Tracy Arm Alternative

[travellingnana]

For those of you who've taken a Princess cruise to Alaska, if Tracy Arm was on your itinerary...but you were unable to go there, was an alternative destination offered? What was it?

[tcdcruiser]

Typically, if Tracy Arm cannot be reached due to ice or weather, Endicott Arm (adjacent) is the alternate.

 

See Google Map

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Endicott+Arm/@57.6275047,-133.2840397,11.96z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x5406fb8becfd08a1:0xd23b8c56fb6352cb!8m2!3d57.6277778!4d-133.2608333

[BlueLadyBlue]

We were on the Emerald in August and due to fog the captain decided to go to Endicott instead. It was lovely and we were quite pleased, however, never having been to Tracy Arm I am not able to provide a comparison between the two

[towhee]

I've been to both Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. In my opinion the Tracy fjord is much more impressive than the Endicott fjord, but the Dawes Glacier (Endicott) is more spectacular than Sawyer Glaciers (Tracy).

Enjoy whichever one you get to visit!

[tcdcruiser]

If you manage Tracy Arm, (IMHO) I highly recommend the excursion where you disembark to the smaller ship within Tracy Arm itself and then proceed farther into the ice field. Truly spectacular. The tour boat then rejoins the Princess ship in Juneau some hours later.

[flamomo]

I just disembarked the Emerald yesterday morning, and we were unable to navigate Tracy Arm last week due to way too many floating ice chunks making it unsafe. So we went to see Ednicott, which was okay, but definitely not as good as seeing Tracy Arm. Not nearly as many small glaciers visible up on the mountains in that fjord as what I could see in T. Arm fjord in the past.

[travellingnana]

Thank you for all of your info. Taking a cruise out of SF in May and trying to decide between one that goes to Hubbard and one that goes to Tracy Arm. I assumed that if conditions were bad the ship would at least make it part way to Hubbard, but I didn't know what would happen at Tracy Arm.

[flamomo]

I will add that I have done the Inside Passage with Tracy Arm twice in the past and made it all the way up both of those times. Not making it this time was a bit of a surprise to me.

The scenery was still beautiful and the quietness as we slowly made our way in and out of the fjord was so lovely.

[BarbinMich]

Thank you for all of your info. Taking a cruise out of SF in May and trying to decide between one that goes to Hubbard and one that goes to Tracy Arm. I assumed that if conditions were bad the ship would at least make it part way to Hubbard, but I didn't know what would happen at Tracy Arm.

 

I've been to both Tracy Arm/Sawyer Glacier (in Sept) and to Hubbard Glacier (in June). We visited the latter on a Celebrity ship in 1996 when that cruise line didn't have a permit to enter Glacier Bay (don't know if it does now). HG is at the head of Yakutak Bay, which opens into the ocean about 150 miles nw of Juneau. HG is quite broad and a ship shouldn't have any trouble getting in there, as opposed to negotiating a fjord as a ship has to do in Tracy Arm. As it was our first Alaskan glacier, we were impressed (but it's not as spectacular as Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay which we've been to multiple times on subsequent cruises). I enjoyed gliding up Tracy Arm to view the Sawyer Glacier (relatively small compared to HG and GB), as well--lots of ice chunks along the way. I would pick Tracy Arm over Hubbard. Enjoy Alaska!

[Coral]

Thank you for all of your info. Taking a cruise out of SF in May and trying to decide between one that goes to Hubbard and one that goes to Tracy Arm. I assumed that if conditions were bad the ship would at least make it part way to Hubbard, but I didn't know what would happen at Tracy Arm.

 

I have been 9 miles from Hubbard - it was barely a spec in my vision. Ships do miss Hubbard Glacier depending on the conditions. It is not a given that you may see some of it.