Whale watching from the cruise ship?

[Playsprite]

We are cruising HAL May 29 2009. I had always heard you see the whales from the ship. There are so many things to do and see, if I will see the whales from the ship I don't want to do a whale watching cruise tour. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this..

Thanks

Susan

[thinfool]

We are cruising HAL May 29 2009. I had always heard you see the whales from the ship. There are so many things to do and see, if I will see the whales from the ship I don't want to do a whale watching cruise tour. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this..

Thanks

Susan

 

You will see whales from the ship. Far away. The ship does not chase whales...you get to see whatever happens by.

 

An excursion will get you up close. Close enough to hear them breathe. And you will see other critters too. Otters, sea lions, dall porpoise, seals, bald eagles. If you don't see whales you get your money back. (not gonna happen)

 

I love seeing wildlife. I enjoyed the glaciers, too, but to me, after a few, they are all the same frozen, cold slabs of ice. Give me a small boat and lots of marine life to enjoy....yes!!!

[Putterdude]

Whale watching from a ship is a "by chance" occurance and when seen they are often very far from the ship. The ships do not ordinarily veer off course for the pax to see them. So if seeing whales is a priority for you than I would recommend a whale watching excursion.:)

[Assateague Island Princes]

If you spend lots of time, making it a priority to watch for whales - you will see them....BUT they will be in the distance, they will be spouts, tails, humps, etc. NOTHING like being up close and personal on a whale watch! We spent hours and hours on our balcony and other public viewing spaces our entire Alaskan cruise this past June - its what was important for us - the scenery, the wildlife, and particularly, looking for whales. My sister-in-law and I just loved it - it became a sport - from the first thing in the morning to the last light in the evening - we were constantly looking for whales. Wonderful!! But it only whetted our appetite for the very perosnalized 6 passenger whale watching excursion we took with Harv and Marv's in Juneau. WOW!! It was magnificent! Previous poster is right - you can hear them breathe!!! How cool is that???? Budget the extra $$$ necessary and do yourself a favor by taking a whale watching excursion. I guarantee you won't be disappointed! We can hardly wait for our third return to the Great Land in 2010 - whale watching, here we come!!:p

[diverearl]

We are cruising HAL May 29 2009. I had always heard you see the whales from the ship. There are so many things to do and see, if I will see the whales from the ship I don't want to do a whale watching cruise tour. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this.. Thanks, Susan

 

We saw lots of whales from the ship mostly standing on the bow areas. The best sighting we will probably ever get was from this area of the cruise ship, a hugh whale surfaced right in front of us then sounded with a great fluke shot. It happened so fast that nobody got a photo but the mental picture was fantastic. Most sightings were much farther away and many were simply very small blast of air from far away whales, but quite a few were close enough to really enjoy. I have to say though that we spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of time on the bow looking for wildlife and enjoying the scenery.

 

I wouldn't pass on a whale watching tour for any reason myself, you have a much better chance of a close up with the whales than on the cruise ship, but then again we seldom get a chance to view any whales where we live or travel.

[Budget Queen]

I post frequently on the merits of whale watching from a cruise ship. And spend most of my sailing time out on deck. For clarification- it requires a great deal of time invested at the FRONT of the ship. A good pair of wide angle binoculars are NECESSARY. You can be out hours for 2 minutes of views, which are distant and brief. It pays to have a good ship naturalist, that you can hook up with and get prior week sighting stats. I know areas, I will say most people do not, so I always have great experiences. BUT you will also alway see me on whale watch tours. If I'm in port all day, I go out twice. FAR superior for close up extended viewing.

[Shoobee2]

I've been on cruises to Alaska several times and have always seen at least a few whales from the ship. The other posters are right though in that they are usually off quite far in the distance and you do need to spend a lot of time looking for them.

 

On my first Alaskan cruise, I was napping in the room and the ship seemed to swerve a little. I looked outside and there was a pod of orcas quite close to the ship. We watched them jump right outside my window. Pretty spectacular for the last day of the cruise--and it happened to be my birthday. I'll always remember that experience!

 

Never seen anything like that again though.. so if you really want to see whales, take a whale watching trip as one of your shore excursions.

