Whale viewing from Cruise Ship

[KCfan]

What are the advantages of booking a whale watching excursion?

Dont you see whales from the ship ??

[Yukon]

Dont you see whales from the ship ??

 

From the ship you might get lucky and see some little black dots that might be whales. The excursions get you up close.

[Toyz711]

i spent a lot of time looking, from the ship. had a good view of 2 small whales, maybe pilot whales. there were a couple of second-hand reports of breech sighitng, but i never could find out if it was humpbacks or orcas. some have said they saw them, but they were lucky. not only are the ship moving fast, but you are many "stories" above the water.

don't expect to see them from the ship, then be thrilled if you are lucky enough to see them.

[qiangf2]

What are the advantages of booking a whale watching excursion?

Dont you see whales from the ship ??

 

Maybe I was one of the lucky few.. During my last cruise on Dawn Pricess, we encountered more than 50 humpback whales after we sailed out of Tracy Arm and headed south. Some of them were so close, maybe 20-30 ft from the ship.

 

The naturalist on board is very knowledgeable. He predicted we would see a large school of whales 2 hours ahead of time and we did. You did have to brace for the weather though. The best spot for whale watching is at the front of the ship. There would be a lot of head wind, and of course most likely be raining (we had downpour raining through out). I wore my waterproof jacket, a rain gear pants from REI for $19.99, ski mask, waterproof gloves, which kept me very comfortable and warm outside for 2-3 hours. Make sure you bring a pair of waterproof binoculars to see the "WOW" if some whales are really close. waterproof is a must. If water gets into the binocular, it will cause internal fogging which you can never get rid of.

 

BTW, it could be very cold outside in the rain. I would suggest you take several pairs of handwarmer with you. They are sold in many sports store for skiers. You open up the bag and put them in your gloves, the stuff in the cloth bag will slowly react with oxyen to generate heat. It lasts for 8 hrs. I think Costco has 40 pairs package for $15 (brand is called 'Hotties"). That's one of the secret I stayed warm during my trip.

[KCfan]

thanks to all who replied!

appreciate the info

[Toyz711]

if you are really interested in whales...do an excursion. well worth the money and time. we did capt larry's purple boat (ocra enterprises)...had almost 3 hours of watching several whales. it was amazing!!

wasn't lucky enough to see the feeding, did get 2 breeches..one that everyone heard and saw the splash, we did better on the 2nd one. had a close encounter of the "spot" kind. he splashed the boat with his tail.

he's a humpback that capt larry first met when spot was born in hawaii.

but come prepared, we had rain/sleet and waves..a real adventure.

much different seeing them from eye level and smelling the "fish" on their breath (spout), then looking down from a big cruise ship.

[cstrick]

We were on the Ryndam 2 years ago and went out on the bow to watch for whales. Didn't see one. We went back to our cabin and from the veranda saw a pod or orca only about 20 feet from the boat. Great luck..

[camella]

I've been to Alaska twice and have yet to see a whale. I think you just have to get lucky as the other posters said. Last time we did see a huge school of dolphin though and that was pretty cool! I have tried whale watching in New England twice and haven't had much luck there either. The first time I went I was frozen half to death and we only saw one whale. The second time, although I was more prepared clothes wise, the seas were really rough and even though I'm a seasoned boat person, I got sick. We did see a whale come right up to the boat and splash us with his tail, so if you go, make sure you bring some seasick medicine just in case!

[Toyz711]

the excursion boats, out of juneau, go to about 15 mins from thier docks (auke bay) on a good day. we were only about 10 mins out when we saw our first spout.

since we were there in sept, the weather was a little iffy. if you look at the pictures (link in my signature) you can see the foggy camera lens.

it was nice having a big enough boat to handle the waves and i had a nice spot on the rear viewing platform to tuck in and protect myself from the sleet.don't get me wrong, i was having a GREAT time. we didn't have anything come right up to the boat, except for some sea lions playing in the wake. but the humpbacks were so close we could smell thier bad breath. seeing humpbacks out of juneau is NOT a problem.

i was watching around icy straits, budget queen said the area coming and leaving glacier bay was a good place to watch from the ship. she has had luck there, i didn't. did see some sea otters...many of them. floating on their backs in the currents. saw 2 spouts way off in the distance by a fishing boat. heard someone had binculars and they were a mother and young humpback. never got that close to see them.

