Glaciers

It can get rough, particularly late in the season, but most of the time it’s not bad. We’ve been out many times from Juneau over the past 15 years and have only had one rough experience. The small boat operators usually cancel if it gets too rough but it doesn’t happen often. This from one of the small boat whale watch vendors Facebook page: “There are several reasons why we shut down, every season, in the middle of September. NONE of these reasons has anything to do with whale activity! Humpback whales will continue to be in the Juneau area (usually) through the end of October. The main reason we stop offering tours in September is because of the weather. It gets BAD. Rough waves, high winds & heavy rain become a common occurrence in the fall “

You may sail Stephens Passage as you sail to or from Juneau although most of the whale watch tours from Juneau head to the north end of Shelter Island or the west side of Douglas Island. Another option for Juneau is Juneau Whale Watch. They have combo tours that take you to Mendenhall after the whale watch. https://www.juneautours.com/book-a-tour/details/32329/mendenhall-glacier-juneau-whale-watching-combo-tour/

Haven’t stayed there but live in the area and walk past it frequently. I like the location and there are some dandy restaurants nearby, particularly along 2nd Ave a block west. Most are frequented by locals who live in the area so are not mentioned much on travel boards. There are some folks who hang out along Bell St that live in low income housing in the area but most are not homeless although it’s hard to tell sometimes. It’s less than a 15 minute walk from the hotel to Pike Place Market, Space Needle/Seattle Center and Westlake Center for the light rail and monorail. Another option in the same general hotel class is the Mediterranean Inn in Uptown near the Seattle Center. Good hotel near many restaurants at a decent price.

We’ve done a couple of these, one in Amsterdam and another in New York City but they were operated by different companies. Both were very good. We tipped at the end of the tour in Amsterdam although tips weren’t accepted in New York so we bought the tour guide lunch. Stroll Buddy has a good FAQ page. https://strollbuddy.com/faqs/

If you’re cruising early or late in the season you should look at what will be open. If considering Denali as well as the cruise, the shuttle buses don’t start operating until May 20. Might make a difference cruising north or south with timing. Also, some tours shut down a bit early in September due to increased rough weather like some of the small boat whale watch operators.

In the past the Visit Anchorage offices both at the airport and the log cabin have had a comprehensive list of hotels in the Anchorage bowl that provide info on who has shuttle buses and where they go. Several have shuttles that services both the airport and the train station. www.anchorage.net 907-257-2363

Royal Caribbean, which includes Celebrity, was awarded a ten-year concession contract for Glacier Bay but chose not to sign the agreement. The current contracts expire in 2029 so Royal will not be able to visit GB until then.

Thank you for clarifying.

The Grand Class ships have a promenade that wraps around the bow for fantastic viewing and photo ops, like the Grand, Majestic & Sapphire.

Trip Advisor has threads by Alaska community. Although not specific to cruising there are several locals who monitor the boards and give some good information. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28923-i349-Alaska.html From this site there is a drop down menu to select the specific community. It’s also fairly easy to use the search function on Cruise Critic to find what you’re looking for. Or, just ask at Ashland suggested.

Although I haven’t been looking, I’ve not read any negatives about Viator. They are a consolidator and don’t actually operate tours. I believe the tour you are looking at is through Juneau Whale Watch who is the actual vendor. We book direct with them and they are our preferred whale watch tour operator. https://www.juneauwhalewatch.com/ We don’t do the combo tour although there are positive reviews that indicate you can stay at Mendenhall longer than other tours as they have multiple buses throughout the day. With your late port time you should check on that though.

@BIBPhotography Please be aware that if you choose to walk to the bus station, depending on your route the first part of the walk from the train depot can be up to ¼ mile uphill. Not a bad walk if you have no luggage.

Taxi/Uber/Lyft direct to the airport. It's not worth the savings of taking the bus and having to schlep your luggage uphill to the bus station.

