26 Glacier Cruise

[Kay.redmann]

I am cruising on Majestic Princess in June and one of the excursions that I am most excited about is the 26 Glacier Cruise in Whittier.  I would love to hear any of your experiences and appreciate any hints/tips on how the best place on the boat to enjoy the day. I have found a couple YouTube videos but not sure you can see well if not outside and it didn’t look like there was enough room outside for everyone…thanks

[CruiserBruce]

Great excursion...recommended here frequently. The fewer clouds the better...you are almost always surrounded by glaciers. The boat approaches a couple slowly, so you can be outside. But, as you mention, there isn't a lot of room outside.

 

Otherwise a window seat is most desirable. It was assigned seating for us, and we didn't get a window, but it was still very nice visibility.

[geovet]

My family enjoyed it greatly. You get up close to many glacier and will see lots of wildlife. They offer different excursions and we enjoyed them all.

[donaldsc]

This is from a fellow Las Vegas resident.  Our cruise ship sailed through that area when we were coming into Whittier and the scenery is spectacular.  Unfortunately it is overlooked by most AK visitors as it is sort of out of the way and most people don't have the free time in Whittier to do it.  We will be sailing through the area again this summer when we taker our grandson to AK w/o his parents.  We do an AK trip with every grandchild when they turn 10 as a rite of passage.  I have been to AK in ways and on different types of ships maybe 10  or 15 times.  Love the place.

 

DON

[Crew News]

I strongly recommend this excursion and the great photo ops.  The provided lunch was good at very cramped tables.  Best to find a spot outside and stay there for the duration.

[cw2go]

I say YES! Go! The seating is assigned at time of booking, I was front row and it was great but there is plenty of room and many people came up front near us to get better views, many people moved about the boat. 

I've always been very lucky with weather, we return this July we shall see if my luck holds out! 🤞

 

Pics of my beautiful day! 

Patty 

 

 

[AKJonesy]

You will love it.  The captain gets you close to wildlife and they are in communication with other vessels.  The narration is the best.  The captain will also spend a bit of time where the wildlife can be viewed, so there will be a mad rush to the outside, but soon it will subside once people get their pictures.  They served a pretty decent lunch and you can buy snacks on board.  It was fun to talk to fisherman in vessels as well.  You are making a good choice. 

[Coral]

I also agree with "do it".

[LB_NJ]

Great cruise.  Did this while we were on a land trip in Alaska.

 

Sit anywhere.  I got up and went outside when there was something to see.

 

FYI, this is in a temperate rainforest so could be wet ride.

[AKStafford]

Here's my pictures: http://akstafford.blogspot.com/2021/08/glaciers-7-31-2021.html

 

Be dressed so you can spend as much time as possible on deck when at the glacier.

[nursedj]

We are also on the Majestic doing a B2B and booked the 26 Glacier cruise. We are now having second thoughts about it since our ship goes the same route into College Fjord on the way to Whittier. We're thinking about changing it to the shorter Glacier Quest (3 hrs 45 min) with the same company that goes into Blackstone Bay, which our cruise ship doesn't enter into the smaller fjord. I believe the 26 Glacier is 150 miles roundtrip (5 hr 50 min) & the Glacier Quest is 45 miles roundtrip. Doing a B2B cruise, we'll be visiting Glacier Bay twice, College Fjord, & Hubbard Glacier. Absolutely love seeing all the glaciers, but having second thoughts about seeing the longer College Fjord Glacier cruise right after we saw it on ship. I do understand though, we'll be a lot closer to the glaciers. Would love to hear anyones thoughts on this and their perspective. 

[wolfie11]

27 minutes ago, nursedj said:

We are also on the Majestic doing a B2B and booked the 26 Glacier cruise. We are now having second thoughts about it since our ship goes the same route into College Fjord on the way to Whittier. We're thinking about changing it to the shorter Glacier Quest (3 hrs 45 min) with the same company that goes into Blackstone Bay, which our cruise ship doesn't enter into the smaller fjord. I believe the 26 Glacier is 150 miles roundtrip (5 hr 50 min) & the Glacier Quest is 45 miles roundtrip. Doing a B2B cruise, we'll be visiting Glacier Bay twice, College Fjord, & Hubbard Glacier. Absolutely love seeing all the glaciers, but having second thoughts about seeing the longer College Fjord Glacier cruise right after we saw it on ship. I do understand though, we'll be a lot closer to the glaciers. Would love to hear anyones thoughts on this and their perspective. 

You are correct in that the 26 Glacier Cruise does the same route into College Fjords that you will do on your cruise ship.  Depending on the captain of the Majestic, you may or may not get close to the glacier.  Some of the captains hate going into the ice and will stop five miles from the glacier, while others will go right up to it. I've attached pictures of College Fjord and Yale Glacier, and one of the waterfall in Blackstone Bay from a few years ago BC (before Covid).

 

The 26 Glacier Cruise used to be so much better in my opinion, but a couple of years ago they stopped going into Barry Arm and Harriman Fjord because of the threat of a landslide near Barry Glacier that could trigger a tsunami.  The majority of the cruise used to be in Barry Arm, with a visit to Surprise Glacier and sea otters floating around on ice.  They now cruise all the way up to Harvard Glacier and go to Blackstone Bay, which is a beautiful small bay with a couple of glaciers. Certainly the correct decision regarding the landslide but a pity as Harriman Fjord is really beautiful.