Alaska & whales

[dizneekrazee]

For those of you have been on the Alaskan cruises, do you see whales while actually crusing? Or just if you do one of the whale watching port adventures? Whale watching will be a top 'want to do' item for DBF, but there are so many other excursions that interest us! I want our boys to see as much wildlife as possible! As for the dog sleding/mushing, is one better than the other? I see it is an option in more than 1 port. (Not interested in the signature one) )

Also, are there any zip lining excursions that allow children under 10? Our youngest DS will still be 8 at time of our possible sailing. If not, I guess the zip liners can do that, and he and I can do something else.

Lastly, I read somewhere on here about a Jr Park Ranger program, or something along those lines? Where can I find more on that. DS's 8 & 10 may be interested in that.

Thank you for your help!

ETA: Are there any characters on board the Alaskan trips that differ from other itineraries? I understand there is no Pirate Party, but a Pixar Party instead, correct?

 

[jdb in AZ]

We have seen whales from cruise ships, but DCL hasn't quite got them trained to show up when you're looking for them. They definitely need to work on that.

Last summer we went on a shore excursion (non DCL) to see whales, then actually saw one after the excursion, right next to the shore line. He was kinda late to the party, but decided to show up anyway.

The whale watching shore excursion boats often use sonar to find the whales. The small boats also keep in touch with other whale watching boats and radio each other with sightings, so you have a better chance of seeing the whales on the excursions than just from the ship.

 

[Ellester]

Personally we saw pods of orcas off the ship as well as seals, and eagles. My dd's also saw a pod of dolphins. I do know that some humpbacks were also spotted from the ship. However a whale watching excursion will take you right out to where they know whales like to be. I know it can be hit or miss but we saw 10+ humpbacks on our excursion in Juneau (with Orca Enterprises, not through DCL). Most of the whale watching boats go to the same area so it's just a matter of luck as to what you see. We saw plenty of tails but no breaching or orcas, but I know trips the weeks before us did. We still were awed by what we saw and all four kids (15, 12, 9, & 4) loved it! We did not do any sled dog or zip line excursions. I think most of the zip line places go more by weight than age. My skinny 12 & 9 year olds didn't weight enough for the ones I looked at. I want to say it was an 80 lb. minimum, but I might be wrong on that. We all loved Alaska and would sail there again in a heartbeat!



You can see how close they were to the boat in this one.

 

[emilyann415]

We saw whales in Aug from the ship but nothing like on our Juneau excursion (booked through Harv and Marv). As far as zip lining, Ketchikan has the best one I hear, but the weight requirement was too much for our DD. we did the one at Grouse mountain in Vancouver before our cruise. It had a 70 lb requirement and I think under 250 but can't remember that for certain. My DD and niece LOVED it!

 

[dizneekrazee]

So it sounds like Juneau is the best place for whale excursions?

 

[CruznLexi]

Having done Alaska before and done the whale tours before as well this past cruise we saw many whales during the cruise.

 

[Chilly]

We saw whales from the cruise ship but not close up and it does mean having to spend time just looking out to sea so if your kids are going to be in the kids club etc then they might not see any.

 

[Dug720]

When my sister and her friends did the Alaska cruise, everyone in the group BUT my sister saw them. They are after all wild animals and not trained performers. Most of the time she wasn't with whoever saw them, but once she was literally getting out of the shower and one of her friends was at their porthole with camera and sis was like "NO!!!" She had missed it by about 30 seconds.

 

[Magic3forme]

we saw an orca the afternoon and a bunch of dolphins from the ship.

we did Harv n Marvs in Juneau... so worth the money!!

 

[clten]

We've sailed Alaska 3 times and have always seen whales from the cruise ship. However, sometimes they are not very close so you are just seeing a hint of them (even with binoculars it's difficult because by time you spot one and then find that same spot with the binoculars, the whale has already gone back under). It also takes timing on the cruise ship -- and a little knowing what you are looking for (this May all of deck 9 was watching whales that were right off the port side of the ship. Well, most of the people were watching whales. A group of people towards the drink station were pointing and looking at a rock grouping that was whale colored!)

