Port Guide: Juneau, Alaska - What We Think You Should Know Before You Go! - ParoDeeJay

hi everybody I'm Dee and I'm Jay and we are DJ welcome to another episode of perro DJ Port guides it's been a while it has we are getting ready to dig into Alaska we've done lots of Caribbean Port guides yeah you know things like that let's let's get cold let's get chilly it's Alaska planning season for a lot of you guys so hopefully these will help you out grab a pen and a paper and a snack write all these things down or just watch the video again later that's true just bookmark that's not what you do anyway we are going to be digging into Juno today Juno is not the biggest city in Alaska but it is the capital of Alaska um you dock in the Gastineau Channel yes Juno is usually found on just about every Alaskan cruise itinerary um and the docking area is near the downtown area really easy to walk around we've been did you know every time we've done an Alaskan cruise so it's usually one of your ports of call yeah all right let's get into our first section which is navigating the port so there are by my count six main docs and going from the closest to the furthest from the downtown area you have the F dock which is the seadrome dock not usually used by cruise ships at least not ones we sail edoc which is also called Alaska steamship dock the d-doc is the South cruise ship birth C dock is the intermediate vessel float again kind of small not really used by a lot of ships we've seen b dock which is the South Franklin Street dock or Franklin Dock and the dreaded AJ doc we'll get into more of that later I'm partial to the d-doc d-doc yeah uh most cruise ships do seem to dock it either e d b or AJ from the B to the F docs you can just step right off the ship right in the middle of everything there's a shopping area you can turn left to just walk right into town it's very convenient yeah yeah uh the AJ doc that's a little bit different story you have to walk about a mile to get from the AJ dock over to the downtown area or some cruise ships depending on who you go with will provide transportation for a minimal fee and some of them I think include it when we did it it was like a five dollar fee but we just decided to walk it because it's beautiful get those steps in yeah I know see some nature yeah up next we will dig into ship excursions now I have pulled on Carnival's website being our most cruised line six excursions just as ideas for things that you can do in Juno there's a lot more but let's see what you can do okay first up we have the Mendenhall Glacier explorer that is basically transportation to and from Mendenhall Glacier um and I think this tour gives you about two and a half hours at Mendenhall now when you think of Juno there's a couple of things that come to mind Mendenhall is one of them definitely yeah we've been a couple times yeah it's a must-see because you can actually walk basically up to a glitch well you can see a glacier very close yeah yeah you can walk up to the Waterfront the water nugget Falls which is good lots of trails to walk around yeah we'll probably talk more about Mendenhall here in a little bit we definitely will up next Gold Creek Alaskan salmon bake now salmon bake that is a classic thing you have to do um this tour through at least through Carnival it looks like it was kind of a loose timing and you can choose a variety of shuttles to get you back to the ship so it was not really set in stone we did this independently we did um it was awesome good food it's all you can eat the salmon is obviously very fresh the people were friendly it's very organized and there's also a couple of trails and some really pretty sightseeing I think you can gold pan for an extra fee if you want to do that as well definitely recommend yeah in certain times of the year they probably have salmon in the Little Creek there right there were some fish when we were there yeah very cool well speaking of panning they also have a historic gold mining and panning Adventure I'm not sure exactly where this takes place it's kind of a Hands-On panning adventure and the Excursion says guaranteed gold oh wow the fool's gold or real gold they don't specify I'm assuming it's some actual gold flake which must be kind of predominant and maybe easy to find up there it's definitely Alaska yeah no we've not done that one person no but it looks fun we also have Glacier View C kayaking okay that's very adventurous sounding and we have seen the kayakers going up to Mendenhall Glacier we've not done this it doesn't look overly hard you know there's no waves or anything preventing you from getting up close it's pretty smooth but um definitely a way to get up close and personal with that Glacier very neat me in a small boat I saw Titanic I don't need that ending we've got the express whale watching option which this one we actually have done this is the most affordable whale watching that we've found that you could do through Carnival least I think it's about three hours they take you out to uh bay yes and you just putter around you can see it's funny because you can see some of the same Wheels year after year which we have we've seen flame various babies yeah it's so cool you get to go back and revisit your friends yeah so we've seen whales every time oh yeah yeah whales it's one of those things when you think of Alaska you're probably thinking about whales definitely so there's lots of opportunities for that I want to say Juno is one of the top spots to get out and see whales because of Oak Bay for sure yeah and this was the most affordable way I think that we found to do it at least through the ship and it didn't seem like it was rushed or anything it was a very nice boat the crew were really knowledgeable and could tell you about like the different whales that we were seeing because they can identify them um definitely check it out yeah it's run by Alan Moraine just in case a little detail last up I have got the dog sled Discovery and mushers camp now we haven't really done anything with dogs Lids or puppies or any of that stuff this one takes place over in Douglas which is just across the bridge and it looks fun yeah it might