Icy Strait Point: Whale Watching
I originally booked the Whales, Wildlife and Bear Search excursion in Icy Strait Point. That excursion was canceled on the first day of the cruise.
Since I booked a tour that guaranteed a Whale sighting in Icy Strait Point, that freed up my Juneau day for Mendenhall Glacier.
The cancellation put me in a bind because I had to pick between a bear watching excursion and a whale watching excursion. The bear watching excursion sold out before I made up my mind so I ended up booking the Whale and Wildlife Cruise.
As you can see they dock their boats on the same pier as the ship. It’s really easy to get from the ship to the whale watching boat.
This is a much different excursion than my Whale Watching in Cabo San Lucas. There is no bar. There is no music and no DJ. They won’t even allow me to bring my beer on this boat. I had to finish it before boarding.
It’s a fairly small boat. There are two levels but while the boat is in motion everyone has to be seated inside the lower level. There is a bathroom in the back of the boat.
A crew member gives safety instructions and stands by the door while the boat is in motion.
From here you can see the Sky Glider. There’s also a zip line up there which they say is the highest in the world at 1,300 feet.
They didn’t stop everyone from bringing their drinks onboard. I had my beer in the same type of cup.
We moved to several spots and saw quite a few whales. We saw as many as four together. Here are the highlights.
We also saw some bald eagles.
Finally we saw a group of sea lions lounging around on a buoy.
We also saw a sea otter but it was in the water and too far away for me to get a decent picture of it. Here are some more whales. 
This was about a 2 1/2 hour excursion. I thought it was pretty good. But I’m just paying the $200 for one person. If you have a family of 4 or 5 and you’re trying to decide which port you should spend $800-1000 on, I think your money would be better spent elsewhere.
You can sit at the Duck Point Bar & Smokehouse and get a pretty good whale show. Our boat spent some time there. We also spent some time right next to the ship and in front of the ship. You can see whales and eagles in Icy Strait without spending $200 per person. This eagle hangs out right by the ship the entire day.
This is the whale by the Duck Point Bar & Smokehouse.
If I could go back I would’ve booked the bear excursion before it sold out. But there is a lot to see and do just staying at the Icy Strait Cruise Port.
