Tracy Arm Alaska Excursion From Ship - Questions...

[Sea-n-Ease]

Just a couple of questions about the HAL Tracy Arm excursion that boards directly from ship:

 

1)  The HAL website states a "Starting At" price for this excursion.  What will drive the price up?

2)  In very late May/very early June, how likely will the excursion be cancelled due to icy waters?

3)  What's the approximate number of passengers allowed?

4)  Does it normally sell out?

   

[SuzWillCruise]

BIG Giant caveat - We did that excursion while sailing on the Carnival Spirt last August.  I would guess that it’s the same excursion, but it might not be.

 

1. Guessing price is based on time of year?
2. No idea, sorry.

3. On our cruise there were two times. Both times had two large boats, with two decks. I’m not sure how many people the boats fit, but I attached a pic that I took from our balcony of the morning excursion. If you squint, you can see a person on the lower deck. They hold a good number of people. The top deck had two rows of benches if memory serves.

4. This sold out on our Carnival Spirit sailing.

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

1. Is the "starting at" price for your cruise, or is it a more generic description? Sometimes a cruise will go right to Juneau and offer the Tracy Arm cruise from there. (I don't know if HAL does this, but I've seen it somewhere) Longer boat ride could mean more expensive. 

 

2. It's possible that it could be cancelled. I think there's an issue in the spring with not disturbing baby seals on the ice floes. But if the tour boat can't go because of ice or seals, the ship won't, so booking the tour would make you miss something better on the ship.

 

3. Depends on the boat they use, which depends on the vendor. 

 

4. It probably sells out. I haven't been on a cruise where it was offered, so I haven't done it. But it gets rave reviews from people who have.

[oaktreerb]

No idea what the “starting at” refers to but it’s a great excursion.  We transferred to the smaller boat directly from the cruise ship and the ship went on to Juneau.  The smaller boat took us into Tracy Arm and returned us to Juneau to meet our ship.  You won’t have much time left for Juneau but we had been there before and we did have some time to visit our favorite shops in Juneau.   We saw the glaciers calve, saw mountain goats, a bear along the shore, and whales.  A very nice box lunch was served onboard (included).  The sandwich in the box lunch was made by a shop in Juneau and it was outstanding!

[sue1898]

Photo below shows pricing for our late June sailing. The excursion is already sold out.

Edited May 2, 2023 by sue1898

[oaktreerb]

6 hours ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

Just a couple of questions about the HAL Tracy Arm excursion that boards directly from ship:

 

1)  The HAL website states a "Starting At" price for this excursion.  What will drive the price up?

2)  In very late May/very early June, how likely will the excursion be cancelled due to icy waters?

3)  What's the approximate number of passengers allowed?

4)  Does it normally sell out?

   

The “starting at” would be the child’s price.

I don’t think the icy waters are likely to be a problem for the smaller craft, only for the cruise ships.

Yes, it sells out.

[Miss Vickie]

7 hours ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

Just a couple of questions about the HAL Tracy Arm excursion that boards directly from ship:

 

1)  The HAL website states a "Starting At" price for this excursion.  What will drive the price up?

2)  In very late May/very early June, how likely will the excursion be cancelled due to icy waters?

3)  What's the approximate number of passengers allowed?

4)  Does it normally sell out?

   

We did this excursion in early June in 2017. We never book ship excursions, but were so glad we chose this one, it was amazing. We booked early, as it does sell out. We were actually the on the first run that season that was able to go all the way to the glacier, as there had been too much ice up until that week. So yes, it can be cancelled, or it could go to a different glacier. I don’t remember the number of passengers, but there was plenty of room on the excursion boat for all and it didn’t feel crowded. The naturalist on the boat was great. It does get cold on deck, so come prepared - hat, coat, gloves, and I wore goretex rain pants as an additional windbreak. The spacious cabin area was nice and warm, but you will definitely want to spend time on deck.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Miss Vickie

[RuthC]

I once booked an Alaska cruise for the sole purpose of taking this excursion. It was that worth it. 
It was a dreary day, and there might have been some rain (too long ago to remember for sure), but was still worth the price of admission. 

[GoHawks-43-8]

We did a Tracy Arm excursion a few years ago.  It was when we sailed on the Ruby Princess but I'm guessing it's the same excursion mentioned here.

 

This is a post I did about it (after copy and pasting, I'm going to go out on a limb and say we did it in 2015 because, math):  

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:09 PM, RuthC said:

I once booked an Alaska cruise for the sole purpose of taking this excursion. It was that worth it. 
It was a dreary day, and there might have been some rain (too long ago to remember for sure), but was still worth the price of admission. 

 

I may have to do that. How close to sailing did you book the cruise? I tend to book early before tours are definite. In my four cruises to Alaska (2 in June, 2 in September), I haven't had the opportunity to do that boat tour.

[RuthC]

13 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

How close to sailing did you book the cruise? I tend to book early before tours are definite.

I really don't recall how far in advance of the cruise I booked it, but I am sure it was a long time---probably sometime around a full year. 
I have always tended to book my cruises about a year or more in advance; it was keeping track of them that became difficult! 

[3rdGenCunarder]

34 minutes ago, RuthC said:

I really don't recall how far in advance of the cruise I booked it, but I am sure it was a long time---probably sometime around a full year. 
I have always tended to book my cruises about a year or more in advance; it was keeping track of them that became difficult! 

 

I'm having that problem now. I have several booked and with no travel during Covid, I lost the knack of juggling them.

[Sea-n-Ease]

On 5/2/2023 at 4:47 PM, oaktreerb said:

The “starting at” would be the child’s price.

I don’t think the icy waters are likely to be a problem for the smaller craft, only for the cruise ships.

Yes, it sells out.

