only from day to day but often from hour to hour, it’s difficult to decide which excursions to purchase ahead of time, but if you wait, your choice could be sold out.

Excursions range from the sedentary and predictable--salmon bakes, gold-panning and motor coach tours--to the active and unusual, such as Carnival’s new Mountain Point Lake snorkeling adventure in Ketchikan, $99, with wetsuits and snorkeling equipment provided. Also on the active side but less expensive are five nature walks costing $27 to $76 per person offered by World Explorer Cruises.

Passengers can sometimes book shore excursions before the cruise --lines send the information along with the cruise tickets--while others must wait until they’re on board. Some excursions limit the number of participants; others may not depart at all if a minimum number of takers fails to sign up.

Shore excursions from the same local operators often vary in price from one cruise line to another, depending on markup and administrative costs. Variations on most of the excursions are also sold on shore, with kiosks lined up on the pier hawking flightseeing departures, salmon bakes and show tickets for Skagway’s Days of ’98 or Ketchikan’s Great Alaskan Lum-berjack Show at prices that may be lower than those offered on board the ships.

This does not necessarily mean it’s a good idea to book the cheaper excursion on shore. When you travel on an all-day excursion or one that could involve an unexpected delay--a boat ride to a distant beach, a seaplane trip to Misty Fjords or a sportfishing, kayaking, cycling or hiking tour--you run the risk of a late return. When you’re with a group from your ship escorted by ship personnel, you’re not likely to be left in port, but if you’re traveling on your own and miss the departure, you’re responsible for paying your way to the next port.

And, as Crystal Harmony’s shore excursions director Susie Whitman points out from her 16 years of experience in Alaska, cruise lines often contract all the helicopter tour allotments for the days they will be in port before the season even begins.

Big ships from Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess and Holland America offer multiple departures of the most popular excursions, allowing passengers to choose the time they prefer. Roger Conden, tour manager for Radisson Seven Seas Mariner, especially recommends helicopter tours with glacier landings and the helicopter and dogsled tour. At the same time, he’s honest about shore activities in which a passenger might do just as well or better on his own.

If you’re on a budget, we’d recommend saving your shore excursion money in Juneau and taking an inexpensive bus or cab ride out to the town’s most famous sight, Mendenhall Glacier, about 10 minutes by car from the cruise docks. Once you’re there, it’s a free walk around the edge of the glacier on marked trails. Glaciers are good in rain or shine, as is the Alaska State Museum on Whittier Street, an easy walk from the docks, with its excellent displays of bald eagles and other Alaskan wildlife. Juneau city maps and walking tours are handed out on all the cruise ships and are available from the information kiosks along the dock.

One easy option, even on a rainy day, is a trolley tour of Juneau for $12, good all day for 12 on-and-off stops; you’ll see the Juneau Trolley Car on the pier. The tour is comparable to the Juneau Highlights motor coach tours ($34 from Royal Caribbean), with the added option of hopping on and off whenever you like.

Our favorite tour in the port of Sitka is free: a walk through the woods among historic totem poles at the Sitka National Historic Site. If you prefer a guided walking tour, you can take the Sitka Historic and Nature Walk ($42 from Radisson Seven Seas Mariner, $45 from Crystal Harmony and $46 from Royal Caribbean tours). It includes a visit to the Bald Eagle Raptor Center, which offers close-up looks at eagles being cared for at the center.

Sitka’s Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest ($96 from Crystal Harmony, $104 from Royal Caribbean and $105 from Seven Seas Mariner) is a three-hour excursion that guarantees you’ll see wildlife from the boat or you get a $40 rebate. We saw lots of sea otters, plus eagles, a distant bear and two Sitka black-tailed deer. This boat trip lets you move between the open air on the top deck and inside shelter with big windows all around.

The popular town of Skagway (500 regular year-round residents plus as many as 5,000 tourists on any given summer day) offers a wide collection of shore excursions. Our recommendation for a splurge is a ride on the historic narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Railway, an international engineering landmark. This re-creation of the rail line that served the Klondike gold field takes you to the summit of White Pass, then returns to Skagway on a three-hour trip that costs $87 on Crystal, $89 on Radisson and Princess and $93 on Royal Caribbean. The scenery is magnificent, the narration is informative and the wooden seats are comfortable. At the summit, the conductor flips all the seats so you face the opposite direction as you ride downhill.

An even more appealing notion if you have time is the steam engine option on the White Pass & Yukon offered by Radisson Seven Seas, $139 for a 41/2-hour journey over the summit and into Fraser, British Columbia (a photo ID is required), then back down to Skagway.

For a good overview of Gold Rush history, there’s a free walking tour of Skagway led by National Park Service rangers several times a day from park headquarters right in town.

A more active Skagway expedition combines a hike along the steep, rocky Chilkoot Trail, used by the gold seekers going to the Klondike, with a float trip along the Taiya River back to the starting point in the ghost town of Dyea ($79 from Radisson, $87 from Crystal, $90 from Royal Caribbean). Although we shy away from white-water rafting, this float trip was slow and easy, and we didn’t get wet.

Every cruise line will offer at least 50 shore excursions in Alaska. Attend the shore excursion lectures on board to learn more about each, and ask the shore excursion staff for tips about making hikes or historical walks on your own. Helicopter tours that land on glaciers are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, but they are around $200 a person, plus a surcharge for passengers over a certain weight. So--no pun intended--weigh your options carefully before signing up.

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Shirley Slater and Harry Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears the first and third week of every month.