Hi there!
The Phillips 26 glacier day cruise tour completely exceeded my expectations!
The 26 glacier tour makes Whittier one of the best cruise ports for glacier tours in Alaska!
Now, I must say, this is easier to do when you pretty much have no expectations. 🤣
And actually, I was originally booked on the shorter Glacier Quest cruise tour but that got canceled, they said because of maintenance on the boat, and offered me a free upgrade to the 26 glacier cruise tour. I am soooooooo glad that the Glacier Quest tour got canceled!!! Because of that, I did the longer route, and I saw a bunch more exciting things!
👆 You can do glacier watching and wildlife watching in comfort in the warmth inside while sitting down.
👆 Or you can brave the cold and go outside to get a better view of glaciers and wildlife!
👆 Princess cruise ship in Whittier. The 26 glacier tour starts at the small boat harbor right next to the cruise ship! Here, the Majestic Princess cruise ship is in port.
👆 You get Alaskan food during the 26 glacier cruise. You should eat a proper breakfast before your tour, though.
I was doing the 26 glacier tour after arriving in Whittier from Vancouver to Anchorage on a Princess cruise ship.
A cruise ship that goes to “Anchorage” actually goes to Whittier.
In May, I got off a Princess cruise ship in Whittier after a cruise from Vancouver to Whittier, waited in the Whittier cruise terminal, checked in for the 26 glacier tour and did luggage storage with them, did the 26 glacier tour, took a train from Whittier to Anchorage, stayed overnight in Anchorage, and then flew out of Anchorage airport the next day.
In September, I took a train from Anchorage to Whittier, did the 26 glacier boat tour, and then got on a Princess cruise from Whittier to Vancouver.
Cruise ships doing this route between Vancouver and Whittier sail through College Fjord before arriving in Whittier, and much of the 26 glacier cruise is also in College Fjord.
So I didn’t think it would be much different.
But…
While College Fjord from the cruise ship was nice, sailing on a smaller boat through College Fjord was so great!!
👆 The 26 glacier boat tour goes through more ice which means you’ll get closer to the glacier than you will on a cruise ship!
👆 Sailing through ice on a Phillips boat during the 26 glacier tour.
I also didn’t realize that the 26 glacier cruise would also basically be a wildlife cruise!
But you should keep in mind, wildlife is wild so sightings are never guaranteed!
But on the day I did the cruise, I was quite excited about what we saw in terms of wildlife.
And of course as a “glacier” cruise, we saw glaciers.
And it was on this small boat tour that I had the most memorable glacier calving experience!
If you are going to Glacier Bay National Park on a cruise ship, you will become familiar with the term “calving.” This is when huge chunks of ice fall off the glacier and into the water.
And once again you should keep in mind that glaciers also do their own thing and there’s also no guarantee that chunks of ice will fall off when you are there.
It was said that the rainy weather that we had increased the potential for calving.
There was one glacier that we went to (and got up closer to the glacier than a cruise ship does) in which the glacier calved so many times!
All the other glacier days I had on a cruise ship, I kind of a saw glacier calving just once, if I saw it at all.
And I also heard the sound of the calving much better from the Phillips boat, probably because it was much closer to the glacier!
If you attend the naturalist glacier talk that is part of the Princess Alaska cruise activities, you will learn that calving produces a thunderous sound because of the massive chunks of ice dropping into the water.
Can you really see 26 glaciers?
I don’t know. 😆
When you get on the boat, you will be given a map with the route of the 26 glacier cruise. (The same map you can find on the Phillips website.)
There are more than 26 glaciers mapped out, and I am not sure which of the glaciers you can actually see from the water, and which glaciers we actually did see.
But really, you don’t need to see 26 glaciers in order for the tour to be worth it.
What makes the glacier part of the tour worth it is 2 of the glaciers that we did see up close.
Actually, I thought it was worth it after we saw the first glacier up close, because that was the glacier that we saw it calving several times.
After that, I was literally thinking I would be fine if the tour ended there and we just headed back to the boat harbor!
But the tour continued on, and there was more to be seen!
What wildlife can you see on the 26 glacier tour?
When you arrive for check-in, there is a board that lists day-by-day the wildlife that have been spotted during their tours in the past week.
When I arrived, the wildlife that was seen in the past week included breaching whales, dall’s porpoises, sea otters, sea lions, mountain goats, bears, and bald eagles.
What did I see?!
Our first major wildlife watching was of porpoises. They were specifically dall’s porpoises, and they were swimming soooo close to the boat!
It was so exciting.
