Not my first time to Alaska but was for my adult daughter who was joining me for a medical conference in Anchorage. Since we had only the weekend to do anything fun, and we just spent Saturday tourist shopping in Anchorage, my daughter (who is not an outdoor type person per se) announced, late Saturday she wanted to do some wild life tours. Well most things were closed till May but we found Major Marine Tours and they were able to to book us over the phone at last minute.
The drive from Anchorage to Seward was gorgeous- nice and sunny! We arrived a bit early, checked in for the tour and went next door to Chinook's (staff recommendation) and food was awesome including the FRESHEST crab legs. After lunch we were ready to do the tour.
The tour was great- not super crowded though we had a lot of families with small younger children (parents: think safety first and young toddles can slip off between the rails of the boat). The captain gave a great tour and slowed down to show us key things of the area.
We were lucky that Sunday as this is what we saw: Otter- swimming/waving to us, Sea Lions basking in the sun, different types of local birds, bald eagles (for those who never saw one before- I live in Seattle, WA which has lots), harbor seals (who were shy) basking in the sun, gray whales and humpback whales- on the migratory route from Mexico/California up to the cold AK waters for the summer.
Now for me, who as traveled around the world, lived on both coasts, i thought this was fun but was tired at the end of the day (i did the driving there and had to do the driving back). But my adult daughter LOVED it as we were able to get as close as we could without violating the wild life protection laws (which i am grateful that AK has, and follows).
Now it may have been coincidence that because Major Marine was the only place offering tours during April but we found them organized, informative and fun. Well worth the ~90$ USD for the 4-5 hour experience.
Tips: Dress warm! Alot of people just showed up in hoodies and once you are out there, the wind chill picks up! Wear something that is wind proof! Regardless of season.
And ladies- be smart- avoid wearing heels or dangling jewelry, you are going out to the tip of the ocean. Don't leave your purse unattended and then get all freaky if it was moved or something was missing. We observed a lot of the tourists doing these things and then get upset if something went wrong. :/