Best cruise ports for dog sledding in Alaska 🏔 Juneau or Skagway?! 🏔 (Princess excursions) 🏔 Alaska cruise travel blog

Hi there!

One of the most epic so-very-Alaska shore excursions you can do during your Alaska cruise is dog sledding on SNOW!

It’s important to emphasize the SNOW part, because there are also dog sledding tours in the summer that are not on snow.

I am sure doing a dog sledding tour without snow will still be memorable, but for the ultimate Alaska dog sledding experience, you need to do a dog sledding tour on snow!

And yes, you can do dog sledding in Alaska on snow even in the summer!

📌 Pin this post for later! Save on Pinterest! 👈📌

Dog sledding on snow in the summer means that you need to go up high in elevation to get to the snow.

And that means that you will be taking a helicopter to get there!

So you’ll also get the epic Alaska experience of seeing the mountains from the sky.

And you also get a helicopter landing on a glacier, because the dog sledding camp is set up on a snow-covered glacier!

👆 Alaska helicopter tour with a glacier landing at a sled dog camp: Dog sledding on snow as an Alaska cruise excursion means that a helicopter tour with glacier landing is included!

👆 Alaska sled dog mushers camp: Meet a musher and his sled dogs and be a part of their training!

👆 You can either sit or stand as you let the dogs pull you on the sled!

👆 Dog sledding tour in Alaska in the summer: You can do a dog sledding tour on a snow-covered glacier during your Alaska cruise in the summer!

👆 A glacier dog sledding tour during your summer Alaska cruise means that you get to fly over mountains in Alaska too! It’s also a helicopter tour!

👆 You’ll see the tents that the mushers (aka dog trainers) sleep in on the glacier when you do a glacier dog sledding tour in Alaska!

Below I will show you a timeline of the dog sledding tour I did during my Alaska cruise!

What months can you do a dog sledding tour during an Alaska cruise?

The exact dates can change depending on the weather of any given year, but generally you can do dog sledding on snow from mid-May to early August.

The set-up of the dog camp on the glacier may be earlier or later depending on weather conditions.

If your Alaska cruise is in May or August, you may be able to do a dog sledding tour during your cruise.

If your Alaska cruise is in June or July, you can do a dog sledding tour during your cruise!

If your Alaska cruise is in April, September, or October, you won’t be able to do a glacier dog sledding tour in any of the cruise ports.

How long is a dog sledding tour?

A dog sledding tour in Alaska is around 2 hours long.

You’ll also want to plan for extra time before and after, maybe 15 to 30 minutes or so when your doing it as an excursion from a cruise port.

So you can think of a dog sledding tour as 2.5 to 3 hours long.

Cost of a dog sledding tour in Alaska

The cost of a dog sledding tour during your Alaska cruise will be around $700 to $800 per person.

Yes, dog sledding tours on SNOW are expensive!

There are cheaper dog sledding tours in the summer.

But if you find a $150 dog sledding tour in the summer, it’s not going to be on snow.

If you think you’ll like that too, then you can consider the “cheap” dog sledding tours in Alaska cruise ports too.

When you do enough research on the absolute best Alaska cruise excursions, a $150 tour starts to look cheap! 😆😵

If you want the epic Alaska experience, you need to do the dog sledding on snow!

Plus, you’ll not only get the dog sledding part, you’ll get an epic Alaska helicopter flightseeing tour to go with it!

So it’s like a 2 in 1!

Best cruise ports for dog sledding in Alaska

If you want to go dog sledding on SNOW during your Alaska cruise, then the best cruise ports for that are Skagway and Juneau!

If you’re doing a one-way cruise between Vancouver and Whittier or Seward and you’re spending a few days on land in Alaska, then you can also go dog sledding in Anchorage.

Is the best dog sledding in Juneau or Skagway?

Whether you go dog sledding in Juneau or Skagway, it will be one of the best experiences during your Alaska cruise.

Lame…

Really though!

Before my Alaska cruise, I read through tonssss of reviews for lots of different excursions on google maps and tripadvisor.

And really, the reviews for the expensive excursions in Alaska were overwhelmingly VERY good.

And that includes Alaska dog sledding reviews!

It seemed like any really expensive excursion had a number of people saying that it was the highlight of their Alaska cruise.

And again, that includes dog sledding reviews!

What does that mean?!

