Juneau was our 3rd stop, on Friday. A much bigger town, LOL. It was a very rain day, all day.
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We had brought an umbrella, so that helped, and dh also used his new rain jacket I had gotten him for the trip. We needed both! Our excursion was to see the Mendenhall Glacier, via bus, and then a second stop at a gardens place. We had to get off the ship and then walk that long ramp and then over near that red tent, where tour busses parked.
Our bus took us out the a national park near the Mendenhall Glacier. There is a visitors center, which we started at - and of course so did everyone because it was raining. The only complaint was we didn't get enough time at this excursion. Only 1 hour! DH and I decided to go back outside and saw there were 2 trails to hike - one 1 mile roundtrip and the other 2 miles, roundtrip that went over to the waterfall, nearer the glacier. We realized that with now less than an hour left, before we had to be back on our bus, there was no way to do the longer hike, so we opted for the one that was half a mile each way. It took us to a closer lookout point and we grabbed some pics of the glacier and then headed back.
We all got back on the bus and went to some gardens place (I can't recall the name now). It was some private property some guy had been working for years and years to create. Again, still raining out, so not ideal. We did all get on some little tram type busses and they took us through the property. Afterwards we went inside their big greenhouse and got some snacks and hot chocolate, until our bus was ready to leave. I also purchased a Christmas tree ornament. It was an ok excursion, but dh and I thought it would have just been better to be able to spend more time at the glacier park, rather then add this extra excursion in, but it was a package type deal, I guess.
This is an "upside down tree". The guy takes fallen trees and buries them deep and then puts plants and flowers in/on the trees roots. They are kind of neat and quite a few all about the place.
It was at this point that dh was starting to feel sick and when we got back to the pier, he just wanted to go back to our room. We parted with our friends, who went and walked around Juneau just a bit. From then on we were mostly dealing with dh being sick and then me, the next day, Saturday night.
If I ever did the cruise again, I would spend more time researching the excursions and reading reviews on them. None of them are cheap, that's for sure. I just went along with what friend suggested we book, since they had been before. I think the only repeat excursion for them (and they went 10 years ago) was the train ride, so she was guessing as well, as to what would be the best excursions.
I can't believe you had to pay extra for the excursions. Wow!
ReplyDeleteoh yes! some of the excursion options were 3 or 4x the cost of the ones we chose. I'll bet we paid almost as much in excursions (and the massage I paid for) as the cruise cost itself. We did try to purchase them when they were on sale, like 30% off.
DeleteOh I didn't know the excursions were extra? But that makes sense, it is like a plane ride with food and lodging - everything off the boat is your choice. Juneau looks beautiful, I hope I can see Alaska one day!
ReplyDeleteJuneau was neat. I think I recall the tour bus guide saying that it's the only capital city in the united states that you can't get to by road. It's either by air or water
DeleteWe did the glacier excursion without the garden part. It was a hike out there to it, that's for sure. I'll email you a couple of pictures from the further out point.
ReplyDeleteI love that we did the Alaskan cruise. We also did the four day land tour at the end. I'm not 100% certain that I would recommend that latter part to someone just thinking of going. Although the train portion of the land tour was one of my favorite days from the two week trip. With all of the other wonderful things in this country to see, I'm not sure I would do Alaska again any time soon. And yes, the excursions are pricey!
I wish we would have skipped the garden tour and just stayed at the Glacier. I think dh would have really enjoyed one of the dog sled excursions. Two weeks is a long trip!
DeleteWe traveled a day early in case of travel delays, which turned out to have been totally necessary! We spent 10 hours in LA airport - it was such a terrible day of travel. Seven day cruise, four day land tour, then it took SO LONG to get home.
DeleteOur friends had to fly in from Texas, so they flew 2 days before, LOL, just to make sure the had no delays. I'm really glad we were close enough to drive instead of fly
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