Alaskan cruise trip report - Day 7 - Juneau

Juneau

Another day of fog, drizzle and overcast skies. We woke up at 6:30 and headed town to Parrot Cay again for breakfast, once again forgetting our syrup. We’ll get it one of these times! We were off the ship around 8:00 and made our way over to the tiny little Juneau Car Rental Company shack. I had reserved a “mid size” car and we were handed the keys to an old silver ford focus with 224,000 miles on it. This thing had zero frills. Remember when you had to use a key to unlock doors? If it had power steering, it was low on fluid. But it worked so off we went to the Mendenhall Glacier in the rain.

When we got to Mendenhall around 8:30, there was almost nobody there, which was part of the plan and one reason I decided against using the shuttle bus (the other reason being price, which would have worked out to be more money at $15 round trip/person). We made our way to the viewing area (“Photo Point Trail”) and viewed the glacier and waterfall. It was very different in appearance to the Dawes Glacier we had seen a couple of days earlier. We walked back to the main path and decided to make the one mile walk along the “Nugget Falls Trail” to get a closer look at the glacier and waterfall.







After spending some time next to the falls, we walked back to the visitor’s center and used the bathrooms and regrouped before we tried one more pathway (“Steep Creek Trail”) to see if we could see any bears fishing for salmon. We didn’t see any bears but we saw a lot of salmon swimming upstream in the creek.



We got back in our silly little car and made the twenty minute drive back to Juneau where we parked the car and did a little more shopping. The rain was picking up a bit and we had debated having lunch in town or having lunch on the ship. Ultimately we decided to save some money and have lunch on the ship.

After a quick stop in our room to regroup, we went to Triton’s, since we often prefer the sit down restaurant, but nothing on the menu appealed to me so instead we went up to Beach Blanket Buffet and ate lunch there.

At 12:30 we disembarked the ship and met the Jarretts at a taxi that had been hired to take us to Auke Bay for our whale watching trip with Rum Runner Charters. I met Heather both through the Disboards and our facebook group and she had posted that she was looking for a group of three to split a private whale watching trip with. I had gone round and round about how I wanted to organize our day in Juneau since I knew I wanted to do whale watching and see Mendenhall, but I wasn't sure logistically how to work everything out. But we decided that the private whale watching sounded great and the price was within the same price range that I was looking at for larger excursions so we decided to go for it. Ultimately, I’m really happy with the way our day went. Here's a photo of the Mendenhall Glacier as seen from Auke Bay.



So taxi to Auke Bay and we’re onboard the little boat and we head out to find some whales. The weather, which had been rainy and grey in Juneau was beautiful and sunny out in the bay. After about 20 minutes, the boat comes to a stop near a pod of about 9-10 humpbacks. As I climb to the upper level of the boat, getting my camera ready, a whale breeches. This is a rare and exciting sight! We all watch as a second whale breaches, then another, and another until all told, we witness seven breeches in a row. The tour guide/captain jokingly says, “Okay, then, that’s it, let’s head back because it isn’t getting any better!”











We continued following the pod from a safe distance for the rest of the tour. We saw a lot of other boats watching the same pod but lots of them had a large number of people on them and I was really glad we were on a small boat with a private tour. While we didn’t see any further breeches, we did see multiple bubble net feedings and at one point, we lost sight of them for awhile and then suddenly they appeared right next to the boat! That was pretty thrilling to hear them blowing so close. It was absolutely amazing. All too soon it was time to head back (where did the time go). On the way back I got some good photos of some eagles and sea lions.





We got back into the taxi to head back to the ship. About partway back to Juneau, we enter back into the overcast skies and rain (which was now more than a drizzle). Then back on board the ship at around 4:00 with more hot cocoa and cookies waiting for us in the lobby.

We dropped our things off in the room and Emmaline and I went back to the lobby atrium for the Pixar Pals party while Roger decided to take a little personal time and have some coffee in Outlook. After the Pixar party, we went back to the room to relax a bit before dinner at 5:45 where we were back in Parrot Cay for the Captain’s Gala menu (and also semi-formal night, but we didn’t dress up).

After dinner, we passed by the Sumdum Glacier and I took some photos of that. The captain and cruise director (as well as some other officers) were in the lobby greeting and Emmaline wanted a photo with the captain and cruise director and we also got a photo with Sulley before the show Toy Story the Musical. This show is on it’s way out to make way for a new Frozen show coming this fall. We enjoyed seeing it before it’s gone. Once again, after the show, it was time for bed after our busy day.

Click here for Day 8.