Ketchikan tudo em um

I give 4 stars on the description of this tour which says watch Salmon, explore sea life, tidepools, and Whale sightings, eagles, seals, and bears, and 2 stars on the actual tour. Stormin Norman was a decent guide, he knows his history, but is hard to understand at times. He made it known about 5 times there was Global Warming and that is affecting Alaska. In June, Salmon weren't swimming upstream yet at the Ketchikan Creek because of GW. We went to Rotary Beach and found a spider crab under a rock, but no other sea life, no tidepools (because of time of day?), or whales. At Herring Cove, there was 2 eagles which was cool but have seen other excursions our friends went on where 15-20 eagles were flying around. Unfortunately, there were not any seals or bears there either. Of all of the wildlife the tour says you will see, we only saw eagles. And Norm offered my kids the Walmart brand dorito style chips as a snack and they asked for the cheetos in a new box and he said to them beggars can't be choosers (actually), but later changed his mind and opened the new box when a couple adults also wanted something from the new box. Wasn't very impressed and was probably a waste of time and money.

Did not see any wildlife. We did go back to the river twice, but nothing. We also did not see the totem village. The waterfall was great.

Our expectations were to learn about the area, the Alaska Natives and wildlife. We were very disappointed. Our tour guide was friendly. The meeting point said it was in front of the visitor center. To us that meant on the ship side of the building, where the double doors entered the visitor center. We finally found him on the left side of the building if you are looking from the ship to the building. We were there more than 30 minutes early. This gentleman basically told us look for whales to the right. There should be harbor seals to the right. Look in that tree, there is a big eagles nest that has been there since he moved there when he was 9. He gave no educational facts about the area, the wildlife or people. All we heard about was how things related to him as a child. Someone asked about a flower that we saw all along the road. He told us he was dyslexic and that stuff really didn't interest him. What he knows is just from living here. Or he told stories of a bear once seen by him on this trail or how a tourist had a near encounter with a bear here or there. Most disappointing of all, he told us about 2 totem poles. The Lincoln and the Seward pole. All we heard about the building was the board he worked on when he was 22. I had a wonderful tour last June. The Native gentleman spoke the whole time with facts and stories. He told us about every pole and took us into the woods to see everything there. He was so informative!

The description for this tour states that the meeting place is right in front of the ship and if your boat docks in the cove there is a shuttle. We shared with the tour operator which ship we were on as they indicated they would drop us off at our boat. There was no communication stating that it was a 10 minute walk to the shuttle, a 10 minute wait for the shuttle, 20 minute shuttle ride and then a 10 minute walk to the meeting place. This is almost an extra hour. We left our ship 40 minutes before the meeting time and were still 15 minutes late. I messaged through the app and called multiple times as we were making our way to the meeting place and had zero response until days later. We were told we were a no-show and would not get a refund. We ran around trying to book an alternate trip and stumbled into Alaska Sourdough Tours who were so helpful and their tour was amazing!!!! The guide was so knowledgeable and personalized everything for us.

It was really nice lots of information from the tour guide he was very good. We did not see bears at the river, but we saw one in the road on our way back

This was a great start to our cruise. Ketchikan was our first stop and we got an awesome guide. We got to see bears, eagles, a few other animals. Highly recommend for the money it was a bargain!

The tour started late, there was no way to know they were going to be late--once you got past that, the tour was awesome! Norman was able to talk and give us so much information about the area, he was and is a gem!

Awesome. This is a small local business in Ketchikan. They operate a few vans. The guides are locals that have basically lived there all their lives and love it. Our guide, Stormin Norman, was awesome. He tells it like it is with a voice of pride for his town. We saw way more than the others that just walked into town. Heard some great stories. We covered a lot of ground. Saw the fish ladder and beautiful stream running through the town; great beach with eagles flying over; Rainbow falls and another stream in hopes of a bear sighting. We actually went here twice… it was super packed… Norman said let’s load up and see Rainbow Falls and we’ll come back. No bear sighting but not for the lack of trying. Then we ended at a totem pole display -Norman explained the meaning of each symbol on the poles. Very interesting. I was on NCL Encore that only stops in Ketchikan for a few hours. They were very conscious about the “all aboard” time. The tour ended at 10:30 and the last bus back home to Ward Cove left at 11:00 (and it was about a 10 minute walk to where the bus meets). As we pulled in, Stormin Norman told me that Sean would give me lift back to Ward Cove (about a 20 minute drive). I was like, no—it’s all good. I have time to catch the bus. Norm goes, I already called Sean. Sean got his next two tours loaded into the vans and we hopped in his van and headed to Ward Cove. I saw another passenger heading for the bus stop and I actually beat them back to the boat. I got another tour on the way there from Sean… learning about the community and what it’s like to live there. I felt good about booking outside of NCL and supporting this local business.

Great history about the city. Our tour guide was friendly and informative. Perfect for little ones. Just a little bummed we didn’t see any bears or salmon on the tour.

This is a man talking about growing up in Ketchikan. We didn't go to Tide pools, or anywhere near a beach.