Mercury 6/11 Review - Part Three, Juneau!

Day Three – Juneau

Because we departed late on Friday, we were late coming into port on Sunday. I was surprised that we couldn’t make up the time at sea, but maybe the rough seas made that impossible. I don’t know, but I was sure glad I booked the later whale watching tour with Capt. Larry. Had I booked the earlier one, I would have missed it due to our late arrival in port. Because we were late and everyone was anxious to get off the ship, everyone did exactly what they told us not to do…stand around on the stairs waiting for them to let us out. They told us we’d be getting off on deck three, and our cabin was on deck nine. We took the stairs down, and by the time we got to deck six, it was standing room only. We could go no further. We all waited and waited, and it got more and more crowded on the stairs. Then, BAM! Something hit the floor hard directly beneath where we were standing, and people started screaming for a doctor. We could see through the gap in the stairwell that a man had fallen and was bleeding. The doctor who had sat with us at the Captain’s table the night before went to see about him, and we were all redirected to another stairwell so they could take him out on a stretcher. It was quite an ordeal, and we all felt concern and sympathy for the man whose vacation had just been ruined.

The alternate route we took sent us right through the crew’s section of the boat. We saw lots of things meant for crew’s eyes only (how to treat us all famously!), and it was really interesting to see the ship from that perspective.

Finally on the streets of Juneau, we had a little time to shop before heading to the Orca office. It was cold and a little wet that day, but not so much that it hindered our whale watch. The Orca Enterprise office (home of the famous Captain Larry!) is right across the street from where our ship docked. We walked one flight up the stairs to the office and checked in. There was a video we could watch before we left, but we opted to walk back across the street really quickly to the restrooms next to the Tram stop. Right on time we were gathered up and taken to a small shuttle but that would transport us to our whale watching vessel. The driver was a very friendly native who gave us some insight to the town and its dead end highways. All of the sudden she told us she was going to stop on the side of the road because other people were stopped. She said this surely meant there was a bear around. Sure enough, right near where we pulled off the road a black bear was “grazing” in the meadow, oblivious to the 10 or 15 vehicles that had pulled over to gaze at it. Our driver allowed us to take pictures and stare as long as the bear stayed within view. As soon as it retreated to the woods, we were off again to go whale watching.

Once at the pier, our driver pointed out a tree to us that had seven bald eagles perched as pretty as you please watching us unload from the bus. What a sight! This whale watching tour was quickly turning into a total wildlife adventure! We were greeted on the pier by the Naturalist from the Summitt. (Mercury’s naturalist had taken the Celebrity dancers to the glacier for the day…hmm!  Captain Larry had our boat ready to go, and he, the Naturalist, and another guide led us to where some whales had been spotted earlier that day. It didn’t take us long to get a glimpse of two mature whales and a baby swimming along. We got a little closer, and then let them come to us…and come they did! What an awesome sight! We took gobs of picture and lots of video, and then just watched them, amazed at their massiveness. After these whales finally swam in another direction, Capt. Larry headed us towards another location whales had been seen. On the way we saw this huge sea otter floating on its back relaxing. Adorable! We then went by a buoy, and Capt. Larry circled it closely so that we could get some great pictures of 4 seals napping on its edges. One looked up at us as if to say “Can’t you see we’re trying to sleep here!” We then spotted our last whales for the day and managed to get a great tail shot. Capt. Larry said that was, unfortunately, the whales waving goodbye, and we made our way back to the pier.

I read gobs and gobs of great things about Orca Enterprises and Captain Larry online, so I took a chance and booked him independent of the cruise line. (He does not book through any of the cruise lines, I was told.) The boat we went on was MUCH smaller than the whale watching boat from the cruise line…we only had 14 people on our tour and 3 guides (counting Capt. Larry), so we got lots of personal attention, and some great answers to any questions we had. We also got a lot closer to the whales than the two story boat carrying the cruise line’s tour. One person on the cruise critic board posted just the opposite and said she did not like the Capt. Larry tour, but I found it to be wonderful. I really like being away from the crowd, especially when doing nature tours such as these. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone. A+ in my book! (The cost, by the way, was about the same as the cruise line’s tour, maybe a few dollars cheaper, but nothing substantial.)

We were too late for our dinner seating, to Brent, the naturalist, recommended “The Twisted Fish,” a restaurant right by the dock. It was great. We all ordered different entrees, and everyone was delighted with his/her choice.
We made our way back to Mercury and rested up for our next day’s adventure: Skagway!

Day four, Skagway, is up next!

Beth [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I am enjoying your reviews very much. My husband and I went to Alaska a few years back on another cruise line, but we will be on the 12-06-04 Mercury to the Mexican Riviera. Your reviews are not only informative about the Mercury, but they are bringing back our wonderful memories of Alaska.
Thanks, Peggy

Paradise 5/11/03 & 5/18/03
Mercury 12/6/04
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