Why is Juneau whale watching tour popular?

[mncbabu_yahoo]

The cruise ship also travels in same ocean, where passengers have a chance to see whales. why is Juneau whale watching tour popular? How is different than cruise ship wildlife watching?

[jean-lynd]

The Juneau whale watching tours are in Auke Bay - not a place cruise ships can go. You get much closer to the whales and the boat captains let each other know when they see whales so others can come to the same area.

[wolfie11]

Juneau and Icy Strait Point are two of the top places in the world to see feeding whales.  Seeing whales from the ship is possible but are you willing to spend hours on your balcony or an outside deck with binoculars hoping to get a glimpse of a whale as you sail by it at 20 knots? The captain wants to stay as far away from whales as possible.  

[SoloAlaska]

Because the whales are incredible in Juneau. We saw 13 individual whales which we were able to identify during our tour. Some whales came within less than 10 feet of us. There is no place on a cruise ship where you can be that close to a whale. Yes it’s possible to see whales from the ship but the opportunity on a tour are much better. During my last Alaskan cruise while in port at Icy Straight there was a whale solo bubble net feeding off the stern which for those in the MDR at the time was incredible.

[CCJack]

We have been on only 2 whale watching excursions... One in Iceland which was a bit of a bust due to poor weather and few whales.   However our whale excursion out of ISP was fantastic.  We got quite lucky... we first saw Humpbacks from medium distance, but then ran across transient orcas feeding on a seal.  Our captain followed all the rules and we were watching from a distance with engine off, but the orcas would send one over to dive under our boat and then return to the group, then another would come over.  I think they were telling us to keep our distance from their meal.    I could have reached over the railing and touched the orcas (but didn't!)   

 

Even without our luck at finding the orcas, I thought the excursion would be well worth it. Captains talking with other captains on the radio, and asking the passengers to keep quiet, look and listen.  It was the challenge of finding them that made the excursion fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 8 by CCJack

[Coral]

Being in a small boat gives you a much better view. Especially since cruise ships travel at fast speeds and you are much higher up for viewing.

 

I have had fabulous viewing at both Juneau and Hoonah.

 

Alaska has been much better than Cabo in my experience. I hear Hawaii has great viewing (haven't been). 

Edited February 8 by Coral

[Northern Aurora]

Whale watching from a small vessel is no comparison to seeing a whale from a cruise ship.

 

While we have done whale watching in Juneau our best whale watching excursion EVER was out of Icy Strait Point.  We have also done whale watching in Iceland, Hawaii and Cabo, but nothing compared to ICP where we watched 12 or 13 whales bubble feeding for ninety minutes.

[donaldsc]

We did one of the Kenai Fjord cruises out of Seward on our last trip.  We really lucked out and saw a pod of whales doing bubble feeding for maybe 40 or more minutes.  They were still going at it when the ship had to leave to get back to Seward.  I guess we were just lucky.  Also several cruises ago we were also out of Seward and encountered what the captain said were the largest group of orcas he had ever seen.

 

And then sometimes you are monumentally unlucky.  We have the Anan bear excursion out of Wrangell 4 times so when our recent small ship cruise offered us yet another Anan opportunity at a cost of ~ $500 we declined.  The people who did decide to do it ended up seeing only 4 or 5 bears including the 2 that were on the trail heading into Anan.  Apparently they did not know how bad their luck was and most of them 2 were happy with their meagre number of bears.  

 

I guess that's why they call them wildlife.

 

DON

[Paula_MacFan]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

I hear Hawaii has great viewing (haven't been). 

We did a whale watch last January from Maui and it was spectacular.  We have another whale watch booked for Juneau in June and joked maybe we'll see some of the same whales 🙂  

[Coral]

23 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

We did a whale watch last January from Maui and it was spectacular.  We have another whale watch booked for Juneau in June and joked maybe we'll see some of the same whales 🙂  

You probably will! 🙂 

 

I had Rachel Cartwright (who wrote the Alaskan Cruise Companion that Princess sells) on our Princess cruise in May. She spent the rest of the summer on Cunard. She was amazing. She spends the rest of her time in Maui and recently had her team's footage of a whale birth on National Geographic. It was amazing. What an awesome job she has (summer in Alaska and winter in Maui) studying whales.

 

https://www.caringforcalves.org

 

[AKStafford]

Watching whales from the cruise ship is like watching the big game from the very top row of the stadium. Being on a smaller whale watching boat is like being on the sidelines.

I can see Disneyland from the parking lot, but I'd rather get into the park and see it up close.

[mncbabu_yahoo]

Thanks lot. We will definitely do 6 or 7.5 hours Kenai Fjords tour in Seward in June first week. Hopefully will see Orcas in closer view. We may try whale watching in Juneau as well, if we can combine with Mandenhall glacier visit..