Whale Watching in Juneau with Princess

[fireflymd]

We will be cruising on the Coral Princess in Alaska in late July. I have booked the excursion, Whales, Bears & Glaciers tour in Juneau because I definitely want to see the whales, and I'm also hoping to see bears as well. The glacier is not so important to me, since we'll be landing on a glacier at McKinley, and we'll also be landing on a glacier to do the Dog Sledding in Skagway.

 

I'm wondering if we will see bears on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali, so that I might skip this excursion and choose one of the other whale watching excursions?

 

If you have done the Whales, Bears & Glaciers excursion, was it worth the amount of time and expense? One of the things that appeals to me about this excursion is the small number of people involved.

 

Which other whale watching excursions in Juneau (booked through Princess) did you enjoy and why?

[Keith1010]

You may want to note what week/month you are taking the cruise.

 

Keith

[Budget Queen]

Your two "glacier" flights (assuming a flight out of Talkeetna and not a helicopter out of Denali??) actually are way more snow based, with you not likely having access to "ice' which you would get with a regular glacier helicopter landing.

 

Yes you are likely to see brown bears on a Tundra Wilderness tour, which is the shortest distance you need to consider. IF you want to up your sightings, then you are going to have to decide IF you are willing to make some independent plans? You would have an opportunity to get past the TWT to at least Eielson which is major bear habitat. Princess, in the past did refund this triple cost tour, if of any interest do consider this. You are best to arrange this on your own, independently direct. BUT, these are half size brown bears, nonsalmon diet. Your booked tour out of Juneau, flys you to Hoonah, where you have a very good chance of seeing the larger browns, and salmon feeding. Humpbacks are seen 100% of the trips.

[tmitchell82]

We will be cruising on the Coral Princess in Alaska in late July. I have booked the excursion, Whales, Bears & Glaciers tour in Juneau because I definitely want to see the whales, and I'm also hoping to see bears as well. The glacier is not so important to me, since we'll be landing on a glacier at McKinley, and we'll also be landing on a glacier to do the Dog Sledding in Skagway.

 

I'm wondering if we will see bears on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali, so that I might skip this excursion and choose one of the other whale watching excursions?

 

If you have done the Whales, Bears & Glaciers excursion, was it worth the amount of time and expense? One of the things that appeals to me about this excursion is the small number of people involved.

 

Which other whale watching excursions in Juneau (booked through Princess) did you enjoy and why?

 

We did the Whale Watching and Photo Safari through Princess back in June. Basically whale watching and then a short hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. They said we might see bears on the hike, but no luck. Only place we saw bears was on the rail trip from Denali to Whittier. Many folks who did the TWT said they saw many bears. If you really want to see the whales in Juneau, then I would go with a tour that just does that. The more time on the water the better. We spent more time that on the water due to the number of whales we saw (even got to see a double breech) which left less time at Mendenhall which was fine with me. We looked at Princess and private tours in Juneau for the whales. Cost was basically the same. We did the photo one because I like taking photos. Heard many good things from others about Harv & Marvs.

 

BTW - the glacier landing at McKinley is awesome. We did it while at Princess's Denali Lodge out of Healy.

 

Tim

[Budget Queen]

We did the Whale Watching and Photo Safari through Princess back in June. Basically whale watching and then a short hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. They said we might see bears on the hike, but no luck. Only place we saw bears was on the rail trip from Denali to Whittier. Many folks who did the TWT said they saw many bears. If you really want to see the whales in Juneau, then I would go with a tour that just does that. The more time on the water the better. We spent more time that on the water due to the number of whales we saw (even got to see a double breech) which left less time at Mendenhall which was fine with me. We looked at Princess and private tours in Juneau for the whales. Cost was basically the same. We did the photo one because I like taking photos. Heard many good things from others about Harv & Marvs.

 

BTW - the glacier landing at McKinley is awesome. We did it while at Princess's Denali Lodge out of Healy.

 

Tim

 

This is not the tour they are referring to, and bears are usually seen out of Honah. For clarification, your "glacier landing" was via helicopter? Then is wasn't a landing on McKinley. Not sure what "at" McKinley is, could be the general area, which is one BIG place. :)

[frugaltravel]

BUT, these are half size brown bears, nonsalmon diet. Your booked tour out of Juneau, flys you to Hoonah, where you have a very good chance of seeing the larger browns, and salmon feeding.

 

Granted, the bears in Denali are smaller than those on the salmon diet along the coast. But to call them "half-size" is a bit extreme. My guess is that the OP would be very happy to see one of these "half size" grizzlies relatively close in Denali. I too strongly recommend switching from the Tundra Tour to an Eielson shuttle. Just those extra 5 miles (from Stony Overlook at Mile 61 to Eielson at Mile 66) is prime bear habitat. You need two nights at Denali Princess though to make this work.

