Whale Watching through the cruise line

[Siuolbear082015]

Going to Alaska May 12th-May 19th on NCL Bliss. One of the offers we got was $50 off at each stop on excursions. We definitely want to do the whale watching in Juneau but have read that if you go through the cruise line they will put upwards of 50+ people on the boat. 

 

How crowded will it be? One excursion is Whale Watching and Wildlife Quest and other is Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Quest so not sure if one will get more than the other. 

[floater]

I just booked a trip with Jayleen's Alaska. She offers a 4 hour trip that includes pick-up at the pier in Juneau. She uses smaller boats and takes a maximum of 6 people per tour. Check out her website, she is an Alaskan native with a very interesting history. I'll try to post a link, but I'm not too computer savvy.

 

http://jayleensalaska.com/

[Glaciers]

The cruise lines also started using Gastineau Guiding who uses smaller boats, about 12 people I believe.  They get very good reviews.

[martincath]

On 3/17/2019 at 9:31 AM, Glaciers said:

The cruise lines also started using Gastineau Guiding who uses smaller boats, about 12 people I believe.  They get very good reviews.

We booked Gastineau through the ship even on our very first AK cruise almost a decade ago - just check the size of the boat mentioned in the tour description OP, if it's 14-22 then it is probably Gastineau or someone else who has started using the same excellent boats. If memory serves the tour that is described as a 'photo safari' with a walk and the whalewatch and Mendenhall Glacier is these guys.

[katrina915]

The photo safari is a smaller group. About 15 people.  I have gone on the larger boats through the cruise line and thought they were fine. It was all about the whales no matter the boat.

[peety3]

One of the things I've noticed is that, at least on Princess, the tour name (as sold by Princess) matches the tour name as offered by the operator. And yes, Gastineau Guiding is (in my opinion) by far the best. Their boats are 14 passenger (for the photo safari) or 20 passenger (for the other tours), but it's the windows that make the difference.

 

Don't be afraid of their Photo Safari, regardless of skill or desire to learn. The smaller boat is worthwhile, and the tour guides know how to adapt to their crowd.

[Siuolbear082015]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Much appreciated. I will try to see who NCL uses. 

[quack2]

I have been on cruise ship whale watching excursions where the boats were much bigger than 20 passengers, making photography challenging at times due to the number of people.  If you want to get whale pictures, go with a smaller boat.  I've done Harv and Marv in Juneau and Glacier Wind in Icy Strait.  Both great companies.

[OUgal]

6 hours ago, quack2 said:

I have been on cruise ship whale watching excursions where the boats were much bigger than 20 passengers, making photography challenging at times due to the number of people.  If you want to get whale pictures, go with a smaller boat.  I've done Harv and Marv in Juneau and Glacier Wind in Icy Strait.  Both great companies.

 

I’m scheduled for a whale watching tour with Glacier Wind in June. Great to hear you had a good experience. I like the fact that they only take 6 people at a time. 

[iheartminniemouse]

On 3/17/2019 at 12:31 PM, Glaciers said:

The cruise lines also started using Gastineau Guiding who uses smaller boats, about 12 people I believe.  They get very good reviews.

We did this tour through NCL in 2017 and it was the best excursion of our trip!  Our Gastineau guide, Andy,  was well versed in the glacier and the whales.  We would do this again!

Barb

[Cruise_More_Often]

On 3/19/2019 at 7:52 AM, peety3 said:

One of the things I've noticed is that, at least on Princess, the tour name (as sold by Princess) matches the tour name as offered by the operator. And yes, Gastineau Guiding is (in my opinion) by far the best. Their boats are 14 passenger (for the photo safari) or 20 passenger (for the other tours), but it's the windows that make the difference.

 

Don't be afraid of their Photo Safari, regardless of skill or desire to learn. The smaller boat is worthwhile, and the tour guides know how to adapt to their crowd.

 

We did one of Gastineau Guiding's photo safari excursions a few years ago, and just this morning we booked another one. I agree, they are good.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I did the "discover Alaska's whales" with Gastineau a few years ago and I agree that they're great. They only book through cruise lines, so you have to hope they're one of the vendors for your cruise. They will take independent standby bookings, but they won't know if the cruise line has sold out until the day before, so the standby booking is risky.

 

As others have said, check tour names and read descriptions. The Gastineau tour might cost a bit more, but it's absolutely worth it, especially if you're hoping to take pictures. With a small group there's no jostling for position. 

 

I'm glad to hear the photo tour is good because that's the one I'm doing this year. 

