Is a whale watch in Juneau redundant

[illiniwahoo]

We are visiting Tracy Arm and taking the small boat excursion thru Tracy Arm and all the way to Juneau. In Skayway, we are taking the Glacier point wilderness safari, which includes a ferry ride to Haines, then canoeing by Davidson glacier. In Ketchikan, we are kayaking and taking a float plane to Misty Fjords.

Since we area already spending a lot to time on the water, will doing a whale watch be redundant? Do you think we are likely to see whales during our transit from Tracy Arm to Juneau, or Skagway to Haines? We are in Alaska around June 1 if that matters.

Other options for Juneau instead of the whale watch would be Mendenhall glacier, a glacier helicopter tour, or the tramway (or other suggestions!). I'm trying to balance our trips to make sure the I get the best of the Alaskan experience!

[Coral]

2x I have seen many whales on the Tracy Arm excursion. I did this with AdventureBound Alaska and we were able to stop and watch this for quite awhile. This was a slower tour as it was a 10 hour tour.

 

There are no guarantees that you will see whales on the excursion and there are no guarantees that they will have time to stop and see the whales.

 

So book the whale watching trip! If you see them on Tracy Arm excursion, consider this frosting on the cake!

[xlxo]

If there's is time and opportunity for a Juneau whale watch/Mendenhal combo after your Tracy Arm cruise..... I would do that.

 

Does such a late combo exist?

[rockdoctor]

You MAY see whales in Tracy Arm but the primary wildlife attraction are the Harbour Seal pups. From my experience, if whales are around the captain of the excursion boat will watch for them and slow down if they are not too far away. He doesn't have time to delay too much getting into Juneau. On our last time into TA, we did not do the Tracy Arm trip because it conflicted with the combo Mendnhall Glacier/Whale Watching trip that Gasteneau Guiding had. Choices, choices, choices. IMHO, the whale watching is not redundant since each excursion has a different primary focus.

[peety3]

We did the Tracy Arm small-boat add-on last year. We did see one whale, and got to stop for a bit to "admire" it. It was absolutely NOT redundant to the whale watch we did hours later in Juneau: the whale watch gets many more whales, from a vantage point that's much lower, which really improves your pictures (if you care).

[Coral]

We did the Tracy Arm small-boat add-on last year. We did see one whale, and got to stop for a bit to "admire" it. It was absolutely NOT redundant to the whale watch we did hours later in Juneau: the whale watch gets many more whales, from a vantage point that's much lower, which really improves your pictures (if you care).

 

Ironically - I saw more whales on my Tracy Arm trip than I have on my many whale watching experiences. We saw a large pod of orcas and watched them play for quite a bit. It was like "whale soup". We had seen humpbacks early on.

 

Since I was with AdventureBound, the vantage point was perfect viewing (lower).

 

Again, pure luck.

[Budget Queen]

We are visiting Tracy Arm and taking the small boat excursion thru Tracy Arm and all the way to Juneau. In Skayway, we are taking the Glacier point wilderness safari, which includes a ferry ride to Haines, then canoeing by Davidson glacier. In Ketchikan, we are kayaking and taking a float plane to Misty Fjords.

Since we area already spending a lot to time on the water, will doing a whale watch be redundant? Do you think we are likely to see whales during our transit from Tracy Arm to Juneau, or Skagway to Haines? We are in Alaska around June 1 if that matters.

Other options for Juneau instead of the whale watch would be Mendenhall glacier, a glacier helicopter tour, or the tramway (or other suggestions!). I'm trying to balance our trips to make sure the I get the best of the Alaskan experience!

 

Do YOU want to see whales? Are you interested in extended viewing? If you see one with the Tracy Arm tour- is that going to be ok with you? Are you more interested in a helicopter trip? Want to hike at Mendenhall? Only you, can determine if a whale is going to be "redundant". It doesn't matter what anyone else has chosen, those choices were based on their priorities. You need to find out yours. :)

[illiniwahoo]

Obviously I need to decide what works for me. Of course I need to make the final decision on if I would rather have a better chance of seeing whales by being on the water longer or take a helicopter tour. I posted on here becuase I wanted other people's opinions who had already visited the places that i am interested in, so that I could help make an appropriate decision for me. If several people said that they did both and were bored with the second one, or that they saw no whales on the tracy arm trip, these responses are helpful. I respect your vast alaskan experience, but please share it rather than telling us to make our own decisions. You have posted these condescending responses to several questions and they are not helpful.

[chipmaster]

Its wild life so YMMV

 

On my Tracy Arm Excursion we did see seals, two bears and then two whales as well, for better or worse those sightings resulted in us being late to the ship by almost 45', and almost missed my planned excursion in port.

 

The Whale watch trip which I also took had much more time to linger with the whales than the Tracy Arm Fjord as that had a set schedule in the Fjord and if wildlife comes their ability to sail to it is a tradeoff to their schedule.

 

I would do both, but if I was to go again, I would skip the Tracy ARm and do the whale watch. I'd likely pick a sailing that avoided Tracy Arm all togather for that matter.

 

Trace Arm is a long excursion and pretty, but almost 85% of the views you get from the larger ship all in the comfortable confines of the big ship. What the Tracy Arm gives you is really close to the water looks that does increase sightings of wildlife and closer to the wild feel.

Edited April 26, 2015 by chipmaster

[Budget Queen]

Obviously I need to decide what works for me. Of course I need to make the final decision on if I would rather have a better chance of seeing whales by being on the water longer or take a helicopter tour. I posted on here becuase I wanted other people's opinions who had already visited the places that i am interested in, so that I could help make an appropriate decision for me. If several people said that they did both and were bored with the second one, or that they saw no whales on the tracy arm trip, these responses are helpful. I respect your vast alaskan experience, but please share it rather than telling us to make our own decisions. You have posted these condescending responses to several questions and they are not helpful.

 

It is going to be best, to just place me on your ignore list.

[illiniwahoo]

It is going to be best, to just place me on your ignore list.

 

I apologize Budget Queen. I was unnecessarily harsh.:eek: