Check in was very easy, got there early and we waited around to board our boat. You are told to arrive early but as long as you are there 30 minutes prior to departure you should be ok. I was given a few tips from locals while I was there. The first is if you get sea sick sit down stairs in the back of the boat and make sure to take medicine before or during the tour. The second was sit up stairs, inside, by the door, at the end of the table to start. This way you will have a seat inside if it rains and you can quickly get up and go outside if someone spots an animal. We did just that. We went on a cold, cloudy, misty day and were comfortable but had quick access. It did get cold sitting by the door when it was kept open. Make sure you have a rain jacket hat and gloves just in case; you may not need it. We might not have had the best weather out but we did see a lot of animals and experience calving at the glacier like crazy. The staff on board said out of a rating scale of 1-10, 10 being an amazing day they would give it a 9 with all the special stuff we got to see. We saw many sea lions resting on rocks in multiple locations, tons of puffins and other water fowl nesting on rocks, harbor seals (especially near the glacier sitting on the floating ice) and we saw multiple humpback whales mostly by themselves but once in a pair working together to lunge feed (no bubble netting for us). One whale was spotted in a cove by the waterfall. The captain said he has never seen one this far up in the cove. When we were floating near the Northwestern glacier we saw multiple calving events. The staff on board were amazed at what was happening they took out their video cameras to capture everything since they said they have never seen it like that before. We got to experience an ice waterfall. The top of the glacier calved and for a good 3 minutes ice came down in a flow over the glacier and into the water. We also saw a silt calving. In the center of the glacier a section of silt calved and tons of silt came pouring off the glacier and to the base of the glacier and formed silt mounds by the water. In multiple events focused on the same area lots of medium sized chunks broke off into the water. They all created waves the moved our boat. It is amazing the sound you hear before the calving occurs. If you can pin point the sound you can almost catch the event before the ice starts to fall so make sure you listen good and those around you are quiet and can help out. Although this is the longest tour (9hrs) you can do with Kenai Fjord Tours it is well worth it. If you get sea sick you might want to stick with the shorter tours that visit other glaciers and waterways.
For breakfast they cooked mini cinnamon buns. After everyone goes up they put the extras on the counter and you can come by and take another. They also offer a snack pack size fruit cup and juice. Again if there are extras you are allowed to ask for another. For lunch they served chicken wraps or vegetarian wraps. They had different dressings on the tables that you could choose from to use in the wrap. I recommend you just dip the wrap into the sauce and not unroll it to put it inside, it was hard to get closed again. They also gave you a bag of Alaska plain potato chips along with it. If there was extra wraps they put those out as well. Finally in the afternoon on the way back to shore they gave you a delicious warm chocolate chip cookie. However, they don't put the cookies out right away. They put them out next to a tip jar for when you depart. The staff on board ran around helping sick individuals, taking photos for passengers, cooking food, cleaning up and the captain always shared stores and spent extra time in areas when the wildlife was good. We tipped at the end of the tour for sure plus I got an extra cookie. I would recommend this tour to anyone but especially those that know they will be ok on a small boat if there are rough seas. I would do this one again but I would like to try the shorter tour to see another area of the Fjords.