Alaska Glaciers Cruise – Day 6 – Juneau (aka WHALES) – Pics Part 1!

Thursday Sept 7, 2023

Hi Folks! Well today was a double, no make that a triple WOW day! This is truly why I keep coming back to Alaska. The day started out bad and I mean bad. Cold, rainy, windy, foggy… a typical Alaska day! And I thought, maybe it’s just another good day to chill inside by the pool. 

But of course I first had to go find the free wifi so I could post this blog (what I do for you guys! Lol). And yes, the staff onboard told me again to head to the public library and this time it was almost right across from where we docked but it didn’t open until 10. So of course I went and did some shopping for the grandkids. What? Don’t you realize my grandkids NEED cute little socks with Iditarod Husky puppy faces on them??? Lol. 

But after shopping I just had this feeling that my whale friends were calling me. Juneau is pretty much the whale watching Capitol of the world. The whales that are here have migrated from Hawaii where they breed there during the winter months and feed here during the summer months. They will eat more than 4,000 pounds of food per day! That’s just a little less than what I feel like I eat on this cruise! 

So I stopped by the whale watching kiosks on the dock to see what the prices were like. If you’ve been on an Alaskan cruise lately, you realize how expensive the excursions have gotten. But I talked to one of the companies who had one opening left on a boat leaving soon so I negotiated a deal that was less than half of what the cruise line was offering for the same whale watch excursion. Sweet!

We boarded a bus and drove about 20 minutes to a port to board the boat. We had to sit inside the boat for the first 15 minutes or so while the boat pulled out of the harbor and they covered some safety info. Then we could go out on the boat and whale watch. 

Within minutes my triple wow moment was happening. First we see a whale breach (lift it’s whole body out of the water!), then another, then another! It was crazy. We literally saw 30 to 40 whale sightings and I’ve never seen that many whales come totally out of the water. We saw a mother and baby together and the little baby kept making these little breaches trying to be like mama. So cute! The naturalist on the boat said she has been on thousands of whale watch tours and she’s never seen this many breaches. Normally you see those in Hawaii where the male whales are showing off for the females during breeding season but not up here much. Since here they are focused on feeding.

I wish I could post videos on this sight since it’s just amazing to watch these huge creatures come all the way out of the water. I felt like I was in a National Geographic special. And as I said, this is why I come to Alaska. So breathtaking! 

The rest of the night was fun with an added surprise. Right when I got back from the whale watching trip, I watched the Chiefs vs Detroit game! The NFL is back (YAY!) and how cool for Holland to air it! And what a game it was! Who had the Lions beating the Chiefs? Maybe only my good friend Tammy from Detroit! Lol

After the game I had a late dinner and listened to some good piano music. Tomorrow it’s on to Ketchikan, the rain Capitol of the world. Hmmm… wonder what the weather will be like? Lol. Gotta love Alaska!

PS: All the pictures are of whales except one… I had to sneak in a glacier picture!

PSS: Not sure if my pictures will post since the wifi here seems shaky. If they don’t post, I’ll post them in a few days since we’ll be at sea tomorrow.