Small boat excursion to Hubbard Glacier

[Glaciers]

That may be part of the problem. Staffing was a huge issue last year and not sure it’s been resolved for 2023.  They did say that the reason they don’t start earlier is because of all the early season ice.

[Italy52]

13 hours ago, Coral said:

Thanks. That explains it. Oh well! I am sure it saved me $$$$ though. They still did not reply to my online inquiry and my email.

So sorry to hear that Allen Marine has been unresponsive to your requests for information. 

[geepmaley]

On 2/2/2023 at 3:12 PM, ImperialLady said:

Same with us...we are on the Majestic sailing on Sept 9, 2023 and the only excursions I see are when we are in ports.

Same cruise as us

[ImperialLady]

2 minutes ago, geepmaley said:

Same cruise as us

have you looked for a roll call?  We are doing the land portion before the cruise. 

[geepmaley]

Due to arrival time at Hubbard, no joy for our cruise 😞

[geepmaley]

On 2/21/2023 at 2:49 PM, ImperialLady said:

have you looked for a roll call?  We are doing the land portion before the cruise. 

There is one: We are four couples doing 4-day land tour before also

 

[eyern1]

I just looked and a small boat excursion exists on my May 19 Radiance of the Seas sailing.  It is listed on the day we are sailing past the glacier, lasts 2 1/2 hours and costs $364.  It does seem to be a hit or miss as to whether the small boat will get closer than the ship or not from what I'm reading. I'm guessing my early sailing would potentially keep the ship further away but that's pure guess.  I'd love to small boat it but will have to pass at those prices and uncertainties, esp. since I hope to do a bucket list version in about 10 years.

[Kathscof]

I would say that if you are doing a one way with Royal, the more economical option for glacier viewing would be to do the glacier near Seward.  We did a 6 hour with Kenai Fjords tours and got closer than the Allen marine boat did on our cruise, were there longer, and it was cheaper.  If you are ending in Seward, their trips work very well with disembarkation times, but the embarkation times might be a little tight (we are doing it the day before this time) on the way out.....

[Kathscof]

On 3/11/2023 at 6:49 PM, eyern1 said:

I just looked and a small boat excursion exists on my May 19 Radiance of the Seas sailing.  It is listed on the day we are sailing past the glacier, lasts 2 1/2 hours and costs $364.  It does seem to be a hit or miss as to whether the small boat will get closer than the ship or not from what I'm reading. I'm guessing my early sailing would potentially keep the ship further away but that's pure guess.  I'd love to small boat it but will have to pass at those prices and uncertainties, esp. since I hope to do a bucket list version in about 10 years.

Your schedule lends itself PERFECTLY to seeing a glacier close up in Seward after you get off the ship!  I would suggest taking the train back to Anchorage that evening and doing that tour with one of the tour boats! (I just got really excited that you have the ability to do that)  It is running under $200 this season, with 6 hours and lunch provided.  You get back around 5-5:30 and you can hop on the train!

 

Also, I don't have high hopes for the ship to get too close on our sailing (the week after y'all) as we were at least 6 miles by my estimation away last year....

Edited March 14, 2023 by Kathscof
add

[eyern1]

I've been looking at those but without calling, I don't know that we can accomplish one of those because our plane leaves at 8:30 pm.  It's appeared that it's cutting it too close but I was going to look for more posts about it and post the question myself if I could find the answer. Thanks Kathscof.

[Kathscof]

48 minutes ago, eyern1 said:

I've been looking at those but without calling, I don't know that we can accomplish one of those because our plane leaves at 8:30 pm.  It's appeared that it's cutting it too close but I was going to look for more posts about it and post the question myself if I could find the answer. Thanks Kathscof.

 Yeah, the train doesn't get in until probably 11pm, so sad you will miss it! 

[eyern1]

3 hours ago, Kathscof said:

 Yeah, the train doesn't get in until probably 11pm, so sad you will miss it! 

I called and it doesn't work, although I was really shocked one of the 8am tour boats said people didn't get off the ship fast enough to make that tour.  Seems like they might adjust a little.

[RRS4727]

Celebrity Eclipse - May 21 2023

I had

Destination Highlight: Hubbard Glacier Wilderness Exploration

Reserved - in my cart, but hadn't paid.

It's now $425 / person. 😬 Unless I can be convinced it's a life altering experience.....I'm going to have to watch from the ship snuggled up in a warm lap blanket and a warm beverage!

 

I accidently fell onto this site. 

Any other links to help decide which excursions are meh vs must-dos?

[Kathscof]

8 hours ago, RRS4727 said:

Celebrity Eclipse - May 21 2023

I had

Destination Highlight: Hubbard Glacier Wilderness Exploration

Reserved - in my cart, but hadn't paid.

It's now $425 / person. 😬 Unless I can be convinced it's a life altering experience.....I'm going to have to watch from the ship snuggled up in a warm lap blanket and a warm beverage!

 

I accidently fell onto this site. 

Any other links to help decide which excursions are meh vs must-dos?

Oof, that is a lot.....I don’t know what itinerary you are doing, but if it’s a one way from Seward, I would suggest one of the Kenai Fjords tours to see the glaciers.....for a 6 hour tour for the three in my family, it is only about $100 more than that price for one.....last year we got closer to the glacier and stayed longer than the ship excursion did, so by the time I got to Hubbard the next day, I was like “that’s it?” Haha (but we didn’t feel the need to do the ship excursion because we saw a glacier the day before)

[cw2go]

11 hours ago, RRS4727 said:

Celebrity Eclipse - May 21 2023

I had

Destination Highlight: Hubbard Glacier Wilderness Exploration

Reserved - in my cart, but hadn't paid.