 

on the whale watch, with capt larry, as we were going back to dock...we had to stop. one was right in our path, the windows had rain drops on them and i was tired. (so tired i didn't fight to see the humpback, that is tired!!) it was hard to see what was going on. as capt larry started the boat back up and went forward..a big tidal wave swamped us. ok. it was the tail of spot splashing the boat. couldn't have been better if it had been at disneyland...spot had great timing.

everyone was like ....HUH? capt larry and capt shaun were laughing. apparently "spot the humpback" and capt larry have quite a history.thank goodness the windows weren't open!!!!

 

the only other water life we saw were a few black/white dolphins a few hours before victoria.

[Acemac]

You certainly might get lucky seeing them from the cruise ship, but taking an excursion with one of the smaller boats truly is the way to go. Nothing can compare to being right up close to a humpback whale.

 

Toyz711 isn't lying when saying that 10 minutes out they saw their first spout, quite often this is the case. Every once in a while you get that one in a million experience, such as the splashing or something else. The best part about going out, is that its nature, there is no script, everytime out something different could happen.

 

I highly recommend going on one of the excursions!!!!

[CruisinAlaska]

Rain, sleet, ski masks, handwarmers.......We are going to be whale watching with Harv and Marv's August 13th....is it going to be THAT COLD?!?!?

[Toyz711]

i was in juneau on sept 19th last year, late in the season. 2 days later, while cruising glacier bay..people were in shorts. the day temps never got below low 40s...just got into a little bad weather in juneau. DO take a light slicker or folding rain poncho, really helps. keep things in layers, if warm.. remove a layer, if cold.. put one back on:D .

some folks say that on glacier viewing days, they get cold. remember, you have a wind chill factor around all that ice. even when you board the whale watching boats in auke bay, mendenhall glacier is just down the road. the week after our cruise, they got thier first snow in the mountains above skagway.

don't over pack with heavy things to keep you warm, it's hard to drag it all around. windbreaker over a light sweat shirt will be fine (you might not need that)

[qiangf2]

When I cruised last september, the weather was generally quite mild. But it was very cold when the ship sailed into the Tracy Arm from few factors: cold air brought down from the glaciers; wind chill when standing on the bow; and raining. At one point, it was so cold, my fingers started numbing out even though the palms were still warm thanks to hand warmer. Then, during the FREE whale watching while on board, the cold mainly comes from the wind chill and rain.

 

If you don't plan to stay outside all the time so not to miss anything, light packing should be sufficient. But I tend to prepare for the worst case scenario. Don't laugh at me, I even packed a swim trunk too, in addition to my ski mask during that trip, which I actually used on the first day while sailing our of Seattle.:)

[Toyz711]

just goes to show how you can't pre-judge the weather. i went 2 weeks after you and my DH was outside on the balcony...in SHORTS..sailing out of seattle. even up at the sail-way party, you didn't see any sweater, jackets and only a few long sleeves.

last year:

day at sea - sept 17 - 18 ...beautiful, sunny, warm

juneau - sept 19 - rain, some wind and sleet/low clouds by mid-afternoon

skagway - sept 20 - early fog, warmer / clear in afternoon

glacier bay - sept 21 - sunny, temp in 50s, no wind

ketchikan - sept 22 - rain, heavy at times, temps in 50s

day at sea to victoria/ seattle - sunny, warm..high 60s

[Budget Queen]

I am one who always has good success at spotting whales from a cruise ship-

 

It REQUIRES- proper attire, front deck viewing, a great deal of time invested, knowing the areas, and a good pair of wide angle binoculars with my preference 10x50. BUT you will also ALWAYS see me on whale watches. :)

[KCfan]

I am one who always has good success at spotting whales from a cruise ship-

 

It REQUIRES- proper attire, front deck viewing, a great deal of time invested, knowing the areas, and a good pair of wide angle binoculars with my preference 10x50. BUT you will also ALWAYS see me on whale watches. :)

 

Thanks BQ. Looks like we will be booking an excursion.

[jalapeno]

We were on the Mercury last June and saw whales twice from the ship.

The first time was from the back of the ship as we were cruising into Juneau, and we have video of that. One even swam by close enough so that we could see it from the rail.

The second time was in the harbor in Skagway in the early morning. We looked out our window as it dove and then it resurfaced twice!

We did go on a whale watch and only saw 2 - a cow and her calf. But that was awesome as they surfaced and blew together.

So I would agree that there is luck involved!