Tracy Arm Excursion from cruise ship

We will be on the 5/28 sailing of holland America nieuw amsterdam. We have signed up for the excursion to board a smaller boat, tour Tracy arm and then go directly to Juneau. Anyone have any experience with this tour? It is quite expensive so I am wondering if it worth the money. We really enjoy scenic cruising, glaciers and wildlife viewing.

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with some HAL itineraries, you won't see Tracy Arm without this tour. So, it's up to you, IF it's of interest to you? I don't find this tour that "expensive" on the scale of my Alaska tours, I have taken it many times, as it's my preference. I think it's grossly superior to any cruise ship transit anyway. :)

But especially if you are one of the itineraries with it as just a service stop- it could be a winner for you.

Take a look at photos, should be something on youtube? For some, this tour, may prevent other touring, so look at all your plans for your ports.

This ranks as one of people's most favorite tours.

I have not done the tour via ship but have done a tour out of Juneau and loved it. Strongly recommend it.

We will be on the 5/28 sailing of holland America nieuw amsterdam. We have signed up for the excursion to board a smaller boat, tour Tracy arm and then go directly to Juneau. Anyone have any experience with this tour? It is quite expensive so I am wondering if it worth the money. We really enjoy scenic cruising, glaciers and wildlife viewing.

 

 

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We did this excursion through HAL when we were on the Volendam. Highly recommend it. Here's an entry from my sister's blog with photos describing our experience (click on the photos to enlarge):

https://twocruisingsisters.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/tracy-arm-juneau-glorious/

Have a wonderful cruise:)

Best tour you will do on the entire cruise, well worth the money and in my opinion much better than any helicopter or plane tour.

While I haven't done this from the cruise ship I have done the all day trip from Juneau with Adventure Bound numerous times. This is my favorite tour in Alaska and among the top couple I've done anywhere. Here are some photos of one of my trips, I've since repeated 3 or 4 times more.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1283269&highlight=adventure+bound

Thanks for all the positive feedback! Booked the tour this afternoon! Thanks for whoever pointed out that in the scheme of Alaska tours, this really isn't priced so bad. After some additional thought, that is true.

so you can book a private tour where you switch to another ship which can get you right up next to everything? Is this booked through the cruise line or by personal recommendation? Thanks

We will be on the 5/28 sailing of holland America nieuw amsterdam. We have signed up for the excursion to board a smaller boat, tour Tracy arm and then go directly to Juneau. Anyone have any experience with this tour? It is quite expensive so I am wondering if it worth the money. We really enjoy scenic cruising, glaciers and wildlife viewing.

 

 

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We did it. It is hands down without a doubt my most FAVORITE excursion ever. I have no hesitation is recommending it. (Even when no one asked specifically.)

so you can book a private tour where you switch to another ship which can get you right up next to everything? Is this booked through the cruise line or by personal recommendation? Thanks

Depends on your ship/itinerary. The one being discussed here is booked through the ship. Some ships sail into Tracy Arm, others have the excursion, other skip Tracy Arm all together - but a similar excursion can be taken starting & ending in Juneau (as opposed to starting from the ship.)

We've done the Tracy Arm small boat trip numerous times and like others have said it is one of the best excursions we've been on. Picked us up at Sawyer island and took us up the the Glacier and then back to the ship in Juneau. Wonderful experience. If you are thinking about going make your reservation early, the boat fills up fast.

I would do this tour again in a heartbeat! We would have done it this year, but we decided to combine our Alaska cruise with a Pacific Coastal cruise, so we will be in Juneau much too early. The excursion provider doesn't begin offering this cruise until the last week in May, so the OP is lucky, lucky.

This excursion ranks right up there with a Misty Fjords flightseeing tour.

Since this is a small boat excursion, check with your OB about it. (It can be a rough ride - especially when they are returning to Juneau.)

I thoroughly enjoyed this excursion when we did it in 2014, and it was my favorite Alaska excursion of "all time". We did it again in 2015, on a rather rainy day, and I hate to admit that rain can really put a damper on the tour. It also requires good planning if you want to use the whole day: we nearly missed our Juneau tour booked with the cruise line, even though the cruise line knew we hadn't yet reboarded from the TA boat tour (the bus left without us, but did return to get us).

