Alaska Inside Passage -NCL Cruising-Whales

[DALLIEDOG]

Has anybody out there have any success in spotting Whales from aboard ship and can you identify geographically where you were in the passage !!!!

[Toyz711]

i didn't have that much luck...and i was looking. we saw 2 small whales, maybe pilot whales, they swam right next to the ship, under our balcony. that was the day after we left seattle...before juneau. (NCL star doing the route the pearl does now).we got into juneau at 2pm...i wasn't out early enough, should have been out in the wee hours of the morning, but we didn't see anything. outside of glacier bay, coming out of the area, we saw some spouts and a couple of splashes...nothing close to the ship.

later that day, we saw some dali porpoise swimming along side the ship...they are black/while like a ocra..but different body type.

i was looking on one side of the ship and some said they saw some on the other side...but not close enough to tell me if they were humpbacks or orcas.

[iliveforvacation]

Yea, on Princess last year the captain announced there was a whale, but I didn't see it. If you want to see whales, take a whale watching tour-I did, and it was spectacular! I saw a momma and her calf, there were a lot of whales that day-even the wildlife experts on the whale boat were amazed. One of the whales (these were the humpback whales btw) completely jumped out of the water like on that insurance commercial which is also unusual. Plus it was also neat to see the Eagles catching salmon. I would recommend it if you want to see whales. On the cruise itself while in the glaciers and the fjords you should notice a lot of seals on the ice caps.

[bige34]

on the way to juneau from seatle this past may 18 to 25th we saw a pod of orca's (3) swimming and jumping in front of the pearl, it was amazing. Also saw numerous humpback's and pilot's swimming with the ship on the way out of glacier bay. As we approached victoria bc, we saw quite a few humpbacks. All along the route we saw seals on ice floes and saw harbor seals in the bay. Saw many eagles and puffins as well.

[more cruises]

Hey Dalliedog,

 

I grew up in Lakewood - went to Lakewood HS (back when Mike Rae was quarterback. That'll tell you how long ago that was) We lived on Graywood Ave. Are you anywhere near that?

 

Back to your original question - I think there was a resident humpback in Skagway - sort of behind the helicopters. Could see him well from our balcony on the Star. Also saw a pod of Orcas about 2 hours south of Skagway. Saw lots of spouting all that evening.

[terrymtex01]

on the way to juneau from seatle this past may 18 to 25th we saw a pod of orca's (3) swimming and jumping in front of the pearl, it was amazing. Also saw numerous humpback's and pilot's swimming with the ship on the way out of glacier bay. As we approached victoria bc, we saw quite a few humpbacks. All along the route we saw seals on ice floes and saw harbor seals in the bay. Saw many eagles and puffins as well.

 

Oh WOW.. to see orcas jumping.. I am so jealous...We were on the Star three weeks ago and only saw humpback, and those that we saw were when we were on excursions for Misty Fjord and Tracy Arm (which was really Endicott Arm as Tracy Arm had too much ice). We never got to see any Orca at all.

 

To the OP. I highly recommend that you take a whale watching excursion. The reason I say this is.. there is something almost spiritual about seeing the whale. I'm not an emotional person. For me to cry, someone has died. However last November we were on the Star to the Mexican Riveria. When the ship got to Puerto Vallerta, we started see whales every where. It was mating season for the Humpback Whale and they gather in the bay at Puerto Vallarta. I was so moved watching them that I found I had tears in my eyes.. I was SO embarrassed and wanted to crawl under a rock, until I looked around and saw almost every one else was that way too. It was truely an amazing experience. Maybe it was because we were not expecting it. I don't know.

 

The reason I say to take an excursion is that on the M.R. cruise, the captian came over the P.A. and told us that they had seen more whale that day from the ship than in their previous six months cruising Alaska.

 

Hope you see a lot of the whales. When you get back.. get on here and tell us all about it...8-)

[sjbdtz]

First attempt at attaching files...hope it works.... these were from Glacier Bay in September 2007.

[dudboom]

I agree with the others, take a whale watching excursion. Even then you may or may not get to see a lot of whales. On our 4 cruises we have never been close enough to whales to get a decent picture. We are going to try again this August. We have had better luck on the excursions. This year we are going to try the Orca watching excursion out of Victoria. There are a couple of resident pods around the area so we should have a good chance of seeing them.

 

I love when the park ranger on board points out seals along the Glacier Bay cruise. They look like small logs floating by the ship. Maybe if you were on deck 7, or promenade deck they would look a little more like seals!

[ute_fan]

I would also highly recommend a whale watching tour. Even if you're lucky enough to see them from the cruise ship, the views don't begin to compare from what you'll see on a smaller boat.

 

We've been to Alaska twice, so I'm definitely NOT an expert. We saw one whale on the Sun, the morning after we left Vancouver. I spotted the "blow" from our balcony, and didn't even realize what it was, until it happened a couple more times. Then it was like "duh", that's a whale, and we grabbed the binoculars and were able to see it surfacing. That was the only one we saw from the cruise ship, however -- in spite of spending LOTS of time looking.

 

When we sailed on the Pearl last year, we go luckier. We sailed earlier in the season (May 20), and there were still some stragglers migrating. I didn't keep a count, but we saw at least 10 from the cruise ship. However, unless you're there while they're migrating, I definitely wouldn't plan on having that experience.

 

Have you posted this question on the Alaska board? Budget Queen would be able to tell you the specific of where to look and what location to be on board -- which is up on the open deck somewhere, not on your balcony. I think she may either on or getting read to go on a European cruise, however.

[Whaleofatime]

Whales abound in Alaska - they are under your feet all the time between May and September. We did the inside passage in May/Jun 06 and granted the Orca are hard to spot, you can be a day in front of them or a day behind them and never see one - the most I got was a distant fin at 5am one morning - yes I spent every waking minute looking for whales - which is a lot of daylight in Alaska!!!! Humpbacks on the other hand are slower and larger which gives us a fighting chance. The best view we had was right in the harbour at Skagway just beneath our balcony when we were docked. We took a trip from Juneau which was pretty good too. All the way around to College Fjord we just kept spotting blows and tails but it was a constant, enjoyable vigil.

If you want a lazy person's whale watching adventure cruise the Hawaiian islands in the winter ie Nov - May. Maui is the perfect nursery and you can sit on your balcony all day they'll swim right by.

SAVE THE WHALES!