Evening Whale Watch Juneau-

[odyzander]

:p Broken Record I know.

 

Kids club hours prevent us from taking Orca Enterprise whale watch. Harv and Marv will not take our 9 year old. I really wanted the small boat experience, so was trying to avoid cruise line excursion.Any great recommendations besides these two companies? Need one that goes out after 6pm or possible 2pm if we are back by 5.

[Budget Queen]

IF you happen to find someone, in your timeframe, you are getting a SHORTENED tour. Frankly, giving a priority to the "kids club" is a big mistake with your afternoon port arrival, in my opinion. Can't the kids, forgo this, and just go later? A good whale watch tour, would be the priority for many people, not a "kids club" with is available EVERY day of the cruise.

 

Whale watches are longer than 3 hours.

[sherryf]

:p Broken Record I know.

 

Kids club hours prevent us from taking Orca Enterprise whale watch. Harv and Marv will not take our 9 year old. I really wanted the small boat experience, so was trying to avoid cruise line excursion.Any great recommendations besides these two companies? Need one that goes out after 6pm or possible 2pm if we are back by 5.

 

Why would the kids club hours "prevent" you from doing anything? An Alaskan cruise is not about the kids club. Go whale watching and have fun as a family!

[odyzander]

Oh we are by no means prying at the door for the kids club!:D

My two youngest would get bored on a whale watch and I am unsure how the 3 year old would even react. That is a lot of $$ for a trip that could get ruined by me having to entertain. I debated leaving them on the ship together in the clubs so my DH, DS, and I could go and enjoy it.

 

It looks like perhaps it would be best if my DS and I went and met up with Dh and kiddos in Port later. Perhaps Mendenhall Glacier? Dh's main interest is the train ride in Skagway (I am taking the 3 year old so he can go with other 2) and mine is whale watching in Juneau. Now which tour would be best for an adventurous 9 year old?

[firstalaskatrip]

Not sure if they would have an evening trip, but we went with Adventures in Alaska (Scania) last summer. I would definitely recommend them highly! They have one of the longest viewing times, which I think is a big plus! It is also intermediate in size between Harv and Marv and Orca. The friend I was travelling with wanted a bigger boat than Harv and Marv, and I wanted a more personal experience, so it was a great choice for us. The boat also has a great upper deck for viewing. There were 6 people on the boat our day plus the captain and his first mate. Had a fabulous viewing - orcas, humpbacks bubble feeding, sea lions, porpoises - this obviously isn't dependent on the company and the companies seem to be good about filling each other in on any sightings. Everyone sees humpbacks and you are lucky if you see orcas or bubble feeding by the humpbacks.

 

What really impressed me though with this company was how they handled themself on our day. We spent a lot of time viewing the orcas, and we never felt rushed. However, we had actually arrived a little late due to an accident in juneau that held up traffic. Towards what would have been the end of our tour, the captain asked each person if they wanted to stay out longer to make up for this. Of course, everyone was thrilled to stay out longer since we had plenty of time to get back to the ship. The extra time he added on allowed us to go to a farther group of humpbacks bubble feeding instead of the closer group of humpbacks that were not. Both the large amount of time with the orcas and the bubble feeding were incredible experiences which I think we would have missed if we were with a company who was racing us out and back.