Tracy Arm excursion - Should you also do a whale watch in Juneau?

We are on NCL Bliss in July in Juneau. I would like to do a whale watch while we are there in the morning and then catch the 1:30 departure and do the Tracy Arm Expedition to meet up with ship later. Would I need to do a whale watch that morning or would you see whales on the Tracy Arm Expedition in July on the way to Sawyer???

We are on NCL Bliss in July in Juneau. I would like to do a whale watch while we are there in the morning and then catch the 1:30 departure and do the Tracy Arm Expedition to meet up with ship later. Would I need to do a whale watch that morning or would you see whales on the Tracy Arm Expedition in July on the way to Sawyer???

It is a question of probability. You are guaranteed to see whales in Juneau on excursions (Auke Bay). Seeing whales in Tracy Arm have a low probability.

If you ask me, ABSOLUTELY YES. Both times we've done TA small-boat, we've done a whale watch afterward, and the whale sightings were far better on the whale watch than on TA.

I'd also suggest to not schedule yourself too tight. Expect the TA tour to run long, and generally you MUST reboard the ship (on the "water" side) before crossing over to the docked side and leaving the ship into port. This becomes a bottleneck. First time, my wife was one of the first off the boat, and had time to "run" up to the cabin and get pictures of the boat casting off. Meanwhile, it took me almost 25 minutes to get off the boat from the back of the line, at which point the elevators were mobbed and I had to go up six flights with a ton of photography gear. We had 75 minutes "between tours", and were somewhat rushed heading up to the buffet to get a late lunch before heading out to our whale watch.

Second time, there were actually two tour boats, and the shore excursion staff was asking everyone if they had an excursion before 1:30 (ours listed 1:35, so we said no. That was our first mistake). The other tour boat made it back to the Ruby Princess around 1:30, and we got to the Ruby about 1:45. There was a line to get off, and the boat's staff asked folks to be kind to those with tight connections. Nonetheless, just as the line started to move, I heard the folks in front of us say they had a 2:45 tour, and I then regretted not asking everyone in line to sort themselves by tour time. We ended up getting off the ship about 1:50 and our whale watch bus had left, but it didn't take much of a stink to get them to come back for us. Here's the rub: our TA tour was published to end at 12:30, so we were way off schedule somehow. Thankfully the small boat has lunch for sale and we went that route the second time around.

If you ask me, ABSOLUTELY YES. Both times we've done TA small-boat, we've done a whale watch afterward, and the whale sightings were far better on the whale watch than on TA.

 

I'd also suggest to not schedule yourself too tight. Expect the TA tour to run long, and generally you MUST reboard the ship (on the "water" side) before crossing over to the docked side and leaving the ship into port. This becomes a bottleneck. First time, my wife was one of the first off the boat, and had time to "run" up to the cabin and get pictures of the boat casting off. Meanwhile, it took me almost 25 minutes to get off the boat from the back of the line, at which point the elevators were mobbed and I had to go up six flights with a ton of photography gear. We had 75 minutes "between tours", and were somewhat rushed heading up to the buffet to get a late lunch before heading out to our whale watch.

 

Second time, there were actually two tour boats, and the shore excursion staff was asking everyone if they had an excursion before 1:30 (ours listed 1:35, so we said no. That was our first mistake). The other tour boat made it back to the Ruby Princess around 1:30, and we got to the Ruby about 1:45. There was a line to get off, and the boat's staff asked folks to be kind to those with tight connections. Nonetheless, just as the line started to move, I heard the folks in front of us say they had a 2:45 tour, and I then regretted not asking everyone in line to sort themselves by tour time. We ended up getting off the ship about 1:50 and our whale watch bus had left, but it didn't take much of a stink to get them to come back for us. Here's the rub: our TA tour was published to end at 12:30, so we were way off schedule somehow. Thankfully the small boat has lunch for sale and we went that route the second time around.

We are in Juneau for morning at 7am-1:30pm , our Tracy Arm is listed for 1:30. That should eliminate the TA late issue as we are pulling up along side ship way after it leaves Juneau from what I understand we catch up later and board ship back somewhere in the ships TA journey. ???

So we were thinking whale watch excursion in morning in Juneau and back to hit the TA at 1:30.

I would do both. We’ve been on the Tracy Arm small tour many times and haven’t seen any whales, it’s kind of hit and miss. Last year we 4 whales on our Tracy Arm boat tour, the 2 years before we didn’t see any. Every year we do see brown bears along the beach.