Tracy Arm AND Whale Watching Tour?

We will be sailing on Princess to Alaska next July. I'm looking for a tour out of Juneau that would take us whale watching AND through Tracy Arm Fjord. I'm open to either a group excursion or a private tour. Any suggestions? I haven't found anything that will do both in one excursion. We have 11 hours in port.

You don't list what ship you are on.

One vendor that many people use to Tracy Arm is AdventureBound Alaska. Their trip is all day 8-6 or so. Based on that, you don't have time to do both tours.

On a positive note - on both of my Tracy Arm tours through AdventureBound, I saw plenty of whales, more so than I have on my whale watching tours. On one trip, the orcas were surrounding our boat - it was amazing (this was closer to Juneau as we could see our ship in the background.

Good luck finding what you're after. The TA small-boat tours that are round-trip from Juneau are already so long, few people want to be trapped on a 150-pax catamaran for more than the 7 hours it already is, and unless they can convince the entire group of passengers to stay aboard even longer to combine it with a whale watch, it's just not cost effective to offer a combo. Even though the TA tour is relatively early in the morning, as a seven-hour tour, you don't have enough time left to do a whale watch unless you time it perfectly, and I've yet to experience a TA tour that finished on-time.

I've seen a whale on each TA tour we've done, and we've done two. I've never seen less than 30 whales on each whale watch we've done in Juneau, and we've done four. If I had to pick one of the two, I'd pick the whale watch in Juneau, especially if 4 of the 7 hours of the TA tour are spent in-transit.

Just clarification - AdventureBound doesn't put 150 people on their boats. The company that contracts with the cruise line may.

Also, given time constraints, I would book 2 boat trips in a row as I have never been in a Tracy Arm or whale watching trip that I found crowded or trapped. For me, maximizing time in port is important and these are 2 popular excursions.

If you book with AdventureBound, they usually stop if they see whales. Or they did on my trips.

If I had to pick one of the two, I'd pick the whale watch in Juneau, especially if 4 of the 7 hours of the TA tour are spent in-transit.

I guess if one's eyes are closed, then you could call much of the journey "in-transit." I prefer to keep my eyes open and see the incredible scenery, and as Coral mentioned above, even seeing whales or other wildlife during this "in-transit" time as you call it. Certainly not "transit" to me, but YMMV.

I guess if one's eyes are closed, then you could call much of the journey "in-transit." I prefer to keep my eyes open and see the incredible scenery, and as Coral mentioned above, even seeing whales or other wildlife during this "in-transit" time as you call it. Certainly not "transit" to me, but YMMV.

I completely agree. Let's see - during the in-transit times we saw bears, whales, waterfalls, incredible scenery, plentiful icebergs, etc... Pure gorgeous scenery.

If I had to pick between the 2, I would pick Tracy Arm in a heart beat. Far better value for the money and far better scenery and both times, I saw plenty of whales. No complaints.

I am not sure if Peety has done AdventureBound. Their description of her trip is entirely different than mine. Makes me think Adventure Bound is far superior than Allen Marine who does the ship's tours.

BTW - I have done the small boat to Tracy Arm 2x (one got redirected to Endicott Arm) and Whale watching at least 5x. Tracy Arm is one of the most raved about tours in Juneau.

I guess if one's eyes are closed, then you could call much of the journey "in-transit." I prefer to keep my eyes open and see the incredible scenery, and as Coral mentioned above, even seeing whales or other wildlife during this "in-transit" time as you call it. Certainly not "transit" to me, but YMMV.

As the expression goes, "GET OFF ME". I'm a serious hobbyist photographer who takes things seriously. The scenery en route to/from Juneau after leaving Tracy Arm Fjord, though beautiful, is absolutely pale in comparison to what you'll see in Tracy Arm Fjord. (In my opinion.) If you saw it on the way to TAF, it's a repeat on the way back.

In my case, it wasn't a repeat; both of my TAF small-boat excursions were done from a Princess ship that'd gone into TAF and we boarded the small boat while afloat. We even missed much of the view heading into TAF since we had to hurry up and wait in the Princess Theater. Seeing it on the way out of TAF was majestic. Seeing the view en route to Juneau was boring. I was still out on the deck with cameras at the ready, but still didn't find it as great as you did. To each their own, I guess.

It's also worthwhile to note that AdventureBound lists their trip as boarding at 7:30am or 7:45am, and the boats return to Juneau around 6PM. That's 10.25 or 10.5 hours, enough to COMPLETELY eat up the 11 hours the OP has in port. There'll be no time left to do a whale watch.

As the expression goes, "GET OFF ME". I'm a serious hobbyist photographer who takes things seriously. The scenery en route to/from Juneau after leaving Tracy Arm Fjord, though beautiful, is absolutely pale in comparison to what you'll see in Tracy Arm Fjord. (In my opinion.) If you saw it on the way to TAF, it's a repeat on the way back.

 

In my case, it wasn't a repeat; both of my TAF small-boat excursions were done from a Princess ship that'd gone into TAF and we boarded the small boat while afloat. We even missed much of the view heading into TAF since we had to hurry up and wait in the Princess Theater. Seeing it on the way out of TAF was majestic. Seeing the view en route to Juneau was boring. I was still out on the deck with cameras at the ready, but still didn't find it as great as you did. To each their own, I guess.

 

It's also worthwhile to note that AdventureBound lists their trip as boarding at 7:30am or 7:45am, and the boats return to Juneau around 6PM. That's 10.25 or 10.5 hours, enough to COMPLETELY eat up the 11 hours the OP has in port. There'll be no time left to do a whale watch.

Wow! We loved our excursion with Adventure Bound Alaska and had no desire to get me off. We wanted more time on the water as we saw so much on this trip. Captain Steve stopped for whales every time we saw them along with 3 bears. We are so glad we chose this instead of whale watching as we saw whales, bears and Tracy Arm. It was an all day excursion for the same price as a 2 hour whale watching trip. This is the best excursion I have been on. If you only have a few hours in port then do whale watching but for a full day I would choose Adventure Bound Alaska.

I highly recommend Tracy Arm.

It is difficult to do both in port unless you do Tracy Arm as part of a ship's excursion which doesn't sound like a possibility with your time in port.

I am not sure if Peety has done AdventureBound. Their description of her trip is entirely different than mine. Makes me think Adventure Bound is far superior than Allen Marine who does the ship's tours.

You hit the nail on the head about Adventure Bound vs. the ship's tour. No wonder they are so negative about it :)