Tracey Arm Fjord and Glacier Adventure

[Billybob7]

12:05.

 

[cruisehopeful]

What is the time of this tour?

My confirmation shows 12:01 - 3:01pm.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

My confirmation shows 12:01 - 3:01pm.

Yep mine too.

Heather

 

[l4dk]

What is the time of this tour?

Same here 12:01pm -3:01pm

 

[poison ivy]

that excursion time makes sense.

I went back and reviewed our Navigator for Tracy Arm Day. (this was a DVC Member Cruise so the activities will vary)
According to the schedule, we entered Tracy Arm from 12:30 - 5:00pm.












I really hope we cruise Alaska again. You guys are going to have the best time.

Here's where we were around noon which is when your excursion will begin:

we had just passed this beautiful glacier (which I cannot for the life of me find the name of)



We grabbed a table on the aft deck behind BBB and enjoyed the lunch/bbq
(I believe the doors open around 11:45):



this cruise ship exited the Fjord



and this charter passed us around the same time. So I'm assuming there will be a pickup alongside the ship prior to entering the Fjord.
If you can zoom in, that boat is pretty full. It may give an idea of what to expect crowd wise.



At 12:30 we entered the Fjord.










At 3:00pm we arrived at the glacier which gets really crowded toward the bow.





Since we chose to relax and enjoy the sites from lunch and our verandah for the first half of the journey, we only managed to get midship before the captain turned around.



But everybody cleared out at that point which provided some great vantage points.



I would have loved to have gotten closer shots of the harbor seals, but it was late May and the mothers are pregnant giving birth to their pups.

 

[saxmangeoff]

[lots of great info and photos...]

we had just passed this beautiful glacier (which I cannot for the life of me find the name of)

It's called Sumdum Glacier

 

[poison ivy]

It's called Sumdum Glacier

thanks. It looked like a giant arm hugging the mountain.

 

[AAAG]

I just booked this excursion for our family, and the time of the excursion is 3 pm until 6 pm. This is for the Aug 15th sailing. there was no 12-3 option. Good for us, since we don't have to miss the bbq lunch. I'm not sure why other cruises have an earlier time slot.

 

[MMR]

I just booked this excursion for our family, and the time of the excursion is 3 pm until 6 pm. This is for the Aug 15th sailing. there was no 12-3 option. Good for us, since we don't have to miss the bbq lunch. I'm not sure why other cruises have an earlier time slot.

Maybe you are heading into the fjord later because of other cruise lines being there first? There is a website for docking schedules in Alaska. I don't remember the exact URL but if you google port times and Alaska you will find it easily. It also include Tracy Arm

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I just booked this excursion for our family, and the time of the excursion is 3 pm until 6 pm. This is for the Aug 15th sailing. there was no 12-3 option. Good for us, since we don't have to miss the bbq lunch. I'm not sure why other cruises have an earlier time slot.

The 2nd time slot - 3:00pm-5:59pm was just added. I'm Platinum and my check in was round 4/10 and the Tracy Arm excursion wasn't there although I knew they were working on something since they even had a Port Adventure tab for that day and they haven't in the past. So when it was added after my check in, only 12:01pm-3:00pm was available. I'm assuming since a lot of those filled up, they are adding a second one which is the one you referenced. I'm on the sailing before yours 8/8 and I cancelled the 12:01pm as we'd prefer not to miss lunch and the barbecue, so I took the 3:00pm one however now it will mess up dinner, lol. I'm not 100% sure we will keep it as I'm waiting on the reviews to come in so hopefully cruisers before us will share. I might even go solo or send DH so at least one of us has the experience.

Heather

 

[cruisehopeful]

When I booked mine, there was only the 12:01 time offered. After seeing these last couple posts, I logged in to see that now I have a choice between the 2 times. I am keeping my earlier time for now, but going to discuss with my daughter to see if she wants to change it to the later one. If I was traveling with my husband, I know I'd have to take the later one so he could eat the BBQ.

 

[saxmangeoff]

So, I'm guessing it's popular enough that they're doing one as the Wonder goes in to Tracy Arm, and one as she comes out. Nice!

 

[76Disney]

Thank you so much for letting us know about this new excursion!

 

[l4dk]

I currently have the reservation for noon and 3pm is still available? Which time slot is better? 1st time in an Alaskan cruise, please help.

 

[saxmangeoff]

I currently have the reservation for noon and 3pm is still available? Which time slot is better? 1st time in an Alaskan cruise, please help.

On the ship, the upper decks are crazy on the way in to Tracy Arm, but once you turn around at the glacier, everyone disappears. Me, I was outside both out and in enjoying the sights and taking pictures.

So, for me, I would lean toward noon for the excursion, because that means you'll have the decks of the Wonder pretty much to yourself on the way out of Tracy Arm, so it's the most comfortable (I expect) way to see the fjord from both perspectives.

However, if the BBQ is a big deal to you (I was underwhelmed), or you really want to hear the naturalist's narration on the way in, then the later excursion would be the ticket.

 

[khsu]

I initially booked Palo for dinner at 6 pm, so I moved that to a later time and now have this excursion booked from 3-6 pm slot for August 15 sail. The pictures look great! Can't wait to hear the reviews.

 

[jenpink]

First reviews are not positive. Looks like the Wonder sailed Endicott Arm instead of Tracy Arm this week. Reports were the Wonder got closer to the glacier than the catamaran

 

[cruisehopeful]

First reviews are not positive. Looks like the Wonder sailed Endicott Arm instead of Tracy Arm this week. Reports were the Wonder got closer to the glacier than the catamaran

Oh, no! That's really disappointing. I'm going to think about cancelling mine. $200pp is a high price to pay. Maybe I will cancel it and then if we can go into Tracy Arm, check if I can add it at that time. I was able to add a couple last minute excursions on my other Alaska cruise.

EDIT: Is there a trip report somewhere?

 

[jenpink]

EDIT: Is there a trip report somewhere?[/QUOTE]

There is a guy who is posting on Instagram and twitter, dustin2008 or @Dustin2008. He has some pictures.

 

[LeslieG]

We did Endicott Arm too on a late May sailing, and I was thinking that we had really good, close-up views and questioned in my mind when I saw this tour if a small boat would really be necessary to get any better views, especially considering the price. Hopefully we'll hear more reviews.