Whale watching on Alaskan cruises

[Bgarr]

Hi

just wondering if anyone has seen Orcas whilst on the ship? Or is it better do do a whale watching shore tour.?

 

[YVRteacher]

We saw orcas returning to Vancouver through the Inside Passage a few years ago.  Other than that, it’s always been humpbacks.

 

The place we saw the most whales, both orcas and humpbacks, was Seward in the Kenai Fjord.

[JT1962]

We saw Orcas while leaving Seattle (fairly common) and in Tracy Arm Fjord (uncommon). The best option for humpbacks is a tour from Juneau or Icy Strait Point. For Orcas, take a tour from Seattle, Vancouver or Seward (depending on your itinerary) before or after your cruise.

Edited July 17, 2022 by JT1962

[skrufy]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:35 AM, Bgarr said:

Hi

just wondering if anyone has seen Orcas whilst on the ship? Or is it better do do a whale watching shore tour.?

 

Our last Alaska cruise while in Ketchikan a shop owner told us that Orcas were in the river adjacent to the downtown area a week before. Also a pod passed by our OV window somewhere in the Inside Passage. My answer would be, you might see them anywhere.

Edited July 17, 2022 by skrufy
Addition

[marden1970]

We also saw Orcas when returning to Vancouver and also twice on whale watching tours in Juneau.

[martincath]

If orcas are a priority, hands-down your best probability is a tour down here in Vancouver if on a typical one-way cruise, or out of Victoria or Seattle area if you're doing an RT (assuming the port time allows it in Vic!)

 

We have very reliable sightings of the resident orca pods - while they do travel fast and far, most companies across the season (April-October) average 90%+ orca sightings. Choose a fast boat - zodiac if you like an open, spray-in-your-face, exciting experience or one of the enclosed jetboats to maximise the chance of reaching the nearest pod on any given trip (all companies share info, so everybody knows where the are, the question is can the boat you are in get to that location and back within the tour duration?)

 

If you have enough pre/post cruise time such that a 'free trip if you see no whales' guarantee is worthwhile for you, you can keep repeating trips with all the local providers in Vic/Van - but do note that orcas are not guaranteed although they are the 'bread and butter' cetacean of the local operators, so if you see a humpie or gray then you'd need to pay for additional tours.

[nini]

We saw resident Orcas when on a whale watching shore excursion in Juneau.

[martincath]

3 hours ago, nini said:

We saw resident Orcas when on a whale watching shore excursion in Juneau.

I have no doubt you did - but the Southern Alaskan Residents, while a large population of two full clans, coers a significantly larger area than our local Southern Resident group, so the odds of a sighting out of any AK port in their territory is not as high as down here. I believe the in-between population, Northern Residents, have the highest sighting % of all but that requires a visit to seriously out-of-the-way places like Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island which doesn't fit conveniently with a cruise, except in the sense of 'get on deck during any daylight hours available if your ship is using the BC inside passage' - but sightings from a cruise ship under way don't last long, still definitely better to take a small boat tour.

 

If memory serves there's a surge in Transient orcas as well as AK Residents near Seward (salmon hatchery runs, young seals, lots of food for all!) in May/early June, so companies run Orca-focused tours for about a month from early May, but outside of that period sightings drop a lot. The much-missed BudgetQueen used to spent almost the entire season in AK and took more whalewatching trips in every port offering them then anyone else I've ever come across - IIRC she used to say she'd see orca maybe 1 in 10 to 1 in 5 trips out of Juneau/ISP, and the sheer volume of them she had under her belt means I trusted her opinion frankly more than I do my own!

 

Not that I'm slamming a Juneau whale watch - but since OP specifically flagged Orca as what they're interested in, their chances are greatly increased down here as well as significantly cheaper (AK tours look to be running from US$150 to almost $200pp this season - down here it's CAD$140-180 for adult fares so with the exchange rate almost 30% less).

[nini]

23 minutes ago, martincath said:

I have no doubt you did - but the Southern Alaskan Residents, while a large population of two full clans, coers a significantly larger area than our local Southern Resident group, so the odds of a sighting out of any AK port in their territory is not as high as down here. I believe the in-between population, Northern Residents, have the highest sighting % of all but that requires a visit to seriously out-of-the-way places like Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island which doesn't fit conveniently with a cruise, except in the sense of 'get on deck during any daylight hours available if your ship is using the BC inside passage' - but sightings from a cruise ship under way don't last long, still definitely better to take a small boat tour.

 

If memory serves there's a surge in Transient orcas as well as AK Residents near Seward (salmon hatchery runs, young seals, lots of food for all!) in May/early June, so companies run Orca-focused tours for about a month from early May, but outside of that period sightings drop a lot. The much-missed BudgetQueen used to spent almost the entire season in AK and took more whalewatching trips in every port offering them then anyone else I've ever come across - IIRC she used to say she'd see orca maybe 1 in 10 to 1 in 5 trips out of Juneau/ISP, and the sheer volume of them she had under her belt means I trusted her opinion frankly more than I do my own!

 

Not that I'm slamming a Juneau whale watch - but since OP specifically flagged Orca as what they're interested in, their chances are greatly increased down here as well as significantly cheaper (AK tours look to be running from US$150 to almost $200pp this season - down here it's CAD$140-180 for adult fares so with the exchange rate almost 30% less).

