Postive comment re whale watch through ship

[GoofingOff]

A lot of people have opined that whale watching through independent operators on smaller boats is better than doing it though the cruiseline on one of the larger vessels (and cheaper as well).

 

Having just done a whale watch through Royal Caribbean out of Icy Strait Point, I thought I'd report some observations I hadn't read here.

 

1. The larger boat I was on had 3 decks. The bottom two are inside while the top deck is completely open. The viewing from the top deck was a lot better than from the first deck. Being able to view down at the whales was a lot better. When I went to the first deck, I found the viewing less enjoyable.

 

2. Restrooms. The larger vessel had 3 restrooms. Found that very useful, esp. on the return ride after downing a few cups of hot chocolate.

 

3. Being able to sit comfortably inside and have a conversation with friends (or even nap) on the return trip was also very nice.

 

4. Plenty of hot chocolate and a snack of smoked salmon cream cheese on crackers.

 

From what I can tell, the smaller boats out there weren't any closer to the whales than we were. We saw plenty of whales and they came to what seem like 30 yards of us.

[Sprocket Rocket]

It sounds as if we were on the same cruise, and I was on FISHES morning whale watching trip. To be honest, each experience is great and the difference in boat and crowd size mean different things for different travelers. In my case, I like the smaller boat for several reasons.

 

1. I really enjoyed my one-on-one time with Floyd. I am an avid outdoorsman and found it interesting to talk to someone who was a commercial fisherman for over 50 years in Alaska. There were only 5 of us on the boat, and we all fit inside easily. There was hot chocolate and cookies. There was a rest room, but no one in my family had to use it so I can't comment on it.

 

2. When Floyd noticed a bear cub on the shore, he got as close as he could allowing us to get some great pictures. I liked that flexibility.

 

Whether to go on the ships tour or a smaller independent is really a personal preference. The whales are there and everyone will see plenty.

[Denise&Paul STL]

Sprocket, having trouble finding FISHES on the web. Could you provide their URL? Thanks!

[gisele21]

I was also on the same cruise (Serenade 8/2/08). My 5 year old son and I did the F.I.S.H.E.S. tour right after Sprocket. The rest of my family all went on the RCCL whale watching tour. That's my mother, my husband, my 19 month daughter, my niece (age 14), my nephew (age 10), my sister, her husband, and her MIL. We took both tours at the same time.

 

As we went out, Floyd got close to the shore for us to see a bald eagle and a bear. We saw a number of whales. A while after we were out looking at whales, we saw a large whale watching ship which we knew must be the RCCL one with the rest of my family. There was a pod of whales between us. The pod suddenly came over to our boat and got so close we got wet from their spray! My husband said he could see me and our son on the boat.

 

After Marge dropped us off at the pier, my son and I walked around. Then the RCCL boat came in and we rejoined on the tender back.

 

I think both experiences are good, just different. My son is crazy about animals and whales and I like the more personalized experience, which is why I took our son. Floyd couldn't accomodate our whole family anyway since the most he can take is 6. Everyone who went on the RCCL tour had a great time. It was better for my sister's family and mom because she gets seasick and they prefer sitting comfortably inside. My 19 month old was also free as an infant. If I had taken her with me, she would have been full price ($150). The RCCL tour also was a little less money. The important thing is everyone had a great time on the tour they were on!

 

We did use Floyd's bathroom and it was fine, just like any other. We were too busy looking for whales to think about hot chocolate so didn't have any.

 

Too bad we didn't get a chance to meet on the ship. I also live in the Bay Area. If you were on the RCCL tour and saw a man holding a 19 month old girl in a pink bearsuit with two other kids hanging off of him, that would be my husband!

[Budget Queen]

The difference with the independents, is they stay out longer, than the ship contracted boats which are very tightly scheduled. Sometimes twice as long, which means more viewing. :)

[Yukon]

Sprocket, having trouble finding FISHES on the web. Could you provide their URL? Thanks!

 

http://www.visithoonah.com/fishes/ - and you can see pics of our incredible trip with Floyd at http://www.youralaskacruise.com/reviews/alaskacruises2006/page5.html

 

Murray

[MercedMike]

This board tends to have a very strong bias towards independents.

 

I have taken ship's wildlife tours in several ports and universally found them to be great. The comfort of the larger boats is very important to me, as well as the ease and convenience. Allen Marine, who operates many of the ship's tours, has especially comfortable and well designed wildlife viewing boats.

 

OTOH I have booked independent tours in many ports and sometimes find the advantages of them to be important, too. Our bear search with Keith of Teckk Tours in ISP was memorable.

 

Check out our review and pics at http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/volendam.html for examples of both types of wildlife tours.

 

I think it is important to start off without a bias either way, so you can carefully weigh the merits of both approaches. On almost every cruise we wind up with a mix of ship's and independent tours, and are almost universally satisified with what we pick.

[Yukon]

I think it is important to start off without a bias either way, so you can carefully weigh the merits of both approaches.

 

I'm VERY biased. I hate crowds, don't trust reservation services (having seen first-hand many people get burned by them), and want every dime of my $$$ going to the operator rather than a trillion-dollar offshore corporation. That means that unless there is no choice (it does happen), I book direct with independent operators.

 

Murray

[GoofingOff]

I was also on the same cruise (Serenade 8/2/08).

 

...

 

Too bad we didn't get a chance to meet on the ship. I also live in the Bay Area. If you were on the RCCL tour and saw a man holding a 19 month old girl in a pink bearsuit with two other kids hanging off of him, that would be my husband!

