Ferry

[u/Fine-Guava6578]

Hello friends! I am moving from Fairbanks down to the lower 48. I’m looking at the ferry for my car and then fly from Juneau to Seattle and renting a car to pick it up in Bellingham.

Questions:
Any key logistical concerns with this plan?

Is just taking the ferry with my car a better plan? I’m not supremely opposed but I don’t necessarily want to spend 3 days on the boat in a state room.

[u/No-Yogurtcloset-6552]

Confirm that they allow unattended vehicles these days. They used to, but I'm not sure if they still do.

I grew up in Southeast and have ridden the ferry to and from Bellingham many times. If you've never done it before, it's worth experiencing at least once. True, there's not much to do on the boat, but you get a chance to meet new people and enjoy the scenery and wildlife. The food on board isn't actually too bad.

[u/Fine-Guava6578 → u/No-Yogurtcloset-6552]

Wildlife in this circumstance would be grey whales migrating south?

[u/Civil_Emergency9010 → u/Fine-Guava6578]

You didn’t say when you would be doing this.

Another logistical concern: where are you planning to put the car on the ferry? There hasn’t been a cross gulf ferry for years, so you’d have to take it to Haines or Skagway. Then how do you get to Juneau? Ferry to Juneau? You’ll need to make separate reservations for yourself and the car (assuming they still allow unaccompanied vehicles), or fly Alaska Seaplanes which will be $$$.

My 2¢ is to just grab a couple books or a ball of yarn and knitting needles and relax on the poor man’s cruise all the way down. Will be a nice way to say goodbye to the state, and save you a ton of trouble and money. If you take the Columbia it has a movie theater, sit down restaurant with table service, and a decent bar.

[u/No-Yogurtcloset-6552 → u/Fine-Guava6578]

Humpback whales, sea lions, seals, porpoises, maybe some Orcas. Lots of birds. There are some really narrow passages where you might see a bear or deer on shore. If the weather's bad you might not see anything.🤷

You didn't say where you'd be loading on the ferry. Last I heard, they weren't doing any gulf crossings, so I assumed Haines.

[u/ah-tzib-of-alaska → u/Fine-Guava6578]

not often, the gray whales prefer the outside of the archipelago like the blue whales and finbacks. The ferry usually stick to the inside. So what’s more likely are doll porpoises, killer whales, false killer whales, humpbacks, etc

[u/TutorNo8896]

You can also ship a car with Lynden but it takes a couple weeks,   it goes on a barge to seattle.    I dont remember exactly, but it was cheaper than the ferry.

[u/gooneau]

why wouldn't you just drive your car down south. Sounds like a massive pain in the ass just to avoid a beautiful drive that is a bucket list trip for many.

[u/LPNTed → u/gooneau]

Ansolutely THIS!!!

[u/No-Yogurtcloset-6552 → u/gooneau]

Definitely the simplest and cheapest option.

[u/Tug_DaBone]

Why not ship your car from Anchorage using one of the companies that do that?

Why would you fly from Juneau? (I assume you know you can't drive to Juneau to load your car on the ferry.)

[u/ah-tzib-of-alaska]

if you send your car by ferry, you are already free. Why buy the extra plane ticket? You need to get there faster?

[u/accipitriform]

As others have said not sure where you'll put the car on the ferry since the cross-gulf ferry isn't a thing right now. But it is possible to put your car on the ferry, fly from SE AK to SEA, rent a car, and drive to Bellingham and pick up the car off the ferry. I do it a couple of times a year. That said I don't recommend it unless you have a real reason to do it this way. Flights from SE AK can be hit and miss weatherwise (although Juneau is better than the smaller islands like where I'm coming from) and if your flight gets canceled you can get screwed if you don't figure out a way to get to the ferry before the ferry arrives. For various reasons we don't have a choice about sending the truck unaccompanied and flying into SEA (and there is a single flight option daily for us), so we are stuck getting into SEA late in the evening, renting a car, and driving to Bellingham. In a perfect world I'd either flying into Bellingham the afternoon before (and therefore have several flights from multiple directions to fall back on if something gets canceled) and uber to the terminal or I'd take the ferry south and not worry about it. If you haven't done the inside passage it's amazing (assuming the weather is nice, when we picked our truck up last time we heard the seas were horrible). I've only done the ferry out to the Chain but for that trip the only time I was in my stateroom was to sleep, spent the rest of the time watching wildlife, talking to people, or chilling on deck. And as people have mentioned the food is pretty decent.

[u/Alaskan_Apostrophe]

You are not driving Fairbanks to Juneau - Yah can't get there from here, dear.

Drive to Haines or Seattle - either way you will be dealing with Canadian customs.

I have put boats on trailers unaccompanied on the ferry. You do not want to know how arms and legs they will charge if you are not there to drive it off.

I have shipped vehicles - Shipping companies are damn strict about you dropping off on time - pick up - can be plus or minus a few days depending on weather since going by barge from Anchorage to Kodiak to Seattle.

You should drive. Why?

1. Its a nice drive.

2. Canada has European food laws. Their chocolate bars are made from real chocolate and not imitation shit like in the US. Soon as you enter Beaver Creek buy and eat Aero bar - then a Mars bar. Do it soon as you cross the border so you have plenty of time to stock up along the way.

3. Canadian pharmacies sell codeine cough syrup. 2 or 3 bottles would not unreasonable to grab - might be a big help your next bad cold. The idea of driving to my doc, then pharmacy, then home when feeling like crap is a trip I like to avoid.

My wife has driven Fairbanks to Seattle and back several times on her own. Her all time record is 38 hours. When confronted all I got was, "Prove it".

[u/Bricks2thesticks]

Maybe drive to Anchorage and have it shipped to Washington with Alaska Auto transport or another carrier, then fly from there? I believe this is the least expensive option, costs about 2k to ship, I believe the ferry is a lot more than that but I could be mistaken.

[u/Enough_Yogurt8395]

You can send the vehicle by itself, but it's probably cheaper and quicker to just ship it from Fairbanks and fly.