[5HappyCampers]

I was expecting twins 11 years ago when my DH and I went on our Alaskan cruise. We took a whale watching excursion and it was the most amazing experience! From the first "spout spotted" and when you actually see a whale breach and or the tail dive, your hooked! We ran from side to side of the catamaran just to see the next one. A once in a lifetime experience, the I get to experience again... We are now returning in June with the boys and their older sister to have them experience this beautiful place and yes, we are absolutely going on a whale watching excursion!! :)

[Markanddonna]

but I didn't see any from the ship. So, we are making the Harv and Marv whale watch our priority outing this time.

[MercedMike]

I post frequently on the merits of whale watching from a cruise ship. And spend most of my sailing time out on deck. For clarification- it requires a great deal of time invested at the FRONT of the ship. A good pair of wide angle binoculars are NECESSARY. You can be out hours for 2 minutes of views, which are distant and brief. It pays to have a good ship naturalist, that you can hook up with and get prior week sighting stats. I know areas, I will say most people do not, so I always have great experiences. BUT you will also alway see me on whale watch tours. If I'm in port all day, I go out twice. FAR superior for close up extended viewing.

 

Absolutely right on. If you really really want to see whales from the ship, you probably will. But it takes time and effort.

 

We don't spend our shipboard time that way, but we have twice been lucky to see the "accidental" sightings. Once at dinner, somebody suddenly yelled, "There's a whale!" The whole dining room ran to the windows to watch a whale swimming beside the ship just outside. Another time we were walking to dinner and passed a bar and noticed a lot of people at the window. They were watching a pod of humpbacks playing and breaching. They were not close, but near enough to clearly see them jump clear of the water. Both of these sightings were fortuitous and not to be counted on.

 

In Glacier Bay, College Fjords, Tracy Arm, or inside Vancouver Island sightings may be more common. In those places it is worth spending a couple of hours relaxing on your balcony with your binox, and you might get a sighting.

 

OTOH the regular tours have over 95% records of good close up sighting. Either the ship's excursions, on the large comfortable Allen Marine boats, or the small private boats often recommended on this board, are well worth while, and a MUST if seeing whales is your priority.

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[Budget Queen]

 

OTOH the regular tours have over 95% records of good close up sighting. Either the ship's excursions, on the large comfortable Allen Marine boats, or the small private boats often recommended on this board, are well worth while, and a MUST if seeing whales is your priority.

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

 

Actually this is 100% of the tours, for humpbacks. :) Has been the case for years out of Juneau.

[qiangf2]

I post frequently on the merits of whale watching from a cruise ship. And spend most of my sailing time out on deck. For clarification- it requires a great deal of time invested at the FRONT of the ship. A good pair of wide angle binoculars are NECESSARY. You can be out hours for 2 minutes of views, which are distant and brief. It pays to have a good ship naturalist, that you can hook up with and get prior week sighting stats. I know areas, I will say most people do not, so I always have great experiences. BUT you will also alway see me on whale watch tours. If I'm in port all day, I go out twice. FAR superior for close up extended viewing.

 

A good on board naturalist will help you spot whales more effeciently. They tend to announce in the PA system. Just have your binoculars ready. I like to jog on the upper deck, not necessarily for whale watching. But I always had my binocualrs with me and opportunistically looked for wild life, migrating birds, whales...

[CC Help Michell]

When we went to Alaska we booked whale-watching out of Juneau (after lots of research here) but we also looked from our ship, with our binoculars and listening to the naturalist announcements, etc. On about the third day, we finally "saw" a whale from the ship.

 

Depending on your age, you might recall the "Kids in the Hall" gag about "I'm crushing your head" involving extending one's arm fully, placing thumb and forefinger a few centimeters apart, and making a pinching motion over the head of someone several hundred feet away. :) From our first whale sighting, our running joke became "I'm crushing the whale's head!"

 

Even if you don't recall that joke, I hope you can picture it. Squint, extend your arm, put your thumb and forefinger about 3/4 of an inch apart, and picture what could fill that space -- THAT is how large the whales looked from our very large cruise ship. Whales are huge -- the cruise ship is much larger, even so.

 

The below photo was taken on our Orca Enterprises whale watch out of Juneau -- we didn't see anything even remotely close to it from the ship.

 

 

That other whale watch vessel isn't a small one -- it holds dozens of people -- but compared to a large cruise ship it's tiny.

 

If you have a whale watching priority, book whale watching excursions. And have a great trip!