 

That is too bad .... You almost described me in describing your husband. I had my 17 mo. daughter in a backpack child carrier a lot on the ship and we have 2 older girls - 3 and almost 5.

 

It was a fantastic cruise! Even though we cruised Alaska last year, this experience was so different for us. We'd cruise Alaska again in a heartbeat.

[verodoodle]

It sounds as if we were on the same cruise, and I was on FISHES morning whale watching trip. To be honest, each experience is great and the difference in boat and crowd size mean different things for different travelers. In my case, I like the smaller boat for several reasons.

 

1. I really enjoyed my one-on-one time with Floyd. I am an avid outdoorsman and found it interesting to talk to someone who was a commercial fisherman for over 50 years in Alaska. There were only 5 of us on the boat, and we all fit inside easily. There was hot chocolate and cookies. There was a rest room, but no one in my family had to use it so I can't comment on it.

 

2. When Floyd noticed a bear cub on the shore, he got as close as he could allowing us to get some great pictures. I liked that flexibility.

 

Whether to go on the ships tour or a smaller independent is really a personal preference. The whales are there and everyone will see plenty.

 

I have the tour with Floyd scheduled @11:00 and i know ISP is tendered, Did you have any trouble getting off the ship in time to make your excursion?

[Sprocket Rocket]

We had no trouble at all. As a suggestion, be in line about 15 minutes before they start giving out tendering tickets. Tendering went smoothly on our trip. We were on the second boat.

[gisele21]

Maybe we did see you around the ship. On my tender back to the boat at ISP, there was a family where the father had a child backpack carrier on and two small girls. It was sometime after 5pm on one of the last tenders. The family and our family were sitting on the top deck of the tender. It's also the same tender than had some issue docking at the boat. Our tender hit the side of the Serenade pretty hard (leaving a very visible mark) and made several attempts. Could that family have been you?

 

My husband also had our daughter in baby backpack around the ship - usually as we were getting off. It is a tall backpack, blue, that sits on the hips.

[Sprocket Rocket]

Interesting, we were on an earlier tender that whacked the ship really hard too!

[GoofingOff]

Maybe we did see you around the ship. On my tender back to the boat at ISP, there was a family where the father had a child backpack carrier on and two small girls. It was sometime after 5pm on one of the last tenders. The family and our family were sitting on the top deck of the tender. It's also the same tender than had some issue docking at the boat. Our tender hit the side of the Serenade pretty hard (leaving a very visible mark) and made several attempts. Could that family have been you?

 

My husband also had our daughter in baby backpack around the ship - usually as we were getting off. It is a tall backpack, blue, that sits on the hips.

 

Yeah, that was definitely us. That tender had me worried a bit. The first hit was entertaining but that feeling didn't last long.

 

Hmm, now if I can recall your family. I do remember another Asian family on that tender. Was that you guys?

[gisele21]

Yes, that was us! I remember seeing you guys around the shops at ISP before getting on the tender. It was just me and my 5 year old son there. On the top deck of the tender, my niece and nephew joined us along with my husband and our daughter in the pink bear suit. My husband (who is not Asian with brown hair) was standing, sometimes holding our daughter, sometimes she was on my lap. My nephew and my son were really excited looking over the tender as it was trying to dock. It was my 10 year old nephew (who can be pretty funny at times) yelling "Oh my God we're not going to make it!" when the tender kept missing and whacked the boat, with my son getting excited next to him.

 

I think I also remember you one other time when there was a line getting off the ship and you were behind us. Since my husband carried our daughter in a backpack, I definitely noted when I saw another family doing the same!

 

Did you have two rooms on the ship or did you have a suite? We were in a RFS on deck 7 with my family, my mother, and my niece. My sister booked two rooms because she had her MIL with her.

 

I think we got so lucky with the weather on our cruise! It was a great day at ISP, and the weather in Skagway was just perfect!

[GoofingOff]

How funny! Yes, it was a great cruise. We stayed in 2 balcony cabins so that we can get 4 cabins in a row - next to my parents and my sister and her 2 children.

 

We stayed in a RFS on our last cruise and that was really nice. That tub is so handy with little ones.

 

So you're a first time cruiser and you stayed in a suite?! My wife and I paced ourselves, going from inside, ocean view, balcony, and then suite.

 

You must be hooked now. My parents, sister, and her kids were all first timers and they all love it. I'm trying to find another one for us all to take next summer but there aren't too many options for us west coast people unless we endure a flight to FL.

 

My wife and I both loved the Serenade and prefer it over the Mariner.

[gisele21]

Yes, we stayed in a suite. There were 5 of us and at the time of booking there were no connecting balcony rooms so we got the suite. Our 19 month old took long naps in the afternoon so someone always had to be in the room. Very glad we had the RFS because of that!! She is also terrified of being in the shower, so the bath tub was also a plus.

 

We would definitely cruise again, but I would like to try other lines with more naturalist programs. My son didn't like Adventure Ocean. I think the 3-5 age group was too young for him (5 year olds are pretty different from 3 year olds). He went to pre-K and summer camp so he is used to older activities than what he was offered. Plus he said he didn't make any friends because no one his age was there. He was there for an hour and was ready to leave after that. I think a kids naturalist program would be better for him.

 

Who knows, maybe we'll go next summer. I've been looking at other iteneraries for fun... :)

[knorrisb07]

Orca is independent and runs several reasonably large ships. Maybe a good compromise?

[gisele21]

Hey GoofingOff

 

Would love to talk more with you about cruises, and especially since we both live in the SF Bay Area and have kids the same age. You can email to my Yahoo account. It is gisele_21 (at) yahoo (dot) com :)