Wondering about shore excursions on an Alaskan cruise in July...?

Not true at all. If you join up on cruisecritic.com(it's free) you will find someone who puts together PRIVATE shore excursions for your particular cruise. With private ones you not only save money but you will most likely be in a small group of about 6 to 10 people.. Whatever you do, DO NOT book the MT Roberts tram in Juneau. It is very close to where the ship docks. If the weather is good just walk down the road to the tram and get on there. If the weather is lousy then skip it.

On the last 5 cruises weave done, we only booked one excursion through the ship. I've never even had a scare with regard to making it back to the ship in time. A local tour operator told me she didn't do her excursions through the ship because the cruise lines take something like 40% of the costs. I prefer all of my money go to the local economy. On one of my earlier cruises, I paid $80 for a snorkel excursion through the ship. At dinner that night, our table mates said they paid $60 through a local operator and got snorkeling in two spots, some beach time, and an island tour. All I got was snorkeling at one location. They obviously got a ether deal. Local tours also tend to be smaller. That said, I did a $50 snorkel tour on our last cruise through the ship. There were only 12 people, we went to two spots and a beach, the operators were REALLY cool, and it was a bargain. So ship tours aren't always bad. I agree with the other responder, check cruise critic, read up on the ports, and find something. Then vet it through trip advisor.com. i research the hell out of my cruise ports and vacation spots in general. Good research can prevent nasty surprises.

This is to make sure you buy cruise lines excursions from them rather than arrange your own. If you haven't already booked, rad on:- Very first cruise was Princess, Vancouver to Anchorage. Loved it! Tried the big lines for several cruises. However we didn't like the crowds and missing the "real world" you pass by on the way to the next money making tourist stop shopping town, complete with 2+ other cruise ships also docked! There is however an alternative if you want to see the REAL Alaska etc. rather than travelling on a resort ship with thousands of strangers!! Instead of missing everything, or having to pay extra - and still miss most of the real Alaska...... Went on 100 person ship Anchorage to Vancouver. Never saw a big ship! Never stopped at a tourist trap town! No dancing girls or casino. No crowds or queues! Visited back of beyond small towns - bet you have never been to a hammer museum - we have now! We spent most of the time out in the Zodiacs seeing the best show on earth - NATURE! -In front of a glacier having a 10,000 ton calving (mini tsunami moved us all around). -Standing in a salmon spawning stream with the fish swimming through our feet. -Being one side of a river watching bears catching salmon on the other side! -Spending 2 hours drifting with a pod of about 20 humpback whales bubble feeding - something you never expect to see live other than on TV. -Sea otters, Sea lions, humpback breaching about 50ft from us! -Barbecued on a spit of land surrounded by nature/mini icebergs/Eagles! -Drifting with a pod of Orca whales as we approached northern Victoria Island in the Inside Passage. -Total sensory overload all the time etc. etc. -You don't compromise comfort or good food! Yes they are more expensive - but worth it! If you are really adventurous you could even try dog sledging just South of Anchorage at Girwood. We drove down in a rental car, you get helicoptered up on to a glacier where the Alaskan Iditarod husky dogs have their summer camp. A trip round the glacier and playing with the puppies is a very memorable experience! Since then we have travelled the same route in reverse and last July took another small ship staying in the Alaska Glacier National Park area hiking, kayaking, glacier watching and.........it's peak whale watching time in remote areas the big ships cannot get to (and are not allowed) accompanied by one of the Parks rangers. The choice is yours! We never go on big ships now!

In short, it is NOT true. There are plenty of tours and excursions you can plan on your own without going through the cruise line. However, it comes down to a few factors. The biggest is how well you are at planning and what exactly do you want to do. Probably 95% of the things that a cruise line offers you can book on your own, but on the flip side there are many more activities you can do on your own that the cruise line won't offer. A ship led excursion is going to be higher priced(sometimes about double), but for that price you get a few conveniences and guarantees. The biggest is that if anything happens on the excursion the cruise line will do what ever they need to at their expense to get you back to the ship. If you book one on your own, and are not back at the ship when it is time to leave..it leaves without you. However with proper planning and realizing that these tour companies survive on the Cruise industry, this is really a non-issue. Out of all of our cruises we have taken perhaps 2-3 ship led excursions and most of those were just transportation to get us to a point where we can then explore on our own. To get an idea of what is available you can check your cruise lines web site, as well as other travel sites such as cruisecritic.com or tripadvisor.com. Both have many reviews and suggestions as to what you can do.