All I did was answer the question of the OP.

[martincath]

2 minutes ago, nini said:

All I did was answer the question of the OP.

Sorry, I thought you were replying to my post #6! I think I'm too late to edit now, and the info is still relevant as a comparison of Orca-focused options, so I won't ask mods to kill it.

[nini]

4 hours ago, martincath said:

Sorry, I thought you were replying to my post #6! I think I'm too late to edit now, and the info is still relevant as a comparison of Orca-focused options, so I won't ask mods to kill it.

No problem. Your information was very informative.

[Ballerina Sweetie Pie]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:35 AM, Bgarr said:

Hi

just wondering if anyone has seen Orcas whilst on the ship? Or is it better do do a whale watching shore tour.?

 

 

On 7/18/2022 at 8:10 PM, nini said:

No problem. Your information was very informative.

We saw orcas on a whale watching tour out of Juneau. It was last year with Harv & Marv. They will pick you up at the cruise pier & deliver you back when done. We’ve used them several times -book online or call.

[BoopTheSnoot]

We had two sightings from the ship on our recent Alaska cruise… one in Glacier Bay, and an entire pod lounging around and spouting at Robson Bight in the inside passage. Breathtaking experience!

[Hogladyrider]

@martincath....any idea what happened to the beloved BudgetQueen, she is a wealth of knowledge for sure!

[martincath]

1 hour ago, Hogladyrider said:

@martincath....any idea what happened to the beloved BudgetQueen, she is a wealth of knowledge for sure!

Your guess is as good as mine - as I recall, at least one poster had her email address and attempted contact quite a while ago to no avail.

[quack2]

I saw orcas last week outside of Seward on the Kenai Fjords tour.

 

I never count on seeing anything interesting from the ship.  Orcas and humpbacks are more likely to be seen on whale watching excursions out of Icy Strait or Juneau, or on the Kenai Fjords tour out of Seward (pre or post cruise)

[kdakda]

We just did Vancouver to Glacier Bay/Juneau/Skagway/Ketchican round trip and saw no whales from the ship(and spent a lot of time on the balcony).  My husband thought he saw a fin at a distance.  He talked me out of booking a whale watching trip because "we'd see them from the ship", but that didn't happen.  We plan to go back and will spend time in Vancouver because we loved it so much, so am glad to hear the suggestion about an excursion there.

[sherryf]

I've cruise to Alaska 12 times and have seen orcas, but definitely not on every trip, and they are often at a distance.  I've been on 3 whale watching trips from Juneau and have never seen orcas on those tours.

[DaveOKC]

Favorite story - on one of our Alaska cruises my wife spent almost the entire day on our balcony looking for whales.  Of course she did not see any.  So she decided to go to Bingo at 5 PM.  I told her not to go as I had talked with the Captain (small lie) and that he told me that they are usually spotted right at 5 PM.  Naturally my wife did not believe me so she went to bingo.

I was on our balcony at 5 PM and naturally spotted several whales fairly close to the ship.  Luckily I had my camera handy and took pictures, with timestamp showing.  When she returned from Bingo I told her about the whales and naturally she did not believe me, until I showed her the pictures with the correct date and a 5 PM timestamp!  A moment to remember!!

 

[Coral]

On 7/14/2023 at 3:06 PM, sherryf said:

I've cruise to Alaska 12 times and have seen orcas, but definitely not on every trip, and they are often at a distance.  I've been on 3 whale watching trips from Juneau and have never seen orcas on those tours.

I have seen orcas about 30% of the time on my whale watching tours..... Not every time. I did two tours in May and didn't see any.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Coral

[Gsel]

Saw plenty of or as in Juneau in July. Saw a pair with a calf too. Guess our timing was good, lots of humpback s too.

[quack2]

Lots of people on my recent cruise would exclaim "there's an orca!  There's an orca!"  I didn't have the heart to tell them it was a Dall's porpoise.

[sherryf]

1 hour ago, quack2 said:

Lots of people on my recent cruise would exclaim "there's an orca!  There's an orca!"  I didn't have the heart to tell them it was a Dall's porpoise.

Funny story... on my first Alaska cruise, my oldest son was 8 years old and obsessed with whales.  He had a good guidebook that he'd been studying and he knew his stuff.  One afternoon we were at the pool and there were people sitting near the windows who spotted some marine mammals.  They started yelling that there were orcas.  My son wandered over, took one look, and told them, "Those aren't orcas, they are Dall's porpoises." Then he proceeded to tell them the differences and how you could tell them apart.  These people were just standing there staring at my little boy, not sure what to think.  So I told them, "If he says they are Dall's porpoises, that's what they are. He knows what he's talking about!" 😁

[Amy G]

12 hours ago, quack2 said:

Lots of people on my recent cruise would exclaim "there's an orca!  There's an orca!"  I didn't have the heart to tell them it was a Dall's porpoise.

That would be me, 20 years ago!  We were on our first cruise to Alaska, in my 20s, and I saw them surfing along the ship.  It was not until years later that I found out those were not baby orcas, but instead dall's porpoises.  🙂. 

[quack2]

I was on a Glacier Wind whale watching trip out of Icy Strait several years ago and our small boat was surrounded by a pod of Dall's porpoises.  They were swimming with the boat, under the boat and in front of the boat for what seemed like 10 minutes.  Great entertainment.