Alaskan Cruise - Things to do in port?

[jwwaldre]

Hi!

I've booked an Alaskan cruise for this summer for my Wife and 4 year-old son and we're trying to figure out family friendly things to do off the ship (other than the predefined excursions).

One thought would be to go sledding/tubing, but I'm not sure if there is anything close enough at any of the ports to make it possible.

Any input would be great! There are plenty of opinions out there on the tropical destinations, but I haven't seen much input on Alaska (including in the unofficial guide books).

 

[cruisehopeful]

I never saw anything for sledding or tubing.

Family friendly things to do in ports vary greatly depending on what you like to do. Skagway is a tourist shopping town and has a museum. I recommend going on the train. You can get less expensive train tickets by buying directly through the train station vs. booking through DCL. I think there was a small playground in town.

Juneau has a tramway that goes up a mountain. When you get to the top, you can do various hiking trails, there's a restaurant a store and a bald eagle you can get a close view of. You can take a bus to Mendenhall Glacier and walk to a waterfall and visit the nature center. Both of those can be booked on a walked up basis. No need to book via the ship. Not sure what else is in town that would be considered fun for families. It seems like most of these ports talk about the old bars/prostitution places.

Ketchikan has a lumber jack show that people seem to like. It is only a couple blocks walk from the ship. There is also a nature preserve if you want to see animals up close (they are confined). There are a couple totem pole parks, but you need transport to get to those. The town is full of stores with salespeople who come out of their stores and ask you to come inside. I also saw a Duck Tour bus there. That is a like a bus that turns into a boat and goes into the water.

 

[amberwc]

I think the excursions listed on the website give you a pretty good idea of what each port has to offer, then you can book how you want. I will say that the Liarsville Gold Camp excursion in Skagway was a blast. It had character experiences (see profile pic). Panning for gold with Pluto was so much fun. It's one of the few character excursions, and those do tend to sell out quickly.

 

[JMommyof3]

I think the excursions listed on the website give you a pretty good idea of what each port has to offer, then you can book how you want. I will say that the Liarsville Gold Camp excursion in Skagway was a blast. It had character experiences (see profile pic). Panning for gold with Pluto was so much fun. It's one of the few character excursions, and those do tend to sell out quickly.

We just booked for Aug 2018 (yes, I'm a crazy planner) and I was looking at that excursion. My kids will be 11, 8, 5 at the time. Do you think they will enjoy it?

 

[amberwc]

We all enjoyed it. The lunch was good, and the panning for gold was fun. The adults stayed at it longer than the kids -- I stunk at it and didn't get any, but I was also more distracted by taking pictures. It did feel a little rushed, but I would do it again.

 

[Geomom]

Skagway has the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park that you can walk to. We only went into the main building to turn in the ranger forms the kids filled out at home as we didn't have much time after a full day excursion (Chilkoot Charters bus up to the Yukon/train back with dogcart ride)--but they have a Junior Ranger activity center for kids in 1 building in town, as well as a playground nearby--they look like fun! https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/kidsyouth/families.htm

Juneau--I'd get to the Mendenhall Glacier somehow (we did the Glacier Shuttle buses for $30/person roundtrip)--there is a visitor center there, and they had junior ranger activities going on for kids while we were there--a tent set up outside. My older kids both earned their Tongass National Forest junior ranger badges.

Ketchikan--we did the DCL Saxman Native VIllage and Lumberjack Show. I'd recommend the lumberjack show part as it's fun--but if your child doesn't like the sound of chainsaws, I'd skip it! (It is in walking distance of the ship.) You can easily walk around the town just to look at things--make sure you walk far enough to walk around Creek Street just to take pics of the neat looking buildings. There are a few Totems in walking distance.

As far as sledding/tubing, there likely won't be any snow in the towns you visit. If you go in May/early June, you'll probably see snow in the mountains but that'll be about it. We went in August and saw no snow, but did get to see glaciers on both 'Tracy Arm' day on the ship, and from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau.

 

[DisSarahK]

In Ketchikan we booked the lumberjack show independent of DCL--same show, seated right next to DCL guests, and we paid less. I'm not sure how it works now, but I appreciated paying less money than the official excursion! It was an easy walk from the ship and my kiddos LOVED the show. After the show we walked around the town and did sightseeing that was important to our family (my mom lived in the town when she was a girl, so we wanted to see her old house, etc.)

