Whale watching in poor weather at Juneau

[eileeshb]

I’ll be sailing in October and trying to decide between 2 whale watching excursions.

I’d be booking via NCL but from some digging I figured out the excursion providers 

Discover Alaska’s Whales - smaller boat run by Gastineau guiding

Whale watching & wildlife quest - bigger boat run by Allen Marine.

 

I’m hoping someone has experience of either of these companies and the likelihood of excursion cancellation if it’s a bit rough. Heavy seas aren’t a problem for me but I know some companies are more conservative than others. There is a greater chance of inclement weather in October hence my concern. 
(And before anyone asks it’s the only month I can sail for an Alaskan itinerary due to work)

[wolfie11]

I doubt that Gastineau or any independent tours will be running in October.  Allen Marine does the ship tours and may be running on a limited basis.  The whales start leaving for Hawaii in September, but there should still be a few around.

 

October gets a lot of storms and can pour rain for days. The tour may get canceled for wind, but not for rain.

 

[peety3]

If Gastineau is available, I highly recommend them. Their boats are quite stable, plenty of room inside (butt benches facing into an open area), great windows.

[eileeshb]

On 3/17/2023 at 1:59 AM, wolfie11 said:

I doubt that Gastineau or any independent tours will be running in October.  Allen Marine does the ship tours and may be running on a limited basis.  The whales start leaving for Hawaii in September, but there should still be a few around.

 

October gets a lot of storms and can pour rain for days. The tour may get canceled for wind, but not for rain.

 

Gastineau are running the discover Alaska’s Whales on my cruise date for NCL, their photo safari excursion is not running in October due to the shorter daylight hours. 

[scousergirl3]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:56 PM, eileeshb said:

I’ll be sailing in October and trying to decide between 2 whale watching excursions.

I’d be booking via NCL but from some digging I figured out the excursion providers 

Discover Alaska’s Whales - smaller boat run by Gastineau guiding

Whale watching & wildlife quest - bigger boat run by Allen Marine.

 

I’m hoping someone has experience of either of these companies and the likelihood of excursion cancellation if it’s a bit rough. Heavy seas aren’t a problem for me but I know some companies are more conservative than others. There is a greater chance of inclement weather in October hence my concern. 
(And before anyone asks it’s the only month I can sail for an Alaskan itinerary due to work)

Hi..did you find any whalewatching in juneau. We will be there Oct 11 and usually book on pier. Guess that might be chancy so late in season. Any info please 

[eileeshb]

6 hours ago, scousergirl3 said:

Hi..did you find any whalewatching in juneau. We will be there Oct 11 and usually book on pier. Guess that might be chancy so late in season. Any info please 

I stuck with booking via NCL, and did the discover Alaska’s whales. The cruise the week prior to mine had all the excursions cancelled due to the weather and the week after the ship didn’t even make it to port due to high winds. We got exceptionally lucky much to the delight of my buddy who had done a whale watching excursion in South Africa but saw no whales. This time we saw at least 5 humpbacks that the guide on the boat could identify. Definitely wear waterproof pants and coat if you want the best chance of taking photos and want them to keep the windows open. I didn’t see any sales agents at the pier throughout the cruise. Because the NCL ships are the only ones sailing and a lot of companies would lose their seasonal staff as they went back to college they either don’t have sufficient demand or don’t have sufficient staff to offer booking on arrival.

 

we also saw a pod of whales behind the ship on the way to Victoria, great view from the thermal spa! You never saw so many people move that quickly in there as those whales were doing full breaches. 

 

Edited August 27 by eileeshb
Typo

[scousergirl3]

hi...thanks for info. I guess you went oct 2023. We are going in 6 weeks, and didnt even consider the storms or closures. We looked up temperatures etc and decided we could cope( we live in Canada so have warmclothes) This is our 3rd Alaska cruise so we were lucky to see whale breaching and bubble feeding on our first excursion out, but brother is coming with and this is their first Alaska cruise. Oh dear hope it will be ok. 

At least we will still have the rest of the trip over to Hawaii.....

[eileeshb]

15 hours ago, scousergirl3 said:

hi...thanks for info. I guess you went oct 2023. We are going in 6 weeks, and didnt even consider the storms or closures. We looked up temperatures etc and decided we could cope( we live in Canada so have warmclothes) This is our 3rd Alaska cruise so we were lucky to see whale breaching and bubble feeding on our first excursion out, but brother is coming with and this is their first Alaska cruise. Oh dear hope it will be ok. 

At least we will still have the rest of the trip over to Hawaii.....

Yeah it was mid October, and I’m Irish so the weather on the cruise was very like home. We got incredibly lucky with the weather in Seattle for the couple of days before the cruise, glorious sunshine and mild temperatures. But it was pretty drizzly and cool at all the Alaskan ports. 

[ABQrobin]

When we did our whale watching at Icy Strait point a few years ago, the onboard crew told us we had perfect weather (drizzling rain) as the whales are more active with that type of weather.  Their food source is more active with rain/clouds so that means more for whales to hunt and to eat.  

We just returned from another Alaska cruise but it was sunny the whole week... we saw some whales but no where near as many as the rainy cruise.  Just an FYI.

[wolfie11]

45 minutes ago, ABQrobin said:

When we did our whale watching at Icy Strait point a few years ago, the onboard crew told us we had perfect weather (drizzling rain) as the whales are more active with that type of weather.  Their food source is more active with rain/clouds so that means more for whales to hunt and to eat.  

We just returned from another Alaska cruise but it was sunny the whole week... we saw some whales but no where near as many as the rainy cruise.  Just an FYI.

I was a whale watch guide for several years.  The whales and the fish they eat don’t care about the weather.  In Alaska, the whales are there to eat.  They don’t eat all winter in Hawaii because there’s no food there for them.  They feed pretty much 24/7 no matter what the weather.  There is a common ploy among some crews to tell the guests that they had the best conditions for whale watching ever.  I was out last week in in ISP (which has been much better than Juneau the last few summers) on a hot, sunny day.  We saw over a dozen whales, several of them slapping their fins and flukes and breaching.  One breached nine times.

[mac66]

For what's it's worth...just got back from a small ship cruise (200ft long 54 passengers). It was kind of an adventure/expedition cruise from Juneau to Kitna in 7 days.. Hit a bunch of small out of the way inlets and bays. Actually, went all over place.  

 

We did see a lot of whales, I do mean lots of them, every day. Pods of humpbacks and orcas.  Everywhere were went we saw whales constantly. At one point there were 3 or 4 pods of Orcas playing, breaching, rolling and bumping each other going under our ship. 30 individuals according to the naturalist on board.

 

Just out of Juneau we say a dozen humpbacks. We watched them for 45 minutes and by that time there were a dozen whale watching boats all around us. Whale watchers radio each other to tell them where the whales are. Just good business to do so.

 

We saw them in bad weather, sometimes nice weather.

 

Bottom line I don't think you'll have a problem seeing whales. 

Edited September 2 by mac66