Best Ketchikan Alaska excursions that I did (Princess cruise + book Ketchikan tours on your own) 🏔 Alaska cruise travel blog

Hi there!

I went to Ketchikan on Princess cruise ships, so my experience is looking for excursions for Princess cruises.

But of course, most of the excursions can apply no matter what cruise line you are on.

And in fact in Ketchikan, I did everything booked independently or things on my own and I didn’t actually do anything booked through Princess.

Still, in case you want to go through Princess shore excursions, I’ll mention that too!

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

Here is your quick list of best Ketchikan cruise excursions you must consider:

• Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness seaplane tour with remote landing
• Snorkel Alaska tour
• Deadliest Catch tour

If you will be doing any sort of flightseeing tour during your Alaska cruise, I highly recommend you do one with some sort of landing!

It will make the experience that much more epic!

In the case of the Ketchikan seaplane tour, it was a wilderness landing on a tiny island in Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness, and it really felt like we were in remote Alaska!

Ketchikan snorkeling excursion

Snorkeling in Ketchikan?!?!

YES!

🤣

Won’t you be cold?!?!?!

Actually, NO!

It’s all about what you wear, and you will be given cold water swimming gear (aka a thick wetsuit) to keep you warm!

Almost everyone says that you will NOT be cold!

Even as someone who gets cold easily, I went snorkeling in Ketchikan and can happily say, I agree! Read the reviews!

Ketchikan Deadliest Catch excursion

The Deadliest Catch tour is one of the most popular tours in Ketchikan.

You have heard of the TV show the Deadliest Catch.

And if you haven’t, you need to watch it before your Alaska cruise! The Deadliest Catch is about Alaskan fishermen who go fishing in some of the roughest and deadliest waters in the world. Here’s a preview!

The Deadliest Catch show takes place in the Bering Sea.

You will go nowhere near that in Ketchikan or your Alaska cruise.

Instead, they bring a bit of the Bering Sea to you in an interactive way.

They won’t bring you the rough seas, but they’ll bring you some of the marine life. (aka crabs)

And, you’ll be on the Aleutian Ballard boat, as seen on TV.

It is a rather touristy experience, but almost everyone who goes on the tour loves it.

And tons of people say that the tour exceeded their expectations. Read the reviews!

⛰

More popular Ketchikan outings

One of the most popular “cheap” activities in Ketchikan is the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show.

If you are interested in exploring Alaska’s native culture through an excursion, then you will want to do the Saxman Native Village, Dance Performance & Totem Park excursion.

You can go to Saxman Park on your own to see totem poles, but that won’t give you the cultural performance.

If you are interested in seeing totem poles in Ketchikan, then you will also want to consider going to Totem Bight State Historical Park on your own. You can take the Ketchikan bus to get there.

If your Alaska cruise will be taking you to Sitka cruise port, then you can also go to Sitka National Historical Park on your own to see totem poles.

How to search for Princess cruise excursions for Ketchikan

It just so happened that I didn’t do any excursions through Princess while in Ketchikan.

What I wanted to do most was either not offered through Princess so I didn’t get the chance to compare between booking through Princess or direct, or I had other things I wanted to do on my own.

But if you do want to look through the offerings of Princess, you can do so by logging into your account at princess.com.

Once you are logged in, go to: my account > manage this booking > excursions > view excursions for Ketchikan!

You can also look directly at the Ketchikan shore excursions with Princess without logging in if you just want to browse.

But when you want to book, you’ll need to go into your account.

You can also book through the Princess app, but I personally don’t even like the way the shore excursions show up on the app so I wouldn’t even want to look through them!

And then when you are on the cruise ship, you can book through your stateroom TV, and of course directly at the shore excursions desk.

If you are getting on your Princess cruise ship without having booked excursions but are interested in doing so, then there is also a live shore excursions presentation with recommendations on shore excursions to book for Ketchikan and all the other cruise ports you’ll be going to.

If you miss the live presentation, then there will also be a replay available on your TV. If you can’t find it, you can call guest services or do a “crewchat” with them on the app to find out how to find it.

Only budgeting for ONE excursion during your Alaska cruise? Also take a look at the best Juneau excursions and the best Skagway excursions to see if you want to do an excursion in Ketchikan or Juneau or Skagway!

More below about the Ketchikan tours that I did!

🏔

Best Ketchikan tours that are so Alaska

1. Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness seaplane tour

The Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness is one way you can experience the largest national forest in the United States.

According to the US Forest Service:

Tongass National Forest is the nation’s largest national forest and covers most of Southeast Alaska.

You Alaska cruise will be mostly if not all in Southeast Alaska. If you have a cruise between Vancouver and Anchorage, then you’ll be traveling more than just Southeast Alaska!

According to the US Forest Service:

Tongass National Forest is the largest, intact coastal rainforest in America.

Misty Fjords is a piece of this treasure.

The US Forest Service also says that Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness is the “largest wilderness area” in Tongass National Forest.

The seaplane takes off near the Ketchikan cruise port, then flies over Tongass National Forest, and then soon you’ll be over the Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness.

You can see fjords (of course) and waterfalls as you’re flying.

We then landed on a small island in Punchbowl Lake.

And when I say small… I mean SMALL!

👆 You’ll fly over the largest national forest in America of which Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness is a part of!

👆 That is the pilot tying up the seaplane to land! It really does feel wild and remote!

More about the Ketchikan seaplane tour:

• Island Wings
• Viator reviews + cost
• Tripadvisor reviews

2. Ketchikan snorkeling tour

Snorkeling in Alaska?!?!?!

I was VERY nervous about this, and even upon booking the tour, I was immediately having regrets!

But to reassure myself, I read all the reviews (again), and basically everyone who mentions the water temperature says that you will not be cold because you’ll be wearing a wetsuit and other cold water swimming gear!

And, even as someone that gets cold easily, I must agree!! 

For most of the time in the water, the water temperature didn’t even occur to me!

It was a water temperature of 50 degrees.

I was excited about seeing tons of small little clear jellyfish. And I saw a couple of red ones too.

I was also excited about seeing so many starfish.

Plus, I got the experience of cold water swimming and snorkeling in Alaska!

More about the Ketchikan snorkeling tour:

• Snorkeling in Alaska
• Viator reviews + cost
• Tripadvisor reviews

And those are Ketchikan tours that you must consider!

Ketchikan on your own:

• What to see: Totem Bight State Historical Park totem poles
• What to see: Saxman Village totem poles
• Creek Street

More epic Alaska excursions not in Ketchikan:

• Dog sledding in Alaska
• Whale watching in Alaska
• Seaplane tours in Alaska
• Best Skagway excursions
• Best Juneau excursions

What I did to give you more ideas for your Alaska cruise:

• My Alaska cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage
• My Alaska cruise from Vancouver round trip

HAPPY TOUR FROM KETCHIKAN CRUISE PORT!