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2017 Jackpot year of bubble netting!!!


Budget Queen
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I've gone years without seeing bubble netting. For at least the last 15 years, I've been doing at least 20 whale watchers /year.

 

Anyway, I'm just home today from my latest Alaska visit- which came together very quickly, booked August 18 evening, leaving for Anchorage early on August 20 sailed on August 21 out of Seward.

 

I scored 1 empty seat, for whale watching, with Floyd Peterson, whom it was important to me, to try and get one last trip with him since this is is last season. :(

 

Well I had bubble netting on 6 boat trips out this season, in Alaska -- unbelievable. :) I did have 3 other humpback wildlife trips without it this year, in Alaska..

 

I'm hoping that many people had trips out that also experienced this. Seemed to be very common this season. What a gift to see. :)

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We did a tour with Kenai Fjords Tours in Seward this past June. We saw bubble netting in several places. The captain of our boat said he had been a captain with Kenai Fjords Tours for 20 years and he had never seen it like this. He was reluctant to leave the area because HE was thrilled to be watching it also.

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I've gone years without seeing bubble netting. For at least the last 15 years, I've been doing at least 20 whale watchers /year.

 

Anyway, I'm just home today from my latest Alaska visit- which came together very quickly, booked August 18 evening, leaving for Anchorage early on August 20 sailed on August 21 out of Seward.

 

I scored 1 empty seat, for whale watching, with Floyd Peterson, whom it was important to me, to try and get one last trip with him since this is is last season. :(

 

Well I had bubble netting on 6 boat trips out this season, in Alaska -- unbelievable. :) I did have 3 other humpback wildlife trips without it this year, in Alaska..

 

I'm hoping that many people had trips out that also experienced this. Seemed to be very common this season. What a gift to see. :)

No bubble net feeding for me yet:eek:. But I do remember our tour in Sitka with Capt, Davey. That was a great time. Humpbacks, sea lions, otters, eagles, star fish and even a bear. Oh Yeah and how could I forget my first Puffins.:D I was lucky again in late July in Seward. I did the Kenai Fjords tour. And again hit the my jackpot. I was able to see everything I saw in Stika (more bears and puffins) and also a pod of Orcas and glacier calvings. So much to see in so little time. I have one more chance in Juneau this season to hopefully see bubble netting. It has been a special season in Alaska this year:)

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Budget Queen - I am headed to Alaska on the HA Sept 23 7 day cruise. Last minute as well. Ports Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan. Any suggestions which port and vendor would be the best in your experiences.

 

In Juneau - time is what is important, for me, who ever has the most time on the water for the time frame I want. :) In Sitka, I always charter which most people aren't going to do. I've had the boat privately, along with the above poster Jskinsd who joined me this year, from a roll call offer I posted. Always Davey Lubin with the Esther G

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No bubble netting on our whale watch this past Monday but we saw a couple of whales doing "double peduncles" or tail slaps. The naturalist said he's never seen that done here in the eight years he's been coming to Alaska

 

 

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No bubble netting on our whale watch this past Monday but we saw a couple of whales doing "double peduncles" or tail slaps. The naturalist said he's never seen that done here in the eight years he's been coming to Alaska

 

 

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glad to hear you had a great time ! Hope all's going well .... you prepared quite a bit for this trip.

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No bubble netting on our whale watch this past Monday but we saw a couple of whales doing "double peduncles" or tail slaps. The naturalist said he's never seen that done here in the eight years he's been coming to Alaska

 

 

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For clarification- do you mean 2 whales with synchronization?

 

Every trip is different for sure, sounds like a great trip. I'm just back from several days in Gloucester and had a fantastic fins trio look several times. doing a lot of surface behavior. Went out twice most days and only saw fins on that one day. :) Keep on viewing. :)

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Budget Queen - I am headed to Alaska on the HA Sept 23 7 day cruise. Last minute as well. Ports Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan. Any suggestions which port and vendor would be the best in your experiences.

