My wife and I took the Dalton Highway Bus tour on 19th September, 2021. While we enjoyed our day and experience of crossing Arctic Circle, I have to share two parts of the story:
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A Good Part (Safe Driving, Knowledgeable Tour Guide/Bus Driver):
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The bus driver/tour guide was knowledgeable and her commentary was excellent with very interesting scientific facts. It felt safe riding on her bus and she managed tour itinerary/timing fairly well. We must admire her passion and energy throughout the long day. The movies shown inside bus were also very interesting.
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A Bad Part (Surrounded by Too Many Unmasked People):
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While driving from Fairbanks to Dalton Highway in morning, tour bus was only partly occupied and most of the people were sincere about wearing masks inside bus. Though bus driver/guide herself did not wear one.
Things changed on the way back in evening, as they picked up lot of people who were returning from Coldfoot Camp. While it is reasonable to utilize bus to full capacity, we were informed about it only before the bus departure and not at the time of booking.
This may still be okay, but all these new people were not wearing their masks inside bus even when they were not eating/drinking. I asked bus driver/tour guide to request them to wear their masks. As I said before, she herself was not wearing her mask and did not seem to believe in following federal law of wearing masks inside Bus/Train/Aircraft.
She just casually said that masks are mandatory without emphasizing it. I asked her twice about masks related instruction and then gave up as it was clear that her and most passengers barring few sensible folks were not interested in wearing masks. In fact, she also said that I didn't want her to wear mask while she was driving if we all wanted to stay alive on difficult highway.
I really do not understand what these people think. Is pandemic over for them? And why should I risk my and my wife's health due to such irresponsible folks. Wearing masks for long is painful for us also, but we still do it by being responsible for our and others' safety.
Their tour information document says that "Guests safety always takes precedence over guest convenience"
I am sorry to say this, but I can't say they mean it as far as masking is concerned. :(
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If it was not for the bad part, I would have given them 4.5 starts. I guess they don't deserve it in Covid times.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Sep 2021
Thank you for choosing Northern Alaska Tour Company to be a part of your Alaska adventure.
We also appreciate your feedback on operations in regards to Covid-19 which for the past 18 months has been a moving target of what is, what isn't required or just recommended. As a charter operation we fall in the later and have gone in and out of making it our requirement. Unfortunately, you traveled just before we once again made it a requirement. So AS OF THIS TIME we are back to requiring masks inside the tour vehicles -- and we appreciate guests calling to find out what the current status is as we know it is possible to change in a month, in two months, by January.
Thank you again for traveling with Northern Alaska Tour Company.