whale watching

We will be taking the Alaskan cruise next June 2015. I want to know if you will be able to see whales from the cruise ship or do you have to take a whale watching tour to see them. If so where is the best spot to do the tour?

We will be taking the Alaskan cruise next June 2015. I want to know if you will be able to see whales from the cruise ship or do you have to take a whale watching tour to see them. If so where is the best spot to do the tour?

You may see whales from the ship, but even if you do, they are often some distance away. The advantage of a whale watching tour is that you are on a smaller, quieter boat, more maneuverable boat, and the whales tend to be seen much closer as a result.

The whales seem to congregate in Stephens passage, and so it's easy to do the whale watching tour out of Juneau.

You may or may not see whales from the ship:

- the ship you're 12-15 stories above the water and the whale will be at a distance

- on a whale watching tour you're about 20ft above the water and 200yds from the whale ( or closer if the whale is curious).

Juneau and Icy Strait are the most popular destinations for whale watching.

There are photo journals in the trip reports (STICKYs near the top of the page) where you can see photos from whale watching trips.

If you spend some time watching you will probably see whales from the ship...as well as all sorts of other wildlife! We were on the Coral Princess in June this summer and saw whales, porpoises, otters, seals, eagles, and even a bear on shore. But...we were bundled up on our balcony for many, many hours during the cruise in order to see all of these things.

These photos were all taken from the ship.

If you really want to see whales, then a whale watching tour gives you a much better chance of seeing multiple whales and from much closer.

These photos were taken on our whale watching tour with Harv & Marv in Juneau.

We are doing a Harv and Marv tour in june 2015 too . You have to book early it fills up quick.

We loved Harv & Marv's, but when they made a rule about no children under 13 unless you book the whole bots, we had to go with Alaska Galore (recommended by H&M) and had a great trip with them as well. The boats on a whale watching tour actually chase the whale pods, where as it's purely by chance what you see from the ship.

Is Icy Strait Point as good as Juneau for whale watching? We would prefer to do a whale watch from there, as there is so much else to do in Juneau, but I have read so many great reviews about the whale watches out of Juneau....

I've never done whale watching from Juneau, but I did do it in Icy Strait Point (because honestly, unless you want to go on the world's longest zipline, there isn't anything else to do there) and it was fabulous. We had 8 passengers in our boat (our party consisted of 6), so we weren't all squashed and we saw whales, sea lions, and orcas. I highly suggest booking with the companies that use the smaller boats. We went with Icy Strait Whale Adventures and had a great time. You can go faster and farther in a smaller boat and be able to chase the whales. Also, you won't have other people's heads and hands in your photos.

If you're interested, here's an entry (with photos) of our whale watching day to give you an idea of what you'd see there: http://kellylikestotravel.blogspot.com/2014/09/we-see-whales.html

Have fun planning :)

I saw not a single whale from the ship, and can't recall anyone else saying they did. But you're guaranteed sightings on a bespoke tour (or you get a partial refund). This was our tour at Juneau. Good luck !

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We were able to see whales (both humpback and orcas), from our balcony on both cruises. But as they were off in the distance, the experience was not as enjoyable as seeing them on a shore excursion.

We booked whale watch excursions through the cruise lines for Juneau and Icy Strait Point. Absolutely amazing on both cruises!

You might enjoy seeing the slide shows my wife put together with some of her pictures for her website. The link below will take you there.

Nancy's Travel Slide Shows

Happy cruising!

We usually see whales from the ship but are on deck a lot. To increase your chances, if you have a naturalist onboard, they will know where the feeding areas are for increased chances of seeing them. Last year the naturalist on our Princess trip had a map with the date and approximate times that we would be passing through these areas. As mapleleaves noted you are quite a distance above the water so viewing will be at a distance. There is no comparison to seeing whales from the ship and doing a whale watch tour which gets you much closer.

Wonderful - Icy Strait it is then! I'll look into Icy Strait Whale adventures (thanks Plumie) and I've also read about F.I.S.H.E.S.

Fantastic blogs, videos and slideshows - thanks for posting those. If I see as many whales as you did on your video I will be thrilled!

OP - also consider whale watching in ISP with Misty Bay Lodge. Capt. Dan and his wife Hope are wonderful, and will get you to the whales if they are there! I've gone with them twice and have not been disappointed. Would highly recommend!