[zactak]

I board the NCL Bliss a week after you disembark from yours. I am doing the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching Photo Safari. It's through the cruise line, but is done by Gastineau. I prefer third party excursions, and when I went to Gastineau's website, it redirected me to the excursion on NCL's site (the site asked what cruise line I was going through when I checked availability).

 

The excursion page on NCL says it's an "intimate group" and that seeing a whale is "guaranteed."I know Gastineau is highly regarded on here, which is one of the reasons why I first looked into them and was comfortable booking it.

[Katwoman007]

On 3/19/2019 at 7:52 AM, peety3 said:

One of the things I've noticed is that, at least on Princess, the tour name (as sold by Princess) matches the tour name as offered by the operator. And yes, Gastineau Guiding is (in my opinion) by far the best. Their boats are 14 passenger (for the photo safari) or 20 passenger (for the other tours), but it's the windows that make the difference.

 

Don't be afraid of their Photo Safari, regardless of skill or desire to learn. The smaller boat is worthwhile, and the tour guides know how to adapt to their crowd.

Thank you! We had booked through Princess the Whale, Glaicer and Orca lodge meal but the 20 person count never counted down when we bought our tickets. So, after reading this thread, we decided to change it to the 14 passenger tour as mentioned and it counted down to only 8 seats left! 🙂 

[peety3]

6 hours ago, Katwoman007 said:

Thank you! We had booked through Princess the Whale, Glaicer and Orca lodge meal but the 20 person count never counted down when we bought our tickets. So, after reading this thread, we decided to change it to the 14 passenger tour as mentioned and it counted down to only 8 seats left! 🙂 

You're going to love this tour! We've done it three times, and there's something special about it.

 

Gastineau Guiding offers (I think) three tours via Princess, and the Photo Safari (usually coded JNU-700) is the same price as the Alaska's Whales, Glaciers & Rainforest Hike (usually JNU-705), yet (to me) the Photo Safari is a better choice. Fewer passengers (though a smaller boat than what they use for their 20-passenger tours), the opportunity for a little photo instruction (the guides don't mind if you're not interested, and I've also had an instance where the guide rapidly surmised that no one really needed help), and I find the photo guides to really love their job (which rubs off on the passengers).

 

We did the third option, Discover Alaska's Whales (usually JNU-670 I think) last time, and I'm not a big fan. They try to incorporate a "citizen science" element, but as a whale watch fan I just see it as a distraction (take me to the whales and let me watch them until our time is up). We picked it because of price, as I made arrangements to be able to "do a double" (bus ride to marina/dock, did one tour, while out on the tour got the radio message that there was room for us on a second tour, returned to the dock, waited 15 minutes tops, then boarded a different boat and went back out to the whales for a second tour, took a different bus back to town) and it didn't make sense to pay more for 700/705 which have a short hike that we were going to skip anyway. That said, if price is explicitly a concern and/or you have absolutely zero interest in the hike (it does show you a lot about the history of Mendenhall Glacier, and we did see it calve on our 2010 tour), this is your option. Still the same 20-passenger boats as JNU-705, just a minor distraction while on the water, and no hike component.

 

Here's what the 20-passenger boats look like: Gastineau 'Zephyr' at the whales

Here's a closer shot of the magic of their boats (notice how the ENTIRE window swung up inside and was pinned out of the way): Gastineau 'Seeker' close-up

Gastineau 'Mariner' close-up

The 14-passenger boats don't have the aft outdoor viewing platform and are a bit shorter, but they all have the forward viewing platform. That platform and the windows are only opened when at low or no speed.

[floater]

Peety3, thank you for sharing your fabulous photos. I have a similar camera and I would like to ask a few questions, if I may, about your camera settings. I noticed that most of your whale shots are with an ISO of 400, and 800. Additionally most are with a shutter speed between 2000 and 5000. I understand why these settings would be beneficial, but they seem pretty extreme compared to my normal everyday stuff. Do you set a specific ISO and shutter speed in a programed mode? What priority mode do you use, if any. Thanks for any advise you can give me.

[Katwoman007]

5 hours ago, peety3 said:

You're going to love this tour! We've done it three times, and there's something special about it.

 

Gastineau Guiding offers (I think) three tours via Princess, and the Photo Safari (usually coded JNU-700) is the same price as the Alaska's Whales, Glaciers & Rainforest Hike (usually JNU-705), yet (to me) the Photo Safari is a better choice. Fewer passengers (though a smaller boat than what they use for their 20-passenger tours), the opportunity for a little photo instruction (the guides don't mind if you're not interested, and I've also had an instance where the guide rapidly surmised that no one really needed help), and I find the photo guides to really love their job (which rubs off on the passengers).

