Juneau
Juneau turned out to be our one cold and rainy Alaskan day - with the kind of weather we got the rest of the trip, we really couldn’t complain! We woke up early again today, as we had another early excursion and wanted to get a good breakfast before we got off the ship. We hit up Cabanas and watched the gray, wet shore go by as we sailed into port.
Today, we chose to do another third-party excursion to experience whale watching and check out Mendenhall Glacier. I had looked at the
DCL excursions doing this, but they all had very short times at Mendenhall. It wouldn’t end up mattering in the end (more on that later!), but we wanted the flexibility to spend a bit more time at Mendenhall and didn’t want to feel rushed to get in and get out.
Once we got off the ship, we took the shuttle from the Wonder over to the main port area where all the tour operators meet. We went with Juneau Whale Watch for our tour, which was overall a good experience. The start to our experience was a bit off-putting, though, especially after our small group the day before in Skagway - they had a fully loaded bus and in fact had apparently over-booked the bus by two seats, so they asked to have “small kids” (including our 8 year old) sit on their parents’ laps for the ride out to Auke Bay. This wasn’t that big a deal, but we didn’t love just being expected to share two seats when we had paid for three.
Despite the less-than-stellar start, we really enjoyed the whale watching trip. It would have been nice to be on a tour on a smaller boat/with a smaller group, but we had plenty of opportunity to get a decent view on the viewing decks, and the tour guide/naturalist on board (Lucas) was both knowledgeable and entertaining. We were on a double-decker boat with a nice big inside seating area with viewing windows all around, plus access to the top deck and the front of the bottom deck for outside viewing.
We got to see some great activity - we spent a good deal of time watching a mother and calf, and the calf was doing half breeches and peduncle throws and the mother was doing big tail slaps. Lucas told us that this behavior from a mother and calf are playful, with the mother encouraging her calf to basically play to exercise and strengthen its muscles. We got a lot of chances to see and photograph these behaviors. Besides this, the views out in the bay were gorgeous.
After the boat ride, we boarded a shuttle bus out to Mendenhall Glacier. After a couple hours out on the water (most of that time spent dealing with rain/sleet and cold wind to get good views of the whales), we were unfortunately kind of over being out in the elements and ended up doing a fairly short visit. We were all cold and soaked through. I had wanted to hike out to Nugget Falls, but I knew that forcing it would lead to a super cranky kid and none of us would enjoy it. Realizing this, we went ahead and did the much shorter walk out to the photo point (1/3 mile) and spent a little time taking in the view and taking pictures, then we decided we’d head back to the ship for lunch and relaxation.
With more time, I’m sure there are other interesting things to explore, but overall we were a little unimpressed with Juneau and in general the ports themselves. To be fair, I’m sure the weather in Juneau didn’t help our impressions, but our driver on the way back to port echoed that it’s kind of a miserable place to live

lol the Juneau tourism board would not be happy with this guy (he was getting ready to relocate to Orlando and was not shy about discussing how happy he was to leave). Alaska is stunning, but the towns where you stop seem to be all the same touristy shops clustered around the port, plus opportunities for more interesting excursions where you venture away from the port. We found something worthwhile in each place, but didn’t feel the need to maximize our port time and stay off the ship as long as possible. I guess my point here is that I would make plans for what to do, and if you plan to just wander a port, either know options for what to do or have realistic expectations of what you’re going to find there.
After boarding the ship, we had our first lunch in Cabanas, which was overall enjoyable, if a bit busy. Afterward, we enjoyed some trivia and kids club before dinner (Animator’s Palette) and the first evening show we all made it to (Frozen). Frozen was wonderful! The talent of the performers on the ship is impressive, and Audrey was enthralled (this was her first musical

). We decided to take advantage of having a chance to relax a bit the next morning with a late arrival time in Ketchikan, so we stayed up late for more kids club and adult lounge time before heading to bed.
