We did this excursion as part of our recent cruise tour. We boarded a ferry in Skagway and traveled about 1/2 hour to Haines. We had nice views from the ferry and the trip was smooth. The ferry had two decks and there was a snack bar with restrooms onboard. We arrived at Haines dock and boarded a bus that took us to the start point for the float portion of the trip. They provided good heavy wader boots and life vests and they transported our shoes to the take out point. They did a good safety briefing. The water was swift but was not very deep. This is truly a brown water float (not a whitewater rafting event.)
We spent the first fifteen minutes trying to get the raft off of the sand bar at the launch point. We were in the last raft so we could not float by when one of the other rafts got stuck on a hidden sand bar for about fifteen more minutes.
We did regularly see eagles perched on trees and or sand bars in the wide river. Luckily, my wife and I had brought our binoculars since many of the eagles were quite a distance from the raft.
With the two delays and since we were the last raft, we had no time at all to eat the provided lunch. We had to grab some wrap sandwiches, a drink and a cookie and eat them on the bus that transported us back to the dock for immediate return to Skagway. They even had to call the ferry to have them wait for us.
So we did see some eagles (about 12) and we did get lunch (balanced on our laps on the school bus). And we did see a bit of Haines (from the ferry and as the bus drove through town).
I wish the trip had included enough time to enjoy the lunch at the take out point, and maybe enough time to walk through Haines for even a few minutes.
We were a bit disappointed for the price that we paid for the adventure. A couple of small changes would have made it more worth that many hours of the excursion.
Recommendation - if you do this excursion - get in the first raft (furthest down river) so you might have a few minutes to eat your lunch at the take out point.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Sep 2023
I don't think this review is for our company, Rainbow Glacier Adventures. We do not serve our lunch at the takeout and do not serve "wrap" sandwhiches." It never takes us 15 minutes to launch a raft and we don't get stuck 15 minutes along the river. We have not called the Fast Ferry once this summer to have them wait for our tour to return. So I believe this review is for another company. I am glad you got to see 12 bald eagles, they are amazing birds.