 

We did the third option, Discover Alaska's Whales (usually JNU-670 I think) last time, and I'm not a big fan. They try to incorporate a "citizen science" element, but as a whale watch fan I just see it as a distraction (take me to the whales and let me watch them until our time is up). We picked it because of price, as I made arrangements to be able to "do a double" (bus ride to marina/dock, did one tour, while out on the tour got the radio message that there was room for us on a second tour, returned to the dock, waited 15 minutes tops, then boarded a different boat and went back out to the whales for a second tour, took a different bus back to town) and it didn't make sense to pay more for 700/705 which have a short hike that we were going to skip anyway. That said, if price is explicitly a concern and/or you have absolutely zero interest in the hike (it does show you a lot about the history of Mendenhall Glacier, and we did see it calve on our 2010 tour), this is your option. Still the same 20-passenger boats as JNU-705, just a minor distraction while on the water, and no hike component.

 

Here's what the 20-passenger boats look like: Gastineau 'Zephyr' at the whales

Here's a closer shot of the magic of their boats (notice how the ENTIRE window swung up inside and was pinned out of the way): Gastineau 'Seeker' close-up

Gastineau 'Mariner' close-up

The 14-passenger boats don't have the aft outdoor viewing platform and are a bit shorter, but they all have the forward viewing platform. That platform and the windows are only opened when at low or no speed.

I really hope so! We went back and forth on the 14 vs 20 group and decided to just do the more "photo" one, as that is what I am more interested in, anyways. I mean, I want to see whales and not be fighting over one side of the boat to try to get a photo that will be too late. That happened on a whale watch cruise in San Diego. We had a momma humpback and baby and the full breach was on the opposite side of the boat and everyone ran and it was choppy and yeah, I missed it, not even able to see the whales. lol Also, the Ocra Lodge meal tour was the SAME price as the other two, but again, ZERO idea how many people as the boat capacity was listed in the 150s!!!!!! YIKES!! In 2 months we will be in Ketchikan! 😉 CANNOT WAIT! We have had our cruise booked for over a year now. Aft corner balcony and layers and I will be out there as much as I can as well! 😉 
 

Whale Watching & Mendenhall Glacier Photo Safari: Small-Group Experience

JNU700A | JUNEAU

[peety3]

2 hours ago, floater said:

Peety3, thank you for sharing your fabulous photos. I have a similar camera and I would like to ask a few questions, if I may, about your camera settings. I noticed that most of your whale shots are with an ISO of 400, and 800. Additionally most are with a shutter speed between 2000 and 5000. I understand why these settings would be beneficial, but they seem pretty extreme compared to my normal everyday stuff. Do you set a specific ISO and shutter speed in a programed mode? What priority mode do you use, if any. Thanks for any advise you can give me.

Imagine trying to photograph while standing on a bumper car driven by a 9-year-old, with one or two paper towel tubes taped onto the end of your lens. 🙂 When you're on a rocking boat and staring through the viewfinder of a 400mm lens or trying to inverse-rock so you can keep a 600mm (maybe even with a 1.4x so it's behaving like an 840mm) pointed in the exact right direction while using a monopod to hold it up, you go for fast shutter speeds to stack the deck in your favor. 🙂

 

Part of what you're seeing though is that my wife is terrible at the technical side of photography. Some of the shots I post were taken by her, others by me. If she took it, I may have preset her camera, and would have done so with a buffer zone so that if she bumps a knob and doesn't notice it for an hour, her shots still have a chance of being OK.

 

In the olden days, I'd probably shoot whales in aperture priority with ISO 400 and either wide open aperture (on a super telephoto prime lens) or maybe a stop under wide open (on a zoom telephoto). Nowadays I might go manual, on the premise that every whale is under the same light, though if the sun may dip behind clouds I'd probably go back to aperture priority. WB to daylight, MAYBE to shady if I knew it was going to be yuck all afternoon long, but we shoot raw so I can fix it later. ISO 800 when I really don't trust the shutter speeds to stay good, and/or I'll review a shot and see what it needs. Target acquisition with perhaps anything over 300mm can be tough on a rocking boat so you might be late to the shot if it doesn't happen the way you're pointing.

