This excursion was the high point of our recent 10 day sea and land tour. Our guide Emma was so passionate and knowledgeable a our whales that you had to love the tour. Her co-guide Ty added a great sense of humor and they made a great them.
We would rank it as a 4. Ours was a double trip, Whale Watching and the Mendenhall Glacier. It was a 6 hour adventure and we were rewarded with ample whale sightings and a trip to see the Mendenhall Glacier. It was an enjoyable outing and successful and the guides and drivers did their best to be enjoyable and available to everyone.
A couple of things that others who make this choice should be aware of are:
1 the length of the trip required nourishment which you should provide. What one of the brochures mentioned was bagels, cream cheese and salmon, which we expected, and thus did not bring much else. What we got were a couple of nutrition bars and water, which left us quite hungry at the end of the day. So be certain to bring some nourishment.
2 the trip to Mendenhall Glacier involves being bused to the site and back. We were bused to the Glacier and dropped off to return when we wanted. What we didn't realize was that we would have only one choice of the return which would be to take us back to downtown Juneau and the walk to a public bus was move than a mile if we needed to go to a different destination. Since we were headed to an intermediate stop we opted to walk to the public bus which saved us quite a bit of time. Perhaps others should be aware of this and a drop-off at the public bus stop could be made.
Ed and Jill were both amazing! Jill was so knowledgeable and helpful whenever anyone had a question. I was slightly disappointed when I heard that Orcas were not what we were looking for. We did see a few whales so it was exciting. The bus drivers were knowledgeable and friendly as well.