[Budget Queen]

Granted, the bears in Denali are smaller than those on the salmon diet along the coast. But to call them "half-size" is a bit extreme. My guess is that the OP would be very happy to see one of these "half size" grizzlies relatively close in Denali. I too strongly recommend switching from the Tundra Tour to an Eielson shuttle. Just those extra 5 miles (from Stony Overlook at Mile 61 to Eielson at Mile 66) is prime bear habitat. You need two nights at Denali Princess though to make this work.

 

Just an ideal description. :) Many people associate Alaska bears with those impressive photos, in rivers with bears with salmon in their mouths. Only clarifying that Denali isn't that. It certainly is very worthwhile, you and I know that having visited there. It is the bargain wildlife "tour" of Alaska.

[fireflymd]

Your two "glacier" flights (assuming a flight out of Talkeetna and not a helicopter out of Denali??) actually are way more snow based, with you not likely having access to "ice' which you would get with a regular glacier helicopter landing.

 

Yes you are likely to see brown bears on a Tundra Wilderness tour, which is the shortest distance you need to consider. IF you want to up your sightings, then you are going to have to decide IF you are willing to make some independent plans? You would have an opportunity to get past the TWT to at least Eielson which is major bear habitat. Princess, in the past did refund this triple cost tour, if of any interest do consider this. You are best to arrange this on your own, independently direct. BUT, these are half size brown bears, nonsalmon diet. Your booked tour out of Juneau, flys you to Hoonah, where you have a very good chance of seeing the larger browns, and salmon feeding. Humpbacks are seen 100% of the trips.

 

The Whales, Bears & Glaciers excursion does not land on a glacier--after the whale watch and the bears tour there is a 30 min flightseeing tour over the glaciers. I'm still debating whether I need another flight during our excursions. We'll be on a fixed wing plane for the McKinley Glacier Explorer excursion, a floatplane for the Denali Ultimate Hike & Flight, and a helicopter for the Dog Sledding in Skagway.

 

We did the Whale Watching and Photo Safari through Princess back in June. Basically whale watching and then a short hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. They said we might see bears on the hike, but no luck. Only place we saw bears was on the rail trip from Denali to Whittier. Many folks who did the TWT said they saw many bears. If you really want to see the whales in Juneau, then I would go with a tour that just does that. The more time on the water the better. We spent more time that on the water due to the number of whales we saw (even got to see a double breech) which left less time at Mendenhall which was fine with me. We looked at Princess and private tours in Juneau for the whales. Cost was basically the same. We did the photo one because I like taking photos. Heard many good things from others about Harv & Marvs.

 

BTW - the glacier landing at McKinley is awesome. We did it while at Princess's Denali Lodge out of Healy.

 

Tim

 

Tim, thank you so much for your response! I was looking at the Whale Watch and Photo Safari as well, because I love to take pictures, too. The Whales, Bears & Glaciers excursion includes 2 1/2 hours for whale watching. I'm hoping that's enough time.

 

I hear consistently positive things about the McKinley glacier landing, so I'm excited about that. We're doing ours out of Talkeetna on the day we arrive.

 

I may post this question as well in the Princess forums. I'm trying to figure out if it is worth the cost of yet another flightseeing excursion; although the possibility of seeing the bears keeps me interested.

 

I really appreciate hearing about your experience with your excursion.

[tmitchell82]

The Whales, Bears & Glaciers excursion does not land on a glacier--after the whale watch and the bears tour there is a 30 min flightseeing tour over the glaciers. I'm still debating whether I need another flight during our excursions. We'll be on a fixed wing plane for the McKinley Glacier Explorer excursion, a floatplane for the Denali Ultimate Hike & Flight, and a helicopter for the Dog Sledding in Skagway.

 

 

 

Tim, thank you so much for your response! I was looking at the Whale Watch and Photo Safari as well, because I love to take pictures, too. The Whales, Bears & Glaciers excursion includes 2 1/2 hours for whale watching. I'm hoping that's enough time.

 

I hear consistently positive things about the McKinley glacier landing, so I'm excited about that. We're doing ours out of Talkeetna on the day we arrive.

 

I may post this question as well in the Princess forums. I'm trying to figure out if it is worth the cost of yet another flightseeing excursion; although the possibility of seeing the bears keeps me interested.

 

I really appreciate hearing about your experience with your excursion.

 

I will say one thing about the photo part of the excursion. If you know your way around your camera (e.g. you don't normally shoot in auto) the info about photograph was very basic (explaining aperture and shutter speed), but I was able to talk with the guide about more specific questions or recommendations I could do. I only came back with over 2800 pictures :D.....

