After reading some comments on Cruise Critic and verifying that Icy Strait Point was not going to be a tender port, I signed us up for the Wilderness Tour and Brown Bear Search with Hoonah Adventures. It gets good ratings with TripAdvisor and only takes groups of 12. I noticed that they had 2 groups going out at 8:30 or at least it appeared that way when I signed up online. Anyway, I’m pretty excited.
Most of the other Bear watching excursions were anywhere from $300 – $500 per person and involved flying. This was around $100 per person. I’m really hoping that the bears haven’t already started to hibernate by September 1.
The reason I am reluctant to sign up with an independent tour when it is a tender port, especially when it is short hours, is because you have to wait in a long line to get tender tickets and if you miss the last tender out – there is no pier running. So we either just go with a ship tour or just play it by ear and get on a tender when they start having a general call for tenders.
I hope I didn’t get fooled by the comments.
