Vacation Cruise (Wrangell, Haines, Metlakatla: living, costs, shops)

[turkeytrot]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

You can always catch the fast ferry from Skagway to Haines, check out the Hammer Museum and the Sheldon Museum, or just walk around town. Maybe take a walking tour of the old fort, or a ride out to one of the rivers to see some eagles or maybe a bear. The fast ferry runs something like a dozen times a day in the summer, and brings people over for whitewater rafting trips and such. Seeing as your train ride is in the afternoon, you could probably swing it time-wise, the ride each way is only about a half-hour, forty minutes, something like that. There's a lot more to do around here of course, but it's hard to fit it in with only half a day to work with. Unlike Skagway, Haines is still a real town where real people can still live.

Skagway is basically an Alaska-flavored theme park, and the crowds of tourists there can be pretty stunning. Some days they'll have five or six big cruise ships docked there; an extra 12-15,000 tourists in a town where well under a thousand people live there year-round. Skagway is ideally suited for those whose idea of "real Alaska" is wall-to-wall T-shirt shops, overpriced jewelry stores, and candy/junk shops where everything is made in China. The flightseeing and train tours offer some fine scenery, but they do that by getting out of Skagway as soon as possible.

How long is the ferry ride from Skagway to Hains?

[warptman]

Reread that post...

[GayleTX]

GrammasCabin.....you have every right to be offended. I do apologize...that was an unnecessary statement, and I am so sorry. Everyone there was very friendly and nice to us. I suppose I took that turn of thought because I lived for a few years in a summer tourist area and there were a number of people who came in every year to take advantage of the visitors and created some negative situations in what was for the most part a great atmosphere for locals and tourists alike. We loved everything we experienced in your state and hope to return soon.

[turkeytrot]

Originally Posted by warptman

Reread that post...

My bad, I hate when I do that.

[Metlakatla]

Uh....

The sidewalks were extremely crowded as were the t-shirt stores....had our camera stolen out of my son's coat pocket in one of them (local career, I guess).

More than likely it was one of your fellow cruisers. I'm glad that my island voted years ago to keep you people off of here.


I doubt you saw very few "locals" on your trip at all. You probably think you did, but the people you saw working in the t-shirt shops and other places pretty much all come from the lower 48, and you'll see the same jewelry stores and the same people in the Caribbean during the other season.

and there were a number of people who came in every year to take advantage of the visitors

OH, we do have those...--we call them jewelry stores, t-shirt shops, et al though.

Once again, it's highly likely that the thief was straight off one of those ghastly floating food bins.

[Granny Sue]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

You can always catch the fast ferry from Skagway to Haines, check out the Hammer Museum and the Sheldon Museum, or just walk around town. Maybe take a walking tour of the old fort, or a ride out to one of the rivers to see some eagles or maybe a bear. The fast ferry runs something like a dozen times a day in the summer, and brings people over for whitewater rafting trips and such. Seeing as your train ride is in the afternoon, you could probably swing it time-wise, the ride each way is only about a half-hour, forty minutes, something like that. There's a lot more to do around here of course, but it's hard to fit it in with only half a day to work with. Unlike Skagway, Haines is still a real town where real people can still live.

Skagway is basically an Alaska-flavored theme park, and the crowds of tourists there can be pretty stunning. Some days they'll have five or six big cruise ships docked there; an extra 12-15,000 tourists in a town where well under a thousand people live there year-round. Skagway is ideally suited for those whose idea of "real Alaska" is wall-to-wall T-shirt shops, overpriced jewelry stores, and candy/junk shops where everything is made in China. The flightseeing and train tours offer some fine scenery, but they do that by getting out of Skagway as soon as possible.

This a very helpful post (unlike another)
We are also planning a trip to your beautiful state next June and one of the reasons I was leaning towards one of the cruises is because of this stop. I wanted to get my husband a salmon fishing trip and I believe Fat Salmon was at this stop.
With this description of Skagway, he'd have a good time but I'd want to get away quickly.
Are there any other "known" stops that would have a decent fishing charter for him?
And if we did stick with this one, is Fat Salmon a good choice?

Thanks

[Metlakatla]

Excuse me? No one was unhelpful to the OP; that person asked a legit question and it's good to see someone who wants to see Alaska rather than Disneyland. But making cracks about the locals isn't going to be received well no matter what state it is. And I was quite serious...as far as petty crime goes, it's much more likely that the perps are off the ships themselves.

Skagway might be a lot of things but it does not breed that kind of local.

You might consider the Alaska Marine Highway as an alternative to the cruise lines. It stops in the same places as the ships and also stops in some where most of the ships don't, such as Wrangell. I really think you get more for your money that way.

[GrammasCabin]

Apology accepted, Gayle.
It's never a good idea to judge one by another's actions no matter where you go. Alaskans are the toughest, hardest working people with a sense of integrity you will not find anywhere else. They bend their backs for friend and stranger alike, are the least materialistic in the land and would never think to take anything that doesn't belong to them. Anyone who comes up here and doesn't have the same philosophy does not last long.

All who read this thread would be wise to take Met's advice, ditch the foreign-owned trinket tubs, take the Alaska Marine Highway and really experience Alaska. Get to know us locals, we love to show off our 'back yard' paradise and you'll never make a better friend. Stay in a B&B, rent my floathouse on the beach, bring a tent or motor home. If you're gonna come here, BE here!
I gotta tell you it's getting really hard to make a living here, if you're going to spend vacation dollars, why not leave them in your own country instead of sending them to Europe. The cruise lines even tell their passengers which shops and pubs to visit depending on which ones that particular ship owns. They take 1/3 of the proceeds the local tour guides get from passengers they send them. Before expenses. NONE of their dollars stay in-country let alone in the small towns of Alaska they invade. Yes, they pay local sales tax which in many cases doesn't even cover the cost of additional infracture required to handle the hoards thereby increasing the property taxes of the locals. In Skagway they nail ugly plywood over their store fronts when the last ship leaves turning it into an instant depressing ghost town to cheer the few hundred locals through the long winter.

As for the original intent of this thread - Haines is awesome! Leave Skagway soon as you can and get to Haines, you'll love it there.

[Jonotastic]

I don't think you can get better value than a cruise. The type of food you eat on a cruise is more than the entire cruise itself and the quality is much better than anything you will find in Alaska and most of the -48s unless you plan on spending $50/person each night. The price includes your room and entertainment. You take the elevator to the top floor and you have a view that would cost $350+ a night if you were to stay at a hotel with a same view. That's almost the price of the entire cruise right there. You don't have the time to really visit and mingle with locals, but there is no better value than a cruise especially in Alaska. I think a cruise is the best way to get a glimpse of what Alaska has to offer and if you enjoyed yourself, fly into ANC and rent an RV and explore it that way. Also, it's a great way to view Hubbard Glacier.

[turkeytrot]

My wife and are very excited to be visiting your state.
If it wasn't for the generosity of our daughters we would be spending our thirtieth wedding anniversary right here in the Texas panhandle.

Nothing wrong with that but, we had planned to go to take an Alaskan cruise on our tenth but somehow or another the Mrs. became pregnant.

I couldn't giver her a honeymoon because we got married one day after I got out of boot camp. We had three days between leaving San Diego, getting married and checking in to my school.
We would love to see more of Alaska, maybe on our fiftieth.