whale watching: Juneau vs Icy Strait

I am tryng to decide on whether to schedule whale watching at Juneau or Icy Strait Point. Juneau is long established, while ISP just started last year.

Reviews posted on this board have just raved about the ISP trips last summer. Is Koo Hook going to be the naturalist on the trips again this year? I have one concern here. Last year it was described as a three hour tour. But on the Celebrity web site, it is listed as a two hour tour for this year. Does this mean it has been cut back?

Juneau, with Captain Larry for example, seems like a sure bet as he is long established.

Has anyone done both? Your help would be appreciated. I only want to choose one.

Humpbacks have long been in Icy Strait, so I would assume the tours offer there will have good sightings?? Certainly excellent point about the duration- something I would definately confirm.

Thanks for asking this one. I read all the posts in Koo Hook's link and I almost wished we hadn't already made reservations with Capt. Larry in Juneau. But then I started thinking...There's not many people on Capt. Larry's boat. In Icy Strait it's a Celebrity excursion. That means lots of people. Especially for Southbound cruises since they will only be in Icy Stait from 6:30am to 2:30pm, making it a FULL excursion for whale watching, that's for sure!

I've decided we're going to keep things the way they are and enjoy our day experiencing Koo Hook's little piece of heaven!

We were at ISP this past summer. Although we did not do the whale watching (we did the salmon fishing)....we did see the pictures (digital)..and talked with the very, very excited passengers who came off of the whale watching excursion!

The boat they used....looked like a mini cruise ship. (to me, anyway!)....very nice.

SEPyle, we are booked with Captain Larry and were undecided whether to book with him or through Celebrity at ISP. We chjoose Captain Larry because he limits his tour to only 23 passengers. That is a plus compared to ISP. Have heard nothing but great things about his tour. I am sure whale watching at ISP would be very nice also but 23 passengers verses how many through the cruise line decided it.

We have taken Cap Larry's tour twice and saw whales both times. The last time on our Sep trip, we had rain the whole time and it was miserable, but we still found whales and most people stayed inside in their seats, rather than go out on back deck. When you look at the open space that Cap Larry has avail on his boat, he can have about six up top, only when stopped or slowed down, and about 6 or 8 on the small rear deck.

For ISP, the tour is on a larger boat that I think holds up to 200. There are window seats and tables downstairs as well as stadium theater seats in middle. Upstairs there is a small inside cabin with seats and tables plus good sized rear deck and very narrow space along the sides. There is no way all could be outside at the rail, but we had no problem with this as most people stayed in their seats and didn't come outside. We spent both cruises on the back deck for better photo taking and stood for almost all of the 3 hrs on each. The whales at ISP were unbelievable and we didn't get bored after having already done Cap Larry's two days before. It was a bright sunny day and the whales were everywhere. Both tours were great, but picture making on this particular cruise goes to ISP. Maybe next time, it will be reversed.