One more recommendation for Alaska cruisers... I was given The Alaska Cruise Handbook by Joe Upton. The book was good, but I really liked the included map. It showed details about the different places along the journey. I would get the latitude and longitude from the television then follow where we are on the map. (The map on TV is much too far to see anything!) the map shows things like "Humpback whales are often seen here." And then we saw whales!
We were on the starboard side of Jewel, which would be my pick if we cruised again. We could see the shore for much of the north bound trip before we got to the inside passage. Once in Alaska, there is shore on both sides. Of course, on the way back, your away from the shore, but by this point in the cruise, we weren't looking out as much.
As far as excursions, they are really expensive.
In Juneau, we just got off the ship and went to the tramway. They have a special where you get the tram ticket and a shuttle bus to Mendenhall Glacier. We did that and enjoyed both.
In Skagway, we didn't take the train! Instead, we booked a combination of two tours that we booked through Frontier Excursions. In the morning, we took the White Pass Summit & City tour which took us all the way to the Yukon (parallel to the train) stopping for pictures. It was a small bus, but our group of four were the only ones on the tour! In the afternoon, we took the Chilkoot Trail Hike and Float through their partner, Skagway Float Tours. Again, it was just our group, although Sam, our Guide, said 10 was the maximum for this trip. The hike was beautiful and the raft was relaxing! Sam did all the work! It really felt like we were in the wilderness of Alaska!
When we booked the two tours as a Combo, it was $115. This is $5 cheaper than the train and I feel like we really experienced Alaska instead of just seeing it. I was nervous since I had never booked an excursion outside the cruise line, but we had plenty of time since Jewel left Skagway late.
In Victoria, research it ahead of time. We decided to just go and see it, but that didn't work out too well. There's some sort of contract limiting who can be at the port. So we ended up having to by a bus shuttle ticket to downtown then figure out what to do from there. We ended up walking a lot!
