In short: the tour was fine. Didn’t see any whales but did see other wildlife. Tour started late and kept waiting for missing guests thus delaying everyone else and making it so there wasn’t enough time to explore the rest of the area before having to head back to the cruise ship.
I’ll start by saying the boat ride was enjoyable and the captain was cool and personable even though we didn’t see any whales. Our biggest problem was scheduling related issues. We booked a tour that started shortly after our cruise ship arrived in port so that we could still have time to explore the rest of the area. When we arrived at check-in we were told the tour was delayed 30 minutes because the prior tour was running late. Disappointing but it is what it is. We walked around and explored the nearby area and when we came back for the new departure time, we were told again that we were still waiting for 2 additional guests. We ended up waiting and waiting and left almost an hour after our original tour time. If we were delayed 30 minutes why should we have waited any longer for other guests to show up? They already had an extra 30 minutes to get to the check in area..
Once we finally got out on the water we had a good time. We saw lots of otters, seals, and eagles. Unfortunately we didn’t see any whales. We should have booked a different tour that would have offered money back if we didn’t see any whales as there was no money back offer on this tour.
The staff was helpful and accommodating due to the tour being late and were willing to drive us to the raptor center since that was one of the things we wanted to see before we left. Unfortunately by the time we got back into port we didn’t feel that we would have enough time there and would be rushed making the experience not as enjoyable. We appreciate the offer but would have preferred more to have the schedule run on time. We felt that it was largely a waste of a day. Didn’t see whales and didn’t really get to explore much of the town because the tour was late.
Réponse de l'hôte
May 2022
Hi Bryan,
Thank you for your feed back we really appreciate hearing from you. That was a tough day for everyone, we did our best to handle the challenges the ships had with getting visitors to town on time that day. We are sad it affected you negatively we tried so hard to make sure no-one missed their tour despite the challenges. As for the Whales, no matter how much we try to train them they just don't always listen, but we will keep trying. I pray the rest of your trip went better and hope you visit Alaska again sometime.