Glacier Excursion from Tracy Arm Fjord ?

[LoveByrds]

Hello!

A few years back when we were on the Golden Princess i noticed that our cruise ship stopped in the Tracy Arm Fjord, and some sort of ferry/boat pulled up alongside and passengers appeared to board the ferryboat from the cruise ship. I think they were going to get a closer look at the glacier and am really interested in finding out more about this excursion. But i haven't been able to find any excursions like this.

 

We will be sailing the Ruby in September and I think this would be a fun excursion!

 

Does anyone know what this excursion is called and how to find out more?

[mcarlsem]

when looking up your excursions thru your booking number look up tracy arm it a $200 excursion I am planning on doing that. if ruby doesn't do tracy arm then I wont have it

[peety3]

Hello!

A few years back when we were on the Golden Princess i noticed that our cruise ship stopped in the Tracy Arm Fjord, and some sort of ferry/boat pulled up alongside and passengers appeared to board the ferryboat from the cruise ship. I think they were going to get a closer look at the glacier and am really interested in finding out more about this excursion. But i haven't been able to find any excursions like this.

 

We will be sailing the Ruby in September and I think this would be a fun excursion!

 

Does anyone know what this excursion is called and how to find out more?

Go into your Cruise Personalizer and look at the Excursions. You should see a listing within the itinerary for Tracy Arm like the other port stops. Within that, you should see just one excursion, TA1-660 I believe. It's a $200 excursion that, for DW, my parents and I, has remained as the best excursion across all that we've done on four cruises.

 

Although Allen Marine operates this and lists it on their website, you can only book it through the ship. There's a pre-staging area in the theater and you'll need ship excursion tickets to enter. From there, you're led down to the tender platform and onto the excursion boat. The excursion boat brings you to the cruise ship in Juneau. For what I've seen on Ruby itineraries, the tour gets back to the Ruby around 1:00, so 30 minutes after the ship has docked in Juneau. I'd plan on being "tied up" until at least 1:30 though.

 

If you don't see it there, it's possible that the excursion has sold out and any waiting list is so long that there's no chance of you getting the excursion.

[zookiebird]

We did this excursion on our HAL cruise in 2014. One of the highlights of our trip. You really get up close and personal to the area. We loved it.

[LoveByrds]

Thank you all for your assistance! I will go check out the excusions right now. It was so helpful to have the ID/number and price provided so i can try and filter the excursions. :)

Hopefully it isn't sold out - it seems you all had a great time!

[zookiebird]

Another suggestion - when we got back from Tracy Arm to our ship in Juneau we had time to take the tram up Mt. Roberts. The terminal was an easy walk from our ship and the views up top were spectacular. You're going to love Alaska. It truly is incredible.

[peety3]

Thank you all for your assistance! I will go check out the excusions right now. It was so helpful to have the ID/number and price provided so i can try and filter the excursions. :)

Hopefully it isn't sold out - it seems you all had a great time!

You won't need to filter anything out - it will be the only excursion offered in Tracy Arm. :)

 

If you'd like to experience it vicariously, take a look at our photos from last year:

Photos from this particular excursion are BECA-BFAB.

[Budget Queen]

With some cruise lines, it's listed under Juneau excursions. Also they may not run this tour option on some Sept. sailings. Depends on the time.

[xlxo]

check out this link...

http://www.princess.com/excursion/exDetails.do?t=A&exType=S&tourCode=TA1-665

 

• if interested... book early, these mid-ocean Tracy transfers sell out before departure
  
• by transfering mid-ocean you save 50 miles of not needing to retrace from Juneau. This can save you a few hours and extra time for Mendenhall, the tram, or the crab shack.
  

Here's a vid on what to see if there is no ice congestion....

 

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[LoveByrds]

With some cruise lines, it's listed under Juneau excursions. Also they may not run this tour option on some Sept. sailings. Depends on the time.

 

I called Princess Cruises last night and right now this excursion is not offered for our sailing. They recommended calling back and speaking to someone in their excursion dept to see if it will be offered. I just need to call back during business hours on Monday.

Crossing my fingers!

[LoveByrds]

check out this link...

http://www.princess.com/excursion/exDetails.do?t=A&exType=S&tourCode=TA1-665

 

• if interested... book early, these mid-ocean Tracy transfers sell out before departure
  
• by transfering mid-ocean you save 50 miles of not needing to retrace from Juneau. This can save you a few hours and extra time for Mendenhall, the tram, or the crab shack.
  

Here's a vid on what to see if there is no ice congestion....

 

 

Thank you for the video! It is so inspiring to see! The glacier looks phenomenal! It would be amazing to see it up close myself.

 

When we were there 2 years ago, the ship we were on couldn't get close at all. In fact it turns out i was looking at a mountain not the glacier because it was so foggy that i couldn't tell where the glacier was until my husband wondered why i was peering off to the left when the glacier was center/right Haha :(

[DaisyGirl55]

Does anyone know if this is offered on Celebrity cruises as well?

[gfkcruiser]

I just sailed on Solstice on May 22, 2015 and did this excursion. The Solstice was able to get up close to the glacier before we departed for the excursion. The smaller boat met us near the glacier. It was great. We had mostly clear skies but some clouds which the boat captain said was better for viewing blue of ice.

 

I did sign up fairly early as there is only one boat.

 

Gail

[Miss Dot]

You won't need to filter anything out - it will be the only excursion offered in Tracy Arm. :)

 

If you'd like to experience it vicariously, take a look at our photos from last year:

Photos from this particular excursion are BECA-BFAB.

 

Again Thank you for sharing your awesome photos! Have you posted 2015 photos yet?

