whale watching in Alaska

[bellaggio]

We are going on a HAL cruise to Alaska Seattle to Seattle. Which ports are the best to do a whale watching tour? Thank you.

[Budget Queen]

Juneau is 100% sightings of humpbacks. You don't list your ports.

[xlxo]

Another vote for Juneau...

 

You might want to consider a Whale/Mendenhall combo tour as you get to see the glacier without retracing through town.

[Miss Dot]

Jueanu vote too! Last week we saw about 12 together and saw them bubble net feeding. We had 2 that breeched right in front of us. Awesome time

[fleckle]

Over the years we have never failed to see humpbacks on whale watching tours from both Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) and Juneau.

 

Sometimes the sightings were better at one, and sometimes at the other.

 

At Icy Strait Point, they are often seen up close to the cruise ship or the dock or while walking the path along the shoreline, but you can't count on seeing them that way every time,

whereas you can count on seeing humpbacks every time if you go out on a whale watching tour from either of these ports, and you may or may not see orcas as well.

 

[webzila]

On the NCL Jewel now and we saw a ton of whales the day before getting to Ketchikan. They were all around the ship virtually all day long and we could see them well even without our binaculars

[minirottie]

Juneau was definitely good. My brother tried Orca watching in Victoria but the Navy was doing an exercise and they were blocked from going to where they may have seen whales

[jamiski]

Juneau is 100% sightings of humpbacks. You don't list your ports.

 

I agree, we went late last August and saw multiple humpbacks. We had a pod of porpoises playing in the boat's wake. It was a great experience. Not sure if your looking for tour recommendations, but we were very happy with this tour/company http://www.juneautours.com/book-a-tour/details/34635/glacier-and-whale-watch-combo/ We were with a much smaller group then with the cruise line (less than 15 people).