This was the favorite thing I did in over my entire 11 days in Alaska! And I am so glad that I chose the Northwest/Northwestern tour, which lasted nine hours.
The tour starts out at the boat harbor in downtown Seward, and then goes out through Resurrection Bay. It ends at the Northwestern Glacier, and then turns around and comes back. We were so lucky because the weather was absolutely perfect during our trip, and the boat was not rocky at all.
The boat captain, Chris, was fantastic, as were his three crew members (Rea, Sam, and Owen). Chris knew so much information, but just as importantly, he had a terrific way of presenting the information to everyone so that it was interesting.
After pulling out of the harbor, we went for about 30 or 45 minutes before the crew offered us a nice little breakfast of warm cinnamon buns, three choices of juice, and two choices of yogurt (peach or raspberry). Every time the captain saw a bit of wildlife, he took us over there and told us about it. What was nice was that he was on the radio with other boats, who were giving him information about where certain wildlife was, which greatly enhanced our experience.
At around 11:30 AM, the crew had everyone sit down inside while they served the box lunches. There were two choices, a chicken wrap or a hummus wrap. Also included was a granola bar and one or two other little snacks. They also set out cups of water for everyone, or of course you could order a drink from the bar. After lunch, the timing was perfect so that we were just getting close to Northwestern Glacier. When we arrived at the Glacier, the boat captain stopped the boat for about 15 or 20 minutes and let us sit there and watch the glacier calve, which was amazing! Absolutely beautiful!
He then turned the boat around and started heading back, but this time checking out a lot of the islands along the way, where the captain knew that certain wildlife would be hiding or living. It was fantastic!
Finally, at about 4 PM, the crew cooked up some warm chocolate chip cookies for everyone to enjoy. The boat tour was timed perfectly to get back into harbor at 5:30 PM. This was important to us, as we were on the 6 PM train departing Seward. We walked off the boat, up the dock, and hopped on the Kenai Fjords Tours free shuttle, which took us right to the train station less than five minutes away. We were on the train, checked in and in our seats, by 5:45 PM.
On our particular tour, we ended up seeing sea otters, orca whales, humpback whales, sea lions, seals, and a ton of awesome birds. I know our luck in seeing all this wildlife and seeing the glaciers calving greatly enhanced our experience, but I’d like to think I would still give this tour five stars even if we did not see all of that. I would seriously consider doing the exact same tour if I am ever back in Seward.
The boat was very comfortable, and had three bathrooms on board. There was also an area at the back of the boat outside with benches, which is where the captain suggested that anyone who is feeling sick go to sit. That is the part of the boat that moves the least, and he said that would do the trick in terms of letting some cool air on your face while you didn’t move around too much. He also recommended taking some sort of anti-motion sickness medicine about one hour prior. We ended up taking Dramamine for 24 to 48 hours before our trip, because someone had told us to do that. We did not get sick, but that was probably because the sea was not choppy at all during our particular voyage.
I do agree with others that the trip does seem to get long after about six or seven hours, but as long as you’re having fun looking at the beautiful views and finding wildlife, the time passes quickly.
Overall, the amount of food served was probably sufficient, but we had brought other snacks with us just in case, including a couple of bagels from the Sea Bean Café. I’m glad we did that, just so that we did not get hungry. Of course, the boat does offer concessions, and we took advantage of some of those as well, including the wine, cheese block, crackers, and some candy. We also bought one of their unlimited refill mugs for $8.95, which allows you to get reef free refills of soda, coffee, cider, and tea all day. That was a great decision as it turns out.
And finally, it was nice that the tour company offers a free shuttle that will pick you up at your hotel. We were staying at Hotel Seward, and the shuttle picked us up about 55 minutes before our tour departure time. We arranged that pick up after we arrived in Seward the day before on the train.