Tracey Arm Fjord AND Whale Watch in Juneau?

We are looking at doing the Tracey Arm Fjord excursion where they pick you up from the cruise ship and they drop you in Juneau. (We'll be on the Ruby Princess if it matters.)

 

We are trying to figure out if it is worth doing a true whale watch cruise in addition, or if we're likely to have seen whales and gone by some of the same spots on the way into Juneau.

 

I've also noticed that people say that the Tracey Arm excursion is worth doing, but sometimes gets you in late to Juneau. What time is likely to be safe to book a Juneau excursion and not be in a panic about missing it? (I am hesitant to just wait to purchase tours in Juneau when we get off the boat because there will be 4 ships in port.)

We are looking at doing the Tracey Arm Fjord excursion where they pick you up from the cruise ship and they drop you in Juneau. (We'll be on the Ruby Princess if it matters.)

 

We are trying to figure out if it is worth doing a true whale watch cruise in addition, or if we're likely to have seen whales and gone by some of the same spots on the way into Juneau.

 

I've also noticed that people say that the Tracey Arm excursion is worth doing, but sometimes gets you in late to Juneau. What time is likely to be safe to book a Juneau excursion and not be in a panic about missing it? (I am hesitant to just wait to purchase tours in Juneau when we get off the boat because there will be 4 ships in port.)

We did this on the Grand last summer. The TA boat pulled alongside the Grand right about 2:00pm (which was the same as the published ship's arrival time into Juneau; seems like the Ruby is on an earlier schedule this year than the Grand last year). I purposefully stayed on the upper deck of the tour boat trying to get cool photos, and ended up being one of the last folks off the boat, which took about 20 minutes as everyone has to go through a security screening when getting back aboard the cruise ship. That put me on deck 4 forward, starboard side, and unfortunately deck 4 forward, port side was one of the gangways heading into Juneau. As a result, elevators were mobbed (can't explain why, but...they were), so I ended up hiking up to deck 9 while carrying 40 pounds of camera gear. Thankfully my wife had gotten up to our room much earlier than I did (just in time to catch photos of the tour boat casting off), and had pretty much changed by the time I got there.

 

We scrambled up to the buffet for lunch loaded with our camera gear so we could go directly to our whale watch scheduled for 3:15. We were not rushed, but we weren't going to get lazy on that timetable (we had the challenge of having to take turns going through the buffet line while the other guarded our stuff...way too much to leave unwatched...just an "us" thing).

 

We'd originally chosen the 2:30 run of the same whale watch, and I'm absolutely glad we shifted to the 3:15. We could have made the 2:30 without lunch, but that would not have been good...

 

If interested, pictures are here:

TA small-boat is images BECA-BFAB, BFAC was in the waiting area for our whale watch, and our whale watch plus glacier hike is images BGBF-BHAJ (with a bonus stop at a creek for salmon/eagle/bird viewing).

 

Almost all of the whale watches appear to be out of Auke Bay and either north from there or south but not far enough to meet up with the cruise ship docks (a bridge in Juneau makes the ship docks near a dead end). Your views will be totally different.

 

As much as my wife and I love whale watches, I'd have to tell you that the TA small-boat excursion rates as the absolute #1 excursion I've done on 3.5 Alaska cruises BY A MILE. Absolutely breathtaking scenery throughout...such a neat spectacle to see.

peety3, you have possibily the best Alaska cruise pictures that I've ever seen.

 

I'd be satisified to see just half the wildlife you photographed.

peety3, you have possibily the best Alaska cruise pictures that I've ever seen.

 

I'd be satisified to see just half the wildlife you photographed.

Thank you! I must acknowledge that perhaps half (I don't keep close "score", for wise reasons!) of the shots you see were taken by my wife. We both enjoy photography, we both enjoy photography in Alaska, and we do go quite overboard with our photography hobby when we go to Alaska. We typically spend >$1000 to rent equipment to expand our capabilities and adapt to this kind of wildlife shooting. (Some of the rental gear is chosen to "duplicate" what we might only own one of, so that neither of us is dependent on the other for a particular range from wide-angle to extreme-telephoto.)

 

Just as an example, on our recent "sampler" cruise, I went up to deck 19 aft on the Ruby and shot a series to show the range that we brought with us. See

and check out images 286-298. The shots go in order: I show the lens I'll use, then aim at the port-side bridge wing, and shoot full-wide to full-tight on each lens to show what it can do. When I show it to friends, I bring up the first shot of the bridge wing and say "Can you see the telephone on the bridge?" :) There's also a pair of action shots of yours truly at #170 and #174 - I had three cameras with me plus a fourth ultra-wide lens in a pouch in front of my left leg. I certainly can't run around like a kid with an iPhone, but I can easily carry the big lens on my shoulder and shorten up the monopod for walking around. :)

Those pictures are gorgeous! Thank you for sharing them!

 

Did you see any whales any time other than the whale watch? Your whale shots are beautiful.

On our Seattle RT, I think we saw whales from the ship on the third evening, heading north out of Ketchikan (a well-known place to see them), and obviously one was seen while on the small-boat TA excursion (while heading north to Juneau to rejoin the ship). I don't think we saw whales any other time while aboard the ship.

 

Admittedly, on our two northbound Vancouver->Whittier cruises, we also saw whales on the second afternoon (inside passage), and on the fifth day entering/leaving Glacier Bay NP.