We have always done a whale watching trip in Juneau -- the best port to schedule it. This last time we did DCL's excursion (it was a rain forest hike -- walk -- and then a whale watching cruise). It was one of the best excursions we've ever done. Not just because we got to see a whale breach twice while it was only a hundred or so yards from the boat but because it was a small group, the boats were designed for photography tours so they were really nicely set up (well, maybe not the head) and the captain was patient so we could have the opportunity to see the breaches. On other tours, they zip from whale sighting to whale sighting to see a number of whales. This tour operator finds a whale and sticks with it even after they do a deep dive. We stayed with the whale we saw breach through 3 long dives (about 10-14 minutes between dives). So we got to see her surface about 10/12 times, breach twice and just the regular dive -- where you can clearly see the tail -- once. With that we were able to identify the whale we saw -- which was kind of nice.

We did the dog sled excursion in Skagway (it was the only port we could schedule that and another DCL tour -- we did the train in the morning). It was a great experience. I can't speak for the other ports but this was a really well organized experience. The mushers were all really great and appreciative that we were there. The property was very nice (got to ride in a really cool vehicle to get to the top of the property to go on the dog sled ride). And the dogs were great. We were at the end of the day -- the last ones to visit and the dogs still had great energy. You could tell they were well taken care of and just very happy dogs when we went to visit with them individually. And we got to visit with the puppies!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

We cruised this past June and I was lucky enough to see whales from our Verandah coming into Ketchikan, in the bay. My DS and DH had gone to see Monsters University at 8am and I was under the weather so I was just taking it easy in the cabin and reading, getting ready. I was standing near the cabin door (getting in the closet or something) and heard the captain make an announcement in the hallway (remember it doesn't come into the cabins typically unless an emergency) and heard whales and port side. I immediately grabbed my camera and headed out and saw them! It was so amazing and the people that were out there were all oohing and ahhing. I felt so bad my DH and DS missed them and honestly, that was the only time *I* saw them, but there were several other spottings as well.

We loved the cruise - best ever!

Heather

 

[dizneekrazee]

Thank you all so much for the info! Keep it coming in. Looks like we will book a whale excursion in Juneau.

We've sailed Alaska 3 times and have always seen whales from the cruise ship. However, sometimes they are not very close so you are just seeing a hint of them (even with binoculars it's difficult because by time you spot one and then find that same spot with the binoculars, the whale has already gone back under). It also takes timing on the cruise ship -- and a little knowing what you are looking for (this May all of deck 9 was watching whales that were right off the port side of the ship. Well, most of the people were watching whales. A group of people towards the drink station were pointing and looking at a rock grouping that was whale colored!) We have always done a whale watching trip in Juneau -- the best port to schedule it. This last time we did DCL's excursion (it was a rain forest hike -- walk -- and then a whale watching cruise). It was one of the best excursions we've ever done. Not just because we got to see a whale breach twice while it was only a hundred or so yards from the boat but because it was a small group, the boats were designed for photography tours so they were really nicely set up (well, maybe not the head) and the captain was patient so we could have the opportunity to see the breaches. On other tours, they zip from whale sighting to whale sighting to see a number of whales. This tour operator finds a whale and sticks with it even after they do a deep dive. We stayed with the whale we saw breach through 3 long dives (about 10-14 minutes between dives). So we got to see her surface about 10/12 times, breach twice and just the regular dive -- where you can clearly see the tail -- once. With that we were able to identify the whale we saw -- which was kind of nice. We did the dog sled excursion in Skagway (it was the only port we could schedule that and another DCL tour -- we did the train in the morning). It was a great experience. I can't speak for the other ports but this was a really well organized experience. The mushers were all really great and appreciative that we were there. The property was very nice (got to ride in a really cool vehicle to get to the top of the property to go on the dog sled ride). And the dogs were great. We were at the end of the day -- the last ones to visit and the dogs still had great energy. You could tell they were well taken care of and just very happy dogs when we went to visit with them individually. And we got to visit with the puppies!