The HAL website says “Starting At $279.95”.   THAT’S a child’s price?
 

What has anyone seen as the Adult price?

[oaktreerb]

Just a guess.  The post above says adult is $279.95, child is $239.95.  HAL sets the price.  Is it the same for all ships and dates?  The purchaser pays the price posted for their booking.   Once you book your price won’t be changed.  That’s why I always print my confirmations.

30 minutes ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

The HAL website says “Starting At $279.95”.   THAT’S a child’s price?
 

What has anyone seen as the Adult price?

  

[Dancing Shoes]

We did this excursion in Aug 2018.  I have read that if you can't make it up Tracy Arm that they substitute Endicott Arm.  It did sell out on our ship.  

[dreamer321]

I'm leaving on the Koningsdam Saturday, May 20 and booked and paid in full for this tour last November. I just added Have It All to my cruise which comes with a $100 shore excursion credit. Can I apply this credit to my already booked shore excursion or does it only apply to new excursion bookings?

[Cruise Suzy]

1 hour ago, dreamer321 said:

I'm leaving on the Koningsdam Saturday, May 20 and booked and paid in full for this tour last November. I just added Have It All to my cruise which comes with a $100 shore excursion credit. Can I apply this credit to my already booked shore excursion or does it only apply to new excursion bookings?

 

To use the HIA credit, you would need to cancel the excursion and rebook. However, it might be waitlisted, and you would not be able to rebook. A new booking would have to be made before at least 3 days before embarkation.  You could try calling HAL and see if they would credit it retroactively.

[mowogo]

I took this with Carnival last year, and you really do get much closer than the ship.  You also are able to actually get right up to the large chunks of ice floating to see it up close. For reference, these are phone pictures.

 

Multiple trips sold out on my cruise, and after experiencing you understand why even at that price.  And it also gives you a great perspective on Alaska, as you can actually see how small the ship is compared to the surroundings.

[quack2]

One of my favorite excursions in Alaska.  I've done both the drop-off version and the RT from Juneau version.

[pintail1]

• In 2003, on our first ever cruise, the Zandaam deviated from its scheduled intinerary to make its way up Tracy Arm to the glacier. What a great experience that was. It was so tight in spots it seemed like you could almost reach and touch the walls! 

  The captain had to go north on the windward side of  Island to make up the time needed for that side trip, but the rough seas were well worth it. I don't know how long or how often the cruise lines did that, but it seems that only the excursion boats are visiting now. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by pintail1

[DaveOKC]

35 minutes ago, pintail1 said:

• In 2003, on our first ever cruise, the Zandaam deviated from its scheduled intinerary to make its way up Tracy Arm to the glacier. What a great experience that was. It was so tight in spots it seemed like you could almost reach and touch the walls! 

  The captain had to go north on the windward side of  Island to make up the time needed for that side trip, but the rough seas were well worth it. I don't know how long or how often the cruise lines did that, but it seems that only the excursion boats are visiting now. 

And the excursions appear to end in early Sept.  Very disappointed.....

[dreamer321]

I just did this excursion last Monday, May 22 off of Koningsdam. The weather was sunny and beautiful. The water was smooth as glass. Our transfer to the small boat was delayed about 15 minutes. On onboard we proceeded up the TRACY ARM.  Along the way the crew spotted a couple of bears walking on the shoreline so the captain slowed down and idled the engines so we didn't spook the bears and we drifted in closer to take pictures.  We paused there for several minutes so everyone could see the bears and talk some pictures.  We then proceed up the Tracy Arm to the point where it splits into two with one branch leading to the north face of the Sawyer Glacier.  We approached the north face and drifted for 20 minutes or so.  The North face has receded so far that it's not really a tidewater glacier anymore.  There is a large moraine debris field in front of the ice. We then headed back down to the Y of the TRACY ARM.   We could see the South Face of the Sawyer glacier in the distance but couldn't approach the South Face because there was too much ice in the way. We then started the three hour trip back to Juneau. I'm slightly disappointed that we weren't able to make it to the South face but I'm glad we were are to go at all since the previous week's excursion was canceled at the last minute.

[cabland]

50 minutes ago, dreamer321 said:

I just did this excursion last Monday, May 22 off of Koningsdam. The weather was sunny and beautiful. The water was smooth as glass. Our transfer to the small boat was delayed about 15 minutes. On onboard we proceeded up the TRACY ARM.  Along the way the crew spotted a couple of bears walking on the shoreline so the captain slowed down and idled the engines so we didn't spook the bears and we drifted in closer to take pictures.  We paused there for several minutes so everyone could see the bears and talk some pictures.  We then proceed up the Tracy Arm to the point where it splits into two with one branch leading to the north face of the Sawyer Glacier.  We approached the north face and drifted for 20 minutes or so.  The North face has receded so far that it's not really a tidewater glacier anymore.  There is a large moraine debris field in front of the ice. We then headed back down to the Y of the TRACY ARM.   We could see the South Face of the Sawyer glacier in the distance but couldn't approach the South Face because there was too much ice in the way. We then started the three hour trip back to Juneau. I'm slightly disappointed that we weren't able to make it to the South face but I'm glad we were are to go at all since the previous week's excursion was canceled at the last minute.

Thanks for the update Dreamer.  We are doing this excursion on the 12th.  Hoping there will be a bit less ice and we will get closer as it is 3 weeks later, but doesn't sound too promising if there was that much ice.  Ironically, I booked this cruise in early June to try to see a bit more snow and ice on mountains - hah!

We did make it to see South face back in July 2018, but because our ship was delayed, we never even went to the North face.  We'll see how it works out this time.

[Greysandy]

We have been to Tracy Arm a few times, but I am definitely planning on doing this excursion next year on our 28 day Summer Solstice Alaska cruise.