It means that if you make dog sledding your ONLY Alaska cruise excursion, then there’s a good chance it will end up being your favorite part of your Alaska cruise, whether that’s in Juneau or Skagway!

So instead of choosing a dog sledding tour based on the specific tour in Juneau or Skagway, it’s better to choose the cruise port based on your priorities of activities you want to do in Juneau and Skagway.

For example, during the Alaska cruise that I did the dog sledding, I ended up having a full day in Juneau with a morning excursion (whale watching) and afternoon excursion (Mendenhall Glacier Lake canoe + hike), while I had an open day in Skagway since I had previously done the White Pass train.

So I ended up doing a dog sledding tour in Skagway. (I go through what this tour is like below.)

But if you want to do a full-day White Pass railway excursion in Skagway, then you might want to do a dog sledding tour in Juneau. (There are also shorter White Pass excursions available.)

Best Alaska dog sledding Princess excursions:

• Juneau dog sledding excursion through Princess
• Skagway dog sledding excursion through Princess

You can book these shore excursions for your Princess cruise by logging into your account at princess.com > my account > manage this booking > excursions > view excursions for Juneau or Skagway! Book sooner rather than later!

Best dog sledding tours during an Alaska cruise:

• Juneau dog sledding tour / May 6 to August 13, 2023
• Skagway dog sledding tour / through August 17, 2023

If you’re on a one-way Alaska cruise and will be staying on land a few days before or after Whittier or Seward:

• Anchorage dog sledding tour / May 1 to September 10, 2023
• Seward dog sledding tour / through September 7, 2023

What do the negative reviews about dog sledding in Alaska say?

Based on my observation, the negative reviews were almost always related to cancellations.

The negative reviews about dog sledding were about the lack of communication about the tour cancellation, and no offer to replace it with an alternative tour.

Yes, there is a chance your dog sledding tour can get canceled.

Because you want to do a dog sledding tour on snow in summer, it means that you need to fly to the sled dog camp on a helicopter.

And weather conditions (aka flight conditions!) can change quickly.

Because of this, tours may not get canceled until an hour (or less!) before your scheduled tour time.

Of course, that is disappointing enough, but then what seems to happen sometimes is that tour companies do not communicate effectively with people about the cancellation. 

So the negative reviews are about what happens if you DON’T do the dog sledding tour.

But for people who DO do the dog sledding tours, there are rarely any negative reviews.

The vast majority are 5 star glowing reviews, no matter the tour company or how you book the tour.

That said, it is important to manage your expectations about potential cancellations.

Your dog sledding tour might get canceled due to weather.

This is Alaska.

Helicopter tours (aka helicopter tours with dog sledding too!) do get cancelled at the last minute.

Weather can change quickly in Alaska.

This means that so can helicopter flying conditions.

And a weather-related cancellation may not be made until very close to your tour time.

According to Temsco, a helicopter company that operates dog sledding tours in Alaska:

Unfortunately, the weather in Alaska does not always cooperate and there are times when we are unable to fly.

If we are unable to fly a tour due to weather, our guests will receive a full refund.

In most cases, we will not make the decision to cancel a tour until within an hour of departure, as the weather can quickly change and we do not want to preemptively cancel a tour if it is at all possible it will run.

If we need to cancel due to weather or any unforeseen circumstance, you’ll receive a 100% refund.

It is standard among helicopter companies in Alaska to offer a full refund on your dog sledding tour if they cancel due to weather.

Plan for an alternate to dog sledding

Because it’s possible that your dog sledding excursion can be canceled, it’s best to know what you want to do in case that does happen.

Of course you want to hope for the best and that it doesn’t get canceled.

But unfortunately, it is a real possibility that it does get canceled.

And knowing this is step 1 in not being AS upset when it does get canceled.

It’s about managing your expectations!

So in the case that your dog sledding excursion gets canceled, which is an already upsetting situation, you don’t want to get further upset because you don’t know what to do.

You might end up just doing nothing because you don’t know what to do, and then you’ll end your day even more upset feeling like you’ve wasted a day in Alaska.

If your dog sledding excursion gets canceled, you might be offered alternate excursions.

But in case you are not, also research more things to do in Skagway and things to do in Juneau, just in case!

More below about my glacier sledding tour during my Alaska cruise!

🏔

Dog sledding tour during an Alaska cruise

I did a dog sledding tour during an Alaska cruise in May 2023.

