Shore excursions in Alaska are the priciest I have, personally, done. However, HONESTLY, if I had to charge them, and spend the next year paying for them, I would. I have a group of almost 30 cabins full of family & friends cruising Alaska in 2 weeks. Our group certainly represents a wide spectrum of income brackets. My husband was one of the first to echo my feelings to our group when someone cringed over the price of the excursions. As my husband points out, it would be SUCH a shame to go to Alaska and miss something which you REALLY want to do. One good example (for my husband & I) is the first time we cruised Alaska, my husband really wanted to take the Taku Lodge Floatplane trip
www.takuglacierlodge.com/ . It was very expensive, so we debated on going. Finally, we decided to go because we weren't certain that we would ever have the opportunity to return to Alaska. Our opinion is that it was the single greatest trip we have taken!
Another "must-do" is the White Pass Railway trip in Skagway.
http://www.whitepassrailroad.com/index2.html Spectacular views!