In Skagway we rented a car and drove to the Yukon Territory using a guide I purchased off the internet--it is a pretty popular guide. The guide described *everything* we drove by...all the abandoned gold mines, etc. It was a fabulous and gorgeous drive. This was my husband's favorite excursion to date. We stopped wherever we wanted to stop. My daughter still remembers skipping rocks on an Alaskan lake! We self-booked a dog-sledding ride in the Yukon Territory and that was a lot of fun. Our driver was an Iditarod racer so she told us stories about racing. We had to stop for her sled dogs to go in wading pools because it was "warm" on the day we were there and her dogs are used to racing in snow! My children were amazed by that!

 

[GoofyLovingFamily]

We did the same. lumberjack show in Ketchikan and rental car in Skagway with the internet guide. It was the best decision ever.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hi!

I've booked an Alaskan cruise for this summer for my Wife and 4 year-old son and we're trying to figure out family friendly things to do off the ship (other than the predefined excursions).

One thought would be to go sledding/tubing, but I'm not sure if there is anything close enough at any of the ports to make it possible.

Any input would be great! There are plenty of opinions out there on the tropical destinations, but I haven't seen much input on Alaska (including in the unofficial guide books).

Have you considered dog sledding? Our kids were 12 & 15 at the time of our Alaskan cruise (late August) and we wanted to do this so bad but it was kind of too expensive. It's done at higher elevations I believe so it's still on snow. I would think a 4 yr old would enjoy it too!

We ended up doing the train in Skagway, taking a helicopter up onto Mendenhall Glacier for a hike in Juneau, and in Ketchikan we took a sea plane through Misty Fjords in the am then did the Lumberjack show in the pm.
Dh & the boys also did some ziplining trip over waterfalls in Skagway without me.

I'm not suggesting that all of these would be age-appropriate for your family but just saying what we did. I booked the helicopter & sea plane independently; the rest through DCL. We had $1100 in OBCs to use up or we would have booked everything independently.

For anyone with a 10-12 year old, remember that Disney considers a 10 yr old an adult and charges adult prices. Most vendors/tour operators do not of course. So with having a 12 yr old on our Alaskan cruise, booking independently saved us hundreds of $$$.

Also the helicopter onto the glacier excursion (Temsco) and the Misty Fjords sea plane (Misty Fjords Air) both allowed a pretty decent discount if we paid in full by the end of Feb or March. 20% IIRC.
We could cancel with full refund up until 48 hrs prior and if for some reason the ship couldn't dock in port, we would be refunded.
We had no intentions of changing our minds and we included the cost of those excursions with our trip insurance in case of last minute cruise cancellation.

No regrets here except that if we ever sail Alaska again, it will be hard to top that amazing trip.

 

[mgcharleston]

We did the DCL Alaska cruise last July. My DS was 3 1/2 at the time. We had an absolute blast! In Skagway, we did the DCL excursion where you pan for gold in Liarsville with the characters. The show was very cheesy but my son loved panning for gold with Goofy. We got some great pictures and that made it worth it. In Ketchikan, I had booked a private half day salmon fishing excursion with GoFish Ketchikan. The captain was great and totally cool about having a 3yo on board. We just brought our own lifejacket. In Juneau, I booked a 4 hour private whale watching excursion with Rum Runner charters. Again, I can't say enough about the captain and first mate. Our son absolutely loved it. But the absolute highlight of our trip was the excursion to Taku Lodge we booked thru DCL. It was our first floatplane ride and hopefully not our last! I was very hesitant about booking it but after receiving encouragement from DisBoards I went for it and I am so glad I did! Everyone has their own seat on the plane, Take Lodge is AMAZING and the food is the best. Like I said, the highlight of our trip and one of the best excursions I have ever done- hands down!

 

[Disneyteachers]

We were there in August last year and we turned it into a two week trip to the west coast so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on excursions. The thought of 400-500/pp for 4 of us seemed nuts (to me!)

In Juneau we took the glacier shuttle to Mendehall and really took our time and then went up the Mt. Roberts Tramway and hiked on the mountain.

I'm Skagway we hiked to Smugglers Cove and Yakatunia Pt (accessible from the port.)

Ketchikan would've been our only real excursion on zodiac boats but it was too windy and the tour was called off so we ended up at the lumberjack show and explored the town.

With the exception of Ketchikan (which was beyond our control) I was pleased with what we did and spent. I'm not one for canned shows, nor do I like large group escorted activities and with two kids I like the ability to be independent and flexible.

 

[lishie]

We used Chilkoot Tours in Skagway, we had a small group of 12 people. They did a drive through the Yukon, stopping at a few cute towns. Then we went to a museum/sled dog camp and did a dog sled ride, but not on snow. My boys loved that. Then we took the train back.

We did a private whale watching trip in Juneau, then took a trip to the glacier, which was wonderful.

We did Kechikan on our own and did their museum, and walked to salmon run.