 

 

 

We love Harv and Marv's in Juneau. If you can get the small boat with 8 or fewer passengers, it's great! They don't pack their larger boat either... if that is all that is available. Pick up at your ship and drop off when finished.

 

 

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For clarification- do you mean 2 whales with synchronization?

 

 

 

Every trip is different for sure, sounds like a great trip. I'm just back from several days in Gloucester and had a fantastic fins trio look several times. doing a lot of surface behavior. Went out twice most days and only saw fins on that one day. :) Keep on viewing. :)

 

 

 

Not necessarily in sync, but two humpbacks next to each other slapping their tales on the surface quite a few times. Our on board naturalist and boat captain was just as excited as we were!

 

Sailing to Victoria, we encountered a huge group of humpbacks - saw a few breaching, too!

 

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glad to hear you had a great time ! Hope all's going well .... you prepared quite a bit for this trip.

 

 

 

Yes we did, but we also booked over a year in advance thinking it would be our only cruise to Alaska. We are already planning a land/sea trip wanting to go go up to Denali!

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
I've gone years without seeing bubble netting. For at least the last 15 years, I've been doing at least 20 whale watchers /year.

 

Anyway, I'm just home today from my latest Alaska visit- which came together very quickly, booked August 18 evening, leaving for Anchorage early on August 20 sailed on August 21 out of Seward.

 

I scored 1 empty seat, for whale watching, with Floyd Peterson, whom it was important to me, to try and get one last trip with him since this is is last season. :(

 

Well I had bubble netting on 6 boat trips out this season, in Alaska -- unbelievable. :) I did have 3 other humpback wildlife trips without it this year, in Alaska..

 

I'm hoping that many people had trips out that also experienced this. Seemed to be very common this season. What a gift to see. :)

 

captain floyd is retiring?

 

is there anyone else you recommend? both in icy straits and juneau..

 

thanks!

 

i'm thinking of cruising Alaska very last minute next summer....or perhaps contemplating is a better word..

 

i'll be in the US for my high school reunion (45th - and isn't THAT shocking!!!!! how is it possible i graduated from high school 45 years ago!??!?!?)

 

anyway, my husband said he'd meet me in orlando after the reunion for some mickey park and mickey cruise time, but i started thinking that maybe alaska would be more interesting...

he's never been there (i was 2 years ago with my mom and daughter)..

 

but i'd only be able to book last minute....

i've looked at what's available in middle/end of june...

i think i'd like to do glacier bay this time....hubbard would also be nice (we missed it on our cruise due to an accident between anchorage and seward that caused our ship to only leave seward at 3 am - so no hubbard)..

so i guess that means princess, hal or norwegian...

 

i suppose the biggest problem will be trying to book last minute excursions, both on the cruise and inside alaska....

but there's no way to know until the last minute whether we'll actually be able to go..

 

.anyway, any whale watching recommendations you have would be very much appreciated!!

i wasn't very happy with our whale watching excursions on our radiance cruise...

all our other excursions were great..

 

.

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captain floyd is retiring?

 

is there anyone else you recommend? both in icy straits and juneau..

 

thanks!

 

i'm thinking of cruising Alaska very last minute next summer....or perhaps contemplating is a better word..

 

i'll be in the US for my high school reunion (45th - and isn't THAT shocking!!!!! how is it possible i graduated from high school 45 years ago!??!?!?)

 

anyway, my husband said he'd meet me in orlando after the reunion for some mickey park and mickey cruise time, but i started thinking that maybe alaska would be more interesting...

he's never been there (i was 2 years ago with my mom and daughter)..

 

but i'd only be able to book last minute....

i've looked at what's available in middle/end of june...

i think i'd like to do glacier bay this time....hubbard would also be nice (we missed it on our cruise due to an accident between anchorage and seward that caused our ship to only leave seward at 3 am - so no hubbard)..

so i guess that means princess, hal or norwegian...

