Whalewatching from Ship in Early AM

[pumpkinlady]

For Budget Queen & other devotees of early morning whalewatching from the ship... I'm planning to be out early on the day we arrive in Juneau, since this seems to be recommended as a particularly good place to see whales. We arrive there at 8 AM and I was thinking of being on deck, with my 10 x 50 binoculars and one of our cameras, around 6 or 6:30 AM - is that about right?

 

Also, my more important question: I'm a newbie at this, so what exactly should I be looking for in order to spot a whale on the horizon? What other wildlife would I see in the early AM?

 

I've been looking at the Infinity's bridge cam pictures this week; today was Juneau day and it appears it starts to get light around 4 - 4:30 AM. Saw some beautiful sunrise pictures, too - pink-tinted skies, lovely views :) Only a few more days till our cruise!

[Ohio Born]

Our captain announced the night before approximately what time to be on deck. (7:00) They started showing up about 7:15, and we too reached Juneau at 8:00. They aren't hard to spot ... look for sprays of water (when they are blowing) Take your binoculars and check out dark spots. When you see tails, they will go down for about 3 - 7 minutes and then resurface. HAVE FUN! It's great!

[smdubowsky]

Just returned from the Infinity. Had a great time and saw plenty of whales from the ship. Make sure you go to the lectures by Brent Nixon, the expert on board.

 

It does not matter what time you go whale watching. The whales cannot tell time. When they are in Alaska and the Inside Passage they are feeding all of the time. The trick is not when you are there but where you are. If the ship is passing through a fairly narrow body of water, the likelyhood of spotting a whale increases. The humpbacks have been known to use the ship's hull to corner and trap the fish they eat. Ask Brent or a ship's officer when you will be passing through the more narrow straits. It may be in the morning or it may be later.

 

If you get up early and you are in the open sea, go back to bed. We spotted at least 6 humpbacks on our cruise. Most in the afternoon and early evening when the passage was narrow.

 

I'd also recommend an excursion in either Juneau or Sitka. We went in Sitka and used Davey Lubin who was terrific. We saw a humpback breach right in front of us.

[Budget Queen]

For Budget Queen & other devotees of early morning whalewatching from the ship... I'm planning to be out early on the day we arrive in Juneau, since this seems to be recommended as a particularly good place to see whales. We arrive there at 8 AM and I was thinking of being on deck, with my 10 x 50 binoculars and one of our cameras, around 6 or 6:30 AM - is that about right?

 

Also, my more important question: I'm a newbie at this, so what exactly should I be looking for in order to spot a whale on the horizon? What other wildlife would I see in the early AM?

 

I've been looking at the Infinity's bridge cam pictures this week; today was Juneau day and it appears it starts to get light around 4 - 4:30 AM. Saw some beautiful sunrise pictures, too - pink-tinted skies, lovely views :) Only a few more days till our cruise!

 

 

You need to be up at dawn, 6am may be too late since the sightings are more over a couple hours outside of Juneau. This is a better option for afternoon Juneau ship arrivals. As an example, I was up at 4:30am and the ship I was on did not dock Juneau until noon. Last 2 hours although very scenic sailing was outside the whale area. From a front deck, scan with your binoculars and look for the "puff", humpbacks are fairly predictable in direction and with wide angle binoculars are easy to track. But once you see the tail, that is it for that whale's sighting, since the ship will be past when it surfaces, unless you get real lucky with a breaching whale. :) As for other wildlife, maybe dolphins and dolls porpoises, orcas.

[phabric]

Budget Queen-

We will be on the Carnival Spirit arriving in Juneau Sept 9 about 2pm. What is the best time to be out on deck to see the whales. We plan to have a full day, after docking we have Coastal helicopter tour followed by Larry's whalewatching finishing at 7:30pm.

[flashdog_1]

I was on deck at 5:30 and it was too late. The few people there said they'd just seen 3 but there was no more sign of them. I was disappointed.

[calee]

Some whales like to hang around town.........here's one at the dock in Ketchikan.

[pumpkinlady]

Thanks, everyone.

 

calee - I like your "city whale" picture :) Maybe we'll see him/her or one of its friends when we're in Ketchikan.

 

BQ - Thanks for the clarification about timing of seeing whales near Juneau and how to spot them.

 

smdubowsky -That's great about the naturalist on Infinity. I think I read about him on another thread and he seemed to be someone people liked. Also thanks for the advice about asking him when the best times are to see the whales - who, as you said, can't tell time ;) We're going whalewatching with Capt. Larry in Juneau, so anything else seen from the ship would be "supplemental" whalewatching. :)

[Budget Queen]

Budget Queen-

We will be on the Carnival Spirit arriving in Juneau Sept 9 about 2pm. What is the best time to be out on deck to see the whales. We plan to have a full day, after docking we have Coastal helicopter tour followed by Larry's whalewatching finishing at 7:30pm.

 

 

I still recommend from dawn. You need to be willing to invest at least several hours. This is also an extremely scenic sailing portion of your cruise even without wildlife. Yes, I spend all my time out on deck and in my opinion few people do. So go with what is your priority.

[KyBuckeye]

On our HAL cruise of 7/23/05 I went up on deck at 4:45 am the morning we were docking in Juneau. There were whales everywhere! I kid you not, the whales put on the most spectacular show. There were mostly humpbacks but did spot a small group or orcas as well. Also saw a few seals/sea lions (I'm still not good at telling the difference) swimming by the ship. We continued to spot whales for over 2 hours and it was the most amazing experience. I had read BQ's advice about going up on the deck early and I was so glad I listened. I'm the only one in our family that got up so early and went out but it was well worth it. So if spotting whales is important to you, miss a few hrs of sleep. After all, you can always sleep when you get home!