We also got in some good whale watching, as we kept seeing one whale over and over again showing its fin!
We also saw a bunch of sea otters at a bunch of different times.
And we even saw a harbor seal that was on a piece of floating ice as we approached a glacier!
It was announced that the harbor seal jumped into the water with her pup. I didn’t see the pup, but I did see the seal making a splash.
There was other wildlife spotted, but those were the most exciting for me to see without binoculars.
You can also rent basic binoculars on the boat for $5, which I did mainly so I could get a better view of the cute sea otters. 😄
How to do the 26 glacier tour
The 26 glacier day cruise tour operated by the tour company Phillips cruises does the cruise so you can make cruise ship timings and train timings.
So you can do it before getting on your southbound cruise ship that goes from Anchorage to Vancouver.
You can do it after you arrive in Whittier and get off your northbound cruise ship that goes from Vancouver to Anchorage.
The check-in for a Phillips boat tour is literally right next to the Whittier cruise terminal. It is an easy walk.
A cruise ship that goes to or from Anchorage is actually going to or from Whittier.
👆 The 26 glacier cruise starts near the Whittier cruise port. The Klondike Express is a boat used for the 26 glacier cruise. Spot the Princess cruise ship!
👆 As you are starting the 26 glacier cruise, you will sail right by the cruise ship docked at Whittier cruise port.
👆 The check-in for the 26 glacier cruise is very near the Whittier cruise port.
👆 The waiting area for the 26 glacier cruise is outside.
If you want to take the train from Anchorage to Whittier, the 26 glacier cruise will work out.
If you want to take the train from Whittier to Anchorage, it will work.
There are people who make a day of it with a round trip train from Anchorage to Whittier and back to do the 26 glacier boat tour.
The spot to get on and off the train in Whittier is literally right across the street from where the Phillips boat tour starts and ends.
Luggage storage in Whittier during your 26 glacier cruise
Here is what Phillips Cruises says about luggage storage in Whittier if you do a boat tour (cruise) with them:
While you will be responsible for transferring your luggage between the transportation provider and the cruise ship terminal, we can provide assistance with storing your luggage during the cruise.
Your luggage may be stored in a secure location next to our office and reclaimed after the day cruise.
The Cruise Ship Terminal is adjacent to our pier and the ground surface is paved for an easy transition between the day cruise and the cruise ship.
See below for pictures of the Phillips 26 glacier cruise out of Whittier!
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What can you see in Prince William Sound during a 26 glacier boat tour?
The tour started just after 12:30pm.
At around 1pm, they started serving the food.
The Alaskan food to eat during the cruise is the wild Alaskan smoked salmon chowder.
It was nice, but it’s not really a big meal, so you should be sure to eat breakfast.
But if you don’t like seafood, you do have a vegetarian option too, which you will make note of when you book the cruise. (26 glacier cruise food menu 2023 pdf)
👆 Wild Alaska smoked salmon chowder.
Our first “stop” was around 1:30pm to watch porpoises swimming around the boat!
Our first glacier stop came at around 2:30pm.
This was for the College Fjord glacier of Harvard Glacier.
This is the glacier that we saw huge chunks of ice falls off of several times.
Just after 3:30pm, we began sailing through the narrow Esther Passage.
At the end of Esther Passage is where we had some great whale watching!
👆 Esther Passage, where we came from. The whale was along the shoreline around here.
👆 There was a whale swimming along the shoreline showing its fin frequently. You can’t tell in the picture that was taken with my phone, but I feel like I was able to see the whale pretty well even without binoculars! Also, spot the waterfalls!
👆 The whale is spouting!
Just after 5pm was the other major glacier stop for a Blackstone Bay glacier called the Beloit Glacier.
After 6pm, just before our return back to the Whittier cruise port and small boat harbor where we started from, we also make a short stop to see waterfalls.
Because of the delayed train from Anchorage to Whittier, we got a late start on the boat tour by a few minutes, and we also got a late return by 10-15 minutes.
The first people started walking off the boat at 6:33pm.
I walked off the boat at 6:39pm.
My luggage that I stored during the boat tour was waiting for me, and I walked across the street to catch the train to Anchorage.
The train was scheduled to depart at 6:45pm, and crew on the Phillips boat also told me that the train was waiting for us.
I got on the train no problem.
And that’s a bit about what you might see on a 26 glacier cruise!
My 26 glacier cruise was on May 20, 2023. Your experience may vary!
HAPPY TAKING THE 26 GLACIER CRUISE AROUND PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND!
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