Juneau glacier/whale watch tour

While in Juneau, we plan to take a whale watch/glacier excursion. The ship is supposed to dock at 1 p.m. Tours begin at 1:30 and 2:30. Should I book the 1:30 and have to worry about making it on time? Or, should I book the 2:30 and be able to relax and take my time? (Guess I kinda answered that one myself.)

It was recommended to me by someone to do the whale watch part of the tour first, then finish with the glacier afterwards. Agree?

Thank you for the help.

Doing the later one would give you time to take the tram before the tour.

An advantage of doing the glacier second could be the option of staying longer at Mendenhall by arranging your own transportation back to the ship. The tour isn't there long enough for everything some want to do (e.g. hike to Nugget Falls, See the visitor center and look for bears at Steep Creek).

We had time to see bears at Steep Creek (stayed a while because there were 3 cubs under the trees and they rewarded our patience by coming out where it was more open), walk down the short trail to the glacier viewpoint to see the falls a bit closer and check out the visitor center (but not see the movie there).

Whether you could extend the time depends on the park closing time & when you're ship is leaving.

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Depends on when you will be in Juneau

We were there last week on the Eurodam and booked a whale watch/Mendenhall Glacier with Juneau Whale Watch. Our ship was scheduled to arrive in port at 1pm and departed at 10pm

I had contacted the tour group a few months in advanced and inquired about the time - they said that we should have no problems making the 1:30 tour.

Docked a little after 12 while we were eating lunch and left the ship around 1-ish. Walked about two blocks away to where we were supposed to meet in front of the entrance to the tram. Checked in, boarded the shuttle and we were off to whale watch. We didn't feel like we had to rush off the ship or anything, so there is no real need to relax and take your time - its about a 20-minute shuttle ride to Auke Bay, too.

And the reason I asked when you will be in Juneau is that when we were done with the Glacier and boarded the bus, we were back in town around 6:45pm and dusk was starting to settle in when we stopped at Tracy's Crab Shack for dinner. Keep in mind that and the Mendenhall National Park closes at 7pm

I was told when I originally called that we would be dropped off at the glacier first and then board the bus for the whale watch tour but when we boarded the bus, we were told the opposite would happen - we really didn't have a choice on what we could do first but it made sense the way they did it. After dropping us off at Mendenhall, we could spend as much time there as we wanted with the last bus leaving the park at 6:30, IIRC

Ask that person why they recommended whale watch first.

I would choose whales first, so that if its a decent day and i want to explore more trails or spend more time at the Falls, i can call for a taxi back. The Visitor Center closes at 7pm but the trails are open until midnight. If your cruise is in June you will have daylight until your ship departs, so take advantage of it.