Mendenhall Glacier vs Davidson Glacier

We will be on an Alaskan cruise first week in September and had planned on doing the Juneau Whale Watch combo tour which includes the shuttle to the Mendenhall Glacier. However, I have now been tempted by the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari from Skagway to the Davidson Glacier. Is there any point in doing both? Obviously doing both will be pricy however if they are both well worth doing for very different reasons, we would do our utmost to do that.

Many thanks for any advice or observations you may have.

Are you interested in seeing Glaciers??? Were you still doing the whale watch? IF so, it's a simple choice to just add an independent (not a "tour") and pretty cheap as well.

The Glacier Safari is a whole different tour, which has the water transit experience.

They are entirely different tours. I would do both.

On our cruise we did the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari (independent booking) out of Skagway, Mendenhall on our own in Juneau, and whale watching independent tour out of ISP.

I agree those two glacier experiences are different. We really enjoyed Glacier Point Safari. It is an all day thing, but we got to hike all the way up and touch the glacier. It is a bit of an adventure - boat ride, then a school bus through the woods, then a canoe (with motor) and finally a hike up to the face of the glacier. It is remote, there will not be a crowd. There was a crew of college age folks who ran the bus and canoe and they were delightful to talk with - all in all it was a fun day.

Mendenhall is an easier trip - more of a do it yourself city park. There is a visitor center which Davidson doesn't have. Mendenhall was crowded when we were there. There is a parking lot and cars. You don't walk up to the face of the glacier but see it from a distance (unless you are on some excursion that gets you to the face) Personally if I were doing Glacier Point Safari I would skip Mendenhall. If not doing glacier point safari, then I would do Mendenhall. If you want to do whale watching, I would not drop the whale watching to do both GPS plus Mendenhall. Unless time allows to do all 3, which it may since it is 2 different port cities.

Another note about Glacier Point Safari. Our observation was that the cruise line excursions and the independent booked Glacier Point Safari excursions all end up on the same boat with the same 3rd party company. It is one in the same excursion. I think others have confirmed that on these boards. Makes sense to go with independent, might be a bit cheaper than through cruise line.

Have fun....

We also enjoyed the Glacier Point Safari. Our group of 6 booked independently. When we met our guide in the morning at the gangplank they put all of the people from our ship's booked excursion on one boat and our group and the other ship in port's customers on another. About 20 in each boat. Our group saved about $20pp for the same excursion. Thank you cc.

Hi all. Apologies. I had thought that I had posted a thank you a few days ago but see now that I didn't! Thanks for all your help and advice. We have decided to do the Whale watching and see Mendenhall Glacier this time around. Which must mean that we will have to return :-)

More than likely you won't be in port long enough to do both anyway as the Glacier Point Wilderness tour is pretty much all day.

We went on the whale watching tour the first time and really loved seeing those magnificent creatures.

The Glacier Point tour was the highlight of our trip a couple of years ago. It was a boat ride down the Lynn Canal and a bus ride through the woods then a hike to the river then canue to the glacier area where you hike up to Davidson Glacier.

The kids that work here live in the woods with no power or running water. They were great!

Either excursion should be a lifetime memory. Happy cruising!:)

Just thought to add my two cents. Just returned from Alaska land cruise w/ Princess last week. We don't really plan to go to Alaska frequently so we tried to squeeze in as much on this trip as we could. For Juneau we booked online a city tour, whale watching and Mendenall Glacier package for a reasonable price. The key to all this was the order you do the itinerary. By ending at Mendenhall Glacier we were able to go to visitor's center and at our leisure, hike the different trails in the area before taking a shuttle (with same tour company, ask them how) back to the ship. Of course a lot of this depends on when your ship arrives and departs, number of hours you have to do all this.

In Skagway, we also did multiple excursions in one day. The morning we took the train to Fraser B C, and returned by motor coach. booked on our own. We had a two hour break, went back to ship and had lunch, then had a second excursion to the Davidson Glacier. This excursion we booked through the cruise line since the scheduled return was 7:30pm and our ship was leaving at 8:00pm. We did this for the extra $20.00 cost for piece of mind, in case anything unforeseen caused a delay in our return, the ship was obligated to wait for us.

Ingy, I suggest you decide based on your interests and philosophy of traveling. Also, you have to guess how much weather and timing and coordination of schedules are involved if you are traveling with others. I think each experience has potential to be great and wondrous depending on your expectations and the circumstances of the moment. Have a great time!

We did the Davison Glacier tour two years ago and it was absolutely wonderful! Fun boat ride (on former Navy Seal boat) and great tour guide. Lunch, then they fit you with the proper boots and coats. Trek thru the forest, then hop in a canoe to get to the glacier. We walked right up to the glacier and touched it. There was an amazing cave right there, the colors of the ice were incredible. You don't go in the cave, but what photo ops! It was the absolute best excursion of the trip. We've been to Alaska three times and this was one excursion I'd do again. Highly recommend!