Edited June 2, 2015 by Miss Dot

[peety3]

Not a ton to see in our April/May Sampler aboard Ruby, as it was a "one-stop no-glacier" cruise:

 

There are a couple of "action shots" of yours truly, plus a sampler to show the range of lenses we took and what kind of view they create (near the end - you'll see a photo of the lens, then a shot with that lens zoomed wide, then a shot with that lens zoomed tight, etc. At the very end, the 600 doesn't zoom, so there's only one shot, but I did add a 1.4x converter which makes the 600 into an 840, so there is a final sampler shot through that combo).

 

A LOT more to come in August when we do a "real" 7-day cruise aboard the Ruby. We're finalizing our excursion selections, but it's looking like we'll do a private photography tour in Haines, which I'm really excited about (plus perhaps two whale watches, and 2-3 other excursions).

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[skedaddle43]

I called Princess Cruises last night and right now this excursion is not offered for our sailing. They recommended calling back and speaking to someone in their excursion dept to see if it will be offered. I just need to call back during business hours on Monday.

Crossing my fingers!

 

LoveByrds, I just called princess about the same thing, same cruise, and she spent about 15 minutes searching and calling someone else before learning it will not be offered on our cruise. Maybe because we are going so late in the season there's a good chance we can make it all the way. Here's hoping!:)

[Budget Queen]

LoveByrds, I just called princess about the same thing, same cruise, and she spent about 15 minutes searching and calling someone else before learning it will not be offered on our cruise. Maybe because we are going so late in the season there's a good chance we can make it all the way. Here's hoping!:)

 

You're talking about the Ruby? Sorry, you are making some wrong assumptions. You are going to be seeing less than usual. you are in Juneau the SAME day aren't you? It is very unlikely to get past Sawyer Island which, barely has a view of the South Sawyer Glacier.

 

You also will not be entering as early as "in season" which is 5 am- with daylight. Second week of Sept, sunrise isn't until 7am with extended twilight. So you could have, an overall, hour less of time. Doubtful they'll change your Juneau time officially?

[LoveByrds]

skedaddle43 - Thank you for calling and asking and reporting back! I kept forgetting to call during lunch.

It's too bad this won't be offered on our sailing. It would have been so neat. :(

I wonder if because it is late in the season if weather plays a part. Maybe there will be a similar excursion out of Juneau though.

 

It was very cold, foggy and "iceburgy" when were there in June 2013, but i'm not sure which of those items caused the ship to stop/turn soooo far away from the glacier. We could barely see it. But the excursion was still offered....

 

Budget Queen - Do you think we won't get far because of the time of day or because of weather/iceburgs? I'm just hypothesizing why this is... :)

[xlxo]

Maybe there will be a similar excursion out of Juneau though.

Yes there are private Juneau operators that offer Tracy Arm excursions.... doing a quick Google...

• http://www.allenmarinetours.com/sightseeing/juneau/tours/glacier-fjord/
  
• http://www.adventureboundalaska.com/
  

Note, this will eat into your valuable Juneau time for Mendenhall, whale watching, Glacier Gardens, etc...

 

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[Budget Queen]

skedaddle43 - Thank you for calling and asking and reporting back! I kept forgetting to call during lunch.

It's too bad this won't be offered on our sailing. It would have been so neat. :(

I wonder if because it is late in the season if weather plays a part. Maybe there will be a similar excursion out of Juneau though.

 

It was very cold, foggy and "iceburgy" when were there in June 2013, but i'm not sure which of those items caused the ship to stop/turn soooo far away from the glacier. We could barely see it. But the excursion was still offered....

 

Budget Queen - Do you think we won't get far because of the time of day or because of weather/iceburgs? I'm just hypothesizing why this is... :)

 

At best only 25 % of the cruise ships get past Sawyer Island, far fewer get up to full view of the South Sawyer Glacier.

 

The whole issue with your sailing is the lack of daylight in Sept. Sunrise isn't until about 7am- so they will NOT be entering on "schedule" at 5am. I speculated probably 6am- your Juneau port time is likely fixed. They'll sail the ship a certain amount of time- then announce, ice, safety etc etc, stuff that is readily accepted and turn back. TIME is the only important thing here, and you won't have enough of it.

 

In this particular case with Juneau the SAME day, you aren't going to have any option for independent Tracy Arm either. It's going to be dark by 7pm.

 

 

For others- IF you want the full experience of Tracy Arm- AND going in Sept, you ALWAYS want to look at the schedule if porting Juneau the same day- they do not sail Tracy Arm in the dark. ideal are the separate Tracy Arm sailing days and preferable in this timeframe.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Budget Queen

[navybaby1113]

You won't need to filter anything out - it will be the only excursion offered in Tracy Arm. :)

 

If you'd like to experience it vicariously, take a look at our photos from last year:

Photos from this particular excursion are BECA-BFAB.

 

Thank you for sharing your gorgeous pictures!

[poly3503]

We actually took this excursion on May 27, on the NCL Jewel. We were docked in Juneau for 6 hours. We were able us take a whale watching excursion and have lunch beforehand. We boarded our excursion bost 15 minutes BEFORE the Jewel departed Juneau. This was a 6 1/2 hour trip and one we will never forget. The Jewel finally caught up to us and entered the bay , sitting there for about an hour before our excursion was finished. We visited both North and South Sawyer,and both calved in front of us. When over, we were taken back to the Jewel , a port door was opened and a ramp was lowered so we could board. We cruised Glacier Bay two years ago and it was so calm and serene- so peaceful that my daughter and I fell asleep on our forward balcony ( telling my husband to wake us if anything exciting happened).

This was so cool and one I'd do again in a heartbeat!