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Evening whale watch excursion?


ctousley819
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Good afternoon all! We (myself, wife, and 4 y/o) are going on our first cruise in July 2018 to Alaska. One of the things we have on our must do list is a whale watching excursion. I was looking at what is available through the cruise line (Princess), and in our Juneau stop is an evening whale watch. Has anyone done the evening whale watch? We would think it would be a nice one because the time of day, but was just hoping for some feedback from others.

 

Thanks!

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First and foremost, look up the sunset time for Juneau that day. Compare it to your excursion time. We've done evening whale watches out of Victoria BC twice (one in July, one in August), and HOLY COW was the second one a bust because of sunset. I think we lost out on 30 minutes of what the excursion was supposed to be, and if you're hoping to get pictures, forget it. However, if that excursion is early enough that the whale watching portion will be done at least an hour before sunset (as the boat portion returning to harbor is ~25 minutes and the bus portion returning from Auke Bay Marina to the cruise ship docks is ~30 minutes, essentially as long as the excursion's listed end time is at or before sunset), you'll probably be OK.

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First and foremost, look up the sunset time for Juneau that day. Compare it to your excursion time. We've done evening whale watches out of Victoria BC twice (one in July, one in August), and HOLY COW was the second one a bust because of sunset. I think we lost out on 30 minutes of what the excursion was supposed to be, and if you're hoping to get pictures, forget it. However, if that excursion is early enough that the whale watching portion will be done at least an hour before sunset (as the boat portion returning to harbor is ~25 minutes and the bus portion returning from Auke Bay Marina to the cruise ship docks is ~30 minutes, essentially as long as the excursion's listed end time is at or before sunset), you'll probably be OK.

 

Thanks for the tip. The excursion is scheduled for 5:30pm - 9:00pm. Sunset in Juneau on that day is 9:17pm. According to the itinerary, it is a 25 minute travel to and from the ship. The actual tour is 2.5 hours, so if you 25 minutes to and from harbour that would put the actual "tour" at roughly 6:30pm-8:00pm, so I think timing wise that would work out. But will definitely keep that in mind.

 

How was the one that was not a bust?

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

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Side note: all of our Alaska cruise photos can be found by starting here: http://photos.templin.org/cruises/alaska/

 

We've done six whale watches out of Juneau, and two out of Victoria BC. Out of Juneau, we're very partial to the tours from Gastineau Guiding, who is not the operator of the Evening Whale Watch. They do JNU-670, 700, and 705, whereas Allen Marine (I think) does the Evening Whale Watch. Gastineau's boats are IMHO the most ideal for whale watching: great stability, great windows, more passengers than the small boats but not too many, and always plenty of room to see and/or take pictures. We did a tour on another operator once (Whale Watch and Salmon Bake, in 2012), and just hated the boat. That said, 2012 was our best time seeing bubblenet feeding and orcas, 2014 was some of the best overall humpback sightings, and 2015 was perhaps our best overall "photographic jackpot". This year, the whales just weren't showing; even with making special arrangements to do a double tour, I think we only saw three whales (though several times on both tours).

 

Out of Victoria BC, we did the evening whale watch in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, it was OK, but not nearly as amazing as in Juneau. The boat was more crowded, with an interior cabin downstairs and a small aft deck, plus a second-floor open area that seemed rather "tippy" from what I saw. I spent the whole night on the aft deck, and it was really tough to keep a telephoto lens "on" the whales, and tough to even find the whales through all of the people. In 2015, there was no aft deck to speak of, so I ended up upstairs the whole time, and the rocking motion was amplified by the height which made it that much tougher to keep my lens aimed. Pair that with the diminishing light, and it just wasn't worth it for us. I even brought alternate lenses for when the sun started going down, and that didn't make much difference.

 

Back to your original question, I'd absolutely do any whale watch you can get your hands on in Juneau. My wife is a whale "freak", and the whale watches in Juneau are so good that even though she's finally lost enough weight to be (very!) comfortably under the weight threshold for helicopter tours, she decided she'd rather do a whale watch in Juneau this year instead of trying a helicopter tour. Any tour is better than no tour. If I had my druthers, it'd be on a Gastineau boat, but I'll take any boat to go see whales if that's what it comes down to.

