u/Jakl15

FOMO on Alaskan Cruise

We’re going on the Disney Wonder soon to Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan (like REALLY soon, a few days from now), and I have a mix of buyer’s remorse and FOMO for shore excursions.

This is our first Alaskan cruise (done plenty from Florida) and we’re beyond excited. I don’t believe this will be a once-in-a-lifetime for us.

Currently our plan is for the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway, Juneau we have something through the cruise line of “Mendenhall glacier and whale quest”, and for Ketchikan we didn’t book anything.

My thought was to cancel the Juneau excursion and just rent a car to drive up to the glacier, maybe hike it, and then potentially find a local whale watching boat trip in the afternoon or around lunch. I’m pretty happy with Skagway, unless we’re just missing the mark with it. Ketchikan just didn’t have any excursions that caught our eye.

We are typically a family that just wanders off the boat and never does an excursion, but rather enjoy the local culture ourselves and explore what we can. 2 kiddos in elementary school if that helps the calculus. In 5 cruises we’ve done 1 excursion and we’re really disappointed with it (Baths at Tortola, BVI). Not saying we’d be automatically disappointed in the Alaskan ones, but we usually lean towards self-guided stuff.

What are we missing? Is the railway worth the $650 for the 2 hour ride, or are we better off hiking somewhere? Is $200 normal for a car rental in Juneau or should we cab/bus to the glacier (I’ve heard by the time the bus gets there its already packed)?

Sorry for the somewhat disjointed post. Going through a super busy season in life right now and the cruise planning is adding more stress than excitement.

We’re going on the Disney Wonder soon to Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan (like REALLY soon, a few days from now), and I have a mix of buyer’s remorse and FOMO for shore excursions.

This is our first Alaskan cruise (done plenty from Florida) and we’re beyond excited. I don’t believe this will be a once-in-a-lifetime for us.

Currently our plan is for the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway, Juneau we have something through the cruise line of “Mendenhall glacier and whale quest”, and for Ketchikan we didn’t book anything.

My thought was to cancel the Juneau excursion and just rent a car to drive up to the glacier, maybe hike it, and then potentially find a local whale watching boat trip in the afternoon or around lunch. I’m pretty happy with Skagway, unless we’re just missing the mark with it. Ketchikan just didn’t have any excursions that caught our eye.

We are typically a family that just wanders off the boat and never does an excursion, but rather enjoy the local culture ourselves and explore what we can. 2 kiddos in elementary school if that helps the calculus. In 5 cruises we’ve done 1 excursion and we’re really disappointed with it (Baths at Tortola, BVI). Not saying we’d be automatically disappointed in the Alaskan ones, but we usually lean towards self-guided stuff.

What are we missing? Is the railway worth the $650 for the 2 hour ride, or are we better off hiking somewhere? Is $200 normal for a car rental in Juneau or should we cab/bus to the glacier (I’ve heard by the time the bus gets there its already packed)?

Sorry for the somewhat disjointed post. Going through a super busy season in life right now and the cruise planning is adding more stress than excitement.

Does anyone happen to know the specs (size/pitch/length) for the feet mounting brackets hardware? Mine were rusted after some neglect in storage and trying to fix it up, but can’t check the size accurately since the nut snapped off inside.