cruising the inside passage and sawyer glacier o NCL Star

[BLONDIE35]

when the ships sails near Sawyer glacier is this an all day scenic tour or is it just a few hours to see the beautiful scenery of the glaciers? I know Alaska will have lots of beautiul scenery and wildlife to watch but i don't want to sleep through seeing the glaciers!:D i like to sleep in! we have a balcony so I know I can view everything in my PJ's if I am on the correct side of the ship!:D :o thanks for any help!!! and which side is starboard and port? and which one is better?:confused:

[cruisequeen10]

when the ships sails near Sawyer glacier is this an all day scenic tour or is it just a few hours to see the beautiful scenery of the glaciers? I know Alaska will have lots of beautiul scenery and wildlife to watch but i don't want to sleep through seeing the glaciers!:D i like to sleep in! we have a balcony so I know I can view everything in my PJ's if I am on the correct side of the ship!:D :o thanks for any help!!! and which side is starboard and port? and which one is better?:confused:

 

I found Sawyer Glacier not very exciting. I guess after seeing Glacier Bay 3 times before it just didn't do anything for me.

 

The stop is about 1/2 a day. starboard - right, port - left. Port has 4 letters and so does left.

[shoreguy]

I found Sawyer Glacier not very exciting. I guess after seeing Glacier Bay 3 times before it just didn't do anything for me.

 

The stop is about 1/2 a day. starboard - right, port - left. Port has 4 letters and so does left.

 

Far more exciting if you book the Tracy Arm Excursion. Leaves Juneau about an hour before the ship and gets upclose to the glacier and wildlife. Reboard the ship in Tracy Arm. Turns a half day into a full day of excursions. My recomendation for themust do excursion.

 

 

[ute_fan]

Blondie -- TracyArm/Sawyer Glacier is located fairly close to Juneau. According to your itinerary, you spend the morning docked in Juneau (from 7 AM to 1:30 PM). Following that, you'll be cruising the Tracy Arm fjord in the aternoon. I forget how long it takes to get to the mouth of the fjord -- maybe an hour or so :confused: , and then you'll sail up the fjord and spend the remainder of the afternoon in the fjord.

 

If I remember your other posts, you're sailing the first part of May. Without wanting to burst your bubble, I frankly wouldn't count on seeing Sawyer Glaciers from the ship at all. If you can book the excursion that Shoreguy mentioned, your chances would increase, but that early in the season I doubt that even the catamaran would get close enough to see the glaciers. The distance that the ship can travel up the fjord is limited by a couple of factors. One is the amount of ice in the water. I'm not an Alaskan expert, by any means, and I don't know how that will be affected by the amount of snow and cold weather that Juneau has been experiencing this year.

 

The second factor is the amount of daylight. I'm afraid that one will definitely cause you problems. The way I understand it, the Star has to be out of the fjord by dusk, so it can only go far enough into the fjord that it can turn around and be out by dusk. That just doesn't allow enough time to get to the glaciers, even if ice isn't an issue.

 

I have a friend who went early in the season last year on the Sun. They did the catamaran excursion, and still weren't able to get to the glaciers. She loved the scenery in the fjord, and still felt the excursion was worthwhile, but there was no glacier sighting at the end.

 

We did the catamaran excursion the first part of June in 2004, and were able to get to both glaciers. On our cruise, the Sun was iced out of North Sawyer, but did get close enough for passengers to see South Sawyer. I wish you the best of luck and hope that I'm totally wrong on this, but I'd rather be prepared for the possibility than totally blindsided if it happens.

 

As an additional point of reference, I recall reading that the Sun only got to within viewing distance of the glaciers twice last summer. Hopefully this summer will be better -- starting with your cruise!

[flowerchild]

Hey Blondie...

 

I'm on the Star, too, 5/19 sailing.

 

The Star does Sawyer Glacier after leaving Juneau. If I recall, it is scheduled for 2PM or so.

 

So unless you are napping, you shouldn't miss it.

 

BTW, if you are traveling in the shoulder season (May and September) the fjord is still pretty frozen in and the ship cannot get within visual distance of the actual glacier. So if glacier viewing is a priority for you, make sure to see Mendenhall in Juneau as it will be the only one you will be able to see. The beauty in viewing the Sawyer Glacier is the ride through the fjord and it's many waterfalls, icebers, and wildlife. Or you can look into the Tracy Arm excursion, that sounds really neat.

[BLONDIE35]

thanks for your words of advice ute fan!!! I hope that it will be a great trip, we went early in May in order to save lots of $$ i noticed if we waited a few weeks the price goes up considerably for a balcony.

hopefully everything will be beauiful!!! I cann't wait!!! 22 days!!!!!

this probably will bea once in a lifetime event or at least it will be a long while until I can get back!:D

[mbisson]

My cruise last year was unable to get to either glacier. It was a nice scenic afternoon in the fjord (so it wasn't a bad day at all). Hope you have better luck.

 

-Monte

[BLONDIE35]

we are doing the Mendenhall glacier guides choice hike so hopefully this will be an awesome hike...I plan to go hiking rain/shine! :D

[ute_fan]

I totally understand the saving money concept. It's the same reason why we're sailing in an inside cabin on the Pearl in 37 days! I had absolutely no clue when we booked the Sun 3 years ago that you didn't always get the opportunity to get to the glaciers. I would have been totally devasted if that had happened, as I would have been totally unprepared. With the way my luck usually goes, I still can't believe we did get to see them.

 

Everything will be beautiful, even if you don't get to see the Sawyer Glaciers. Are you planning on doing any other glacier excursions? Mendenhall Glacier is close to Juneau and can be an cheap/easy excursion. It would at least give you the opportunity to see a glacier.

[7SeasLover]

Too many iceburgs in the water for us to get to Sawyer. Captain had to stop, turn around and go back out. Since we had a stern balcony, we saw some of the glacier. I thought everything we saw in Alaska was awesome.

 

I leave in 29 days for my third cruise to Alaska. This time (finally) with my husband. It's our 35th wedding anniversary and I threathened him with DEATH if he didn't go. :p

[BLONDIE35]

thanks for the information!! I hope the weather will great May5-12!!!:D :D

maybe it will warm up!!!:cool:

[just4now]

Blondie -- TracyArm/Sawyer Glacier is located fairly close to Juneau. According to your itinerary, you spend the morning docked in Juneau (from 7 AM to 1:30 PM). Following that, you'll be cruising the Tracy Arm fjord in the aternoon. I forget how long it takes to get to the mouth of the fjord -- maybe an hour or so :confused: , and then you'll sail up the fjord and spend the remainder of the afternoon in the fjord.

 

 

 

We're doing this same cruise August 4 (still no one on that roll call either) and this sounds like a great excursion. Is it an NCL one? We're newbies and the one thing I'm nervous about is getting back to the ship on time! Some of the port stays are short--as you mention Juneau 7:00 am - 1:30 pm. After that it just says "cruise Sawyer Glacier" and doesn't mention stopping again until Skagway the next morning.

 

ETA: Just looked at one NCL excursion page and it sounds WONDERFUL! I've reserved it for our cruise. And it looks like we'll still have the morning in Juneau.

 

THANKS!

[ute_fan]

This is an NCL excursion. I think it's called Tracy Arm fjord and glacier explorer. Once you board the excursion, there's no danger of your missing the ship -- you'll board the ship right from the catamaran at the end of your excursion.

 

If you're interested in doing a short morning excursion and don't want to spend a bunch more money, the ride up the Mt. Roberts tram is supposed to be worth doing, and you can easily catch a bus or tour to Mendenhall Glacier.