[peety3]

41 minutes ago, Katwoman007 said:

I really hope so! We went back and forth on the 14 vs 20 group and decided to just do the more "photo" one, as that is what I am more interested in, anyways. I mean, I want to see whales and not be fighting over one side of the boat to try to get a photo that will be too late. That happened on a whale watch cruise in San Diego. We had a momma humpback and baby and the full breach was on the opposite side of the boat and everyone ran and it was choppy and yeah, I missed it, not even able to see the whales. lol Also, the Ocra Lodge meal tour was the SAME price as the other two, but again, ZERO idea how many people as the boat capacity was listed in the 150s!!!!!! YIKES!! In 2 months we will be in Ketchikan! 😉 CANNOT WAIT! We have had our cruise booked for over a year now. Aft corner balcony and layers and I will be out there as much as I can as well! 😉 
 

All of Gastineau's boats are so much better than anything else I've seen out of the popular Alaska ports. The 20-pax boat shouldn't be any worse than the 14 because of the extra uncovered space. On our second cruise, we figured we didn't need the photo safari and my wife wanted me to experience the salmon bake, and that's when we realized that the boat really matters. Not sure the operator's name, but the "North Star" boat holds about 40 people and has sliding windows, so they're never more than 45% open. My wife is short, so if people were willing they could let her get in front and she'd still be out of the way, but there were so many big guys/gals who would hog the railing and then hold their full-size iPad at arm's length (trust me buddy, it's an iPad, an extra arm's length won't make a difference to your picture) so it was near-impossible for either of us to get good shots. We've gone back to Gastineau since then and won't go elsewhere.

[Katwoman007]

3 minutes ago, peety3 said:

All of Gastineau's boats are so much better than anything else I've seen out of the popular Alaska ports. The 20-pax boat shouldn't be any worse than the 14 because of the extra uncovered space. On our second cruise, we figured we didn't need the photo safari and my wife wanted me to experience the salmon bake, and that's when we realized that the boat really matters. Not sure the operator's name, but the "North Star" boat holds about 40 people and has sliding windows, so they're never more than 45% open. My wife is short, so if people were willing they could let her get in front and she'd still be out of the way, but there were so many big guys/gals who would hog the railing and then hold their full-size iPad at arm's length (trust me buddy, it's an iPad, an extra arm's length won't make a difference to your picture) so it was near-impossible for either of us to get good shots. We've gone back to Gastineau since then and won't go elsewhere.

hahaha! Let me hold up this huge ipad 😉 I am researching renting a full range lens for my DSLR. I normally use a 18-140, but have a 55-200 with VR, but my 55-300 does not have VR. I just do not want to be like, dang it, I am tooooo close now! 

I don't think the photo safari part will be that bad. I mean, it is only a small group and maybe be more directed than being left to fend for ourselves at the glacier? hahaha 

[peety3]

3 minutes ago, Katwoman007 said:

hahaha! Let me hold up this huge ipad 😉 I am researching renting a full range lens for my DSLR. I normally use a 18-140, but have a 55-200 with VR, but my 55-300 does not have VR. I just do not want to be like, dang it, I am tooooo close now! 

I don't think the photo safari part will be that bad. I mean, it is only a small group and maybe be more directed than being left to fend for ourselves at the glacier? hahaha 

I will hurt you and throw your iPad into the ocean!!!! 🙂

 

You will not be too close for a <fill in the blank> lens. This was shot with a 600mm that had a 1.4x TC on it (so effectively an 840mm) and is not cropped in post: Whale Tail - click the download button (downward arrow) and save it at original size if you'd like, as it's from my 50mp camera. Here's about the closest I've ever had them fill the frame, at 560mm: Unexpected Orca sighting - honestly my biggest fear at that moment was that they were going to end so close that I wouldn't be able to focus on them, as that lens had an 18' minimum focus distance and it felt like they were getting close (I doubt they really were). Note that neither of those lenses have any zoom whatsoever, so to get anything wider I'd have to grab another of my cameras (I do most Alaska cruise excursions these days with three cameras, with a 24-70, 100-400, and 600/840 ready to go and a 14mm in a pouch if 24mm isn't enough).

 

Rent a 100-400 or similar and I think you'll be very happy. I suggest LensRentals as their testing and repair capabilities are lightyears beyond the competition. Be sure to have it arrive two days before your flight and check it carefully but quickly. If there's any issue, they'll overnight another lens, but you've got to get that ball rolling before it's too late. Or have it shipped to a FedEx Office near where you're going to cruise from (though you'd need to bring their shipping materials with you or stash them somewhere you'll have access to somehow), but be mindful of your timing.