Our 9 Night Alaska Wonder Trip- July 4-July 16, 2025

[Dizney73]

oh... waiting for these Summer 2025 excursions to open up for booking in Juneau is killing me!!
The Summer Dog Musher excursion is now open with times at 10:00 am and 3:30 pm but I don't know what time to book until I can see the Glacier Walk About and Glacier Trek times!!!

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Oh what great memories from our trip to the glacier in 2005!

I emailed the tour company that we want to book with and they let me know that they will begin bookings in November! So... I popped a reminder in my calendar and I'll start stalking their site again on November 1st!

 

[Dizney73]

Ketchikan Excursion Booked

With our Juneau excursion sitting on the back burner until bookings open in November I moved onto researching fishing excursions in Ketchikan. This was a highlight of our trip in 2005 and we had booked a private Salmon fishing excursion for 2020 which, of course, was cancelled. I started by looking up the tour company that I booked with back in 2020 and lo and behold they are no longer operating as the owned has relocated to the lower 48 and started a new company. Another company, The Alaska Catch, was recommended and they certainly look fantastic! However, after doing some fishing excursion research it seems our interests have changed! One tour stood out to us specifically... Cook Your Catch in the Wilderness Dining Excursion through Baranof Fishing Excursions!

This fishing excursion is a shorter time out on the waters casting reels but in addition to catching bottom fish and salmon we ALSO get to eat our catch! This really spoke to us! The reviews are all glowing and the meal looks and sounds delicious... your catch with a "saffron-infused bouillabaisse with Yukon Gold potatoes, anchored by the fresh taste of your morning catch, and accompanied by fire-baked fresh bread with a garlicky aioli and spicy rouille. And be sure to leave room for our signature dessert - a blueberry and rhubarb cobbler, enjoyed with a steaming mug of coffee or hot chocolate."

I mean... come on this gives us the fishing excursion we desired in Ketchikan AND a great meal!!! Can it get any better than that?

 

[Dizney73]

Backtracking a bit... Vancouver Tour Booked

Little by little we are deciding what we want to get done in each port! We backtracked a bit and booked a pre-cruise tour in Vancouver! We are spending our first two nights at the Hampton Inn at the Vancouver Airport and then we will take the train into Vancouver to stay at the Auberge Vancouver Hotel just a 7 minute walk to Canada Place for our last night pre-cruise. We felt that we would save money on our first 2 nights and then splurge a bit on our last night to allow ease touring the city and walking to the cruise port on departure morning!

When our daughter was college touring we visited Boston and between visiting colleges we did an Underground Donut Tour! It was absolutely awesome! We learned so much about the city's history and ate a whole lot of donuts! We were looking a doing the Underground Donut Tour once again in Vancouver but it seems that our family's touring taste buds have grown and so we decided to book the Vancouver: Gastown Walking Food tour!

In this tour we will- " Sample mouth-watering cuisine in Vancouver's oldest neighborhood, Visit 7 unique restaurants and shops for a taste of local life and Learn about Gastown's colourful history with a fun, storytelling guide."

We love touring and we love food! Hoping this one is a good as the Donut Tour in Boston!

 

[Dizney73]

The Northern Lights!

There hasn't been much to plan at the moment for our Alaska trip... we are just sitting back paying off the excursions that we booked for Ketchikan, Vancouver and Icy Strait Point! The excursion in Juneau that I am eyeing up hasn't become available yet and we still need to explore Victoria at bit as well! But while we are waiting...

We have been to Alaska twice and of course are heading there once again next summer! But my husband and I always say that we will travel to Alaska once again IN THE WINTER when our kids have graduated from college and we are true empty nesters! We want to see the Northern Lights!

Well, we didn't have to travel all the way to Alaska in the winter to see them after all! Last night was our opportunity to see them right here in Eastern Pennsylvania! And at last I see the light.... and they were spectacular!

 

[Dizney73]

Waiting is hard...

I am not so patiently waiting for NorthStar Helicopters to release their excursions for next year! Other companies have opened up their bookings and I am getting nervous as I sit and watch all the time slots slowly filling up. I have my heart set on a glacier excursion of some sort... and there are a few that I am willing to book. The Walkabout, The Trek, The Extended Trek, The Dogsled Adventure... any of these will do. It's just so hard to sit back and stalk a website day after day after day waiting for bookings to open. In all fairness they told me they would be opening in November... but we are getting so close!

I also would be interested in booking a summer dog sled tour but I have to see what I am able to book on the glacier first!
In the meantime I am just making small payments each week on our cruise so that it's not such a hard hit when final payment date rolls around!

 

[Dizney73]

Juneau Glacier Trek AND Summer Musher's Camp FINALLY BOOKED!

I have stalked NorthStar's website for weeks just in case they opened their reservations early! This afternoon I clicked on the website and WOW ... THERE IT WAS staring me in the face! Northstar Trekking opened their excursions for summer of 2025!! Originally I was eyeing up a Sled Dog excursion on a glacier but wasn't thrilled with the limited time that is spent on the glacier ice of this tour... and YES, I want it all! So early this fall we had a family meeting, including our daughter on Face time from college, and we decided to book either the Helicopter Glacier Walkabout Tour OR the Helicopter Glacier Trekking tour ALONG WITH an excursion to the summer dog camp to ride a dog pulled cart and see the PUPPIES!

So today we opened up both tours on the site and compared the start times and decided on the Trek as it allows an extra hour on the glacier and was not much more in cost! After booking the Glacier Trek I hopped on over to the Alaska Shore Excursions and booked a Summer Musher's Camp tour for the afternoon. It's win , win! If our Helicopter Glacier Trek is canceled we can still do the Summer Musher's Camp otherwise we get to do BOTH!



On another note... I just bought discounted gift cards from Sam's to make a payment on the cruise so we will now be on a credit card hiatus for awhile!

 

[Mathmagicland]

Hello! I don’t see any posts yet for your Sitka plans, so thought I’d pass along something I’ve discovered in my research -

The Salty Sitkan offers 2.5-hour metal art classes, lots of options to choose from to work on. It looks like a fun, unique experience.

https://www.saltysitkan.com/

 

[Dizney73]

Hello! I don’t see any posts yet for your Sitka plans, so thought I’d pass along something I’ve discovered in my research -

The Salty Sitkan offers 2.5-hour metal art classes, lots of options to choose from to work on. It looks like a fun, unique experience.

https://www.saltysitkan.com/

That looks very cool! Definitely something different to do while in a port! Thanks so much for the recommendation! I can't envision our daughter using a torch but I'll add it to the list of options for Sitka adventures!
We have been going back and forth with our port decisions for Sitka and Victoria! We will definitely need to make up our minds soon!