The main reason I wanted to come back to Seward with Norwegian was to do a Kenai Fjords tour. I wasn’t in town long enough to do one last year. The two primary companies for those tours are Kenai Fjords Tours and Major Marine.

For a smaller boat, Seward Ocean Excursions is also well-reviewed. I quickly ruled them out because you have to rent the entire boat (up to 6 people) for a longer tour.

I was leaning toward Major Marine because their tours are slightly longer. Once I dug into the companies and found that Major Marine is locally owned and Kenai Fjords Tours is owned by a corporation in Phoenix, I felt even better about going with Major Marine.

Both companies offered to store my luggage while I was on the tour. Major Marine actually transferred my luggage to the ship for me. One thing I missed out on is Major Marine offered transportation from my hotel to the tour. I missed that and booked my own transportation through the hotel.

I booked the 8.5 hour tour Major Marine recommended. The total cost was $318.73.

 

The 7.5 Hour tour leaves Resurrection Bay and goes up into Aialik Bay, where it will visit Holgate and Aialik Glacier, two tidewater glaciers.

The 8.5 Hour tour goes to a very remote part of the national park. It will leave Resurrection Bay, pass Aialik Bay, and go up into Harris Bay, where you’ll go up the Northwestern Fjord to visit the Northwestern Glacier, which is a large active tidewater glacier. There are two other glaciers, Anchor and Ogive, that are not tidewater glaciers, but they are very large and very close to the water. They go through the Chiswell Islands, a bird sanctuary, and while we can’t make any guarantees with wildlife, quite a few different species of birds can be seen around the islands, including auklets, cormorants, and murrelets. Since the tour is so long and covers a bigger area, it increases your likelihood of seeing wildlife.

Both the 7.5 Hour and 8.5 Hour tour are seeing great wildlife, and will hopefully continue to do so as we go into August. One major difference is the size of the vessels used. The 7.5 Hour uses large catamarans, while the 8.5 Hour uses much smaller monohull vessels. I would personally recommend the 8.5 Hour tour, as it goes to a very interesting and beautiful part of the park. The smaller boat also gets you closer to the wildlife and the water, making it a much more intimate experience.”

I booked the 8.5 hour tour Major Marine recommended. The total cost was $318.73.

I was dropped off and I’m checking in for my tour. For full coverage of the tour, please check out Major Marine Tours in Seward.

They are going to take my suitcase to the ship. I decided just to take my backpack on the boat with me. That way I don’t have to worry about anything when I get back. I can go straight to the ship.

My tour boards in 45 minutes so I’m just hanging out here for now.

I guess this is the proper waiting area. I found it on my way to the bathroom. My tour is supposed to board in 10 minutes.

The couch I was sitting on was much more comfortable than these chairs. I don’t regret my time in the wrong waiting area.

This is the boat for my tour.

This is the larger boat that does the shorter tour.

We are boarding. 

They stressed that it’s open seating all day. It’s clear they don’t want people fighting over seats. I’m still going to try to respect where people have their things but not get upset if they don’t do the same for me.

This is the lower interior part of the boat.

In the back of the lower area is a bar. They have complementary coffee which I just poured.

I want to be outside so I’m going upstairs. I picked the short row in the back. I plan to be standing most of the day.

We are heading out.

Our first wildlife sighting is a bald eagle.

Next up is a sea otter.

This is our first glacier of the day.

At one point this was all ice. The water is 927 feet deep here.

Here we have three cirque glaciers which are bowl shaped glaciers in mountains.

Another bald eagle.

We have spotted a third bald eagle.

There was allegedly a mountain goat in this area. I never saw it myself.

This is Bear glacier. It is the biggest glacier in the park at 3 miles wide and 10 miles long.

This is Spire Cove. They can’t always get in here. We were blessed with good conditions today.

You can see some puffins in the water here.

Here are some more puffins.

We are now entering the Gulf of Alaska.

The Chiswell Islands is an area where Steller sea lions go to mate and give birth. Stellers are endangered in part because in the 60’s they were seen as a threat to the fishing industry. Thousands of them were killed every year.

Several islands here including Beehive island are loaded with puffin. They come in the summer to lay one egg then after it hatches they go up to 500 miles out to sea.

Beehive Island

Look at all of the Puffins.

After the puffins it seemed like we would have enough of a break in the action for me to get another coffee.

I got the last of it.

Fresh coffee is flowing.

After I got my coffee we had our first killer whale sighting of the tour. Two of them came right up by our boat.

 

On the other side of the boat we have three or four now.

This area only small boats can get in. Fortunately we’re in one of the small boats.

We found some more puffins.

We saw a couple sea otters one with a pup on her chest. 

Now we’re going back out

And we are heading back out. I think it was worth the trip in here for the sea otters.

It’s lunch time. There were a few sandwich options when you booked. I know turkey, roast beef, and veggie were a few of them. I picked turkey and they had me down on a clipboard for turkey.

I wonder if I can drive while he eats lunch.

After lunch we’re approaching three. We’re going to go right up by anchor glacier.

Anchor glacier

This is Northwestern glacier. It’s the farthest point of the tour. 

All of the brown dots in front of the glacier are harbor seals.

The obligatory glacier ice.

We are leaving Northwestern glacier and heading back to Seward. There may be some wildlife stops on the way back.

I decided to get a glacier margarita made with ice from Northwestern Glacier.

This is Cataract Cove. The guide says this is his mom’s favorite part of the tour.

In the distance is Aialik glacier. That’s the glacier all of the shorter tours go to.

We encountered a humpback whale.

This is our second killer whale encounter. These swam right under our boat. They’ve been seeing killer whales about once a week so I was fortunate to see them twice today.

Bear glacier from a distance. You can see its medial moraine and almost to the ice field from this far back.

She came around handing out brownies. I passed.

They also had grab and go brownies by the bar.

This is a map showing all of our wildlife sightings today.

This is a look at Northwestern glacier in 1909 compared to 2005.

And we are back.

I highly recommend setting a day aside to do this tour. Even though I didn’t do the shorter tour, I would recommend making time for the longer one if possible. About 50 boats go to the area that the shorter tour visits. Only three go where this tour went. This tour was amazing. It’s easily my best tour of the year and one of the best ever.