Alaska Excursion Questions - Glacier/Tramway & CrabFest

jlynch924

Mousin' Around
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Has anyone done the Mendenhall Glacier & Mt Roberts Tramway excursion in Juneau and/or the Wilderness Explortion & Crab Fest in Ketchikan?

What are thoughts on those excursions...worth it? Fun? Suggest something else? Participants would be my husband and myself plus DD (15).
 
Juneau--the glacier/tramway you can easily do on your own. I would especially recommend that for the Mt. Roberts Tramway part so you can decide that day based upon the weather. If it's foggy/rainy, you won't see much on the Tramway/from the top. Disney has a free shuttle bus that takes you from the port to the start of town--which is right where the Tramway is. At the location where the shuttle drops you off there are also lots of tour companies. We were only planning to do the glacier and some shopping after--so we booked the Glacier Express shuttle bus through Juneautours in advance through their website--but we could have just bought it that day. In 2016, it was $30/person roundtrip--the buses left every 1/2 hr on the hour--so you could take any bus back that you wanted if there was room on it--just be mindful of the times so that you get back to the ship early enough. (The bus picked us up in the same area that the Disney shuttle left us in town.)

As far as the Mendenhall Glacier--they do not allow you to bring any food or flavored beverages due to the bear population. At the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center we picked up junior ranger packets for our kids (Tongass National Forest)--which they worked on. We did the walk to Nugget Falls, toured through the visitor center, etc.

I can't comment on that Ketchikan excursion. We did the Disney 'Saxman Native Village and Lumberjack Show' one--which we enjoyed. The Lumberjack show is campy, but DD16 loved it. The Lumberjack show is actually in walking distance of the ship's berth in Ketchikan--so that's another thing that could easily be booked on your own. We did like the combo of things on our excursion--learn some stuff about the native Tlingit tribe/totem poles, and then the fun Lumberjack show--with free time in between which we used to just walk around Creek Street.
 
The tram is within walking distance of the ship, and it's just a few feet away from Tracy's Crab Shack, which is marvelous.
 
Juneau - agree with the comment about Tracy's Crab Shack - love that place.

In Ketchikan, we've done the Crab Fest twice. The first time it started with a hike thru a rainforest (where we saw a bear feeding on salmon) and the second trip was a boat ride. Both times ended at George Inlet Lodge for the all-you-can-eat crab feast. Excellent!!!!!! It truly is all you can eat during a one hour meal - they kept coming around piling more crab on your plates. The meal ends with cheesecake with fresh wild blueberries. We will do this excursion every time we are in Ketchikan.
 


In Skagway we did the Helicopter to walk on the Glacier tour. Loved it. It can be booked through Disney or directly with the company and it is literally across the walkway from the cruise ship. In Juneau we did the Glacier Flight Tour to Taku Glacier Lodge for lunch. We loved it. A great chance you will see bears here. We did. In Ketchikan we went off on our own and saw the town and hiked up into the Rainforest. One tour you have to book through Disney is if they offer the boat tour on your Tracy Arm Fjords Day. We did this and loved it. You transfer to a smaller boat right off the Wonder, then tour the Fjords where you can get much closer to things, have way less of a crowd, saw awesome wildlife, got right up to the glacier and saw it calving, got great pictures of the Wonder, and all this with no crowds. It was the best way to spend half that day. Didn't even miss not having a Verandah for that day. We had the best views.
 

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