Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Juneau, we rented a car with Turo and drove to Mendenhall Glacier and went to the salmon hatchery. It was much cheaper for us to rent a car for the day than take a taxi or do a planned excursion, and the driving is super easy.

In Ketchikan, we did the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour. It was awesome and SO much fun for the kids.

Our cruise ship also went to Icy Strait Point, and we went on a small whale watching boat, which was incredible. Definitely plan to go whale watching at one of your stops.

We did a Disney excursion that went to these two places in Juneau, along with the Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure. Our kids loved that day. So much fun walking a short trail at Mendenhall, exploring the small "beaches" just off the trail, etc. The hatchery is interesting, and the rainforest (isn't really an "adventure," but it took us through a cool forest and we saw a ton of bald eagles, etc.

We really liked Juneau.

I don't understand all of the folks on cruises who want to get on another boat for a whale watching tour. We saw whales from our ship.

We saw whales from our cruise ship but all from a distance and we were up high b/c cruise ships are tall. On our small whale watching boat, the whales literally swam up to and around the boat. Like, I could nearly have touched the whale if I reached my hand over. We were also able to quickly move to different locations when a pod of orcas was spotted a little ways away. And, we drove past so many adorable sea otters that you would barely have been able to see from the cruise ship. Much different experience than just staying on the cruise ship.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Juneau - Helicopter to Mendenhall. If you’ve ever considered a helicopter or a big splurge, this was worth it to me.

Skagway - we rented a car and drove up to Emerald lake and back, stopping along the way. Easy drive. Similar route as the train and busses go but being able to make our own stops was really nice. My kids favorite stop was to see the sled dogs. We went to the smaller, less touristy facility, not the huge lodge.

Do you remember the name of the smaller dog place?