Ketchikan was our last stop on the Princess Cruise and this was unfortunately probably the most disappointing excursion that we booked. Typical Ketchikan weather aside (downpour in September) the tour itself indeed felt as if we fell into an overpriced tourist trap. I checked some other websites and it turns out if you did an independent tour of the place it would only be $5/person admission. Through Princess we paid about $54 but that included transportation along with a "The Clan House Tour & Native Dancing Show". Definitely not worth ~$49 extra. Oh well... you live and you learn.

My SO and I sat on the smallest bus and waited for the other 2 large coach buses seating 100 more enthusiastic tourists take off to the village 15 minutes away from the cruise port. Not quite the "intimate" experience they were marketing on the shore excursions website. We shuffled into what looked like an auditorium and one of the native Tlingit members greeted us. He taught us some phrases then proceeded to show us a 30 minute DVD introduction to the culture. They combined the groups from the Princess Cruise and Holland America line so there were so many people I can't imagine the people in the back heard very well. Similarly when we went into the Beaver shaped clan meeting house we had to sit all the way in the back while they performed the half-hearted dance. (I'm sure they do this several times during the day but it just looked like they were going through the motions.)

Afterwards we stood outside in the pouring rain for about 20 minutes as our bus tour guides told us about the specific totem poles that they have on display. The stories were nice, but we were all wet and uncomfortable. I know nothing they could have had control over. I couldn't wait to get into our last stop the carving station. Again my shortness proved challenging to see what was going on as they crammed 60+ people inside. We asked the Master Carver and the other carvers about the projects.

Overall it was interesting learning about the native culture, but definitely not worth the price that we paid through the cruise.