whale watching dilema

[lrn376]

Dear John Q, Have been enjoying a lot of your posts on cc pertaining to Alaska. I am going to Alaska in June 2005. Have a question for you. I am booked for the ships excursion,which can be cancelled, (summit, ISP whale watching 8:30 a.m.). I read on the cc board that the whale watch ship is in need of repair and that it was condemned last year.(don't know how true that is) I believe I read that you were on the ships excursion last year. Can you please tell me , in your opinion, is it safe. I was contemplating between the ships excursion and the Petersons whale watch (F.I.S.H..E.S which i have also heard good reports about). The reason i picked the ships excursion, I'm hoping that they will pick me up at the ship instead of being tendered to the shore to save time. Rumor has it that they will pick up at the ship or do u think I should go with the Petersons whale watch which is 4 hrs. instead of the ships 2 hrs. I value your opinion since you "have been there and done that." Looking forward to hearing from you. Lois

 

 

Wishing you a great day.

Lois

__________________________________________________

[JohnQ]

Hi Lois,

I have never seen any reports about the tour boat being in need of repair. On our tour last Sept, I don't recall seeing anything. We sat some of our stuff downstairs in one of the seats and then ended up staying upstairs on back deck until we were headed back. It seems like it should be fairly new?

I read on this board from Koo Hook I believe some time ago that the whalewatch was going to be shorter this year and that the first tour out would be picked up at the ship. I can't confirm that. Maybe we will find out when someone comes back from first cruise of season. On the Summit, they changed our port times and apparently didn't change the whalewatch times so there was only one tour that day instead of the two that were scheduled before. Shortening to 2 hrs gives you time for looking around Hoonah.

On our cruise, we had 5 or 6 cruisecritics go with the Petersons and had a great whalewatch. I believe they reduced their tour to 3 hrs for about $300-400 total to be split by number of people they booked. I started to go but chose to stay with ships tour for Koo Hooks commentary which we could not hear on the back deck. But we did catch his dancing and singing on way back.

[lrn376]

Dear John,

thank you soooo much for your quick response.

the reason I booked with the cruise line is because of Koo Hook hopefully being the narrator on the whale watch.He is a very good "public relations" person for Hoonah. I guess I'll wait and see what happens on the first whale watch of the season. If you hear anything please let me know. Lois

[quickfingers]

My family is on the Summit on Aug. 5th. We booked with the Petersons. Marjorie and Floyd are great people. The walk to get to the pick up point for F.I.S.H.E.S. is a five minute walk from where the tender lets you off. Both my wife and I thought the F.I.S.H.E.S. excurtion was a better value. Even though my wife does not like small boats, the F.I.S.H.E.S. catamaran is 36' long, she has no problems going out with Floyd. Floyd will take you out for as long as you can go out. He will put a microphone in the water to hear the whales. F.I.S.H.E.S. can stop where WE want, if we see bears on the shore. We can get to the whales quicker and go to places the larger ship cannot go. I would rather be on a boat with six people as oppsed to 200. Floyd told me that the boat that was used for the cruise ship last year was condemned. I don't know if that is true or not.

[Kay C]

Does F.I.S.H.E.S. have a website? My husband and I are booked for Aug.26th sailing of the Summit, and we are still deciding what to book. I am interested in the one where you travel by bus to view bears. Has anyone got information on this one?

[lrn376]

F.I.S.H.E.S@Hoonah.net is the Petersons website. Have fun. Lois

[Budget Queen]

For me longer is always better when whale watching. I plan on going on FISHES this year if, I can get 2 more people?? Posted on the Roll Call RCI board. :)