jillhavens

Hi. I am going on an Alaska cruise on the Eurodam in June. I am contemplating a whale watch - probably in Icy Strait Point, but maybe in Juneau. I want to know if anyone can compare it to whale watches elsewhere. I live in New England and have been on a dozen whale watches out of Provincetown and Boston. They have all been wonderful and I've always seen whales - sometimes more whales than other times. And sometimes much closer than others times. These tours, even at full summer prices, never top $75. It's hard for me to picture how a whale watch in Alaska at 2.5 or 3 times that price is worth it - particularly if it's not much different. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the experience will be all that different than whale watching in New England? Thanks!

Thank you everybody for all this advice. I think I will not do a Mendenhall glacier excursion and just get my glacier fix via glacier Bay!

I am going on an Alaska cruise on the Eurodam in June. One of our days will be spent sailing through Glacier Bay. Another day we will be in Juneau and there are shore excursion options that visit the Mendenhall glacier - some by car, some by boat and some by kayak. It doesn't look like you get terribly close to the glacier on any of those. My question is: Since we will be sailing through Glacier Bay the following day, and presumably the ship will get semi-near the glaciers, does doing a tour to the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau let us experience glaciers in a much better. deeper, closer or richer way than we will from the ship? If not, then I will pick an excursion that doesn't involve the Mendenhall Glacier. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with this? Thanks!