 

If you are really interested in another flightseeing tour and bears, you might want to consider going to Anan Creek in Ketchikan. Apparently you get right up close to the bears catching fish. We have it booked through Island Wings when we are there next year. There is also a flightseeing tour to Misty Fjords out of Ketchikan which we did and loved as well. There are pictures and video on the various links on my signature for the flightseeing. The next trick when you go flightseeing is getting to sit up front next to the pilot. That was awesome.

 

Tim

[tmitchell82]

This is not the tour they are referring to, and bears are usually seen out of Honah. For clarification, your "glacier landing" was via helicopter? Then is wasn't a landing on McKinley. Not sure what "at" McKinley is, could be the general area, which is one BIG place. :)

 

We were on a plane out of Healy. We landed on the Ruth Glacier. I think the list the tours as flightseeing near McKinley with a glacier landing. It is definitely a big place. Don't think I would be up for landing anyplace that is 10000ft above sea level or higher.

[fireflymd]

We were on a plane out of Healy. We landed on the Ruth Glacier. I think the list the tours as flightseeing near McKinley with a glacier landing. It is definitely a big place. Don't think I would be up for landing anyplace that is 10000ft above sea level or higher.

 

Tim, I really enjoyed watching your videos! They were a nice prelude to our vacation--nice insights into what the trip will be like. You and your wife did very similar things to those we have planned, and we will be on the same ship, the Coral Princess. We are also doing the land tour before the cruise.

 

Your videos made me smile, laugh (love the Star Wars beginning) and I was in awe of the beauty you captured. I had to laugh when you mentioned hiking after an extremely long day of travel because we're doing the same thing.

 

You had some gorgeous days there! I'm fully prepared for the overcast and rainy ones. I am still not sure if I should stick with the whale excursion I booked, or just do the whale excursion with the trip to Mendenhall Glacier. Wonderful dilemma to have!

 

The only thing I'm not thrilled with, is our travel agent booked us a flight which gets into Anchorage at 1:00 AM--and the motorcoach leaves for Talkeetna at 9:00 AM for a 3 1/2 hour ride. The earliest flight I could find arrives at 10:00 PM--not sure if 3 hours would make that big of a difference, but I'm curious to know how other Princess passengers managed this. It sounds like the motorcoach will be comfortable enough to sleep in, but if not, we can deal.

 

Thanks again for posting, and sharing your videos--I really appreciate it.

[tommycha]

We took the whale watch and mendenhall glacier tour from Princess for our Juneau shore excursion, and it was GREAT!

 

We manage to sight a few whales during our morn whale watching cruise (Allen marine) followed by a stop at mendenhall glacier for free and easy hike.

 

It was a wonderful day and we even have time to go back to downtown Juneau for shopping :)

[fireflymd]

We took the whale watch and mendenhall glacier tour from Princess for our Juneau shore excursion, and it was GREAT!

 

We manage to sight a few whales during our morn whale watching cruise (Allen marine) followed by a stop at mendenhall glacier for free and easy hike.

 

It was a wonderful day and we even have time to go back to downtown Juneau for shopping :)

 

 

Thanks, tommycha. I have many months to make the final decision but I enjoy hearing others' experiences.

[tommycha]

Hi fireflymd,

 

It is good to compare and evaluate your options :)

 

We have just written on our shore excursion experience at Ketchikan on the neets bay bear watching cruise.

 

Will be working on the Juneau cruise excursion soon.

Do check out our full review when it is ready. :)

[tmitchell82]

Tim, I really enjoyed watching your videos! They were a nice prelude to our vacation--nice insights into what the trip will be like. You and your wife did very similar things to those we have planned, and we will be on the same ship, the Coral Princess. We are also doing the land tour before the cruise.

 

Your videos made me smile, laugh (love the Star Wars beginning) and I was in awe of the beauty you captured. I had to laugh when you mentioned hiking after an extremely long day of travel because we're doing the same thing.

 

You had some gorgeous days there! I'm fully prepared for the overcast and rainy ones. I am still not sure if I should stick with the whale excursion I booked, or just do the whale excursion with the trip to Mendenhall Glacier. Wonderful dilemma to have!

 

The only thing I'm not thrilled with, is our travel agent booked us a flight which gets into Anchorage at 1:00 AM--and the motorcoach leaves for Talkeetna at 9:00 AM for a 3 1/2 hour ride. The earliest flight I could find arrives at 10:00 PM--not sure if 3 hours would make that big of a difference, but I'm curious to know how other Princess passengers managed this. It sounds like the motorcoach will be comfortable enough to sleep in, but if not, we can deal.

 

Thanks again for posting, and sharing your videos--I really appreciate it.

