What are my BEST chances of...

[Ceenie]

seeing a:

moose (want to see one in the wild- in the WORST way)

otter

bear (not as much we have plenty here in PA--grizzlies would be cool.)

eagle

orcas

Where and on what excusion? Where have you seen them?

We will be on the NCL Star 8/16 with POCs in Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway and Prince Rupert. Please advise.

[Assateague Island Princes]

You've gotta get to the interior for Moose - Anchorage reports almost daily sightings, right on the main streets, I'm told! But the rest? Whales, sea otters, eagles (like seagulls in Jersey up there!), and all the rest - you'll see those on just about any inside passage cruise. If one of your ports is Juneau, we highly recommend Harv and Marv's - very personalized whale watching tours. Only 6 people on the boat, and they know their stuff! Great trip, great people, with so much knowledge and love for Alaska! We did see many, many whales from the ship, but mostly just blows and tails, nothing like what we saw with Harv and Marv's - upclose and personal! You will love, love, love the great state of Alaska - enjoy! Happy Moose Hunting!

[Toyz711]

eagles..no problems, they are everywhere. just look for the white spots in the trees.

otters...hmmm, we only saw some in the far distance. knew what they were my thier movements.

orcas..best chance out of vancouver...they are a rare maybe out of juneau. humpbacks are the resident whales of juneau.

bears...need special tours for best viewing. not sure about grizzlies, though.

we had sea lions playing of the rear of our whale watching boats, in juneau ( orca enterprises) they were a couple of feet from the boat.

family saw a small black bear, from the shuttle, going to mendenhall glacier (juneau).

[Yukon]

Whales, sea otters, eagles (like seagulls in Jersey up there!), and all the rest - you'll see those on just about any inside passage cruise.

 

You've been talking to too many travel agents - we only wish that were true.

 

The best places are places the OP isn't going. With the exception of eagles, which are everywhere, you're going to have to get really lucky. I'll tell you where the best places are for next time, though:

- moose: along the Alaska Highway between Fairbanks and Tok (we saw 5 on our drive last week, and that's pretty common)

- grizzly: Denali, but excursions out of both Ketchikan and Prince Rupert will give you good odds

- sea otters: Sitka, with Seward and Valdez sharing rather distant 2nd place

- orca: Victoria, Seattle and Vancouver (the excursions from those places all head into the Gulf and San Juan Islands to find the resident pods). Transient orca are occasionally seen out of Juneau, but very poor odds

 

Murray

[kenish]

Hi Yukon, Since you know what you're talking about, I now feel lucky. On our Harv & Marv whale watch trip we saw humpbacks, a pod of orcas, eagles, and sea lions on a buoy. There were also more humpbacks in the Glacier Bay area that we saw from the ship, and 4-5 otters as we left College Fjord.

 

In Denali we saw about 5 moose, Dall sheep, caribou, and 7 or 8 grizzlies....oh yeah, and the mountain was out!

 

We did expect to see salmon going upstream, and never did....the folks in Ketchikan were waiting too! We finally saw a few in Ship Creek (downtown Anchorage).

[whale-watcher]

Not sure what exact route your sailing will be taking, but we saw much more marine wildlife this year than we did 4 years ago.

 

Moose: we did not see a moose anywhere in the inside passage, but they were reported by others who rented cars in Seward (they hang out near the jail, I am told) and our flightseeing pilot out of Skagway sees them frequently on the "Glacier Country Flightseeing" tour (we did not on our flight, but this is a fantastic excursion, by the way)

 

Sea Otters: more widespread than I remember; perhaps their range is expanding? Quite a few near the mouth of Glacier Bay and in the vicinity of Seward...very easy to spot with binoculars. More numerous around Sitka, and HUGE numbers around Valdez. Perhaps your sailing will pass near the mouth of Glacier Bay at one point? if so, be out on deck with good binoculars.

 

Bear: we saw one Brown Bear (grizzley) from the cruise ship in Glacier Bay, and black bears were seen from the white pass railroad in Skagway, and near Mendenhall glacier in Juneau. There are bear viewing excursions from Ketchikan; we were too early for these, and also have many black bears by our house, so it was low priority for us.

 

Eagles: impossible to miss if you watch for them, as others have noted

 

Orcas: we saw MANY this year. You should be watching for whales early in the morning as you sail into Ketchikan, and again between Ketchikan and Juneau (we saw several pods near the snow passage, about 3 hours north of Ketchikan, and a few orcas on our way in and out of Juneau + many humpbacks in both locations). Orcas and especially humpbacks were also numerous near the mouth of Glacier Bay and near Seward, and I would think that you have a chance of seeing them after sailaway from Seattle (but you will need to spend hours out on deck with proper clothing and good binoculars scanning...sightings are brief and generally not announced by the bridge, so you will miss them if you are not outside watching for them at the proper time). We did have a few sightings just north of the west coast of Vancouver Island, so it pays to keep watch as much as you can.

[PennyAgain]

In interior Alaska moose like to hide from cars on the dark side of curves and then yell 'surprise' when you are driving too fast to avoid hitting them.

 

Bears like to watch me upload the groceries from the car. I do not charge people who also help to unload groceries.

 

I don't pay to see bears. They find me.

[bottom-dragger]

You've gotta get to the interior for Moose - !

 

not really, but not in any of the places that you're touring. this was shot out in front of tiny town last wednesday. he had no interest in me. decent sized moose population on the stikine river, mitkof island, thomas bay, and kupreanof island.

