Advice re: Time for Tracy Arm Excursion, followed by late afternoon whale watching?

[EngSet]

Greetings: Looking for thoughts/advice regarding the possibility of doing the Tracy Arm excursion (small boat that leaves larger cruise ship at 0930 hrs for excursion through the Tracy Arm Fjord), followed by late afternoon whale watching excursion later the same from Juneau (two separate excursions). (Ship scheduled to arrive at Tracy Arm for excursion at 0900 hours, then on to Juneau for those who do not take the Tracy Arm excursion. Ship then to depart Juneau for all at 10 p.m.)

First time to Alaska and not sure when we will get back- unfortunately, seems like it is sometimes years in between our vacations as of late. (Hope to change that trend soon.) 

 

High priority is seeing whales; but, Tracy Arm also of interest. (The cruise we currently have booked for late Aug/early Sept this coming summer also includes the inside passage out of Vancouver -twice- and Glacier Bay.  Other ports are Skagway and Ketchikan. To increase the chances of seeing whales, contemplating arriving a couple days early in Vancouver prior to the cruise and taking part in a whale watching excursion out of Vancouver or Victoria as well.)

 

The two excursions listed above- the Tracy Arm excursion and whale watching out of Juneau- are the ones on the voyage that I am most interested in- they just happen to hit on the same day. 😞 But, thinking it might still be an option to do both ---just a bit of a long day. Anyone try both of these in one day before? Or, have strong feelings about why one might or might not attempt this?

 

I am not one to love a hectic pace when traveling; but, thinking that since much of the excursions involves riding on boats and viewing, it might be doable and enjoyable to do both excursions on the same day, even though it would be a bit of a long day. (Perhaps the next day a spa day? The stop in Juneau is the 2nd full day of the cruise- thus, we'd either have time to relax after that day---or, would have exhausted ourselves at the beginning of the voyage....)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/advice.

 

-EngSet

 

 

[Budget Queen]

Both Juneau tours are extremely enjoyable,   so I see no reason  not to plan on both.  can be done.     IF you call Allen Marine direct-   they can give you an estimated time of your return to Juneau,   so that you can book your whale watch.     Juneau whale watches have 100% sightings of humpbacks.    I don't find the orca watcher out of Vancouver a good  option for my preferences.   IF you choose this,  you need to consider your longest available tour  and the acceptance of not seeing any..     I greatly prefer,  parking myself up at Port Hardy for several days,  going out each day.,  for the 3 Northern Vancouver Island resident orca pods.     I go out of Victoria for the southern 3 pods.     Problem   is the sighting stats aren't 100%.   I've  waited out 4 days with the pods not being within range.   :)    

 

I do have excellent success with sightings from the cruise ship.   But I spend hours and hours out on deck and have the advantage of knowing my targeted areas.    But,  I've been very successful seeing orcas  the last night of a southbound cruise.   Yep-  I'm frequently out with just a few other die hards,  simply because people don''t want to invest the time,  or miss a meal.     :)    Choices.  

 

Most important is a good pair of wide angle binoculars.  I'm never without mine.    

[EngSet]

Thanks, Budget Queen- You actually helped me re advice a few years back- the advice was wonderful,  we just never go to take the cruise.  But, gonna give it another try. 

 

We will be on a HAL ship- selected the ship because of the full promenade so I /we can be out on the deck often (went with large inside stateroom, though). As far as the route selected, would have loved to have seen Sitka as well; but, wanted the true inside passage, which we will get twice on this cruise.  (The Sitka stop was on the round trip cruise out of Seattle vs. the route/ship we selected.)

 

Not sure what we will do in Ketchikan or Skagway as of yet. Whale watching and Tracy Arm the most important for this trip with the whale sightings easily at the top of the list.   (Thanks for the info re whale watching out of Vancouver and Victoria---good to know. Will make sure that the whale watching in Juneau is scheduled.)

 

I will have to look through some of the older posts re: your targeted areas for whale watching from the cruise ship for I believe you have shared that info on the forum before. (Memory failing me.)

Thanks for your continued advice. 

 

-EngSet

[peety3]

We've done the TAF small-boat tour twice with Princess; both times the ship did some scenic cruising in TAF before continuing to Juneau. First time was a 2pm docking in Juneau with a 8:30am-2:00pm TAF tour and a 3:15-8:15 whale watch with Gastineau Guiding. I'm pretty sure the ship got into Juneau early and had begun passenger exodus by 2pm. The TAF tour got to the ship about 2:05pm. My wife was one of the first off the boat and had time to get up to our cabin and catch a photo of the small boat casting off from the ship; I was one of the last off the boat and (after skipping the elevators because they were mobbed going up for some reason) got to our cabin by 2:30. We changed clothes (to shed the cold) and had time to dash up to the buffet with all of our camera gear, grab some quick lunch, and make it off the ship in time for our tour.

 

Second time we did it, interestingly there were two small boats, and the small-boat tour was published as 7:30-1:00pm. Princess kept asking everyone on the tour if they had excursions at/before 1:30; our whale watch (published as 1:45-6:45) had a call time of 1:35 so we (stupidly) didn't speak up. First small boat got back to the ship at 1:30, we had to wait our turn so it was 1:50 when we got on the ship and 1:55 by the time we were out the other side to get to our excursion. The excursion had already left without us, but we played the "Princess knew we were still out on the earlier excursion and we bought this one through Princess so you should have waited" card and they came back for us in a jiffy.

 

So, my guidance is to assume the small boat tour runs long. We also got good value from the cruise line's promise to take care of us by buying both excursions through the ship, so think about that for your needs as well.

[EngSet]

Thanks, Peety3, for the advice. I will check and see what HAL's offering is for both that day and will also check with some of the private companies offering the whale watching later in the day (ie Jayleen's). Cannot remember if I mentioned as well- tis later in the season when we are going (early Sep). 

[EngSet]

Budget Queen- Slightly off topic- Curious if you have favorite ships from which you have watched for whales--speaking of the cruise ships, not the excursion ships. Would love to know if you do and if yes, why those. :-) (Thinking of the time you spend outside on deck watching for whales.)

[donaldsc]

I would contact the tour providers directly.  

 

DON