It's now $425 / person. 😬 Unless I can be convinced it's a life altering experience.....I'm going to have to watch from the ship snuggled up in a warm lap blanket and a warm beverage!

 

I accidently fell onto this site. 

Any other links to help decide which excursions are meh vs must-dos?

This price has jumped A TON! I Paid $260 pp and sail July 2023 

[5waldos]

17 hours ago, RRS4727 said:

Celebrity Eclipse - May 21 2023

I had

Destination Highlight: Hubbard Glacier Wilderness Exploration

Reserved - in my cart, but hadn't paid.

It's now $425 / person. 😬 Unless I can be convinced it's a life altering experience.....I'm going to have to watch from the ship snuggled up in a warm lap blanket and a warm beverage!

 

I accidently fell onto this site. 

Any other links to help decide which excursions are meh vs must-dos?

It is a wonderful excursion but not sure it is $425 wonderful. Especially since there are usually more than one person going meaning a lot of money. Agree that taking one of the Kenai Fjord trips would be far less expensive and give you a similar experience. 

 

Have all the excursions gone up that much? Seems to me that some of the helicopter trips to the glaciers were about that price or not a lot more. 

 

As far as help with excursions, for further info beyond Cruise Critic there are other websites which review excursions. Not clear on the rules of CC which I can mention so I will have to leave it to you to google for advice on trips. You can just google ship excursions in Alaska for information also. 

[quack1]

No way I'm spending that much to do a small boat visit to Hubbard.  Money is much better spent doing small boat into Tracy Arm or taking the Kenai Fjords tour out of Seward.  This year I'm doing the 26 Glacier cruise out of Whittier for the first time.  All of those are likely a better experience and value than Hubbard Glacier.

[Marycatg]

$425 is higher than my May 28 Celebrity to Hubbard. I paid $340.99pp. I figure I’m going on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure, I hope to be up close and personal the the glacier. 

[Italy52]

We are sailing on the Crown Princess in July and booked 2 tickets for the excursion.  Princess' pricing is $299.95 for DH and $299.95 for me.  Because we are Elite, we will also get a 10% credit back to us for purchasing the excursion through Princess.  We decided to use our OBC so the trip is free for us.  We feel lucky to take advantage of this perk.

 

I have seen a lot of crazy pricing for some of the glacier tours --- not sure if it has to do with the cost of fuel or not. 

[wolfie11]

I think they are adopting the airlines practice of dynamic pricing for these tours.  There is one Allen Marine boat porting in Yakutat that does these tours.  It holds somewhere around 150 pax depending on what vessel they're using.  If there are 4000 people on the boat, the demand should be high and they can charge more.

 

My biggest concern with the small boat is that the other 3850 people on the boat will get cheated out of a good glacier experience because even if ice conditions are good, the captain doesn't want to take the ship in close and tick off the 150 that paid $400 to get close.

[cw2go]

1 hour ago, wolfie11 said:

I think they are adopting the airlines practice of dynamic pricing for these tours.  There is one Allen Marine boat porting in Yakutat that does these tours.  It holds somewhere around 150 pax depending on what vessel they're using.  If there are 4000 people on the boat, the demand should be high and they can charge more.

 

My biggest concern with the small boat is that the other 3850 people on the boat will get cheated out of a good glacier experience because even if ice conditions are good, the captain doesn't want to take the ship in close and tick off the 150 that paid $400 to get close.

This concern is not warranted! This small boat tour is not new, been doing it for years. I've sailed Hubbard multiple times and the captain has always made their best efforts for great glacier viewings, like you said 150 pax will see it closer, why would he/she unnecessarily want to tick off the other 3850? I have had great viewings and also so so viewings from the ship, depending on weather and ice conditions. 

 

Patty 

Edited April 22, 2023 by cw2go

[cw2go]

4 hours ago, quack1 said:

No way I'm spending that much to do a small boat visit to Hubbard.  Money is much better spent doing small boat into Tracy Arm or taking the Kenai Fjords tour out of Seward.  This year I'm doing the 26 Glacier cruise out of Whittier for the first time.  All of those are likely a better experience and value than Hubbard Glacier.

I've done all that you mention, many variables as to what is the better experience and where money is much better spent. Calving in Hubbard, from my experience, is not found elsewhere. It's quite magnificent! 

 

Patty 

[quack1]

$399 on Norwegian in June.

[Saint Greg]

I've been trying to decide on this one. It's $400 on NCL in August. They have a $50 (not) "free at sea" discount so it will be $350. I paid $189 for Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer last year with Carnival. And the ship couldn't get anywhere near as close to the glacier as we got so it was well worth it. Plus we saw a whale and a bear. I saw Carnival's Tracy Arm is up to $229 this year so maybe everything is going up. But from what I've looked at with Hubbard. It almost looks like the ships are able to get almost as close as the small boats. Definitely closer than Tracy Arm. So that's the the dilemma. I think I'm leaning towards booking it just to make sure I don't miss anything. I appreciate all of the helpful posts in this thread.

[df5250]

I am sailing NCL Jewel end of July. I booked Hubbard Glacier and Wilderness Explorer. It was really expensive at $399, but with $50 excursion credit and latitudes discount, it came down to $296. Still expensive and I was thinking about cancelling but some of the comments here made me think I’ve made the right choice.  I also booked Endicott Arm and Glacier Explorer. Another expensive tour, but they all seem to be!  I am sailing solo so I don’t have to pay the high prices for multiple people, and I don’t know if I’ll ever travel to Alaska again, so I am splurging! I’m glad I came across this post!

Thanks for all the comments!

Debbie