Seeing whales from the ship

[orca lover]

Cruising, one reason I decided not to do a combo tour, as I wanted more time at Medenhall. We are doing the 4 hr tour with Juneau Adventures and he is dropping us off at Medenhall. I am guessing we will be leaving Medenhall around 8, but that is only a guess now. We will take our time there and take a taxi back. You are welcome to join us. Call the whale watching tours and ask the question. Sounds easy for them to drop off at Medenhall.

[Cornishpastyman1]

Amazing videos. How long of a whale watching cruise did you take? How long were you in Juneau?

 

We were there 1-10. We docked a mile from the town so took the shuttle ($3 return). For various reasons we could not commit to a whale watch tour ahead of the day so just walked up to a kiosk in the town (Juneau Tours and Whale Watching) and booked the 2 pm whale/Mendenhall combo ($125pp).

 

From memory the afternoon went like this :

 

Drive to Auke Bay to pick up boat 2-2.30

 

2.30 - 4.40 in the boat *

 

4.40 - 5.10 Drive to Mendenhall Glacier. We were told the last bus back to the port with our tour was 7 pm. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to Nugget Falls (thus 30 minutes there and back) so we spent about an hour looking at the glacier and falls and another 15 minutes looking at the salmon trail. This all took us to around 6.30, when we decided we didn't have time to do the Visitor Centre justice so we waited for the next bus to port on our tour. It showed up around 6.40 - presumably the penultimate service of the day.

 

* You spend around 15-20 minutes going out into Auke Bay where the whales were (and the same coming back), leaving about 75-90 minutes seeing whales. For us that was fine, as they were so plentiful and we saw 2 instances of bubble net feeding.

 

Half an hour more at Mendenhall would have been perfect but such is life.it was still a fine day out.

[sherryf]

It takes about 15 minutes to walk to Nugget Falls (thus 30 minutes there and back)

 

It's nearly a mile to Nugget Falls. Most people should figure on more like 20 minutes each way and 45 minutes total (with photos at the falls). The OP has already stated some mobility limitations, so for her I'd say to allot at least an hour.

[cheone]

We just returned on the Norwegian Pearl and we seen a pod 20 Orcas 35miles North of Seattle. The Orcas were within 300 ft of the ship. Once the Captain announced the whales, we were 5 deep on the side of the ship. It was quite spectacular. Only seen 4 whales in Alaska.

[Budget Queen]

It's nearly a mile to Nugget Falls. Most people should figure on more like 20 minutes each way and 45 minutes total (with photos at the falls). The OP has already stated some mobility limitations, so for her I'd say to allot at least an hour.

 

I will ALWAYS recommend allowing an hour for this walk, nothing less. If it happens to take less so what? BUT, to be able to take it all in, pause for alternative "looks" etc, and not being under a gun with a marathon run back is significant.

 

Anyone claiming less time- is doing a disservice for those unfamiliar and planning. Flame away- :)

[Budget Queen]

It is one thing to say, "Do this instead of that." But in this case, I have to go by the excursion's duration when deciding what to scratch off my to-do list. I don't know if I will ever get another chance to visit Mendenhall, which is unlike all the other glaciers. I just need to know if it is possible to put whales and Mendenhall together including transportation in only 6 hours. Can that be done or do I have to hope whales are visible from the ship?

 

OK- from my point of view- You are making a huge mistake, giving the "meal" the priority.

 

You CERTAINLY can do both a whale watch and a Mendenhall visit- with your two short trails, and visitor center stop- in your "port time".

 

Why would the meal be so important- as to impact this selection? Question to ask yourself.

[fleckle]

It's nearly a mile to Nugget Falls. Most people should figure on more like 20 minutes each way and 45 minutes total (with photos at the falls). The OP has already stated some mobility limitations, so for her I'd say to allot at least an hour.

It takes me about an hour for Nugget Falls even without any mobility limitations.

 

I like being able to amble along slowly, stopping frequently to look around and enjoy the views along the way, and take photos from different angles at a leisurely pace, not having to feel that a stop watch is running.

 

It would spoil the enjoyment of the experience for me to be under tight time constraints.

That is why I much prefer to go out to Mendenhall after whale watching rather than before, so that I can leave my departure time open ended.

 

[Budget Queen]

It's nearly a mile to Nugget Falls. Most people should figure on more like 20 minutes each way and 45 minutes total (with photos at the falls). The OP has already stated some mobility limitations, so for her I'd say to allot at least an hour.

 

My above post, is not what I meant to say- in response to you.

 

I'm just trying to help with accurate planning, allowing more time for a cushion.

 

I've seen some people, who latch on to those minimum times they see and get behind and have no room for catching up. Then are late for tours, or late returning to the ship etc.

 

I find conservative estimates are better for the wide range of people on anonymous message boards. :)

[CruisingSince2012]

We just returned on the Norwegian Pearl and we seen a pod 20 orcas 35miles North of Seattle. The orcas were within 300 ft of the ship. Once the Captain announced the whales, we were 5 deep on the side of the ship. It was quite spectacular. Only seen 4 whales in Alaska.

 

Wow, that is awesome! You were very lucky to see that many that close to your ship.

[RescueDontBuy]

I thought I would see a lot more whales from the ship but you really have to get lucky here. The whales can hear the ships moving from a very long way away and although they do announce when they see whales from the bridge by the time you get out to your balcony or to the side of the ship they are usually gone. You can get lucky and just be looking outside and see a whale tail or spout or in our case we saw two sets of porpoises swimming along side the ship for a few minutes (we saw Dall porpoise that looked like mini orcas). If you want to really go whale watching you need to consider doing it in Juneau where there are many providers on the dock waiting for the cruise passengers to arrive or book it ahead with a provider recommended from other cruise critic members. We used Dolphin Tours and they were very professional with very fast and new boats.

[piper28]

The companies that advertise the combo with a trip to Mendenhall after the whale watching part will list a certain amount of time there, but in general, they'll all let you stay as long as you want - with the caveat that you're on your own to arrange transportation back to the ship. The later arrival time for the ship definitely limits one's options though.

 

The one time we've actually seen orcas was actually after coming out of Glacier Bay. I'd have to guess it was in the vicinity of Hoonah. They were a ways off, but I was able to get some respectable photos with my camera.

 

But the reality is, there isn't a substitute for the whale watching trips. I'm headed to Alaska for the third time, we did whale watching tours on the first two, and I have every intention of doing another one this trip.

[Putterdude]

Well today you could have seen Orcas from Canada Place in Vancouver harbour.

 

http://globalnews.ca/video/2068947/raw-close-up-encounter-with-orcas/