Juneau Tours

[Rambler5678]

Family of four wanting to see whales and glacier. Which Disney or private tour would you recommend. Kids 14 and 7 at that time.

Thanks,

 

[WeLoveStitch42]

We did the glacier & whales science one. It was fantastic. My boys were 17 and 14.

 

[jenf22]

We did DCL's Best of Juneau. We saw whales, the glacier, and had a nice lunch. We really enjoyed it. Our kiddo was 5 at the time.

 

[DizMagic]

We did Harv & Marv's whale watching (non DCL tour). Then booked the Mendenhal Glacier tour through DCL. worked great!

 

[Dug720]

Just be aware that there is a slim chance you will not see whales...

 

[Rambler5678]

Anyone done the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Quest tour? Looking for a tour that will allow us to visit Tracy Crab Shack and do the tram if its clear and have plenty of time to catch the ship before it leaves.

 

[anricat]

Like you, my plan for Juneau was the Mendenhall glacier and whales. I went round and round about how to do it logistically. Should we book a tour ("Best of Juneau" was on my radar), should I book everything independently? In the end, we rented a car from Juneau Car Rental ($60) in the morning and practically had the glacier to ourselves (awesome) and booked a private whale watching tour with Rum Runners, splitting the price of the private tour with another DIS family (the tour operator let us each pay him half on our own, so no money need change hands between).

At the end of the day, our family made some amazing new friends (hi @IBelieveInTheMagic) and we had a great time at the glacier. It was perfect. I would recommend it to everyone. To read more details about our day and see photos, here's the Juneau day in my trip report: http://www.disboards.com/threads/wo...fun-in-vancouver.3537617/page-2#post-56343773

Here's a photo of a tour boat we didn't go on. Our little boat had our family of three plus the other family of three. I was glad I was not on that boat. I don't know if that's a tour boat contracted with Disney or not, but the cost of doing the private tour plus renting a car was almost identical to the "Best of Juneau" excursion for our family of three.

 

[Geomom]

I'd say it's easy enough to do Juneau on your own. There is a free shuttle bus from the dock to the start of town--right where all the tour companies are, and the start of the Mt. Roberts Tram, and the start of the main shopping area.

We only wanted to go to Mendenhall Glacier and then do some shopping in town. (I can go whale watching (humpbacks) in my own state (MA) if I really wanted to, so whale watching wasn't a big draw for us.) You can buy tickets there, but I did buy vouchers in advance, online from Juneautours for their Glacier Shuttle (the white bus), $30/person roundtrip--buses run on the hour and the half hour, so you can spend as much time as you want there. If you're thinking of the Tram, wait until that day to buy tickets as it can be very foggy/rainy and then you'll see nothing. If you want to do the whale watch part, I'd pick some private company in advance, but there were plenty tour companies trying to get people to go on whale watches the morning we were in town! We were lucky with our cruise, as Disney was the only boat docked until 1PM, then 2 more cruise ships came in; so it wasn't crowded until 1:30PM in town.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Like you, my plan for Juneau was the Mendenhall glacier and whales. I went round and round about how to do it logistically. Should we book a tour ("Best of Juneau" was on my radar), should I book everything independently? In the end, we rented a car from Juneau Car Rental ($60) in the morning and practically had the glacier to ourselves (awesome) and booked a private whale watching tour with Rum Runners, splitting the price of the private tour with another DIS family (the tour operator let us each pay him half on our own, so no money need change hands between).

At the end of the day, our family made some amazing new friends (hi @IBelieveInTheMagic) and we had a great time at the glacier. It was perfect. I would recommend it to everyone. To read more details about our day and see photos, here's the Juneau day in my trip report: http://www.disboards.com/threads/wo...fun-in-vancouver.3537617/page-2#post-56343773

Here's a photo of a tour boat we didn't go on. Our little boat had our family of three plus the other family of three. I was glad I was not on that boat. I don't know if that's a tour boat contracted with Disney or not, but the cost of doing the private tour plus renting a car was almost identical to the "Best of Juneau" excursion for our family of three. View attachment 196211

Hello!! I agree with everything @anricat said! This was our 2nd cruise to Alaska with the first being in 2013 and we had already done Mendenhall Glacier, which I do highly recommend. We knew for sure, this cruise we were doing a private whale watching trip and we just had an amazing time, with amazing people NO REGRETS and the price was so reasonable it's nuts. It was a highlight of our cruise and it worked perfectly so I do highly recommend Rum Runners and doing what @anricat did above and renting a car to do Mendenhall Glacier (or shuttling it if you prefer).

Have fun!
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