Whale watching in juneau

[latebuyer]

It looks like harv and marv are sold out the day i’m there. Is there another tour group people recommend?

[Cbtours]

19 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

It looks like harv and marv are sold out the day i’m there. Is there another tour group people recommend?

We’re just back from Alaska. Whale watching & wildlife quest with the Allen family. Highly recommend. We booked it through Princess but I’m sure they do private.

They guarantee you will see whales or they give you $100 back (and they love never given a refund in 15 years). Saw lots of whales and at least three gave big waves of their tails 🥰 plus sea lions, bald eagles and otters. 
it was a highlight of our trip 
 

[Italy52]

If you are on Princess and using their shore excursions you will probably be going with Allen Marine.  A good company but we don't like the fact that their vessel has too many passengers on it.  Fighting for good railing space to take pictures is something we prefer not to do.  There are smaller independent vendors that offer great whale watching experiences.  You will find a lot of repeat cruisers on this board will have their favorites:  ours is Jayleen's Alaska.  When selecting your vendor, check to see how long your whale watching time on the water is --- the more time on the water the better chances of seeing whales and other wildlife.

[latebuyer]

Does anyone know of a cruise company that only has 20 passengers for whale watching? I am finding i am too scared to go in Jayleen's small boat but on the other hand the cruise ship boats are too big.

[martincath]

51 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Does anyone know of a cruise company that only has 20 passengers for whale watching? I am finding i am too scared to go in Jayleen's small boat but on the other hand the cruise ship boats are too big.

Gastineau Guiding - their entire fleet is custom built, either 14 or 22pax IIRC, and unlike a random '6-pack' boat this means every seat has a large, completely opening window as well as outdoor platforms (front and back for the 22pax boats).

 

On days with ships in port they seem to sell exclusively through the cruiselines - I think we booked 'whales, mendenhall, and rainforest safari' experience on Princess (read the tour description for boat size to confirm) and for $10 more than the regular whalewatch on the 150pax Allen cats we had our small group escorted by a professional photographer who literally took the cameras from people who didn't have a clue how to operate them and changed the settings to the optimal ones for each situation (for those of us who did know how to use our cameras, they just verbalized the appropriate settings for the whales, woods, and glacier viewings).

 

 

[Italy52]

@martincathI like your comment about the photographer who verbalized what camera setting to use.  We were on a cruise, out on deck, and viewing glacier calving.  DH was shooting in sports mode to catch the action and this lady leaned over after the shot and said, "can you tell me how to do that on my camera." After she was shown, she was so excited to catch the next glacier calving experience.

[martincath]

4 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

... DH was shooting in sports mode to catch the action ...

Yup, this is me - my wife's more into cameras and packs her DSLR, manual settings across the board, but I'm good with a decent-zoom Point'n'Shoot and choosing the most appropriate 'auto' mode then just firing off a bunch of shots and weeding out the bad ones afterward! Even if you're not at all interested in learning how to do it manually, just rotating the wheel/tapping the buttons to a more-specific auto setting for what you're shooting makes a big difference - especially if you learn how to enable 'burst mode' to fire off a whole bunch of shots for those whale tails or calving glaciers, sooooo much more likely to get at least one decent shot in a rapid burst!

 

For example - see attached (cropped to make smaller file size and coverted to .jpg for upload, otherwise no edits whatsoever). This was taken from a small moving boat, one-handed, camera elevated above the guy in front of me as the whale popped up unexpectedly and just button held down until the memory buffer filled. Several others blurrier shots, but this one you can clearly see the barnacles, tangled fishing line, droplets of water, scars, the whole shebang - and all I had to do was set the camera to Sport Mode and have it in my hand! Heard splash, jumped up, lifted camera and pressed button!

[Italy52]

@martincath, great shot!

[MickeyP]

On 6/2/2023 at 1:57 PM, latebuyer said:

Does anyone know of a cruise company that only has 20 passengers for whale watching? I am finding i am too scared to go in Jayleen's small boat but on the other hand the cruise ship boats are too big.

 

[MickeyP]

Juneau Whale Tours

[eileeshb]

On 6/2/2023 at 6:57 PM, latebuyer said:

Does anyone know of a cruise company that only has 20 passengers for whale watching? I am finding i am too scared to go in Jayleen's small boat but on the other hand the cruise ship boats are too big.

I’ve booked one that’s provided by Gastineau for NCL. As I’m sailing in October they don’t offer the photo safari version due to the shorter daylight hours but their other whale watching tour is called “discover Alaska’s whales”. The discover Alaska’s whales excursion description provided by NCL wasn’t at all appealing but when I contacted Gastineau they provided a more detailed description. Through NCL the Gastineau excursion is about $50 more than the Allen Marine one. 

[latebuyer]

Thanks everyone. It appears the time harv and marv and juneau whale tours start doesn’t work with the ship i’m on. I think i booked too late. My friend was able to book at port so thats a possibility. I couldn’t find the gastineau one,

Edited June 4, 2023 by latebuyer

[dd57]

Gastineau Guiding.  https://www.stepintoalaska.com/

[tree.critter]

On 5/31/2023 at 10:36 PM, latebuyer said:

It looks like harv and marv are sold out the day i’m there. Is there another tour group people recommend?

I just whale watched with Harv and Marv’s a few days ago while in Juneau. Took the 6 person boat and it was one of the most phenomenal excursions ever. We lost track of how many whales sighted. All Humpbacks but saw 3 pair of mom with babies our of a total 4 pairs that returned from Hawaii for the season. Incredible footage and video, especially of the babies as they were quite playful and were splashing and showing off for us. Send an email to them, ask if you can get on a waiting list for

either one of there 6 or 20 passenger boats, our guide/captain was super knowledgeable and time on the water was actually longer than advertised for our group as it was definitely a whale party that day.

[latebuyer]

Thanks, even the times all booked didn't work well with my cruise. I decided to contact Jayleen, although it is a long shot. Juneau whale watch and juneau shore tours were full, i just didn't book soon enough. There is a large celebrity eclipse cruise ship almost at the same time as our cruise ship which doesn't help. I'll come to alaska again so i can always go at that time. 

[Italy52]

1 hour ago, latebuyer said:

Thanks, even the times all booked didn't work well with my cruise. I decided to contact Jayleen, although it is a long shot. Juneau whale watch and juneau shore tours were full, i just didn't book soon enough. There is a large celebrity eclipse cruise ship almost at the same time as our cruise ship which doesn't help. I'll come to alaska again so i can always go at that time. 

When are you sailing? 

[latebuyer]

I'm sailing on june 28th and brilliance of the seas gets into port at 1:30-8:00. We are at the dock 15-20 minute walk away so that makes a difference as well. My friend told me she booked a whale watching tour at the port although i'd have to find out where so that is a possibility.

[Italy52]

@latebuyer.  Might be tough to get Jayleen on short notice but I would definitely give it a try.   If Jayleen is booked, she might be able to make some suggestions for you.  Good luck.

[latebuyer]

Thank you!

[Coral]

27 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

I'm sailing on june 28th and brilliance of the seas gets into port at 1:30-8:00. We are at the dock 15-20 minute walk away so that makes a difference as well. My friend told me she booked a whale watching tour at the port although i'd have to find out where so that is a possibility.

There are whale watching tours at the port. They are usually 2 hours on the water (verses some of the popular/better ones mentioned on this board) are 3 hours on the water.

 

I would try for Jaylene's (if that is what you want). The worst she can do is say she is full.

Edited June 6, 2023 by Coral

[latebuyer]

Thanks Coral. I did email Jayleen, i just have a feeling its too late. Its possible she has had a cancellation though.