The Royal is just too big for Alaska. It travels west of Vancouver Island and has limited forward viewing with no wrap-around promenade. The ship board amenities were very good and the staff was excellent. Just not the best ship for Alaska. The naturalist was very good and actually offered to call cabins in the middle of the night if the northern lights were out.

Yes, two courts and they did have paddles and balls although I brought my own just in case.

Princess has 14 night itineraries that go to Glacier Bay, Hubbard and College Fjord. A better option would be UnCruise. We did one that departed Seattle. We went to few cruise ports and usually overnighted in secluded coves including an overnight in Glacier Bay. One morning after an overnight in Scenery Cove, we skiffed over to Baird Glacier for several hours of hiking on the glacier. We also got up close to the Sawyer Glaciers on this trip. It was all about scenery and wildlife. It was remote and wonderful. Might be about as close as you’ll get to what you’ve noted.

Airport properties are certainly less expensive than downtown and work well if you don’t have time to explore. There are a few properties near downtown that are slightly more reasonable but still more than the airport. The Mediterranean Inn which gets very good reviews as well as the MarQueen are near the Seattle Center/Space Needle and also a short monorail ride to the downtown core area. These are a couple of the closest hotels to Pier 91/Smith Cove. Another, in Belltown, is the Belltown Inn.

Tom’s Port Guides is very detailed port guide although only mentions a few in Alaska. https://www.tomsportguides.com/port-guides.html Trip Advisor has info although isn’t cruise specific but has some good info from locals many times. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28923-i349-Alaska.html\ Cruise Critic remains one of the best sites although it can get very subjective. Other than a great whale watch tour stop, Icy Strait Point is a waste of time in my opinion although many love it, as an example of subjective.

I agree with everything disneyochem noted. One of the best ships for viewing we’ve been on was Holland’s Zaandam. The Crow’s Nest was good for inside forward viewing and I was there each morning with a cup of coffee looking for wildlife. The ship also had wonderful outside unobstructed viewing areas. You’ll see posts about good viewing areas on other ships although many are while looking through glass which doesn’t do anything for a good photo. The royal class Princess ships have the Sanctuary with forward viewing through glass and it can be cold as it’s not entirely enclosed. I was up there most mornings but with a coat. It was closed on glacier days unless you paid the fee to get in.

The end of May fist of June it our preferred time to cruise Alaska. There is still some snow on the mountain peaks making for some dandy photo ops, the humpbacks have pretty much completed their migration north and the weather is typically drier this time of year. As mentioned, layers and a light-weight hooded rain jacket. Besides my dress shoes for onboard formal nights. I take just two pair of sneakers and trade them out as needed, usually every day. Shoes should be based on your excursions. If hiking on trails you may need a light hiker although for most, you’ll be walking on the deck of a boat or a paved street 90% of the time. Boots are usually unnecessary.

Look at doing a day cruise out to Columbia Glacier. We’ve been with Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruises and had a wonderful trip.

Particularly in Southeast Alaska while on your cruise, you will have cell coverage in the communities you dock at although not much while cruising unless passing by a town along the way that has a tower. For a large part of the cruise you will have no cell service.

Although we had plenty of time to get back to the ship since we took an early tour, we were late getting back to the dock due to rough water once. It was on one of the smaller 6 passenger boats. They canceled the next tour after ours. This was with Jayleen and quite a few years ago.

There are no hotels that provide free transportation to the cruise terminals that I know of. There are two terminals, Pier 66 & Pier 91. Knowing which one you're departing from will help with hotels. If you're just arriving at night for a next day cruse, airport hotels are generally cheaper if you don't have time to explore the area.

@IPB4IGO It wasn’t a bad experience as there was plenty of room for our bags, at least when we traveled. Our hotel was about a 3 block walk once we got into downtown. I was a bit impatient when I arrived at the parking lot and didn’t give the scanner time complete the process so used my CC to enter. Upon departing I had to use the call button, give them my original booking number and they wipe the charges due to my mistake. Our two weeks there was about $135US that we thought was a very good rate. You may have cellular service in Canada, we didn’t so I took photos of everything to use for parking, ARRCan, covid verification, etc.