 

i suppose the biggest problem will be trying to book last minute excursions, both on the cruise and inside alaska....

but there's no way to know until the last minute whether we'll actually be able to go..

 

.anyway, any whale watching recommendations you have would be very much appreciated!!

i wasn't very happy with our whale watching excursions on our radiance cruise...

all our other excursions were great..

 

.

 

RCCL Radiance of the Seas does Hubbard Glacier as a "sea day." Just another option for you. :)

 

We are doing Glacier Wind Charters in Icy Strait in August 2018, so I can't say how awesome it was (yet!), but we are 6 people traveling together and are doing a private tour. I'm really excited for it, so I hope we have a great time. The Captain and his wife own the business, and she was extremely nice and friendly on the telephone. We have some mobility issues to consider, and she was VERY accommodating and had lots of suggestions for us.

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RCCL Radiance of the Seas does Hubbard Glacier as a "sea day." Just another option for you. :)

 

We are doing Glacier Wind Charters in Icy Strait in August 2018, so I can't say how awesome it was (yet!), but we are 6 people traveling together and are doing a private tour. I'm really excited for it, so I hope we have a great time. The Captain and his wife own the business, and she was extremely nice and friendly on the telephone. We have some mobility issues to consider, and she was VERY accommodating and had lots of suggestions for us.

 

i know the radiance does hubbard - we were on the radiance - southbound out of seward..

it was GREAT by the way....really enjoyed the ship and the ports of course..

 

as i mentioned, we missed hubbard because there was a terrible fatal accident between anchorage and seward that completely blocked the road (you can only get to seward by bus, car or train...

more than half the passengers were caught on the road so the ship couldn't sail until they finally made it on board..

the road, which had closed at noon (due to the fatal accident) only reopened at midnight...

the first passengers (of the over 1,000 caught on the road) started arriving at the ship at about half past midnight - i was one of the people up on deck waiting for them to cheer them in....it was insane...

all these people, including lots of little children who'd been caught on the road for 12 hours!!

 

the radiance was great....as they came on board they were given champagne and then if they wanted they could go up to the windjammer, which was open for them to eat from midnight until 3 am!!

 

anyway, because we only could set sail out of seward at 3 am (or maybe it was 3:30, hard for me to remember), we weren't able to make it to hubbard...

 

you should have seen some of the people on board screaming at the officers....i mean really....you're upset about missing hubbard???? a man was killed on the road....have a little sense of proportion...

 

so we missed hubbard....something to come back for! :)

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Just caught up with this thread - we set sail from Vancouver 25th Sept 2017 - last Alaskan cruise of the season. A cloudy day when we left and the next sea day. Rain in Juneau then 28th we were in Skagway where the weather could not have been any better - the following day we woke up to fog - which was quite annoying as we had a day cruising glacier bay. The second I set foot in the shower the fog cleared and we had a fantastic day. Topped off by seeing bubble netting twice about 5pm as we were leaving the bay. I tried to take some photos and I have made up this book - feel free to flick through and see what we saw.

 

https://www.bonusprint.co.uk/view-online-photo-book/9cc44c19-5969-4409-a554-896555304d69

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These are amazing photos, thank you for sharing, I'm going to Alaska next year August first time cruising too and could use some help, can you tell me the must see/do if you would please, thank you

 

As much as we love to plan - its all 'dependant on the day'. The only thing we booked was Chilkoot tours - I think some of the photos are in the book. This was in Skagway - we got a train up to the border then a van on to Emerald lake - a fantastic tour - probably the best tour we have ever done.

 

We left Vancouver - sea Chilkoot tour - Glacier Bay - Ketchikan - we didn't do much and we were not very impressed with the town. Then a sea day - Victoria - Stunning place we did a Whale watching tour - think that is in the book too. Next was Astoria - pretty little town we just walked along the prom and had some lunch out - then a sea day took us to San Fran - where we had another few days. It was the last Alaska Cruise of the season. We were very lucky with the weather

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