So glad you mentioned the dog sled excursion with train ride, I was hoping we could fit both in. I saw there were multiple train options, which one did you do?

 

[LACruise]

On our July 2011 Cruise, we saw a pod of orcas from the ship and lots of dolphins playing in the wake of the ship. We also saw seals swimming in the river/channel in Ketchikan. We did the DCL whale watching in Juneau and saw at least 3 full breaches by the young humpbacks and to my tails and blow holes to count. We were so close that my 3 year old still talks about 3 years later. We also grizzly on the train in Skagway - also a DCL excursion

 

[EeyoreIsMyName]

We have sailed to Alaska twice and seen whales from the ship while cruising both times. We did not go on a whale excursion as we had done that in Hawaii and it was disappointing to say the least. We saw tons more whales from the Wonder's decks-way more than we expected and got great pictures! We did the dog sledding...here's a link to my trip report that goes into lots of detail about that excursion and all our other excursions:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3150787

 

[sue8528]

The best whale watching excursion we went on was during the precruise stay in Vancouver. We saw tons of sea life very close to boat. Also did DCL excursion in 2011 and had fun but just a totally diff experience. Much larger boat.

 

[dizneekrazee]

The best whale watching excursion we went on was during the precruise stay in Vancouver. We saw tons of sea life very close to boat. Also did DCL excursion in 2011 and had fun but just a totally diff experience. Much larger boat.

Good idea! We were planning on coming into Vancouver a day or 2 early anyhow.

 

[topsy]

We saw whales in Aug from the ship but nothing like on our Juneau excursion (booked through Harv and Marv). As far as zip lining, Ketchikan has the best one I hear, but the weight requirement was too much for our DD. we did the one at Grouse mountain in Vancouver before our cruise. It had a 70 lb requirement and I think under 250 but can't remember that for certain. My DD and niece LOVED it!

We also did an excursion with Harv and Marv as well as zip lining on Grouse. Both are great value and I highly recommend them!

We were on the same cruise as Ellester and also saw humpbacks and orca. We saw the humpbacks breaching several times, which we did not see on our whale watch tour.



From our veranda



From our Harv & Marv excursion

I think it really is luck of the draw as they are wild animals and do not perform on cue. For us, we pretty much spent all our free time on the veranda so I imagine that increased our chances slightly of seeing whales!

Being in Alaska already means you have a pretty high advantage of seeing whales at some point on your trip!

 

[MousseauMob]

We've cruised Alaska 3 times and I have only seen a whale from the ship once - in the distance. But, I know others have had much better luck seeing some from the ship, I'm just not lucky that way I guess.

Although they always tell us it's not as common, we have always seen more Orca's in Juneau than Humpbacks. But I was fortunate enough to capture a Humpback fluke picture that they added to the Juneau Catalog, my fluke pic is 221 at http://www.juneauflukes.org/juneau-catalog.html.

Here's one of our Orca pictures. I'm not sure what you are planning but I highly recommend whale watching in Juneau as well as Mendenhall glacier - the kids even picked up some glacier ice, its unbelievable how clear it is.


Mendenhall Glacier


Glacier Ice

 

[DVC4US]

The best whale watching excursion we went on was during the precruise stay in Vancouver. We saw tons of sea life very close to boat. Also did DCL excursion in 2011 and had fun but just a totally diff experience. Much larger boat.

Which excursion did you do in Vancouver? We will be in Vancouver a couple of days before the cruise and want to do a whale watching tour. I am looking at a couple of different companies right now, just trying to figure out which one to go with.

Thanks!

 

[dizneekrazee]

Can anybody tell me which excursion they did, if any, in Ketchikan? The only thing on the dcl website that looked even somewhat interesting was the Rainforest wildlife sanctuary.