Looking for whale watching tour that would accommodate 10-14 people

[Coral]

A friend is going on a family trip. Interested in a private whale watching. Family number is 14 but 2-4 may not go whale watching.

Wanted to give a friend a list of choices that will accommodate her group.

[Host Jazzbeau]

moved to Alaska forum

[Guindalf]

It would help tremendously to know WHERE!

 

 

[ute_fan]

On 6/25/2019 at 12:15 PM, Coral said:

A friend is going on a family trip. Interested in a private whale watching. Family number is 14 but 2-4 may not go whale watching.

Wanted to give a friend a list of choices that will accommodate her group.

If you're interested in going in Juneau, Harv & Marv's now has bigger 18 passenger boats.  You can either rent the entire boat for yourself or split it with others, assuming they have availability for your date.

[Coral]

Sorry - an awful post by me. And I posted it on the wrong board. I was quickly posting during lunch.

 

Juneau.

 

Yes - Harv and Marv will work. They are looking at next year so I assume they will have availability. I was trying to think of Jayleen's father's company as Jayleen's boats are too small.

 

Apologizes for a bad post. I know better.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Coral

[ShipsandDipper]

We had a group of 11 on Dolphin Jet Boat Tours.  It was a bigger boat (30-some people), but the really nice thing is that they were able to re-accommodate our whole group when NCL swapped port days, 3 days before the cruise left. 

[LessWorkMoreTravel]

We are going on a 14 passenger boat through Princess.  It's operated by Gastineau Tours and they work with all the cruise lines I believe.  It's not technically a private tour but they could fill up the boat.  https://www.stepintoalaska.com/excursions/whale-watching-mendenhall-glacier-photo-safari/  I know we're not supposed to recommend tours we haven't been on, but I just offer this up due to the size of the boat.  I can let you know in mid-July how it was, LOL.

[martincath]

I have been on those Gastineau boats (that exact tour actually) and concur, they're absolutely ideal for their purpose. Others seem to have started using them too instead of just the old '6-pack' generic vessels - I think Gastineau only sell their services via cruise lines on days with ships in port, but assuming that all of their boats are not needed a private hire of an entire vessel seems quite feasible...

[Coral]

Thanks - I had never looked at a private tour.

 

I will give this info to my friend. You have all been helpful.

[frangul]

Does anyone know if companies like Harv & Marv and Gastineau share sightings while on the water so the other tour companies can relocate to the area where the whales are?  

[martincath]

Given how many boats are out on the water from Juneau, and the 100% success rate since forever, I have no doubt that boats remain in radio contact - but perhaps more often to ensure that they are spreading themselves around the whales to not keep annoying the same ones/avoid having too many people in the exact same spot than to actually help find whales... 😉

[luvteaching]

Hi, 

We did the Small Group Whale watching excursion through HAL in June on the Oosterdam and it was run by Gastineau Guiding. The boat holds 20 maximum and it was a great excursion. The boats do remain in radio contact and are very professional about letting each other know where they have sighted whales, how long the whale has been down, etc. We were coming back in to port and spotted a whale in an unexpected spot. Captain Lee was on the radio right away to let other captains know and our location. 

 

This excursion was pricey but so worth it. I priced it out on their site and it was only $10.00 more on HAL and it was pickup and return to the dock with a guide on board the bus. I'd do it again in a heartbeat and the budget allowing. By the way, the bulk of our group was a family group from Minnesota. One of the members was mobility challenged and our guide and captain did a great job of ensuring that he could make it on and off the boat. My DH has some mobility issues and they were great with him!

Karen

[Robinhill]

On 6/25/2019 at 2:15 PM, Coral said:

A friend is going on a family trip. Interested in a private whale watching. Family number is 14 but 2-4 may not go whale watching.

Wanted to give a friend a list of choices that will accommodate her group.

In Icy Straight Point  we used a small family owned boat tour- Hoonah Travel Adventures- very intimate and a great tour- we saw lots of whales- it holds about 25 max and there were only about 10 of us onboard- it was like a private tour.  $162 each

Edited August 19, 2019 by Robinhill
mistake

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, Robinhill said:

In Icy Straight Point  we used a small family owned boat tour- Hoonah Travel Adventures- very intimate and a great tour- we saw lots of whales- it holds about 25 max and there were only about 10 of us onboard- it was like a private tour.  $162 each

They will be in Juneau. Thanks though!

[frangul]

We used Harv & Marv's in Juneau.  They have a boat that will hold 18.  We were a party of 8 and booked it for just us 8 with a slight upcharge per person than if we had been one of 40 on a bigger craft. We were pleased with them.  

Edited August 19, 2019 by frangul

[donaldsc]

On 6/27/2019 at 7:05 AM, LessWorkMoreTravel said:

We are going on a 14 passenger boat through Princess.  It's operated by Gastineau Tours and they work with all the cruise lines I believe.  It's not technically a private tour but they could fill up the boat.  https://www.stepintoalaska.com/excursions/whale-watching-mendenhall-glacier-photo-safari/  I know we're not supposed to recommend tours we haven't been on, but I just offer this up due to the size of the boat.  I can let you know in mid-July how it was, LOL.

 

We did the same tour w a hike at Mendenhall included.  It was excellent.  I was surprised considering that it was a ship tour.

 

DON