Alaska cruise shore excursions?

You don't have to take the shore excursions offered by the ship. There are plenty of other companies offering this sort of thing. People will tell you that if your independent excursion doesn't get back in time, the ship will sail without you, and this can be true, but the excursion operators make their living doing this, and will do everything within their power to get you back on time. All it takes is word of mouth on a few travel boards about missing a ship due to getting back too late, and an operator's business is in jeopardy. Good places to investigate excursions are the "Ports of Call" board on http://boards.cruisecritic.com and TripAdvisor. Too bad your ship isn't stopping in Icy Strait Point (a/k/a Hoonah). I took a whale watching excursion there with a guy named Floyd (his business is called F.I.S.H.E.S.). No more than 6 passengers on a small boat that could go places the huge ship used by the ship's shore excursion could not go. Totally amazing experience.

If you are only really interested in the facilities on the ship then doesn't really matter as they are all pretty similar. We regard the ships as basically a floating hotel/taxi. The (overpriced) excursions are mainly money making exercises for the cruise lines! You will never do any of the following:- 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, complete with 2+ other cruise ships also docked! We rate Juneau, Skafgway and Ketchican this way. Went on 100 person ship Anchorage to Vancouver August 2011. Never saw a big ship! Never stopped at a tourist trap town! No dancing girls or casino. No crowds or queues! Very well educated knowledgeable passengers and 5 expert whale/geology/history/animal+birds guides 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 really moved the Zodiacs 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. Our small ship just drifted along with us for about 5 miles as we were all out on the water in 8 Zodiacs! How many photos of 20 humpbacks surfacing all together 100ft away do you want? -Sea otters, Sea lions, humpback breaching (straight up out of the water and then belly flop down - we all got drowned) what an experiece! -Barbecued on a spit of land surrounded by nature/mini icebergs/Eagles! -Drifting with a pod of resident 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 every cent! Remember on the small ships all these excursions are "free" as they are part of the package and of course with only a few people you can visit places / see things unreachable by big ships. None of this could be be done/seen on big ships with 2000+ passengers! We never go on big ships now - once you have experienced the smalls ship adventure you never go back! If you are really adventurous you could even try dog sledging just South of Anchorage. We drove down in a rental car, you get helicoptered up on to a glacier where the Alaskan Iditorod husky dogs have their summer camp. A trip round the glacier and playing with the puppies is a very memorable experience!