I booked a shore excursion through Princess.

I did it while in Skagway cruise port.

It was a dog sledding camp on Denver Glacier operated by Alaska Icefield Expeditions.

The helicopter to the dog sledding camp was operated by Temsco helicopters.

Your experience may vary!

Times listed below are approximate, based on the time stamp on my pictures!

The Alaska dog sledding tour timeline! 👇

4:45pm: helicopter safety video

Since I did a nearby Skagway hike right before the dog sledding tour, I just went straight to the helicopter base on my own.

The helicopter base was closer than going all the way back to the cruise port for the Princess excursion meeting spot.

Because I was already there, I watched the safety video at the helicopter base.

If you book an excursion through the cruise ship, you’ll get a free ride to the helicopter base. On the shuttle ride over, you’ll watch a safety video.

Once the group arrived at the helicopter base from the cruise port, we put on boots and helicopter safety gear.

The boots are provided, and go over your shoes.

The helicopter safety gear is a pouch with a life jacket that is tied around your waist. You’ll wear this during the whole tour.

If you brought a bag or backpack, there’s a luggage storage area.

You aren’t allowed to take any bags on the helicopter with you.

5:15pm: get on the helicopter and take off!

Then, it’s time to get on the helicopter!

You won’t be able to choose your helicopter seat.

Helicopter seats are assigned based on weight distribution.

You will be weighed in once you arrive at the helicopter base.

There is an additional fee for people weighing over a certain weight, usually 250 pounds. This will be indicated at the time of booking.

There were 4 people plus the pilot on the helicopter. 3 in the back, 1 up front next to the pilot.

My assigned seat was the back row on the left side.

Enjoy the helicopter flight!!!

Doing the dog sledding tour in Skagway cruise port, we could see the cruise port as we were flying away!

And then… come the real views of Alaska!!!

5:32pm: The dog sledding camp on the glacier comes into view!

Helicopter landing on a glacier! Take your first steps on an Alaska glacier!

The helicopter does a landing on a glacier and you will be dropped off at the sled dog camp.

You will immediately see (and hear!) all the dogs, and you’ll see the tents that the mushers sleep in too.

They stay overnight with the dogs on the glacier!

Introduction to the sled dogs who will be taking you for a ride… and the musher!

You’ll be divided up into groups to go with a dog sledding team.

I was paired up with another solo traveler, and it turned out to be just the 2 of us that made up our group.

We then met our musher (aka sled dog trainer aka Matt from Ohio) who then took us to meet his dogs.

We were given a little bit of time to make personal introductions to them. (aka you could go and pet and talk to each of the dogs on your own)

5:52pm: The sled dogs start their training! (aka they start pulling YOU to go dog sledding on the glacier!)

You can have the chance to stand at the back of the sled (one person) or sit in the sled!

I started off at the back of the sled. (We switched off later.)

Enjoy dog sledding in Alaska on a glacier!!!

5:56pm: First break.

You can get off the sled and walk around a little.

5:59pm: More sledding on a glacier!

6:01pm: Another break.

6:06pm: More sledding on an Alaska glacier!

This part was a bit downhill, and the co-musher (aka YOU?!) are given instructions on how to be a musher going downhill!

I was sitting in the front of the sled for this part, so this was not me on this part.

It seemed to be a pretty active position! Basically you needed to “tap the breaks” a bit.

6:13pm: Arrive back at camp!

6:35pm: Get back on the helicopter to go back to the cruise port!

👆 Spot the helicopter arriving from near the cruise port about to make a glacier landing! Hint: look above the orange cones on the glacier!

Enjoy the flight back to the cruise port!

👆 Spot the cruise ships at the cruise port from the helicopter!

6:45pm: Arrive back at the helicopter base!

7:00pm: Arrive back at the cruise port

There was a free shuttle back to the cruise port.

Or rather, the spot to get a water shuttle to get back to the cruise ship since the cruise ship was docked at a spot that required a water shuttle. Not all cruise ships will need a shuttle in Skagway cruise port.

And that’s a bit about what a dog sledding tour in Alaska during your cruise might be like!

I did a dog sledding tour as a Princess shore excursion during my Alaska cruise on May 17, 2023. Your experience may vary!

HAPPY GLACIER DOG SLEDDING IN ALASKA!