Whale watching better in Juneau or Icy Straight Point?

Cruising on RCL Radiance the week of July 26, 2015 with a pre-tour of Denali. Travelling with my son (8 yrs old). We want to go whale watching, but only once.

Would Juneau or Icy Straight Point be the better choice? We just want to see whales, any kind of whales. :)

There's no guarantees of course, but when we did Radiance in July we had several whales swimming around the ship when we were stopped. We were able to sit on our balcony and get some great photos.

One also swam by only about 20 feet from the shuttle boat that they used for the tender process, while we were on the way to shore.

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Cruising on RCL Radiance the week of July 26, 2015 with a pre-tour of Denali. Travelling with my son (8 yrs old). We want to go whale watching, but only once.

 

Would Juneau or Icy Straight Point be the better choice? We just want to see whales, any kind of whales. :)

Sometimes the whale watching is better at one, and sometimes the other.

If only doing one whale watching tour, many pick Icy Strait Pt. because there are so many other tour choices available for Juneau.

If you are lucky, you may even see them right up close to the cruise ship from your balcony or from the tender or from the shore at Icy Strait Pt.

We have done the whale watching excursions at both and were not disappointed. But I have to say the Icy Strait Point was far superior due to the vast numbers of whales that came up close to our boat and were all around us in every direction.

You might enjoy seeing the slide shows my wife made for her website from some of the pictures she took on our excursions. The Juneau slide show has a few pictures she took of the town while we waited for the excursion bus.

Juneau Shore Excursion - Whale Watching

Icy Strait Point Whale Watching Excursion

Alaska is amazing! Have a great cruise.

We saw numerous whales and Orcas in Juneau, and only 1 whale in ISP.

The whales in Juneau were bubble net feeding and that was fascinating to see so close up! The Orcas were also exciting, and there was a baby Orca as well.

The one whale in ISP was very active, and did numerous breaches and tail slaps.

We booked with Misty Bay Lodge in Icy Straight Point. Top notch company.

We had only 4 of us aboard . The boat has a bathroom. They bake cookies and hot and cold drinks. The inside cabin has heat. The outside has an overhang for cover if it rains. There is also a top deck. Captain Dan keeps in touch with other captains. He finds the whales. We also saw Sea lions, otters with babies, and a bear on shore. Afterwards, they had the best homemade seafood chowder at their lodge before we were dropped back to the ship. Awesome.

Both areas have 100% sightings of humpbacks. Instead I suggest you look at your entire itinerary and book where it fits your touring schedule best. Orcas are not commonly seen, as an example, I am just off the Pearl today-which is my 5th, Alaska cruise this season, I am on 2 more starting tomorrow. I whale watched out of Juneau every time I was there, including a double trip last month. I have not seen any orcas there, yet. :)

We did Harv & Marv last week at Juneau, there were 4 of us with Capt Liz she was great and we must have seen at least a dozen Whales. I must say though we were sailing northbound on Radiance and saw Whales most days from the ship, and one evening sitting in the WJ we watched at least 2 doz Dolphins swimming within a few feet of the ships for at least 10 mins it was amazing.