Which is better for 1 time Alaska Cruise - Hubbard or Glacier Bay?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would consider one or the other a must.

There is no "better". There is only different.

You should look into the various ships and their itineraries to see which would suit you best. Everything in Alaska is "must see", but it's impossible to see it all in one trip. You should do some research to find out what interests you the most and go from there.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Depending on the month Glacier bay is better other months then Hubbard Glacier.

I personally prefer Glacier Bay . You'll spend the whole day cruising and up to 3 hrs in front of different glaciers.

Hubbard Glacier you'll only spend about an hour in front of the glacier. Some years you can't even get to Hubbard Glacier until late June or early July.

If you are doing a 7 day return from Seattle or Vancouver your not likely to visit Hubbard Glacier . If your doing a 7 day NB or SB , chose a southbound that does both Hubbard and Glacier Bay.

Seeing both would be ideal, of course. We did a round trip out of Vancouver and saw Hubbard Glacier.

We ended up doing the same itinerary twice in two years and both times we got close to the glacier. One day I hope to see Glacier Bay as well.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In my opinion, an Alaska cruise selection is many choices.

Now if glaciers are your priority, then to stack the deck, ideal, would be to choose one of the cruises that sails both, with Princess the added bonus of booking additional glacier touring out of Whittier.

What ever your choice is, you are missing the other. :) So, carefully ask yourself what is bringing you to Alaska? What activities you wish to include. With that your final cruise choice may involve preferred ports with your preference for port times, budget, embarkation/ disembarkation ports etc.

Sailed on a Princess cruise which saw both. Enjoyed both, but IMHO I would take Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay was an all day affair and we got to see multiple glaciers and beautiful scenery. For Hubbard Glacier we just saw that glacier and then left, not a lot else to see. To me, Glacier Bay was stunning.

Tim

Northbound NCL Sun has both Hubbard and Glacier Bay National Park included in the itinerary, that is why I chose this cruise! It sounds like we may be too early ( late May/early June) for good Hubbard calving. I am glad I got to see it on a fairly sunny day in Sept. a few years back! It was an amazing experience! This will be my first time to Glacier Bay.

I hope the poster is ok with me adding this in the mix as I see that a lot of the cruise choices go to Tracy Arm and not Glacier Bay and not Hubbard Glacier...

Curious how this compares to the two that the poster mentioned...

I hope the poster is ok with me adding this in the mix as I see that a lot of the cruise choices go to Tracy Arm and not Glacier Bay and not Hubbard Glacier...

 

Curious how this compares to the two that the poster mentioned...

EACH of these areas are worthwhile to see, my opinion. I don't rank them.

Tracy Arm, in my opinion is an extremely beautiful scenic sailing area. But- it is grossly superior with a cruise ship add on tour. On average most cruise ships make the transit far enough to get a distant glimpse of the South Sawyer glacier, to Sawyer Island. Far Fewer get close to the South Sawyer glacier. Early season, some ships will detour at the last minute to Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier. Decent option.

Added bonus is the entire daylight hours prior and after Tracy Arm, are nonstop scenery with good options for humpback viewing.

Thanks Budget Queen...

Trying to decide if I should really be picking my itinerary (just like the poster) based on one of these places. I need to do Seattle to Seattle round trip and so far looks like my choices are Tracy Arm Cruising, Hubbard; and then there is one cruise that does Glacier Bay - during my time period.

(none do two of them).

Hubbard is a massive glacier and it's size is impressive and quite worth it once you're there. If there was a problem with it I would say it requires a long ocean ride off shore to get there. Maybe that's no problem...but if it is, get the patch lol.

Glacier Bay has many glaciers but you will probably beeline to one. You may see a few far in the distance. The good news would be that there is beauty in Glacier bay that you won't see 15 - 20 miles off shore that the Hubbard would require (in travel) in the ocean but again, the Fairweather Mountain range (and Elias ) is pretty impressive if the weather is clear and you travel in the daylight to Hubbard.

But honestly, there will much more to talk about in glacier bay. Some lines have a naturalist from the park aboard the ship to talk about the history of Glacier Bay if that interests you.

$0.02

Princess always has at least three naturalists come on board for the day. One roams the decks answering questions. Another is on the bridge doing the narration. The last usually runs the kids program.

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This is the sort of thing you see in Glacier Bay, so 1 really close, where the ship stops for 60-90 minutes, and another quite close up, which the ship moves slowly past, plus faraway sightings of a couple of others. I really enjoyed the day, but all that, plus Mendenhall if you are going to Juneau, was enough glaciers for me :) All the best, whichever you choose.

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Hubbard is a massive glacier and it's size is impressive and quite worth it once you're there. If there was a problem with it I would say it requires a long ocean ride off shore to get there. Maybe that's no problem...but if it is, get the patch lol.

 

Glacier Bay has many glaciers but you will probably beeline to one. You may see a few far in the distance. The good news would be that there is beauty in Glacier bay that you won't see 15 - 20 miles off shore that the Hubbard would require (in travel) in the ocean but again, the Fairweather Mountain range (and Elias ) is pretty impressive if the weather is clear and you travel in the daylight to Hubbard.

But honestly, there will much more to talk about in glacier bay. Some lines have a naturalist from the park aboard the ship to talk about the history of Glacier Bay if that interests you.

 

 

 

 

$0.02

Some missing information above.

ALL ships entering Glacier Bay will have Park Service rangers on board who do all the commentary. NONE of the cruise ship naturalists comment in Glacier Bay. With clear viewing, you will see at least 4 glaciers, but many people miss all of them. There may be an opportunity to see 5- IF the cpt chooses to sail farther down the John Hopkins Inlet. This has a far greater chance in Sept when access to the the John Hopkins glacier is open.

Hubbard is a complete hit or miss. I have sailed the area 5 times in the last 2 years, with only ONE trip getting right up to the glacier. Only one of the other 4 had any significant ice that would have prevented closer viewing. The main reason for the miles off- 2 trips were over 10 miles aways is TIME. Yep- you will hear the "safety" crap that sounds good and is readily accepted but this simply is not true. Again- TIME is mostly the reason for not getting up "close" to both Hubbard and Tracy Arm.

IMHO if you can only pick one, GLACIER BAY!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Some missing information above.

ALL ships entering Glacier Bay will have Park Service rangers on board who do all the commentary. NONE of the cruise ship naturalists comment in Glacier Bay. With clear viewing, you will see at least 4 glaciers, but many people miss all of them. There may be an opportunity to see 5- IF the cpt chooses to sail farther down the John Hopkins Inlet. This has a far greater chance in Sept when access to the the John Hopkins glacier is open.

 

Hubbard is a complete hit or miss. I have sailed the area 5 times in the last 2 years, with only ONE trip getting right up to the glacier. Only one of the other 4 had any significant ice that would have prevented closer viewing. The main reason for the miles off- 2 trips were over 10 miles aways is TIME. Yep- you will hear the "safety" crap that sounds good and is readily accepted but this simply is not true. Again- TIME is mostly the reason for not getting up "close" to both Hubbard and Tracy Arm.

Correction on above should be, with seeing the 4 glaciers, is many people miss SOME of them.

I've seen these glaciers many times from the air, some times up close, but it is simply not the same as viewing the dynamic forces from a ship.

In 2010 we visited Hubbard at the end of May on the Seven Seas Navigator. Beautiful day, we must have spent a least two hours up close. To the point I got sun burnt.

As you can see from the attached pictures, hard to beat this on any cruise anywhere.