Afterward, we took the bus to Mendenhall Glacier and visitor center. After seeing it was so glad we

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I'm hoping to get some advice for an upcoming trip to Alaska. My family (of 4 - with a 20 yr old girl 25 yr old boy) are going on a northbound cruise departing from Vancouver. I have been put in charge of planning our days off of the ship.
A little bit about my family - we enjoy low-moderate level hikes. We are not looking to bike, kayak or fish. I have been whale watching before and found it rather boring. However, I would be excited to see some bears. I would loveeeee to go dog sledding, except I've read that it's pretty disappointing in the summer, unless extended stay hotel you fly to a glacier.
Ideally I would like to divide our day between exploring the town and partaking in a special activity. I am running into two main issues: 1. I am on a budget. I've cruised the Caribbean before and am aware that excursions through the cruise, although convenient, are rather expensive. I'm open to booking things from the vendors off-ship, but I want to ensure they are licensed not scams, and research ahead of time to see which are the most enjoyable and the best bang for your buck. My second issue...there is so much to see in just a few short hours! I've read some trip reports, blogs and looked at the ships excursions to get an idea of the typical tourist attractions. extended stay hotel Although I do like going off the beaten path for most trips, the time factor is limiting here. I have listed below our tour route a list of rough ideas of what to do in each place.
The advice I'm mainly looking for...is it possible extended stay hotel to do this on your own? If so, do you recommend certain transportation? If logistics extended stay hotel are too much of a hassle I'm not completely opposed to booking things through our ship. A rough estimate on how long activities will take. Anything that's a must-see I'm missing out? Also- authentic restaurant suggestions for lunch (can't forget that! Ha. One of us is a vegetarian though, and only one eats fish. Guess that crosses off salmon bake and crab fishing!) Any help advice is greatly appreciated!
-Misty fjords (I've read about sea plane trips here. Due to budget restraints, most helicopter excursions are not possible, however I'm thinking it may be fun to splurge on one extravagant extended stay hotel adventure.)
-White pass railway (having a hard time understanding this one. I'll admit I haven't looked that much into it, but many people have said its gorgeous and some said its way too long. I'm looking at the 3 hr or 4 hr one, but having a hard time justifying spending 1/3 of my time on a train.)
(We will have approximately 1.5 days in Anchorage before our flight home. We made reservations extended stay hotel to rent a car. I haven't looked up things to do here yet, but I did see that Denali Park is rather far and probably not possible in this time frame )
Again we are concerned with trying to do this on the more DIY style, minimum costs incurred, extended stay hotel but we definitely want to make this a trip to remember and would like to see as much as possible, without trying to shove in too much, fine line. Any specific or general tips - greatly appreciated Thank you in advance!!
Juneau: liked Mendenhall Glacier and some of the walking trails around it, Mt. Roberts Tram, the Alaska State Museum, and the State Capitol (although our interest in state capitol buildings may be idiosyncratic).
You are correct that, with only 1.5 days in Anchorage, going to Denali is not the best idea. In Anchorage, the Native Heritage Center (that's not exactly the right name), Art History Museum, Earthquake Park were highlights for us.
We have also done a few Caribbean cruises and did an Alaskan Cruise in Sept. 2011. I found that shore excursions in the Caribbean are quite different than Alaska. In Alaska, we didn't find much price difference between independent operators and Princess. About $50. We traveled with my elderly parents, so convenience was a key to us. For our Sept cruise extended stay hotel I started researching tours in that January and found that most of the popular excursions offered by the independent operators were already booked. We were on a budget also and, the independent operators required full payment upfront with booking while booking with Princess we did have to pay until the cruise was completed. Gave us so much more time to save up. I did notice with Princess that the closer it got to the sailing date, the higher their excursions prices went. About $100 more than when I booked in January.
In Ketchikan we did the Misty Float Plane with Princess. It was OK, but from reviews I thought it would be more. We did not see any wildlife. I was disappointed when we landed on the water we didn't get any awesome photos with the float plane that I had seen in other people's reviews. Afterward, we walked down to Creek Street and also did a little shopping. We stopped extended stay hotel and ate at the Fish Pirates Saloon across extended stay hotel from the cruise pier. It was expensive and not that great.
In Juneau, we did the whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier with Princess. I am so glad we did the whale watching with Princess and not an independemt operator. The Princess boats were double deckers with inside and outside viewing. It was cold and windy and I would not have wanted to subject my parents to outside viewing. The inside part had full floor to ceiling windows and was not crowded. They offered free coffee and the yummiest cocoa I have every had. We have also been whale watching on previous vacations and by far this experience was the best because the whales are so active. Never saw this many whales or that much activity on any other trip. So definitely not boring. We had 2 Nautralists on our boat that gave really great history. I noticed that the independent operator boats were following the Princess boats around.
Afterward, we took the bus to Mendenhall Glacier and visitor center. extended stay hotel After seeing it was so glad we did pay the huge amount of money to walk on the glacier. Didn't seem worth it to us. We ate lunch at the Red Dog Saloon. Yes, its full of tourists, but it's a fun and lively place and the food was quite good.
In Skagway, we did the full day White Pass Railroad by train and bus that included a 15 minute dog sled ride with Chilkoot Charters. The day was very long and exhausting, but so worth it. We went up by train and back down by bus. On the way back, we stopped frequently for photo ops. They offered lunch at Carribou Crossing along with the 15 minute extended stay hotel dog sled ride. The dog sled was on just the typical ground, not snow. Afterward, we ate again at the Red Onion Saloon. Again, another tourist place, but it was fun and the food good.
I did tons of research on excursions at cruisecritic.com . We were very satisfied with the choices we made for our first trip. We went out of Seattle and spent 4 1/2 day there since we hadn't been before. Next time I would definitely extended stay hotel go to Denali. Just can't do everything in one trip.