Whale watching on Alaskan cruises

[Northern Aurora]

On 7/16/2023 at 7:53 AM, quack2 said:

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.

 

This is not an unusual event -- much more common than you think.

[quack2]

4 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

This is not an unusual event -- much more common than you think.

Well excuuuuuuuuse me!

[Figg1437]

On 7/17/2022 at 9:36 PM, martincath said:

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.

We have a whale watching trip booked in Juneau - early May.   My family really wants to see orca- we have 2 days in Seattle before.  Do you recommend we whale watch here as well?  Recommend a company/ link?  I did a search and could only find ones where they helicopter you in from Seattle and they are $$$

[martincath]

5 minutes ago, Figg1437 said:

We have a whale watching trip booked in Juneau - early May.   My family really wants to see orca- we have 2 days in Seattle before.  Do you recommend we whale watch here as well?  Recommend a company/ link?  I did a search and could only find ones where they helicopter you in from Seattle and they are $$$

I haven't taken any whale-watching boats out of Seattle, Friday Harbor (where I'm guessing that you are seeing 'chopper or floatplane me here' tours to), Anacortes etc. so I'm afraid so can't offer any specific company reccos - but certainly the same resident pods that are seen out of Vic & Van cross the border frequently, and in May we have lots of non-residents Biggs' also roaming throughout the Salish Sea with the new crop of bite-sized baby seals and salmon runs, so there's definitely a good chance of seeing Orca from many places both sides of the border - but the most reliable area for Orcas in this neck of the woods in May is probably around the San Juan islands, which you can get to on (longer) trips from Seattle or Vancouver but are much closer to Victoria and Anacortes.

 

If you rent a car and drive up to Anacortes you'd be sailing from the east rather than west to the San Juans (the biggest island of which is called Orcas, but entirely coincidentally as a shortened form of a Spanish name!) - without needing the additional time or premium cost of first getting onto the San Juans by ferry or air and then taking a whalewatch when you get there.

 

By May most folks are already running two trips a day, so you could leave Seattle nice and early to avoid traffic, hang around on land in Deception Pass just south of Anacortes (one of the better places to see Orca from land - but you'd still need a whack of luck with just an hour or so!), take a ~10am whalewatch, and be back in Seattle before evening rush hour gets too bad.

 

Seattle-based tours with guarantees exist, but not for a specific species - the Clipper even runs one daily from I think May-October - they'll almost certainly take you to the closest whales of whatever flavour, but you might get lucky and those could be Orca...

 

There's a chance of land-based sightings all over the place - heck, Alki beach in Seattle has vaguely reliable sightings although more in Fall than Spring - and several other towns 2-3 hours drive from Seattle port whalewatching boats, so you could play it by ear, check websites of companies in each town every day before you arrive and decide which one to drive to based on who's been seeing Orcas most! Port Angeles and Port Townsend at least offer options.

 

If you repost your Q on the West Coast board, you may find a helpful Seattle area local or two that can give more authoritative info than I can; there are a lot of very narrow waterways around the Puget Sound where Orcas would be easily visible from land if they were using them, so someone familiar with local salmon runs might be able to point you to some specific places that have high probablities on your dates?

 

Oh, and since you mention beginning in Seattle I'm guessing it's a round-trip cruise from there rather than a one-way out of Vancouver - but just in case, May-June is peak Orca season up at the other end, with the likes of Major Marine offering Orca-specific whalewatching from Seward!