[Ceenie]

Shoot-- I knew I should have booked the RCI out of Seward!

Any excusions that will take us inland a bit for some "moose hunting"?

[LynneL]

Just returned from Serenade of the Seas and went on a whale watching tour with Harv & Marv. As others have said, each of their boats only take 6 people - though I noticed sign on boat states 13 allowed. I'm guessing they limit to 6 not only for comfort but if one boat developed an problem while out they could transfer guests to the other boat for a return trip & still be within their limit of passengers - while Harv or Marv stayed with the troubled boat.

I'm sure that doesn't happen...but gave me reassurance there wouldn't ever be an issue with getting back to our ship.

 

Anyway - you will not meet nicer people who will really make an effort to make your tour enjoyable. They keep in touch by radio between themselves & other small craft to know where anyone is spotting whales & then go in that direction. We saw a pod of whales doing what we were told is bubble feeding (they seem to go down in the water as a group for fish and then come up as a group). It was absolutely beautiful seeing these huge creatures swimming so gracefully in the water. Harv (Pete) also had a microphone that he put into the water & we could hear the whales commuicating over a speaker he had in the boat (there is a name for this device though it escapes me). Had a ghostly sound. Just all amazing!

 

Marv's brother drove the van that took us to and from the tour boats. Another great person! Drove us by the salmon factory so show us a bunch of eagles perched on the bldg. & near the water. Also brought us on the way back to Mendenhall Glacier, even though that was not on the advertised tour, and let those that wanted to get out & take pictures stay 20 minutes, otherwise you could take a shuttle for $7.00 for those that wanted to stay longer. This not only saved us $14. taking the shuttle to & from Mendenhall, we had to be back on our ship no later than 2:30 p.m. so we wouldn't have had the time to go there if Mark (I believe that was his name) was not so kind as to offer than service at no extra charge. I would highly recommend this tour company!

[LynneL]

Almost forgot...Harv also took us past a buoy that had about 4 sea otters just lounging away on it...so hopefully you could cover 3 of your "want to see.." in this one tour. If you go to HarvandMarv website they have wildlife pics.

[Ratatouille]

In interior Alaska moose like to hide from cars on the dark side of curves and then yell 'surprise' when you are driving too fast to avoid hitting them.

 

VERY funny!

 

One of my favourite memories is being on Vancouver Island and coming back one evening to find a huge (well, to me anyway!) moose standing around the corner next to the house like he was waiting for us.

[robinsegg]

Almost forgot...Harv also took us past a buoy that had about 4 sea otters just lounging away on it...so hopefully you could cover 3 of your "want to see.." in this one tour. If you go to HarvandMarv website they have wildlife pics.

 

LynneL - I think those were sea LIONS, not sea otters. Just a guess :)

 

OP - I asked a similar question about sea otters, as they were really #1 on my list of things to see, and our itinerary didn't include Seward. Well, we saw more sea otters than we could count - seriously. At the entrace to Glacier Bay National Park and also on the way into College Fjord. This was in mid-June of this year.

[LynneL]

LynneL - I think those were sea LIONS, not sea otters. Just a guess :)

 

 

Robinsegg - you are so right! I just googled sea otters & that's not what I saw. I realized OP has a specific type whale in mind so the kind I saw may not be what she is looking for either. Oh well, now I'm just going to have to go back again to round out my list - lol!

[Toyz711]

as we left glacier bay, there was a current with drift wood floating on it...as the ship got closer, some of the drift wood went under the water and then swam away. they were sea otters, you could tell by the way they swam and the way they were floating on their back. could not get close enough to see them well, but with binoculars we could just make them out.

sea lions seem to be all around the place...they like to harrass the humpbacks, who don't eat them. don't think they would harrass the ocras?

on our trip, with orca enterprises, we had a long time watching the humpback tail-thumping the sea lions. for 10 or 15 mins, they followed our boat...the sea lions, not the humpbacks. i perfer humpbacks, to watch...big gentle giants. orcas have been seen, in juneau, more the last 2 seasons.

[Yukon]

A lot of the comments here have been about dots in the distance that were probably ----. While it's nice to know that ---- actually does live in the area you're passing through, only up close and personal really counts, IMO.

[whale-watcher]

A lot of the comments here have been about dots in the distance that were probably ----. While it's nice to know that ---- actually does live in the area you're passing through, only up close and personal really counts, IMO.

We actually had fantastic and close looks at sea otters, orcas, and humpbacks around the mouth of glacier bay this year...again, patience and good binoculars are the key, and the sightings were often brief (at least for the whales).

 

For the OP...I would plan on spending as much time as possible on deck on your way into Ketchikan and again as you cruise from Ketchikan to Juneau...we saw a number of different groups of orcas in this area, including some decent looks (and some that were just distant fins through binoculars).

[Toyz711]

just a reminder to bring the binoculars...that not all viewings are close.

to get the best views, we would have to move to your area...then you would be over-poplulated:eek: (but i have thought about it)

[kk-l]

seeing a:

moose (want to see one in the wild- in the WORST way)

otter

bear (not as much we have plenty here in PA--grizzlies would be cool.)

eagle

orcas

Where and on what excusion? Where have you seen them?

We will be on the NCL Star 8/16 with POCs in Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway and Prince Rupert. Please advise.

There is a program on the Alaskan moose on the National Geographic Channel this week. I recorded and watched it yesterday. I think you will really enjoy it. See if it will air again.