 

Yeah, flying to Alaska was long. We had to flying from Chicago to Dallas and Dallas to Anchorage which was 7 hours and there was the time change of 4 hours and the fact it was still light at 10:30. It was a LONG day (and I can't sleep on planes). If you could swing getting to Anchorage earlier I would do it, even the day before. We had to have out luggage ready to be picked up at 6:30am or something like that, so we had to be up and going at that time. They don't mention it, but it is possible to bring a small carry on bag on the bus. They will put it in the luggage area. The rest of your luggage gets trucked to the Lodge. The bus ride was fine. Typical coach bus and some did sleep. I could not since I wanted to watch everything. Granted, the coffee in the morning helped.

 

Are you going the hike at McKinley Lodge? Which one? We really enjoyed ours and we needed to get out.

 

You could easily do a full whale watching excursion in Juneau and then do the Mendenhall Glacier on your own. That was our initial thought and I had contacted a few private operators who were willing to drop us off at the glacier after the tour. Would have had to make it back on our own and I think there was a shuttle you can catch back to the pier/town. We are planning on taking the shuttle to the glacier when we go next year to do some hiking there.

 

I will say, Juneau is a good place for whales, but we saw them in a number of other places from the ship. Some far away, others not. Binoculars were a big help. We saw a lot of whales when we went to the Hubbard Glacier.

 

Tim

[fireflymd]

Hi fireflymd,

 

It is good to compare and evaluate your options :)

 

We have just written on our shore excursion experience at Ketchikan on the neets bay bear watching cruise.

 

Will be working on the Juneau cruise excursion soon.

Do check out our full review when it is ready. :)

 

Thanks, tommycha. I really love to see others excursion experiences.

 

Yeah, flying to Alaska was long. We had to flying from Chicago to Dallas and Dallas to Anchorage which was 7 hours and there was the time change of 4 hours and the fact it was still light at 10:30. It was a LONG day (and I can't sleep on planes). If you could swing getting to Anchorage earlier I would do it, even the day before. We had to have out luggage ready to be picked up at 6:30am or something like that, so we had to be up and going at that time. They don't mention it, but it is possible to bring a small carry on bag on the bus. They will put it in the luggage area. The rest of your luggage gets trucked to the Lodge. The bus ride was fine. Typical coach bus and some did sleep. I could not since I wanted to watch everything. Granted, the coffee in the morning helped.

 

Are you going the hike at McKinley Lodge? Which one? We really enjoyed ours and we needed to get out.

 

You could easily do a full whale watching excursion in Juneau and then do the Mendenhall Glacier on your own. That was our initial thought and I had contacted a few private operators who were willing to drop us off at the glacier after the tour. Would have had to make it back on our own and I think there was a shuttle you can catch back to the pier/town. We are planning on taking the shuttle to the glacier when we go next year to do some hiking there.

 

I will say, Juneau is a good place for whales, but we saw them in a number of other places from the ship. Some far away, others not. Binoculars were a big help. We saw a lot of whales when we went to the Hubbard Glacier.

 

Tim

 

Our total flight time to Anchorage will be almost 12 hours (including a one hour layover). We will arrive in Anchorage airport at 1 am. My DH booked the flight through the travel agent--had I known better, I would definitely have questioned earlier flights, and possibly arriving a day ahead of time. The tickets are "non-refundable" but we are going to meet with him anyway to see if there is anything that can be done.

 

After we get to Talkeetna (3 1/2 hour motorcoach that same morning) we are doing the Glacier Landing Explorer on Ruth Glacier (loved seeing your video of this); afterwards we take the Princess shuttle to the McKinley Wilderness Lodge; the next day I have planned the Ultimate Denali Hike and Flight! Hopefully, we'll survive these action-packed days. My kids are teenagers, so I think they'll really enjoy it.

 

How exciting that you are going back! I am really looking forward to this vacation.

[tmitchell82]

 

After we get to Talkeetna (3 1/2 hour motorcoach that same morning) we are doing the Glacier Landing Explorer on Ruth Glacier (loved seeing your video of this); afterwards we take the Princess shuttle to the McKinley Wilderness Lodge; the next day I have planned the Ultimate Denali Hike and Flight! Hopefully, we'll survive these action-packed days. My kids are teenagers, so I think they'll really enjoy it.

 

How exciting that you are going back! I am really looking forward to this vacation.

 

Your 2 days sound like a couple of our days on the land tour. Going and going. I think we ended up eating dinner after 9pm each day. The landing on the Ruth Glacier in the video is actually around 7:30pm. It was actually nice to get to the ship and be able to relax. Ultimate Denali Hike and Flight sounds like fun. So much to see and do in Alaska, which is why we are going back.