Alaska - Cruise Day 4 - Not so luxurious White Pass Railway

After returning to the ship for a brief respite, we headed back off the ship for our second tour of the day, riding the White Pass Scenic Railway train. If you ask other cruisers for advice on what to do in Skagway, a good portion of the responses will be to ride the White Pass Scenic Railway. However, there is several different options to choose. In recent years since we were there, it seems Princess has incorporated the White Pass Scenic Railway into combination tours that fill your whole day but include other Alaskan activities like hikes, gold panning, and dog sledding. Definitely more pricey than the rail ride itself but you get a lot more for your money if you're willing to devote the entire day to it. To skim through all the excursion options, you can view the list here.

The most common and cheapest choice for experiencing the White Pass Scenic Railway is the 2.75 hour excursion listed as White Pass Scenic Railway currently retailing for $139.95. For that price, you get shuttled to the train (or step off and walk over if your ship gets the first docking slot), and you sit in any car but the last train car. The seats are small wooden bench seats so they may not be comfy if you're fluffy. For the most part, there's likely to be spare seats to spread out. With this option, you never get off the train. It's simply a ride up the mountain and back down the mountain with commentary. There is a wheelchair accessible version of this tour for the same price. Included in the price is a commemorative brochure map and a bottle of water.

Option #2 - Slightly more expensive at $179.95 is the 3.5 hour White Pass Rail & Klondike Highway. In this version, you will need to bring along your passport or comparable photo ID because you do get off and cross the border into Canada. The excursion starts off with a 55 minute bus ride along the Klondike Highway with photo stops and narration. Then once over the border into Fraser, British Columbia you will be driven to the train depot to board the same White Pass Railway train car as listed above after clearing Canadian Customs. The train ride back down to Skagway takes 1 hour and 40 minutes. This tour description offers the use of headphones translating the provided commentary into multiple languages.

Option #3 is the most expensive and the option we chose, the White Pass Scenic Railway - Luxury Class. This option currently retails for $329.95 so it's definitely pricy even by Alaska standards. This is why I said the other tour choices use every car but the last train car. The difference you get by riding in this last train car is comfier seats in the form of leather couches, recliners and the like. There is also a dedicated bartender and occasional commentator offering beer, wine, soda, and water. I think there might have been the option for harder liquor but neither of us imbibed. I vaguely recall there being a limit on the number of drinks we could get, both alcoholic and non alcoholic. There also was a small amount of food available to snack on, mostly cocktail party style hors d'oeuvres with hummus dip, shrimp cocktail and other similar finger foods with brownies for dessert. I recall not being able to enjoy much of the food because several options contained nuts. I did partake of the fruit by itself, the pretzels meant for hummus dipping, and the shrimp. This tour option is limited only to passengers 21 and over (not just for the drink service itself), is not wheelchair accessible, and is limited to a total of 14 passengers per ride. The length of the ride itself and the fact that you never get off the train is the same as the regular tour.

Now, aside from the food limitations, why did I title this post as the "Not so luxurious White Pass Railway?" Because of the way our excursion experience was handled by the shoreside employees and somewhat of my fellow riders. Due to our ship getting a docking slot a short ride away from the train, everyone doing any of the White Pass Scenic Railway tours had to be shuttled over. Those sailing on the Crown Princess docked in the first slot got to simply walk off their ship and walk onto the train right there. When we stepped off the ship for this tour, we were pulled away from the main group meeting place when they saw we were the only 2 passengers from our ship who'd booked the luxury class version.

After waiting where we were told for a while watching everyone else board the shuttle, we finally questioned the shoreside staff representative.  This employee then told us to get on the same shuttle and we'd be directed to the luxury train car when we got there. So we hop on to the shuttle and it fills up. And then the shuttle sits, and sits, and sits. Supposedly they were still waiting for passengers from our ship who'd signed up for the regular tour but hadn't come off the ship yet. After a while, the same employee hops onto the shuttle bus and tells just us to come off with her. As soon as we comply, they decide that they can no longer wait on these no show passengers and the shuttle takes off. We are left to stand and wait while the rep confers with her boss about what to do with us. When she comes back, she announces that she's been told to simply drive us over to the train in her personal vehicle. Only now did we get told that we were the only two from the Grand Princess who'd booked the luxury class version and thus was what had confused the shoreside staff so greatly. Really makes one wonder about someone who would get so confused by such a simple situation. There was no reason not to simply put us on the next shuttle with everyone else since it went to the same place. The only difference is showing the employees at the train that we were part of the luxury class to be redirected to the last train car.

On a minor plus side, because we were in her personal car, she drove us right up to the last train car so we didn't have to walk very much once there. She confirmed that someone would be here to pick us up for the drive back. Again, why we couldn't just hop the next shuttle with everyone else to go back still baffles me. Due to this delay, the luxury car was already filled with Crown Princess passengers leaving one recliner and the sole straight backed chair left for us to sit. I was under the impression for the bulk of the ride that my straight backed chair was bolted into the floor with my back to the window so I was miserable at having to miss so much of the scenery being pointed out. At one point during the ride, a kind gentleman from the Crown Princess offered to switch with me so that I could use a recliner too. His wife however was furious at how her husband was now getting less than and repeatedly shared her feelings with everyone. Our dedicated bartender did try to placate the situation by explaining that for the ride back down, she intended to have everyone switch sides of the train car. Unfortunately, it's not like you can stop the train until people comply so the matter was never enforced when the original couch sitters never changed their seats. When it was time to switch sides, I offered to go back to the chair but the gentleman refused. Only then did I realize the chair could be picked up and moved when he turned his back on his own wife's drama to face the window.

One perk that also turned into an annoyance is that by being the last train car, we had a great unobstructed platform to step out onto to get photos. The annoying part is when your fellow passengers not only drag half the electronics department of Amazon out onto this small platform and set up tripods etc. taking up space but also proceed to physically block you with their bodies when you try to rotate in for your turn to take a picture. I get that everyone and their brother and their second cousin's mother creature from the black lagoon is going to want a chance to take pictures for themselves. I will always follow a rotation system in any circumstance of stepping up, taking a couple pictures of my own, then step back and let someone else get a couple pictures before taking a turn again. It's just common courtesy! On this platform, each time I'd try to step up to the railing (not coming in contact with or obstructing the other people's camera equipment), another passenger would rush over to stand in front and block me. Umm yeah sir, the back of your shirt is nice but I'd really rather not have all of my pictures be of it instead of the scenery. And of course it was a guy who could double as a linebacker in his spare time so when he stepped in front, it was impossible to get around him. There were some brief moments where he'd step back inside to get a drink or snack and I'd rush up to snap whatever pictures I could. Once he was done, he'd be back to pushing in front of me.

The foot and horse path along the side of the mountain that gold seekers used:

We stopped at the top to switch tracks for the ride back down.

When we returned to the port of Skagway at the end of the ride, there was a car waiting to drive us back to our ship's dock. However, the driver insisted we had to get out at the end of the dock and walk the rest of the way. The shuttle that was returning all of the other Grand Princess passengers from the train drove past us and all the way up to the ship. Yes, it would have been nicer to know that my original chair could turn around. And yes, the food options can't be catered to one person's tastes. Most everyone else ate like they haven't seen food for days. And yes, I can't control or help the rudeness of other passengers. But when it was all summed up, this luxury experience was definitely not worth the extra cost and to this day leaves a bad taste when I hear someone recommend taking the White Pass Scenic Railway. The views themselves however were beautiful so yes, you should experience the regular car version. If I were to go back to Skagway, I'd most assuredly be looking into one of these new combination tour options so that the train ride is not the only thing I'm doing that day.