Hi there!
Some of the most popular Juneau excursions from a cruise ship are some type of Mendenhall Glacier tour.
And, one of the best Mendenhall Glacier tours is one that you can get up close to the glacier!
Doing the canoe and hike is one of the best ways to see the Mendenhall Glacier!
You can go to Mendenhall Glacier on your own, but you will only get a distant view of the glacier.
If you do a Mendenhall Glacier canoe tour, you will get closer to the glacier than the vast majority of people who make a visit to the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area!
👆 If you do a Mendenhall Glacier canoe tour, you can get closer view of the glacier compared to just going to the Mendenhall Visitor Center! The glacier keeps getting further and further away. My tour guide was even saying they aren’t sure if they will be offering the canoe tours next year because the glacier continues to retreat. Do the Mendenahall Glacier canoe tour while you still can!
👆 Mendenhall Glacier canoe tour guide. Paddling the canoe away from the Mendenhall Glacier! That’s the glacier in the background!
Some of the best Juneau cruise excursions you must consider:
- Mendenhall Glacier lake canoe tour
- Juneau whale watching tour
- Juneau icefield seaplane tour + Taku Glacier Lodge salmon bake
- Juneau helicopter tour with glacier walk
- Juneau dog sledding tour by helicopter
There are a few different types of Mendenhall Glacier tours you can do, and you can even do Mendenhall Glacier by bus on your own.
You can normally also get a shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier, but… it has actually been way too popular in 2023 and they’ve stopped the vast majority of shuttles because they ran out of national forest permits!
The Mendenhall Glacier that you do on your own is a bit distant view, and so are the cheapest Mendenhall Glacier excursions, which are basically the ones that provide transportation.
But there are also other types of Mendenhall Glacier excursions so you can make it an even more epic Alaska experience!
I did the Mendenhall Glacier lake canoe tour that included a short hike on shore.
This was not an actually hike on the Mendenhall Glacier, but it felt like we got pretty close right in front of it.
It was amazing.
The Mendenhall Glacier is a retreating glacier, which means it keeps going back and back.
They say that even from just a few years ago, there’s a noticeable difference on how far back the Mendenhall Glacier is going.
So much so, that we were told that the path we were walking was where the famous glacier ice caves were located!
The Mendenhall Glacier ice caves no longer exist in this location. They have melted away.
👆 A Mendenhall Glacier tours is one of the best Alaska glacier tours in Juneau.
Only budgeting for ONE tour during your Alaska cruise? Also take a look at the best Juneau tours and best Skagway tours and best Ketchikan tours to see if you want to do a tour in Juneau or Skagway or Ketchikan!
Or, view excursions by type! The best cruise ports for…
More below about the Mendenhall Glacier canoe tour I did with the Liquid Alaska tour company!
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Mendenhall Glacier ice adventure with Liquid Alaska
Like most glaciers in Alaska, the Mendenhall Glacier is retreating, which means that it continues to get further and further away year after year.
I did a canoe tour across the lake to get a closer look at the glacier.
You can’t actually walk on the glacier on the canoe tour (it seems you used to be able to), but I thought this experience was so great.
We paddled the canoe to shore near the Mendenhall Glacier as a team.
Once we got to shore, we all worked together to pull the canoe further inland so it wouldn’t float away.
Then, we started a walk towards the glacier!
The more we walked, the closer we got to the glacier!
We also got to see blue ice!
There was another tour group who was there about an hour earlier than us, and they were able to witness a big chunk of ice fall off the Mendenhall Glacier into the water!
Our tour guide was in touch with another tour guide and showed us the video.
This process of ice falling off a glacier is called calving, and calving is one of the best Alaska glacier experiences you can see!
Your best chance to see calving on a cruise if you’ll be going to Glacier Bay National Park is at Margerie Glacier!
You can do a Mendenhall Lake canoe tour without a shore landing, but I think it’s better if you had the short walkaround!
This was one of my favorite tours that I did during my 2 Alaska cruises.
How to search for Princess cruise excursions for Mendenhall Glacier
If you do want to look through the offerings of Princess, you can do so by logging into your account at princess.com.
Once you are logged in, go to: my account > manage this booking > excursions > view excursions for Juneau!
Then, look through to see what Mendenhall Glacier excursions are available!
There are many, and most are combination tours that include a visit to Mendenhall Glacier along with another activity or more.
Look for the “customer reviews” for each individual excursion!
You can also look directly at the Juneau shore excursions with Princess without logging in if you just want to browse.
But when you want to book, you’ll need to go into your account.
It’s better to look at excursions directly from your account though, so that way you know that you’re looking at excursions that are offered during your cruise.
Some excursions may not be offered if you are on an early season cruise or a late season cruise.
And you will be able to easily see if there are still tickets available.
Many excursions get booked up if you wait too long, so it’s best to book sooner rather than later.
You can also book through the Princess app, but I personally don’t even like the way the shore excursions show up on the app so I wouldn’t even want to look through them!
And then when you are on the cruise ship, you can book through your stateroom TV, and of course directly at the shore excursions desk.
If you are getting on your Princess cruise ship without having booked excursions but are interested in doing so, then there is also a live shore excursions presentation with recommendations on shore excursions to book for Skagway and all the other cruise ports you’ll be going to.
If you miss the live presentation, then there will also be a replay available on your stateroom TV. If you can’t find it, you can call guest services or do a “crewchat” with them on the Princess app to find out how to find it.
And that’s a bit about doing the best glacier tours in Juneau!
More glaciers in Alaska:
HAPPY DOING A MENDENHALL GLACIER TOUR IN JUNEAU!
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