[dhmom99]

When we went to Alaska we booked whale-watching out of Juneau (after lots of research here) but we also looked from our ship, with our binoculars and listening to the naturalist announcements, etc. On about the third day, we finally "saw" a whale from the ship.

 

Depending on your age, you might recall the "Kids in the Hall" gag about "I'm crushing your head" involving extending one's arm fully, placing thumb and forefinger a few centimeters apart, and making a pinching motion over the head of someone several hundred feet away. :) From our first whale sighting, our running joke became "I'm crushing the whale's head!"

 

Even if you don't recall that joke, I hope you can picture it. Squint, extend your arm, put your thumb and forefinger about 3/4 of an inch apart, and picture what could fill that space -- THAT is how large the whales looked from our very large cruise ship. Whales are huge -- the cruise ship is much larger, even so.

 

The below photo was taken on our Orca Enterprises whale watch out of Juneau -- we didn't see anything even remotely close to it from the ship.

 

 

That other whale watch vessel isn't a small one -- it holds dozens of people -- but compared to a large cruise ship it's tiny.

 

If you have a whale watching priority, book whale watching excursions. And have a great trip!

 

That's a great picture. thanks

[roxsolw100]

Another thought re. cruise ship vs. excursion, you would have to be incredibly lucky to see from the cruise ship what is called "bubble netting". A fascinating feeding technique used by the Humpbacks. I would highly recommend the excursion route, if you want to see the whales up close. We also hired Orca Enterprises, in 2007, and had a great experience with them. Not quite as intimate as Harv and Marv, but we never had a viewing issue, and our captain was all over the whales when they surfaced. We are returning in July 2009. Hope this helps!

[caa]

How close can you really get though? Don't the boat operators in Alaska have to stay 100 yards away from whales, same as they do in California? I was under the impression that's a federal law, not a state law. It's been in the news here a lot lately because we've had a young gray whale hanging out in San Diego bay for the last 10 days. You can get a lot closer to him standing on the shore than you can in a boat!

 

We're doing a Kenai Fjords tour in June, but I was expecting the whale watching part to be about the same as at home -- spouts, tails, backs, maybe a spy-hop if we're lucky, but all from a pretty good distance. I'm really hoping to see orcas, puffins and otters, which we definitely don't have here.

[Budget Queen]

How close can you really get though? Don't the boat operators in Alaska have to stay 100 yards away from whales, same as they do in California? I was under the impression that's a federal law, not a state law. It's been in the news here a lot lately because we've had a young gray whale hanging out in San Diego bay for the last 10 days. You can get a lot closer to him standing on the shore than you can in a boat!

 

We're doing a Kenai Fjords tour in June, but I was expecting the whale watching part to be about the same as at home -- spouts, tails, backs, maybe a spy-hop if we're lucky, but all from a pretty good distance. I'm really hoping to see orcas, puffins and otters, which we definitely don't have here.

 

With the tour boats, you have extended time viewing. The boat "parks" and the whales are loose. :) You can encounter some very close viewing, pure chance.

 

But for your orca priority, you don't have real good chances. Pure luck in Alaska, they are transients with a huge range. Do not count on whale sightings out of Seward. My averages are only about 50% of the trips.

 

You have complete reality based viewing expectations, don't expect any more with the whales. :) Wide angle Binoculars are necessary.

[wolfshadow]

Last year while on our southbound cruise we happened to get a table for two right in front of a window in the upper MDR. We were able to just sit there and watch whales spouting and breaching in the distance. It was way cool! But, as mentioned, unless you have good binoculars it's hard to see well. We didn't take a whale watching tour in Juneau, we took the Adventure Bound boat up the Tracy Arm to see the twin Sawyer Glaciers, but we saw orcas on the way up and then we had a humpback swimming along side of us for quite a ways on the way back. So not only did we see two awesome glaciers fairly up close because the boat is only 56 ft., we saw over 700 waterfalls (a couple I literally got to stand under), tons of eagles, many huge beautiful ice bergs (a few were got close enough to touch), mama seals floating on ice with their newborn babies, beautiful awesome scenery and a couple of very active calving glaciers. It's a 9 hr tour and well worth it. One of two of the best excursions we took there, the other being a flight to the Arctic Circle out of Fairbanks.

[time4cruise]

We got to see a few whales during our cruise. They are far away, not as close as some people have spotted. If you have a binoculars, it will make it easier.