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Thanks again for taking the time to respond. You are correct, the evening tour is by Allen Marine. The whale watch tour we would do would definitely be out of Juneau, it is just a matter of is it during the day or this evening tour. I am intrigued by your comment of stability for the boats from Gastineau. I do have a slight concern with my wife and some motion sickness, so the more stable the boat the better. I will have to check and see what kind of boats Allen Marine uses for this tour to get an idea. The fact that it offers a dinner buffet is nice, but I won't be heartbroken if we take an earlier one without food :). Some more research awaits!

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I've been on excursions with both providers out of Juneau. Both were really good. The Gastineau Guiding tour is really for photographers (or people who want to be with their photographer), and the Allen Marine one is more for viewing the whales (and eating their great food).

 

The boats are completely different. The Gastineau boat is much smaller, with canvas "windows" that roll up so you can shoot photos right from your seat, and you are closer to the water. The Allen Marine boat is larger, and there's room to walk around both the interior and the outside deck.

 

We picked the Gastineau excursion because we really wanted to photograph whales. We chose the Allen Marine excursion because we were cruising with friends who are not photographers.

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I've been on excursions with both providers out of Juneau. Both were really good. The Gastineau Guiding tour is really for photographers (or people who want to be with their photographer), and the Allen Marine one is more for viewing the whales (and eating their great food).

 

The boats are completely different. The Gastineau boat is much smaller, with canvas "windows" that roll up so you can shoot photos right from your seat, and you are closer to the water. The Allen Marine boat is larger, and there's room to walk around both the interior and the outside deck.

 

We picked the Gastineau excursion because we really wanted to photograph whales. We chose the Allen Marine excursion because we were cruising with friends who are not photographers.

 

That's great info, thanks! I can't say we are really photography people, so that is definitely something to keep in mind. We took a dolphin tour....and well we learned very quickly we are not good at snapping pictures quickly :) For us it would be more about the experience and seeing them for the most part, so again, great information for us to consider! Thanks!!!

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I've been on excursions with both providers out of Juneau. Both were really good. The Gastineau Guiding tour is really for photographers (or people who want to be with their photographer), and the Allen Marine one is more for viewing the whales (and eating their great food).

 

The boats are completely different. The Gastineau boat is much smaller, with canvas "windows" that roll up so you can shoot photos right from your seat, and you are closer to the water. The Allen Marine boat is larger, and there's room to walk around both the interior and the outside deck.

 

We picked the Gastineau excursion because we really wanted to photograph whales. We chose the Allen Marine excursion because we were cruising with friends who are not photographers.

How long ago were you on Gastineau? Dating back to 2010, all of their Juneau boats (and since then, everywhere else that we've seen their boats) have glass windows that swing up/in and are pinned against the ceiling by the crew. It makes for a great warm cabin while enroute, and easy photos/viewing while in the vicinity of the whales.

 

 

The Allen Marine boats are definitely larger, usually 150 passengers (though some are smaller, I think). The downstairs deck is fully enclosed, and I don't think any of the windows open. You can climb stairs to the second deck, and either walk around (both sides have a walking area, and there's an aft area with rather solid/beefy railings) or walk into an enclosed upper cabin (great to get out of the wind/cold for a bit, but often quite humid because everyone who was out in the wind/cold just came inside, and the HVAC can't keep up with the dehumidification). One or two boats have a third open deck up over that enclosed second deck, but that's only opened when the boat is stopped (crew will clear it out and rope it off while in transit). They're more stable, but will likely end up more crowded if/when most people want to be outdoors.

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Time is everything for opportunities. Many evening whale watches are shorter. Also be well prepared for the usual whale watching reality. Most of the time is "whale waiting". :) Never expect anything more than blows, backs and tails, which most trips will result in. Some younger children don't have the interest in being patient, viewing is only a second or two, and easy to miss. (story of my "watching", :) :) )

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