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Cruise Tracy Arm Fjord or Glacier Bay?


sloper12
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The cruises I'm comparing don't go to both Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier Bay so if you HAD to choose which to see, what one would you do? This is the first time we will be doing an Alaska cruise

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These are very different, but both beautiful and worth seeing. I would do some research of sites with photos and see the differences and see which interests you more.

 

Glacier Bay will give you a better opportunity to see multiple glaciers from the ship and many say it is a “must” when cruising to Alaska.

 

Some ships miss Tracy Arm due to ice, especially early in the cruising season. Most trips to Tracy Arm offer a chance to take a smaller boat that can get further into the Fjord and closer to the North and South Sawyer Glaciers. You can also take a small boat trip from Juneau with Adventure Bound, if you are in Juneau from at least 8:00 am to 6:00 pm or later.

 

If neither option is more appealing than the other, then I would choose the itinerary based on the other ports offered with things that interest you.

 

 

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I really wanted to do glacier bay, but we love celebrity which doesn't do glacier bay. After finding a balcony price that was SO much lower than the cruises that went to glacier bay, we booked the Tracy arm cruise. The small ship excursion that for you closer to the glaciers was one of our favorite parts of the whole cruise. But be sure to book that part as soon as you see it. It has to be booked through the cruise line, and sold out in March for our cruise.

 

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You are a winner either way. Tracy Arm is beautiful! The passages are much narrower than Glacier Bay so you get a much closer up close experience to land. Scenery is spectacular!. Even tho you don't see as many glaciers the one you see is absolutely beautiful. Have a wonderful Trip.

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Our first trip to Tracy Arm was great. Our second one not as good because the ship did not get as close to the glaciers. We could see how much the glacier had retreated in the intervening seven years. But the trip up the fjord was still spectacular.

 

We finally saw Glacier Bay five years later. I'd love to go back. I'd take another cruise that went to Tracy Arm, but next time I'd try to take the ship's small boat excursion that goes closer to the glacier.

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If you go to Tracy Arm, you will need to do the optional tour to get close to glaciers. On our trip the ship did not get close enough to even see the glaciers. Even so, I would choose the trip that includes Glacier Bay. There is a reason it is a national park.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Admittedly my Glacier Bay memories are 30 years old at this point, but I remember is being utterly spectacular. Tracy Arm was very pretty, but not mind-blowing.

 

The itineraries I'm looking at for next summer are either/or ones, so I'll be choosing Glacier Bay.

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The cruises I'm comparing don't go to both Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier Bay so if you HAD to choose which to see, what one would you do? This is the first time we will be doing an Alaska cruise

 

Too many variables for Alaska cruises, aren't there? What ships? Round trip or one way? Out of where? Days pre or post cruise in the embark city? All factor in for me when picking a cruise. If I knew I was only going to Alaska once, I'd probably pick Glacier Bay because you're there longer than you'll be in Tracy Arm. But I'd also pick Vancouver as a embark city because you sail up the east side of Vancouver Island and the scenery is spectacular on the way back. It'll be dark on the way up.

I've seen more of a variety of wildlife in Glacier Bay. It's also a National Park and they bring on NP staff to answer questions, narrate the natural history, and bring the all important NP Passport Stamp! If you're into that sort of thing, which I am. The scenery is spectacular.

But, Tracy Arm was other-worldly for me. It reminded me of something out of The Lord of the Rings. I was kind of awestruck, and we got pretty close to the glacier. I've been to Glacier Bay 3 times and I've enjoyed it each time. I've wanted to get back to Tracy Arm, but I haven't been able to book the excursion due to arrival times in Juneau.

If you pick Glacier Bay, make sure you're up and on deck/your balcony early. A good set of binoculars are a must for Glacier Bay, and all of Alaska really. The white dots you see way up on a patch of green on a rock face are likely mountain goats, but you won't get much of a look without some good magnification.

Enjoy your Alaska cruise. You won't go wrong with either choice.

 

Free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

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You can get glaciers in both and Juneau has Mendenhall too. Tracy arm isn’t a guarantee because the glaciers are at the end and not always accessible for various reasons. Glacier Bay is one of the natural wonders of the world In my opinion. But a lot depends on what you really want see. Check out YouTube; their are high res videos of both. You can also see my signature for pictures (the ones from previous years are clear weather). Which does bring up another possibility that it can be cloudy in Glacier Bay too.

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A good rule I use for my travel is that I promise myself that I will always go back. It'll be Glacier Bay for my cruise in August, and Tracy Arm for my cruise on some future date.

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I've only been to Tracy Arm, so I can't compare, but I will say that in hindsight, I wish I had done the small boat excursion there. We were not able to get all the way into Tracy Arm due to ice, so that is my one small regret of our trip. What we saw of Tracy Arm was still absolutely beautiful and I loved it, but I wish I had gotten closer to the glaciers. So... like several posters above, I would recommend doing the extra excursion if you go to Tracy Arm.

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