Hello and Happy Friday!
Typically I would do a Friday Favorites post today, but I decided to make an exception. Earlier in the week, I recapped our time in Seattle before our Alaskan cruise and today I am going to be sharing all about our first port of call: Juneau, Alaska!
We arrived in Juneau around 3pm after a full day at sea the day before. We were so excited to get off the ship and experience our first taste of Alaska! Juneau was beautiful and it did not disappoint!
Chris and I booked an excursion with Juneau Tours through Viator.com several months before our trip. If you are planning an Alaskan cruise (or a visit in general) and plan to book a tour, be sure to book early! I booked this tour six months before our trip and tours were already sold out. So be sure to plan ahead! You can always wing it and book a tour when you get into port, but if there is something you really have your heart on doing, I recommend booking early. We had a great experience with the tours we booked through Viator.com. We saved money by not booking with the cruise line and the tours were smaller and felt more one-on-one. Viator.com is a very reputable, worldwide company. They work with really great local tours and Juneau Tours is no exception.
We booked a 3 part tour with them. The first part was a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier and the second part was whale watching. We wrapped everything up with a crab dinner from Tracy’s King Crab Shack.
Finding our tour group was incredibly easy. They met us on the pier where our ship docked and a few minutes later were on a bus heading to the Mendenhall Glacier. Pictures are not going to do this justice. It is an incredible sight. Even before we pulled into the park, we could see the glacier and it did not disappoint. There’s a visitor center and several walking paths with various views of the glacier. Chris and I walked half a mile or so and got an incredible view of the Mendenhall Glacier.
Afterward, we checked out the visitor center and stumbled across this exhibit with 200 year old glacial ice! Of course we had to touch it.
After that, we headed to the bus stop to meet up with the rest of our tour group and head to the dock for our whale watching excursion. They guarantee whale sightings or your money back and we were not disappointed! We saw several humpback whales. One of them got incredibly close to the boat and another one was lunge feeding. It was incredible! I attempted to take a few pictures but then I sat back and enjoyed the show. These animals are truly amazing and it was so cool to see them in their natural environment.
The whale watch portion of the tour lasted 2-3 hours and after that we were taken back to the downtown area for our crab dinner at Tracy’s King Crab Shack. When I was doing research on what to do in Juneau, this place was at the top of every list. And I can see why! I was concerned it would be overrated, but it wasn’t at all. It was the best meal of our entire trip! We were served a giant King Crab Leg, crab cakes, and crab bisque.
It was delicious! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
When we finished our meal, Chris and I wandered through a few shops in town, then headed back to our ship. We boarded around 10pm and it was still light outside.
We really loved Juneau and hated to wave goodbye! It is such a beautiful city with so many things to see and do. We had a great time! I hope we will be back someday!
The next morning we docked in Skagway and I will be sharing all about our time there on the blog next week. So stay tuned!
Have you been to Juneau? What did you do there?
Leah | A Relaxed Gal
It looks like you had an awesome time! I’m looking forward to your next post. I’ll be going on an Alaskan cruise later this summer so I’m gonna be taking notes on where to eat and what to make sure we see.
Amanda Morgan
That’s so exciting! When are you going? Alaska was amazing, you will love it! I have another Alaska post going up today!