Day 4 - Wednesday 7/25/2012 - Scenic Cruising Tracy Arm Fjord and Whale Watching / Glacier Tour in Juneau
Day 4 was a big day! We woke up with the Star Princess already in the Tracy Arm Fjord. After coming to grips that we would be surrounded by mountains while still on the ship, we bundled up and headed out to the top desk to take in the sights while getting some breakfast. The wind across the open decks made it very cold up on them but the views were outstanding! It was around 25 miles up Tracy Arm Fjord to the point where we could see the Sawyer Glacier. There was considerable floating ice in the fjord but since it was late in the year, the ship was able to get pretty close to the glacier. Unfortunately, the sun made getting a picture of the glacier hard but the fjord itself was absolutely beautiful!
The ship turned on a dime and headed back out the fjord. We had a few hours until we were due into Juneau so we decided to watch an ice sculpting demonstration. Those guys were very talented indeed but it was very fitting considering how cold it was out there!
We didn't have much time to explore Juneau as we had to meet at Orca Enterprises for a whale watching tour at 3:00pm. We were recommended Orca Enterprises based on the posters on the message boards on CruiseCritics.com and it was a very nice tour! It was a smaller boat and the captain had been studying the whales in the Alaskan fjords for year. Most of the other bigger boats basically fallowed our little one around. We quickly found a huge pod of whales bubble feeding. We got to sit there and watch them in their natural habitat, a truly amazing experience!
Once of the recommendations from CruiseCritic was to book both the whale watching and the glacier tour from the same vendor since we wanted to do both while in Juneau and while was a bit short. Once we got back to the doc, a van was there to pick us up to take us to Juneau's air port and the Costal Helicopter office. There, we received snow boots and boarded a helicopter with a pilot and two other couples for our short flight over to the Herbert glacier. Another out of this world experience! The pilot was able to land the helicopter on the glacier and showed us around. The crevasse contained some beautiful deep blue water. After 20 minutes or so on Herbert, we were flown back to the airport where a van took us back to the Star Princess.
The ship turned on a dime and headed back out the fjord. We had a few hours until we were due into Juneau so we decided to watch an ice sculpting demonstration. Those guys were very talented indeed but it was very fitting considering how cold it was out there!
We didn't have much time to explore Juneau as we had to meet at Orca Enterprises for a whale watching tour at 3:00pm. We were recommended Orca Enterprises based on the posters on the message boards on CruiseCritics.com and it was a very nice tour! It was a smaller boat and the captain had been studying the whales in the Alaskan fjords for year. Most of the other bigger boats basically fallowed our little one around. We quickly found a huge pod of whales bubble feeding. We got to sit there and watch them in their natural habitat, a truly amazing experience!
Once of the recommendations from CruiseCritic was to book both the whale watching and the glacier tour from the same vendor since we wanted to do both while in Juneau and while was a bit short. Once we got back to the doc, a van was there to pick us up to take us to Juneau's air port and the Costal Helicopter office. There, we received snow boots and boarded a helicopter with a pilot and two other couples for our short flight over to the Herbert glacier. Another out of this world experience! The pilot was able to land the helicopter on the glacier and showed us around. The crevasse contained some beautiful deep blue water. After 20 minutes or so on Herbert, we were flown back to the airport where a van took us back to the Star Princess.
