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Published: September 29th 2008
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Skagway Sign
Sign celebraiting100 years of Skaway. Park as you enter town from ships Skagway Alaska, Thursday, August 8, 2008
As part of our cruise seven of us wanted to do the Klondike bike tour offered by Sockeye Cycle. Twice I called about the bikes and types that they rent as I have some disability with my left hand and need some accommodation. I wasn’t able to get any clear answers and they really made me feel like I was bothering them. Neither respondent told me that they have tandem bicycles to rent that could be solution to my problem. When I called the second time I wanted to book the trip directly with them but they told me I had to do it on-line they couldn’t take phone reservations. I then filled out the on-line form and sent it in. Seven days later, the night before we were leaving on the trip I received an email from Sockeye Cycle saying I would have to book the trip through my cruise line. On our ship the Volendam we were informed they don’t offer the Sockeye Cycle’s Klondike bike tour. When the ship arrived in Skagway we walked to the shop to find out about booking the trip for seven. The bike repairperson that was serving
Skagway from ship
The view down State Street. the counter that morning had to be the same hostile individual I spoke to when I called from home. I had to play “twenty questions” to get any information with his single word responses. We were able to discern from his answers that we were going to have to separate into two groups.We then tried to book as two groups and discovered that one group could take one person and the other group could take four. He obviously didn’t realize that 1+4 = 5 not 7. If he had just told us up front that they didn’t have room for seven people it would have made the whole experience less painful. The Sockeye Cycle Company is unfortunately the only show in town for bike rentals. When you experience poor service you have nowhere else to go in Skagway. I guess they figure that when you deal with cruise ship passengers that are only passing through you’ll never see them again therefore customer service does not matter.
After our disappointment at the bike shop we began to explore this interesting town. The other communities we visited in Alaska have a very industrial feel while Skagway is an historic looking town.
Yakutania Point
View of fjord from point. The main thoroughfare State Street has wonderful appeal with the colorful historic buildings. This is one of Alaska’s oldest communities even though it is barely one hundred years old. The National Park service has worked hard to restore and maintain these buildings as they would have appeared a century ago. We walked to Yakutania Point a nice woodland trail behind the airport and enjoyed the views of this fjord. In the afternoon we watched the movie and took the historical narrated walk provided by the National Park Service.
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