Tracy Arm Fjord excursion on NCL Pearl

[dvdgunner]

Hi has anyone taken the excursion out to tracy arm? Just wondering if it is worth the 7 hour it takes. We would not be able to do anything else in juneau if we take it.

[Budget Queen]

Hi has anyone taken the excursion out to tracy arm? Just wondering if it is worth the 7 hour it takes. We would not be able to do anything else in juneau if we take it.

 

Tracy Arm is spectacular. :) There are some very tough choices to make with Alaska tours. I suggest you may want to consider making a list of what tours you are most interested in. Then considering each according to your Alaska priority. Rank them with the pluses and minuses in YOUR case. One should go to the top. :)

[xlxo]

Hi has anyone taken the excursion out to tracy arm? Just wondering if it is worth the 7 hour it takes. We would not be able to do anything else in juneau if we take it.

• If there's a chance to do a mid-ocean transfer to Tracy Arm.... I would do it. HAL has this option to save cruisers 50 miles and hours to retrace Juneau to the arm.
  
• If the excursion is departing from Juneau.... I would skip it. Juneau activities you are missing include Mendenhal, Whale Watching, and Glacier Gardens
  
• looking at the Pearl itinery.... I think there's glacier viewing at Glacier Bay (double check on your sailing date). If your goal is to see glaciers... It's a better viewing at Glacier Bay than Tracy Arm.
  

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Edited March 29, 2015 by xlxo

[chipmaster]

Out of Juneau there are some difficult choices; Mendenhall, Whale watching, the town, helicopter/glacier etc.

 

IMHO if you are going to see Glacier Bay, College Fjord etc. I'd say explore the town. If you are already doing Tracy Arm on the ship, again a matter of money and time / interest.

 

I've done it and didn't lose any time as we got to port within an hour of the ship docking, but as a roundtrip out of Juneau I'd skip it.

[5waldos]

Also time of year can make a huge difference in Tracy Arm. Early in the season there can be so much ice floating around that you can often not get very far into the fjord itself.

[dvdgunner]

Thank you everyone for your opinions. We are there August 25. We are considering doing the excursion as well as glacier bay because it is unlikely we will be in Alaska again for a long time. Just want to make sure it is a must see! Also my 11 year old daughter will be with us and I am not sure that she will enjoy a 7 hour boat ride! I guess the question is if you were never coming back would you splurge on Tracy Arm or just go to Mendenhall and whale watch. We went Whale watching in Maine last year so that bucket list was fulfilled!

[bonvoyagie]

We did this tour on our third AK trip and were also on the Pearl - on the first two we did excursions in and around Juneau and had gone up Tracy Arm in the cruise ship twice and were going to see Glacier Bay on that cruise so we knowing gave up seeing Juneau to take the small boat tour of Tracy Arm. We did this tour in late June and it was dark by the time we got back to Juneau so that is another consideration. In Aug it will be even worse. The good news is that you will be the first group off the ship and the last ones back :D