Juneau whale watch

[robandlil]

We're on the carnival legend end of May out of Seatle. We booked the Juneau whale watch boat with Mendenhall glacier thru a private company.

 

Will we see glacier calving and waterfalls from the boat, in addition to the whales and Eagles? Have you been on this excursion, end of May?

 

I ask, since if we will, I won't bother to book the glacier bay small boat excursion.

[Nic6318]

Hi Robandlil

 

You will see calving cruising Glacier Bay and Tracey Arm. If you do the small the small boat tour you will be much closer to the "action". Some people think this is a "must do", however it is expensive. We didn't do it and still had a wonderful day. It depends on your budget.

 

You won't see the same kind of (or any) activity at the Mendenhall glacier, mainly because glacier face at Mendenhall is much smaller. There is a waterfall at the Mendenhall glacier that you would be able to walk up to. While cruising in the fjords you will see many waterfalls.

 

hope this helps

have a great cruise

[isaiahsnana]

The purpose of that excursion is to see the whales and to take you to walk on the glacier. If your cruise goes into glacier bay, you have a chance to see the glacier calve from the deck of your ship. YOu will spend over an hour at the bay with the ship slowly turning in a circle to allow you opportunity to see the activity of the glacier. I loved the small boat trip to see the whales. Waterfalls are everywhere on that trip - you will hate going to sleep at night because once you are in the area the scenery is constantly beautiful!

[John Reid]

We're on the carnival legend end of May out of Seatle. We booked the Juneau whale watch boat with Mendenhall glacier thru a private company.

 

Will we see glacier calving and waterfalls from the boat, in addition to the whales and Eagles? Have you been on this excursion, end of May?

 

I ask, since if we will, I won't bother to book the glacier bay small boat excursion.

 

We did a private excursion with the same itinerary when we were in Juneau. It might be the same company.

 

We did not see glaciers and waterfalls from the small whale-watching boat. It was nowhere near that. You go offshore and weave through the small islands. The scenery is nice. We took a bus from their office in Juneau (just down from the dock) to a marina. We did see many whales, Orcas, and seals. The tour captains are in contact with all other tour captains and they inform each other where sightings are. The boats can only go within 100 yards of the humpbacks.

 

When the boat tour ended, the company bus (circa 1950) took us to Mendenhall. It didn't seem to us like calving would be seen there; if I remember correctly, it is a valley-style glacier. There was a set return time for the bus, but the company allowed for taking the city bus back with their ticket to the starting point. Those buses ran regularly.

 

You will may see calving when in Tracy Arm; we did. Bring binoculars.

 

Eagles. When we walked from the ship to the office, eagles filled the immense pines along the side of the road. It was like Disney had arranged it. Salmon are in every stream. We were told where there is salmon, there is sometimes black bears. We didn't see any.

 

It was misty but we still enjoyed the tour. It was half the price of what Princess offered.

 

The bus driver who took us to Mendenhall told us an interesting story. Safeway built a supermarket in town. It had remote sensor doors. The bears figured it out and started dining at the produce and meat counters like it was a buffet. They had to reconstruct the entrance.

[robandlil]

Thank you all for the info, much appreciated.

 

We chose this tour instead of the ship tour, just to have the freedom to return when we wanted from the glacier on the bus. And of course to spend less money.

Sounds like our bucket list will be accomplished

Whales

Eagles

Glacier

Calving

Waterfalls

Majestic natural beauty

[lvcotatian]

Rob & Lil,

can you please give me the information about the tour that you had booked? I am just starting to research the excursions now that we have finally decided on the May 23, 2017 Carnival Legend cruise. I appreciate your help!

 

Lydia

[Eaglecw]

I take it you’re on the May 16th or the May 23rd sailing on the Carnival legend. If this is correct you’ll see Glaciers calving in Glacier Bay. You WILL not see glaciers calving while on a whale watching boat in Auke bay outside of Juneau. It is possible to see the Glacier at Mendenhall calving. You will see a lot of Bald eagles around Juneau, especially around the Juneau dump it’s on the way to Auke bay and Mendenhall Glacier, watch for the Eagles and bears along the road, Auke Bay is where most of the whale watching boats leave from. Late May might be a little early for the salmon to be running.