Sawyer Glacier

[tetons]

Going on 5/23 cruise, will the larger cruise ships get to see Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm then?

[wrp96]

Extremely unlikely that early in the season.

[vbmom87]

Going on 5/23 cruise, will the larger cruise ships get to see Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm then?

 

 

Not likely. With some luck you might see north sawyer in the distance, but no guarentee of that.

 

However, the fjord is beautiful even if you can't make it all the way to the glaciers. Just bring a good set of binoculars with you and get out on deck of your cruiseship to fully experience the beautiful area.

 

I went on a small boat excursion and we only got to one of the two glaciers because of the ice flows.

[JSWalk]

I am wondering about mid August?

[vbmom87]

I am wondering about mid August?

 

It is possible, but from all I have read it is rare for the big cruise ships to get into the glacier areas. Don't plan on it, but be pleasantly surprised if it happens.

[clintjake]

I have booked a Whale Watching tour with Harv & Marv in mid June but now am thinking the Adventure Bound day trip may see whales and then so much more. Your thoughts please, especially Budget Queen.

[Budget Queen]

Overall Sawyer Glaciers are seen less than 25% of the time. AND that means- "all" views. I put together a photo sample of Tracy Arm. The cruise ship view was the first time that season- third week of July that the glacier was seen. This is also how close it got, taken with a normal lens. http://community.webshots.com/user/budgetqueen

 

IF you have 12 hours in port, similar to 7-7p, then a Tracy Arm tour is well worthwhile.

[vbmom87]

I have booked a Whale Watching tour with Harv & Marv in mid June but now am thinking the Adventure Bound day trip may see whales and then so much more. Your thoughts please, especially Budget Queen.

 

I am not BQ, but we did see some whales on our Adventure Bound trip. The captain does keep in touch with the boats in the area and will stop for awhile if whales are in the area. However, there are no guarentees you will see whales on this trip. If you absolutely want to see whales, then keep your whale watch excursion.

 

I, too, had originally booked a whale watch with Harv and Marv, mainly because so many people say it is a must do. However, after more thought and research, we switched to the Adventure Bound tour and we were so happy we did. I think I would have been a little bored with just a whale watch tour. Although I enjoy seeing whales, they surely are not a highlight for me. We were fortunate to see quite a few whales from our cruise ship too. Granted they are at a distance, but that was okay with me. Our ship captain would announce on the public address system whenever they were spotted. Since we were on deck or in the Crow's Nest, with its panoramic viewing most of the day, we could easily move to the side of the ship the whales were spotted. I know not every cruise gets to see the whales that we did. It ends up being about your priorities. For me it was scenery. Wildlife was secondary. Tracy Arm Fjord is very scenic and it includes some wildlife too. If you are in port long enough to do this trip, I highly recommend it.

[tetons]

Your pictures are amazing! How lucky were you to catch an eagle on a glacier. That is an incredible picture. If we get that close, I'll be impressed. I am on Golden Princess. I have seen Glacier and Hubbard so was looking forward to another glacier and I will keep my fingers crossed. We are doing the Davidson Glacier in Skagway and will be in a canoe so we will get to see at least one glacier albeit a smaller one. We have been to Alaska two other times so we were looking for something different.

[dfitz]

Don't plan on it, but be pleasantly surprised if it happens.

 

Love your way of looking at it vbmom87 :)

 

 

We will be cruising Tracy Arm on May 26, RCI Serenade. I'm wondering how far up the arm we should expect to cruise this early in the season ... I'd be thrilled to be able to see as much as BQ saw and got pics of! I'm all about the wildlife :)

 

Hopefully, if we don't see the Sawyer glacier this day, weather will be good so our heli tour won't get cancelled and we'll see the glaciers from the air (and get to walk on one). Otherwise, it's plan C ... a hike to Mendenhall (which I hope to have time to do anyway, as well as heli)

[wrp96]

dfitz, look in my pictures from my Rhapsody cruise last year - it was on May 23rd. We got over 20 miles in, so saw tons of scenery.

[dfitz]

dfitz, look in my pictures from my Rhapsody cruise last year - it was on May 23rd. We got over 20 miles in, so saw tons of scenery.

You got some really good pics, and you sure did a good job photo journaling your trip!! I wanted to comment on some of the pics, but don't have a flkr acct so couldn't. There's one in particular that shows a really neat pattern in the ice that I haven't seen anywhere else.

 

I was going to ask if you could come over to our Royal Caribbean Serenade May 23 2009 thread to post a link to your pics ... or would you mind if I post a link to your pics on our roll call? I think there's some people who might enjoy seeing your pics of the places we'll be visiting a year later :-) Looks like you had good weather most everywhere but Seattle ... hope we're that lucky.

 

Thanks for sharing your pics :)

~Denise

[Tweedy]

We we will in the Arm on June 1. I'm very interested in seeing the difference between the beginning of the season and the end of the season. We were able to go all the way down to the point of seeing both the north and south last September. However, the weather was rainy so you had to look through the mist.

[SeattleCruiselover]

It is possible, but from all I have read it is rare for the big cruise ships to get into the glacier areas. Don't plan on it, but be pleasantly surprised if it happens.

 

I've actually made it in twice on big ships. Last year it was too foggy to chance it.