be fun to do with the kids for sure yeah or me and NJ and as a side note to all of this um one thing you'll find in Alaska is a lot of combo tours you will find whale watch combo with Mendenhall you will find Mendota combo with salmon bake you can do three in one so try to find you know there's lots of ways to maximize your time in Juno by doing these combo tours yeah because you're usually in Juno for a good amount of time typically until like later in the evening at least so we've done a lot of the combos yeah the next section is entitled exploring on your own so this is where we dig a little bit in I say dig a lot we do a lot of digging in Alaska um what you can do in and around the port area most times these guys focus on the port but we found with Alaska we're kind of having to Branch out because the port and most of these places is literally a dock yeah yeah and then you're in town so what you can do with an easy walking distance of the port so with Juno let's start with Franklin Street okay so lots of shopping things along Franklin you will find all sorts of cute things there's the Alaska Shirt Company you've got souvenirs jewelry if you walk far enough you get all these classic eateries like Tracy's King Crab Shack though what Red Dog I get red onion and red dog different port so yeah red dogs yeah Red Dog Saloon is we've been there before um it's really like old-timey kind of like back in the Gold Rush days very very cool um try a duck fart it's very well known at that Saloon specifically what is it Bailey's it's got and something else we tried it it's fun yeah yeah definitely got to get that you do also right in the pier area they have the fisherman's Memorial there's the Archie Van Winkle Memorial the USS Juno Memorial there's the Patsy Ann statue which I guess Patsy and was the little dog yeah the dog that used to greet the ships that would come in yeah it's a really cute statue a lot of history right there at the Port you can wander around and see uh and from the port you can actually continue on the sea walk and go around the corner I think it meets up with the Eagan drive over there that'll Lead You Through The Marine Park which is where they've got some food vendors in there we haven't really tried any of those um a down to Overstreet Park I mean you pass a lot of stuff in between oh yeah two places but eventually when we went our goal was Overstreet Park which is where the giant whale statue was that we've heard legend that it actually does shoot water out of it we waited like an hour and it didn't do it but then I think we drove by at one point and it was so it you just don't know according to like Google it's supposed to be like every 15 minutes listen to Google that's not true no no but it's really cool you can take some cool photo ops it looks like a whale's jumping behind you it's like you saw it real wave yeah it's it's awesome so fake it till you make it yes so from the port area you've also got easy access to the downtown Transit Center that's kind of where Marine Way becomes Eagan drive like as you pass Main Street you'll see it right there on the right hand side boom big bus station and now that is one of the good budget tips I would say for Juno is you can ride the city bus around to places yep uh and we'll talk a little bit more about that here in a hot minute too one thing I did want to focus on in each of these episodes is like hiking opportunities or you know moderate walking opportunities because that's one thing we like to do I love it yes and for here the one that we picked out but hadn't got to do yet is the gold Creek Flume Trail it's not too far to get there from what I understand from town people have recommended that you can start at the Gold Creek Flume Trailhead which is on Evergreen that one's a little bit more of an uphill so they suggest catching a ride to that one and then hiking the gold the the trail and then you can walk back down Basin Road and that'll put you back downtown so when we finally do that that's probably what we're gonna do you're super athletic run up that hill yeah yeah it goes through a residential neighborhood and people have said um it's no joke to get up to that one Trailhead yeah sounds fun though another section especially for Alaska that I want to highlight is something called rainy day fun uh what can you do because you know it rains in Alaska a lot a lot of these are going to be Museum type ideas and for Juno we have picked out the Alaska State Museum have not been there but have heard great things so there's also the Juno arts and culture center Juno Douglas City Museum a good handful of stuff around the city lots of historic buildings and things you can look at so you'll have to walk in the rain to get to them but then you can spend some time inside to dry up yeah definitely wear waterproof layers in Alaska but don't stay on the ship just because it's raining because there's so much to see and do and you don't want to miss that opportunity because they have things that are fun and educational and the people that work there really are very passionate about what they do and want to tell you about their beautiful state so check it out the history so in this section we also like to highlight some tour vendors because sometimes people want to explore on their own without being really really on your own so it's always good to have wait somebody who knows what they're doing correct so of course one thing we mentioned before is the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center um multiple ways that you can get there one of those is to take the city bus from downtown that's not a tour vendor this is more of an on your own still very affordable though right but the only thing is the stop when they let you off is about a mile and a half I think to actually walk up to the visitor center so that's only if you're really in for an extra hike that day which is not that bad it's not bad probably but we didn't go for that because we hiked like 10 miles when we were there so that would have been a lot one of the things you will find at the Port is a lot of booths that call themselves something like Glacier Express right uh it's