biksgirl Posted July 16 #1 Share Posted July 16 I will be on HAL cruise in late August and have booked the ships Tracy Arm excursion. It will get us back to Juneau around 4:30 and ship leaves at 10pm. Would there be any time to book a whale watching excursion? Can you book independent excursions at the port or is that too risky? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfie11 Posted July 16 #2 Share Posted July 16 Not really. The latest whale watches go out around 5-6pm. If you’re back late you may miss it. But check your excursion schedule for exact times. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biksgirl Posted July 16 Author #3 Share Posted July 16 @wolfie11 appreciate the response! I guess I'll see what the day looks like! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zqvol Posted July 16 #4 Share Posted July 16 The trip from Tracy Arm to Juneau is almost a whale watching excursion on its own. If I remember it is about 2 hours or so across open waters and there is a good chance of seeing a few whales, at least we did. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biksgirl Posted July 18 Author #5 Share Posted July 18 @zqvol oh perfect!! hope we get lucky too 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare karatemom2 Posted July 19 #6 Share Posted July 19 (edited) Even if you could make it work, you probably won't want to hop right back on another small boat excursion. The Tracy Arm Fjord small boat excursion is amazing - but it is a long excursion and you will be tired and ready to maybe spend some time in town and get a bite to eat after a very full day. Going back out on another boat in search of whales (which hopefully you will see on your Tracy Arm excursion) would just be really a lot to try to take on at that point. Edited July 19 by karatemom2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peety3 Posted July 19 #7 Share Posted July 19 We've done it (twice), but on a much different schedule. We were on one of the Princess ships, with a return to Juneau around 1:30pm. Our favorite whale watch excursions are only available through the ship, so if the system lets you book it, it will work. I will say that our second time was a little bit dicey time-wise and we had to put our foot down to not miss our whale watch. On that particular cruise, Allen Marine sent two 150-pax boats for the Tracy Arm small-boat excursion. When we reported to the theater to "hurry up and wait" for the small-boat tour, they were asking folks if they had a 1:30pm excursion (our tour was scheduled to finish at 1:00pm IIRC). Our tour was 2PM, so we didn't think much of it (bad choice), and we were put onto "boat #2". They only load or unload one tour boat at a time via the tender platform, so alas we had to wait a bit for boat #1 to unload. I don't think we were back on our ship until 1:45, maybe 1:50, and we still had to cross the ship, tap our cruise card, and go down the gangway. The bus for our tour had already left, but when we said we were on an earlier ship-sponsored excursion and got here as soon as we could, they realized they screwed up and radioed our bus to come back for us. Moral of the story: if they run two boats, and time matters, get on boat #1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zqvol Posted July 19 #8 Share Posted July 19 10 hours ago, karatemom2 said: Even if you could make it work, you probably won't want to hop right back on another small boat excursion. The Tracy Arm Fjord small boat excursion is amazing - but it is a long excursion and you will be tired and ready to maybe spend some time in town and get a bite to eat after a very full day. Going back out on another boat in search of whales (which hopefully you will see on your Tracy Arm excursion) would just be really a lot to try to take on at that point. I have to disagree with this. There is nothing tiring about the Tracy Arm excursion, nor is there anything tiring about a small boat whale watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare karatemom2 Posted July 19 #9 Share Posted July 19 1 hour ago, zqvol said: I have to disagree with this. There is nothing tiring about the Tracy Arm excursion, nor is there anything tiring about a small boat whale watch. I guess that depends on each individual. This is my opinion - you have yours. I understand that the new way of doing this excursion picks passengers up directly from the cruise ship which reduces the overall time which might make it easier to do two small boat excursions in one port day, but it would still be a rush and a lot of stress IMO. And yes, tiring, running from one to the other. When we did these excursions via a private vendor they departed from Juneau. It was a good solid 8 hour excursion - so yes, wonderful but tiring for those like us standing at the rail binoculars in hand almost the entire time. I guess if you just sit passively it may be less tiring, but that’s not how we roll. By the time we got back to Juneau, which is a long ride, we were tired and famished as the food served on the tour amounts to a snack. So we were ready for a break from being on a small boat and a nice meal in town. That’s my perspective. I would have not wanted to be rushed and running to jump on yet another small boat excursion. Others might - I was offering my thoughts based on my experiences. if you are prepared to run from one boat tour to another with little time to spare in order to catch a second trip, miss exploring town entirely, and hold off on an enjoying an evening meal. then by all means, go for it. The OP was asking for opinions and I provided mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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