Kenai Fjords Boat Trips

[jannandjohn]

You take this tour from Seward. Have you checked out the web page for Seward or Alaska.Org or the National Park Service? There is also Exit Glacier and Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. Kenai Fjords tour operators are Kenai Fjords Tours, Major Marine Tours, and Renown Tours. We did HAL and as I remember the tour was probably 4 hours which I thought was long enough. We saw wildlife, glaciers, whales. goats, puffins, etc. If it is a beautiful day you may wish you had stayed longer but if it is rainy and cold you will be happy to have the shorter tour. On the four hour tour you will get some great pictures and a snack but I think some of the longer tours include a meal of some kind.

THANKS for the constructive info, 4 hrs sounds long enough to me., it's more a trip for my man, he's the boat lover. (ships are more me;))

[Chenega]

The longer trips do take passengers up to the face of one of the active calving glaciers (Aialik, Holgate, or Northwestern) which the 4 hour bay trips do not. The direct number is 1-877-777-4051 or 907-224-8068.

 

The name Kenai Fjords refers to the fact that the national park is located on the Kenai Peninsula rather than close to the town of Kenai. As others have stated, park headquarters and tours all run out of the town of Seward which is about a 2.5 hour drive south of Anchorage. You can get there by private car, bus, or the Alaska Railroad.

[DD]

And there are a fair number of these bay boat tours, that see little if any wildlife. Your list, is the exception.

 

I am never going to "recommend" it for any "wildlife" priority.

 

I'm going to agree with FrugalTraveler -- We did a bay tour because the weather was too rough to get out of the bay. We saw TONS of wildlife. It was a highlight of our cruise & land experience. The only place we saw more wildlife was in Denali!

[fleckle]

Budget Queen, who has taken these cruises numerous times, knows what she is talking about. The longer Kenai Fjords cruises are significantly superior to the bay cruises.

 

Having done both ourselves, we found that even though scenery and wildlife may be seen on a shorter cruise that stays inside the bay, the sightings there pale by comparison to the truly spectacular scenery and wildlife seen on the longer trips that take you out around the Chiswell Islands and up into the fjords.

 

But, as repeatedly emphasized, it is important to take precautions for the longer trips if you are at all prone to seasickness.

[mapleleaves]

i have attempted the Kenai cruise 3 times over the yrs and only made it to the glacier once; the other 2 times we didn't leave the Bay because the seas were too rough to continue. Since I live in the Pacific NW the scenery and wildlife in the Bay wasn't anything new so it was a disappointment (otters, seals, bald eagles, etc ). I got a partial refund both times but it was a wasted few hours. The one day that we made to the glacier was incredible; we saw whales, heard and saw the glacier calving! Just fantastic. Would LOVE to do it again.

Note to myself for future Kenai cruises.... when the office staff says there's a chance the ship MAY NOT make it out of the Bay, take the full refund. They KNOW if the ship will make it or not; they're in constant communication with other ships so they know the conditions of the sea. So if they say MAY NOT, it won't, and if it does, the sea is probably too rough for me to enjoy the trip. I'm a fair weather passenger. Also, on my next trip I'll try a cruise out of Whittier as well as the Kenai cruise.

[Chenega]

The Prince William Sound cruises are much less likely to have weather cancellations since most of the waters of the sound are protected from the open ocean.

[mytime53]

so I sent a couple of emails asking questions to

 

info@kenaifjords.com

 

no reply..so why have it as their contact?

 

I know it is frustrating to not have your emails answered right away, as I have been in that position. However, it isn't always the business' fault. Sometimes whatever server they're using is not configured to work well with whatever server your email goes through, or vice versa. I know this from our experiences traveling and just trying to communicate with our children, who we know are home and replying to our emails.

 

Modern technology is truly wonderful, but sometimes it lets us down.

[vbmom87]

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

 

We went on the 9 hour Northwestern Fjord tour. Yes, it got rough out there the day we went. Waves were 7-8 feet high. The boat was literally rocking, rolling and crashing down on the waves. If you were not seasick, it felt like an amusement park ride. If you were seasick, you were quite miserable.

 

I did this tour the day we disembarked from the cruiseship. I had been on one Bonine each night of the cruise. I still became queasy on several occasions on the Kenai Fjord Tour. However, I took two ginger roots capsules at the first sign of queasiness and nipped it in the bud right away. I have been dreadfully seasick in the past, so I was thrilled that I was able to stay one step ahead of being miserable.

 

Speak with your doctor and come up with a plan for you if you want to take this tour. It is definitely well worth it if you are interested in wildlife.

[babygirl722]

I took a float plane tour...no sea sickness there and beautiful even in the rain.

 

 

Which tour company did you use for this?

[NancyIL]

After our Princess cruise ended in Whittier, we went on the 6-hour Kenai Fjords cruise with Renown...a week later. After our HAL cruise ended in Seward, we went on a 6-hour PWS cruise through Esther Passage... a week later! (I wasn't interested in doing a 6-hour boat tour immediately after a week on a cruise ship!) Both times the weather was rainy and foggy, and it was hard to see any wildlife - unless it was right next to the boat. On both cruises the glaciers were beautiful - especially the Aialik Glacier on the KF cruise.

[frugaltravel]

I'm going to agree with FrugalTraveler -- We did a bay tour because the weather was too rough to get out of the bay. We saw TONS of wildlife.

 

Agreed.

 

Budget Queen, who has taken these cruises numerous times, knows what she is talking about. The longer Kenai Fjords cruises are significantly superior to the bay cruises.

 

Having done both ourselves, we found that even though scenery and wildlife may be seen on a shorter cruise that stays inside the bay, the sightings there pale by comparison to the truly spectacular scenery and wildlife seen on the longer trips that take you out around the Chiswell Islands and up into the fjords.

 

But, as repeatedly emphasized, it is important to take precautions for the longer trips if you are at all prone to seasickness.

 

Budget Queen is not the only one who has taken these cruises numerous times :). Her comment about "no point" in the bay cruises is completely inaccurate. She admits that she has never taken one and apparently her captain friend is not as familiar with the bay as she might realize.

 

Having said that, I totally agree that the 6 or 9 hour Kenai Fjords tours are much better than the bay cruises. But one DOES see a lot of wildlife on the bay cruises.

[Budget Queen]

 

 

 

apparently her captain friend is not as familiar with the bay as she might realize.

 

QUOTE]

 

Really???? He is a 10+++ year cpt with the same Seward company. Chenega would probably know him, but I am not going to get into any more debates and certainly am not going to identify him.

 

Choose the trips as you wish.

[frugaltravel]

Really???? He is a 10+++ year cpt with the same Seward company. Chenega would probably know him, but I am not going to get into any more debates and certainly am not going to identify him.

 

Choose the trips as you wish.

 

No debates here. Just saying that if your "no point" in the bay cruises comment is based on your interaction with this person (as you said so earlier in this thread), something is obviously not right. In any case, if his bay cruises see so little wildlife I certainly would never want to take a bay cruise with this captain.

 

I will continue to challenge you on your "no point" comments in future threads :)