basically a bus that will take you to the glacier and back we use the one from m m tours but there were so many of them out there that day they were all about the same price similar levels of service and some of them offer combo tours on the spot also if you don't just want to do that yeah one independent vendor we have used is Juno whale watch I think one of the first times we went it might have been the first time we did the Mendenhall and whale watch combo with them nice big boat experience yeah it was nice wasn't crowded when we went no I forget how many I think it holds 40 some odd yeah I forget the details but it's double decker yeah nice sized boat there um I guess that'll lead us over into whale watching because who doesn't want to talk about whales again I mean another vendor we used for whales Harvin Marv's Outback Alaska I think is the official name that was the small boat experience a very smooth and Sleek small boat even on a really Rocky day um it had like the cool seats that moved with you you're right yeah the right word hydraulic seeds they were cool that was cool it was more comfortable riding you know it was very wavy um it was a good operation yeah and I think the smaller boats you can get a little bit more up close and personal you obviously have to keep your distance that's lost for a reason uh but yeah you can get a little closer a little more intimate experience which is always good yes we have also got the mount Roberts Tramway technically I think it's run by gold built tram that's what the building is called but I've always called it the mount Roberts Tramway we have gone up there one time um they'll look good lots of hiking trails up there yeah I was gonna say it's not just the ride up which the view is beautiful but you can walk around and do hiking trails we went all the way up um we didn't quite go all the way up well I did turn around before pretty far up and you can spend a lot of time up there they have a restaurant and they have shops up there as well um I think there's a bar so you could spend a whole time yeah lots of nature up there yeah and it may be a good idea a lot of times you could book that one last minute because if you get to Juno and it's foggy you might not want to go up the mountain and it runs all day if they're open so the odds are you're gonna get in you just might be a little flexible with your timing yeah maybe let the fog burn off go later in the afternoon something like that for sure we did touch on the gold Creek salmon bake before but we did that independently when we went um actually one thing we used was the Alaska tour saver coupon oh yeah and that helped us out with our tram ride our salmon bake we were able to book those directly I don't know that those coupons still exist in the book it did when we used it which was I believe pre-coded or at least they assembled the book pre-covered uh so you can check Alaska tour saver I'll put links to all of these places in the in the description just to see what the coupons are see if it suits your needs yeah it was good money saving and had some really nice tour options but the vendors can change year to year like Jay was saying yeah I think some of them decided not to renew but maybe they'll come back in Future years another kind of unique thing that we did which was also uh done directly was the glacier Gardens Glacier Gardens rainforest Adventure they called it if you're into Botanical anything this place is gorgeous this and the gentleman who planted them all was actually there that day so that was really cool oh yeah he's got the upside down trees I guess they call them yeah I think that's what they call um so not only is it like Botanical area you walk around you actually get to get in like a golf cart kind of tractor thing and go up the mountain and look at all the Flora and Fauna along the way and you might spot some Wildlife there's beautiful Lookouts it's really cool I think it actually enters the is it the tongas national rainforest so for a brief moment you are in the National rainfall that's so cool and now one of my favorite parts of all of these videos is the free and Frugal fun section this is originally like I said it was intended to be how much fun could you have for very little money at the Port we're having to expand that to include the walkable area of town so for Juno I am including all of the shopping window shopping of course to be frugal uh the restaurants you can kind of go in it could be a little pricey but I'll still include that in my Frugal all the history of The Monuments walking up and down the area yeah a lot of photo ops a lot of birds Ravens giant Ravens so for my free and Frugal fund rating I believe I am going to give Juno I'm going right in the middle of the road I'm going to give Juno a five there seems to be a good amount to do no major attractions that I believe you can get in for free but a lot of history a lot of walking around and just good stuff to look at what's the scale ten one to ten one to ten okay yeah I agree um it is definitely one of those sports that's easily walkable and you can find all sorts of things to do but the main attractions are a little bit further away or cost a little bit yeah true so I guess that is it for our Juno Port guide so now hopefully juvenile a little more than you did hopefully you learned something exactly yeah but yeah we like I said we have a lot of these Port guide episodes there should be a playlist floating around I'll do some linking down in the description to get you to the other ones that we have if you have any specific questions please write a comment below and we'll do our best to answer it but um we've been there quite a few times and there's videos and all that information is there too so yeah but if not already be sure to subscribe to the channel become a pyromaniac today socialize all our media Facebook Instagram and Twitter yep and until next time rock on I almost forgot how to do that what am I doing thanks guys bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: ParoDeeJay

Views: 129,854

Keywords:

Id: 5xPbvAkseNY

Length: 16min 23sec (983 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023