I am sailing on The Diamond Princess in Alaska this summer. We are supposed to arrive in Juneau at 6:30 a.m. We have booked an excursion, not through Princess, to the Tracy Arm Fjord, and they are supposed to meet us as close to 7 a.m. as possible. Do the cruise ships in Juneau dock there, or do they do tenders?
We also tried to do a Tracy Arm Fjord cruise. We checked with two different independent operators (not Princess) who advised us that arriving at 6:30am was not sufficient time to get to their boat by 7am and recommended we do not try to do this. Most likely, we'd miss the boat and they require payment up front, even for no shows. You might want to check with your operator again. By the way, which tour operator have you booked with?
I wanted to do this excursion so badly that I actually chartered a small boat to take us there. We are going with an outfit called Harv and Marv's. We checked them out and they seem terrific with a 100% on time return record. What they told us was that because the trip takes a long time, they would go out to the Tracy Arm Fjord faster, and come back more slowly, so we could be sure we got to see everything. We are set to leave with them around 7 a.m. and be back by 3:30 p.m. We actually have space for 6 in the boat, so once we get going on the cruisetour, we will look around for some people who might be interested in sharing the cost.
When the 2 independants (Adventure Bound and Goldbelt) tell you the timing is tight, the only other choices are Harv & Marv's or Alaskan Marine Adventures. Both of the "other companies" operate 6-passenger vessels which are 25' and 35' respectively. When I take a Tracy Arm cruise, I want to go with the folks who have been doing it the longest - even if their business is newer... Harv & Marv's captains practically invented the Tracy Arm day tour, and the owner of Alaskan Marine Adventures grew up taking Capt. Marv's tours as a kid... Oh, the smaller companies can be much more flexible with the departure times and their livelihood depends on getting you back to port in time. Either option will be a bit more expensive since they can't do the volume - 20 to 150 guests on the larger operators' boats.
Uh-oh... I might have to delete THIS signature as well! ;-)
It seems in certain forums the words "you can ask me what I do" in my signature were constrewed as advertising and self-promotion. I'm not sure how that logical leap was made, but it got me banned from a major cruise discussion forum.
(IMO: paid advertisers didn't like my views about many options being available for certain tours.)
I hope the powers that be on THIS particular forum have better logic and reasoning skills. If not, I may have just opened my mouth .... err... typed too much! ;-)
