While cruising the inside passage

[FloridaCruisinNewbies]

Do you ever have the pleasure of seeing whales from the ship. If this is the case, I don't need to go on a tour.

[TrinaP1204]

While at Icy Strait Point, my husband saw some from the ship while we were just across the way watching them. Although we did not see many there. They were following the tender boats.

 

Once or twice we would see some while at dinner.

 

The most by far we saw were on our Orca excursion. I expected it to be boring. It was nothing like that. We saw many many whales. Well worth the time and money.

[Toyz711]

seeing whales, from the ship, is "iffy", at best. if you do, usually they are a long ways off and from 10 to 12 stories up. much different then seeing them from the whale watching tours.

if whale watching is not of that much interest to you, if you see any from the ship...you should be satisfied.

i saw 2 right under our balcony, swimming past the ship...then a few spouts (in the distance)..nothing that compared to the tour i took out of juneau, with orca enterprises.

[Twinkd]

Have just returned & yes we did see whales from the ship but nothing compared to what we experienced on whale watching excursions out of Juneau and ISP - took my breath away!

[CowPrincess]

Do NOT kid yourself -- seeing a whale from a ship is NOTHING like seeing a whale from a small boat, right at the water level. But it is ultimately up to you if you want to miss one of the great experiences available in Alaska, which gets almost completely positive, raving reviews :)

[PennyAgain]

Seeing whales from the ship is not a firm deal. The ships are supposed to avoid whales as much as possible and do.

[vegs1]

We were very lucky on our sailing on the Spirit in early July. We saw lots of whales right from our aft balcony. One kept breaching over and over. It was definitely farther away than on our whale watching excursion with Harv and Marv but when I edited the photo and cropped it, it was pretty amazing.

 

You really do have to keep an eye out for the blow. That was how we spotted most of them...except for the one above. We couldn't miss it if we had been trying!

[countrygal52]

IF you have time, book a whale watch; you can see them up close much better! A pod came swimming towards us and one whale surfaced right next to the boat as another bumped us lightly as it swam UNDER us. We DID see some whales from our ship as we left the area but that was just luck and they weren't that close to us.

[Keith1010]

You do have a chance to see whales from the ship but as others have said if you realy want to see Whales in a much better setting and more close up take an excursion.

 

Enjoy.

 

Keith

[poolwife]

Been on 2 Alaska cruises and never seen a whale from the ship.

[chachi]

I saw a few whales from the ship only because the naturalist pointed them out. They were far away and you only get a quick look because the ship keeps going. On a whale watching tour, the boat stops and you get a much better view. You can watch how the whales interact with each other. I did a whale watching tour before the cruise in Vancouver. We saw 19 different whales in a pod. It was amazing. We stayed for over an hour. The view from the ship lasted less than a minute.

[Budget Queen]

I have a lot of experience with whale watching from cruiseships. First off, you need to invest a considerable amout of time- forward viewing, (not from a balcony side cabin). Necessary is proper attire and a good pair of WIDE angle binoculars. Knowing the areas is a big plus, which isn't easy to know if you are a multiple repeater visitor.

 

You MUST be Ok with hours of "looking" and maybe 1 minute of viewing. Usually sightings are distant and brief. IF a priority, then book a whale watch- grossly superior.

[Putterdude]

Whale sighting from the ship are a by chance occurance and generally they are so far away all you see is a tail and a splash.

[SEPyle]

We were very lucky on our sailing on the Spirit in early July. We saw lots of whales right from our aft balcony. One kept breaching over and over. It was definitely farther away than on our whale watching excursion with Harv and Marv but when I edited the photo and cropped it, it was pretty amazing.

 

You really do have to keep an eye out for the blow. That was how we spotted most of them...except for the one above. We couldn't miss it if we had been trying!

 

Please post your pictures! We also saw Orca's as we cruised the Inside Passage and it was exciting! I too cropped the pics and they turned out great; but going on a whale watch certainly offers a better chance for up close and personal sightings! We did a whale watch out of Icy Strait Point and the breaching and close up sightings are something I will never forget!

[georoc01]

We saw Orcas from our ship during dinnertime. But like others said, its generally at a distance and much different that what we saw on a tour.

[HarrietKC]

Saw whales before we entered Glacier Bay. But they were far away and I needed binoculars. The "plume" was a dead give away.

 

Later - in Juneau, we took a small boat of 6 out and saw them much closer. Two swam next to the ship and - darn it - I was so busy trying to get a picture I nearly missed the majesty.

 

So do go on the whale watch. We did 2.5 hours and I wish we had booked 3 hours but private tours were sold out at that level. Still, my husband is raving about the tour. Lots of whales and activity. Much better than trying to find them from the cruise ship (which, by the way, has spotters on the bridge so they can stay away from the whales).

 

 

The most hilarious story was when people "spotted" a whale breaching near a small boat off the port side of the boat on the last day of a southbound cruise. I looked closer and it was not a whale. The bottom of the boat was painted black and as it crested the waves, it looked like a whale breaching along side it. Sigh. People kept oohing and aahing until the boat was out of sight. I laughed and said "kind of interesting how trained that whale is to breach every time the boat hits a wave!" :p

[derrick22]

You won't see this from the ship!

 

 

Denise

[DocM4]

What an amazing picture! A once in a lifetime experience.

[knorrisb07]

You need to spend some time out on the deck with a good pair of binoculars to spot whales from cruiseship

[diverearl]

On our first Alaska cruise in June 2007 we saw a lot of whales some very far away and some very close. The whales come up from suddenly so it can be very hard to get a good picture of the event. You will be moving along at a pretty good pace and they might come up from a great depth then surface again a few seconds later quite a distance from the last location. We had nothing to compare the first experience with but the second cruise which was this summer (July) was exactly the same scenario and from what I've read on this board it is a constant. Good chances of seeing whales close up if you are willing to go to the effort or just get lucky on almost every cruise. Like many other people that have posted their experiences here a lot of the best viewings came as we were eating lunch or sitting by a window drinking a hot chocolate and I wouldn't have a camera. As you see these pictures are looking almost straight down.

 

Luck and perseverance will both play a big part in your whale viewing from a cruise ship but there will be lots of opportunities if you are in the right spot at the right time.

 

Here is a picture of a Humpback that appeared out of nowhere, I had my camera and got a few decent photos of the event. The best part of seeing this from a ship almost 100 ft above was being able to see the whole animal, head to tail.

 

 

The tail was gone in just a couple of seconds as we were moving fast and the whale was going the other way.

 

 

The bad part of seeing this event from the cruise ship was the next time the whale surfaced for air it was far enough away at the stern of the ship I didn't even bother to take a picture. Just be aware that there will be ample opportunities to view the whales from the ship if you put yourself in a position to do so.

 

Personally I would also book the longest whale watch tour I could in at least one port to maximize my chances of a good sighting.

[sandytoes03]

Do you ever have the pleasure of seeing whales from the ship. If this is the case, I don't need to go on a tour.

 

We watched Orcas one night from the ship and they were so beautiful! We actually saw them swimming off into the sunset together. BUT, we took a whale watching tour in Icy Strait to see the Humpbacks, and it was one of the best experiences of my entire life.

[DizzyDallasDi]

If you want to see this, you'll need to take a whale watching excursion.

 

 

[HarrietKC]

You won't see this from the ship!

 

 

Denise

 

In all fairness, we didn't see anything like that even on a Whale tour. It's hit or miss. Realistically, you'll see mostly backs and tales. Some people out on the same day as us saw a breach.

 

We weren't disappointed, but bubble feeding isn't as common as the other shots.