Hi there!
The best cruise ports in Alaska for whale watching are Juneau and Icy Strait Point.
Generally speaking, the best time to see whales in Alaska is in the summer.
But, it’s still possible that you can see whales in the spring and fall.
You will need to manage your expectations, though!
That said, I had an amazing whale watching tour during my Alaska cruise in early September!
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For the best whale watching during your Alaska cruise, look for a whale watching tour in Juneau or Icy Strait Point!
Whale watching tours in Juneau will be out of Auke Bay.
👆 One of the best cruise ports for whale watching tours in Alaska is Juneau! It’s a whale surfacing for the whale behavior called lunge feeding. Whale watching is one of the most popular things to do in Juneau.
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Best whale watching tours to book in Alaska cruise ports
🐳 Juneau: best whale watching tours
🐳 Icy Strait Point: whales and drone viewing tour
🐳 Sitka: whales and sea otter tour
🐳 Read more of the best whale watching tours on getyouguide.
Should you book a whale watching tour with the cruise line or book on your own?
For Alaska cruise ports, the customers of tour companies are almost all cruise ship passengers!
Most, if not all, tour companies that offer tours in Juneau and Icy Strait Point are very experienced with providing tours to cruise ship passengers.
Notwithstanding very unusual circumstances, I feel very confident in saying that these tour companies will get you back to your cruise ship on time.
Of course, it’s your responsibility to make sure to book a time slot that matches your time in port! The time you need to be back on the cruise ship “back-on-board time” is usually 30 minutes before departure. To be safe, you can make sure your selected whale watching tour will end 1-2 hours before the cruise ship’s departure time.
Whale season in Alaska
So the best time to see whales in Alaska is the summer.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t see whales if your Alaska cruise is in the spring or fall.
You just need to manage your expectations.
It’s still possible to have a very exciting whale watching tour.
If you are on an Alaska cruise in the early season, then a lot of whales are still on their way from Hawaii to Alaska so there might not be as many!
If you are on an Alaska cruise in the late season, then the whales have started making their way from Alaska to Hawaii so there might not be as many!
If you have been whale watching in Hawaii, it makes it even more awesome, because it’s like you get to see the whales in both parts of their journey!
Whale watching season in Hawaii is in the winter, opposite of Alaska!
Will you see whales in Alaska outside of prime whale watching season?
All that said…
I was in Alaska in May, and it was a fine time to see whales!
It wasn’t the BEST time for whale watching in Alaska, but as someone who doesn’t get to see whales every day, I did have some exciting whale watching!
I saw whales in Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Skagway, and Whittier.
Not bad, right?!
While I did see whales without a tour (including from the cruise ship!), the best whale watching I had was from a boat, whether that be specifically a whale watching tour, or another type of boat tour in which we happened to see a whale although that wasn’t the main goal.
You just get closer to the whales when you are on a small boat.
Not too close though, there are marine laws!
👆 A whale was spotted on a small boat whale watching tour. Will it appear again?! Yes, yes it will! 👇
👆 Whale watching in Alaska from Juneau cruise port, seeing a whale’s mouth wide open, lunge feeding!!! Whale picture taken with my phone.
Read the reviews of a small boat whale watching tours: Juneau whale watching reviews
👆 Whale watching in Alaska from Icy Strait Point cruise port, seeing a whale’s tail as it dives into the waters. Once you see a whale’s trail, the whale may not come up to the surface again for another 3 to 6 minutes… or sometimes longer. Your whale watching tour guide will be able to tell you! Screenshot of a whale video taken on my phone. It looks better in person!
Read the reviews of a small boat whale watching tours: Icy Strait Point whale watching reviews
👆 Little did we know at this point of entering the Esther Passage that our glacier tour was going to become a whale watching tour too with some some good whale watching up ahead! 👇
👆 Whale watching in Alaska while on a glacier tour from Whittier cruise port. Here, the whale is spouting, but I also saw the whale’s fin surface repeatedly!
Seeing whales in every single one of these places in Alaska was exciting, whether it was a closer up view of the whale or even if it was a bit far away.
It wasn’t that far away, though!
I generally don’t like to use binoculars, so it was still something I could see without binoculars and I was excited about it!
Unlike was the case most of the time when I saw sea otters! I “saw” a lot of sea otters during my time in Alaska, but at the same time not really, because I was so far away and they were so small that I couldn’t really make out the cute-ness of them as seen in pictures!
I don’t really like to use binoculars since I feel more like I am actually seeing it if I see it with my own eyes without assistance.
But, if you do like using binoculars, as tons of people do, then you might like your Alaska whale watching experience even more!
During the glacier sea days, you might see whales.
For whale watching on glacier sea days, it can be best to have binoculars.
It’s good to have binoculars on glacier sea days for wildlife watching in general, since most wildlife that can be seen are really far away.
🏔
Will you see a whale jumping out of the water?
Those beautiful pictures you see online of a huge whale jumping up out of the water?
That is the whale “breaching.”
Consider yourself lucky if you see a whale breaching!
To see a whale breaching is actually not as common as you might think, considering most of the whale watching pictures you see are of a whale breaching.
But that’s okay, it’s still exciting to see a whale doing other things at the surface.
The most common thing you might see a whale do is shooting water up into the air, spouting.
You might see a whale’s tail as it starts to deep into the water, you might see a whale’s fin splashing around, or you might just see a whale swimming along “rounding out.”
I think you can consider yourself lucky if you see a whale’s mouth open, which is lunge feeding.
You can also consider yourself lucky if you see a group of whales together with all of their mouths open, called bubble net feeding.
If you are on a Princess cruise and interested in learning about Alaska’s glaciers and wildlife, be sure to attend the Princess naturalist talks that usually happen on sea days!
Tips for taking pictures of whales on your phone
So again, the most beautiful pictures online you see of whales are taken with really good cameras.
But, there are still ways that you can increase your chance of taking a decent picture of a whale when you see one in Alaska.
1. Just keep clicking away.
The whale’s there… and now it’s not!
It will be there and gone quickly, so for the best chance to actually get a picture of the whale in action, you’ll want to just keep clicking away and hope for the best!
2. Take the video and get a screenshot of your video later.
A tip you might hear is to take video and then you can get a screenshot of your video later.
You never know when the whale is going to appear, and if it does it will be quick.
Whether or not you want a picture, if you want a video, this is what you want to do!
You want to start the video even before you see the whale, in anticipation of the whale showing itself.
Then, once you have the video, you can take a screenshot from the video.
But, I have found the quality to be much less doing it this way.
I’m not sure if it’s because the quality of the video isn’t as good.
3. Have video continuously rolling AND keep clicking AS you are taking the video.
Yes you can take pictures as the video is going!
Figure out how to do it now so you know how to do it when the time comes!
👆 This picture of a whale in action, lunge feeding, was taken with my phone and complete and total luck! I was truly shocked when I looked back at my pictures and saw I had taken this! 😱😱😱
I was actually able to get that amazing picture of the whale lunge feeding by complete accident!
I thought I clicked to start the video.
After the whale was gone, I was disappointed to find out that I wasn’t in video mode and I didn’t get the video of the whale lunge feeding after all.
But when I went back to check my pictures… that click I did had snapped a really great picture! If I do say so myself! 😆
HAPPY WHALE WATCHING IN ALASKA DURING YOUR CRUISE!
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