We will be on the 5/28 sailing of holland America nieuw amsterdam. We have signed up for the excursion to board a smaller boat, tour Tracy arm and then go directly to Juneau. Anyone have any experience with this tour? It is quite expensive so I am wondering if it worth the money. We really enjoy scenic cruising, glaciers and wildlife viewing.

• if you can.... BOOK IT! Of all the Alaskan excursions... this WILL BE the first SELL OUT before the cruise ship leaves the dock.
  
• the mid-cruise transfer saves you hours on 50 miles of ocean travel between Juneau and the mouth of Tracy. If you look at the Juneau return trip.... it cost more.
  
• this tour will help give you time for other Juneau activities.
  

We did this excursion through HAL when we were on the Volendam. Highly recommend it. Here's an entry from my sister's blog with photos describing our experience (click on the photos to enlarge):

 

 

https://twocruisingsisters.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/tracy-arm-juneau-glorious/

 

Have a wonderful cruise:)

If she would't mind, i'd love an email of her glacier/eagle photo from the link. Closest eagle I have seen is in our zoo.

Buffettfan225-cruise at sncglobal dot net. Thanx.

If she would't mind, i'd love an email of her glacier/eagle photo from the link. Closest eagle I have seen is in our zoo.

Buffettfan225-cruise at sncglobal dot net. Thanx.

Well didn't you give this amateur photographer a lovely ego boost this morning. Goes great with my coffee :D

I emailed you the photo - it's a pretty large file, so let me know if you didn't get it, and I'll resize it for you.

Well didn't you give this amateur photographer a lovely ego boost this morning. Goes great with my coffee :D

 

I emailed you the photo - it's a pretty large file, so let me know if you didn't get it, and I'll resize it for you.

Hmmmm... the email bounced, recipient unknown. So let's try it this way - I uploaded it to my blog so you can save it to your computer:

https://twocruisingsisters.wordpress.com/eagle-on-ice-tracy-arm/

wow, that is a beautiful pic of the eagle sitting on iceberg. Thanks for posting this. What time of year did you go?

wow, that is a beautiful pic of the eagle sitting on iceberg. Thanks for posting this. What time of year did you go?

Thank you! It was taken the middle of June. June 21, 2013 to be precise. And that's why I keep a blog - because otherwise I wouldn't remember squat :p

Hmmmm... the email bounced, recipient unknown. So let's try it this way - I uploaded it to my blog so you can save it to your computer:

https://twocruisingsisters.wordpress.com/eagle-on-ice-tracy-arm/

That is what I get for typing on ipad- should have been buffettfan225-cruising

at sbcglobal.net

I was able to download from your blog-thank you very much. I can only hope get same wildlife, our cruise is end of July. Can you try resending file directly again, I noticed the file dpi is low at 96 so may pixilate.

thesecondsister, thanks for the response. We are booked for july 2017. taking grandkids to see Alaska. We will be on Emerald Princess; and they have tracy arm shore excursion where we get on small boat right from the ship. The boat then takes us to Juneau when we are done.

We will be on the 5/28 sailing of holland America nieuw amsterdam. We have signed up for the excursion to board a smaller boat, tour Tracy arm and then go directly to Juneau. Anyone have any experience with this tour? It is quite expensive so I am wondering if it worth the money. We really enjoy scenic cruising, glaciers and wildlife viewing.

 

 

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haven't done this myself. But curious how long the boat ride will be.

I am wondering if anyone knows the company that Holland America uses. I'd like to try and find some pictures of the boat to see the size and available outdoor space. Do they overbooked these tours so that you can't easily move around inside and outside?

I am wondering if anyone knows the company that Holland America uses. I'd like to try and find some pictures of the boat to see the size and available outdoor space. Do they overbooked these tours so that you can't easily move around inside and outside?

They use Allen Marine:

http://allenmarinetours.com/sightseeing/juneau/tours/glacier-fjord/index.html