Icy Strait Point Whale Watching

What’s included and what’s not

The listings differ more than the trips do, and those differences are often the best reason to pick one boat over another.

Included, on the trips that say so:

• Transfer between the port and the boat: every grid trip.
• Snacks: most trips. The Whale Watching and Bear Search adds bottled water.
• Rain gear and binoculars: no grid trip lists them, and the Guaranteed Whale Watching Adventure lists both, plus snacks, as not included.
• Coffee and tea: Hoonah Whale Tours.
• Hot chocolate and cold water: Wonderful Whales and Wildlife.
• A restroom on board: Wonderful Whales and Wildlife, Hoonah Whale Tours, Hoonah Whale-Watching Cruise.
• A heated cabin: Hoonah Whale-Watching Cruise, Hoonah Whale Tours.

Not included, or not promised:

• Gratuities, on every trip.
• Drinking water on Catch of the Day from 2027, and possibly on the Hoonah Whale-Watching Cruise, going by one review.
• Meals. Snacks only.
• Any particular animal. No listing promises orcas or bears, and the Guaranteed trip’s listing doesn’t say what happens if no whales appear.

The trip, hour by hour

Listings say 3 hours. The water time is shorter. One reviewer on the Hoonah Whale-Watching Cruise put the whole trip at about 2.5 hours once the transfers were counted, and two ship-sold trips filmed here ran the same length: 10:15 to 12:45 for KenTravels360 and 11:30 to 2:00 for Travel Life With Lucy. Departure times follow each ship’s schedule, so the clock times below are a pattern, not a timetable.

• Check-in, 15 minutes before departure. You meet the operator’s rep at the Excursion Hub on port property. The Catch of the Day trip is the exception: its driver waits just past the City of Hoonah visitor info booth, also on port property, holding a white sign.
• Minutes 0 to 15. A van or small bus takes you to the boat. MH Family Adventures were driven about 1.5 miles from the hub to the Hoonah marina, and Live the Life Media puts that shuttle at 5 to 10 minutes.
• Minutes 15 to 25. Boarding at the floats. At low tide the ramp down is steep, and Hoonah Travel Adventures, replying to a reviewer, describes three tall steps each for the bus and the boat.
• The next 1.5 to 2 hours. The captain searches Icy Strait. The Guaranteed Whale Watching Adventure lists about 90 minutes in the strait and 30 minutes off Point Adolphus, the headland across the strait where humpbacks gather to feed. Slow starts are normal. Griff & Alyssa (partnered with the seller Shore Excursions Group) found nothing at the first spot, and the first whales on the MH Family Adventures trip were distant before they came closer. Expect to stay seated while the boat is moving; Guga and Rob were let out onto the bow and upper deck once the whales were found.
• Between sightings. Expect stretches of scanning empty water while a whale is down on a dive. Federal rules keep boats at least 100 yards from humpbacks, so a long lens or binoculars help more than a better seat. Keep the camera running anyway: Leggs Outdoors caught only the start of a bubble-net feed.
• Last 20 minutes. Back to the dock and the van to the hub. The driver on the MH Family Adventures trip said the shuttle to the ships leaves on the hour and every 30 minutes, and their wristband worked as the pass.

Humpbacks turned up on all 8 trip videos we compared. Orcas appeared on 2 of the 8: Guga and Rob were taken to three males after a radio report, and the crew on the Where we come from trip said they see orcas on about 40 percent of outings, a figure no other source gives. Bubble-net feeding showed up on 3 (Live the Life Media saw it four times) and brown bears on the shoreline on 2. Take2Travel, on a port-guide day, added Dall’s porpoise and sea otters.

Meeting point and getting there

Almost every boat on this page meets at the Excursion Hub, the check-in point for tours not sold by the ship. It sits on port property between the two cruise landings, and the walk depends on where your ship ties up.

Give yourself more time than the listing says, not less. MH Family Adventures were told to allow 15 minutes and got there in three or four, then waited. That’s the better problem to have.

Coming from Wilderness Landing, Live the Life Media rode the free green gondola for about 3 minutes to the Adventure Center, which has no sign and sits to the right of Duck Point Smokehouse, then went out door 2 to the gravel path. Ship-sold trips can skip the hub altogether: KenTravels360’s Princess boat left from a pontoon at Wilderness Landing.

There’s no cell signal or Wi-Fi at the port, according to several operator listings, so screenshot your confirmation before you go ashore. One operator also warns that typing the port’s address, 108 Cannery Road, into Google sends people to the wrong spot. Follow the signs and the reps holding boards with the operator’s name instead.

Two trips meet somewhere else:

• Catch of the Day picks up just past the City of Hoonah visitor info booth and states that it does not pick up at the Excursion Hub.
• Hoonah Whale Tours collects cruise passengers at the port and will also pick up anywhere in Hoonah town, which helps if you walked the roughly 1.5 miles into town first.

If walking is hard, the Guaranteed Whale Watching Adventure’s listing mentions a Care Cart that runs from the ship’s gangway to the hub; it asks you to allow 20 extra minutes. Boats leave on time. None of the listings we compared promises to wait, so if you’re running late, phone the operator number on your confirmation as soon as you can.

What to bring

Dress for rain even if the morning looks dry. Hoonah averages between about 2.5 and 7 inches of rain a month over the cruise season, and July highs sit in the mid 60s°F, cooler again out on the water. Three of the 8 trip videos (Griff & Alyssa, Where we come from and Travel Life With Lucy) found the ride out cold and windy at speed, even on warm days.

• Waterproof jacket and a warm layer. No trip here lists rain gear as included; the Guaranteed Whale Watching Adventure lists it as not included.
• Hat and gloves for time on the open deck.
• Binoculars. The Guaranteed trip lists them as not included, so bring your own.
• A water bottle. One reviewer on the Hoonah Whale-Watching Cruise found no water on board although the listing mentioned it, and Catch of the Day says it will stop providing water from the 2027 season.
• Seasickness tablets, taken before you board, if you’re prone to it. The Guaranteed trip says it runs in all weather short of a small craft advisory.
• Your confirmation, saved offline, because the port has no cell signal.
• Free hands. A small backpack beats a tote on a steep ramp.

Leave big bags on the ship. Snacks come with most trips; Wonderful Whales and Wildlife serves hot chocolate and cold water and invites you to bring your own food.

Think about young children before booking. Catch of the Day takes no one under 5, Wonderful Whales and Wildlife sets its minimum at 9, and MH Family Adventures said their younger kids were restless well before the three hours were up.

How to choose

The real choice at Icy Strait Point is boat size, because every trip covers the same water in about the same time. If whales aren’t your only plan for the day, the other excursions at Icy Strait Point include kayaking, bear searches and fishing.

The dearer trips here buy a smaller group, and on the Guaranteed trip, time scheduled at Point Adolphus. Size is what the trip videos argue about most. On a 14-passenger boat, Live the Life Media was close enough to hear the whales breathe, and MH Family Adventures chose a boat of about 25 over cruise-line trips they’d heard could carry upwards of 100. The other side of it: KenTravels360 took a ship-sold boat for up to 154 that was packed, yet so many people stayed inside that the deck worked fine, and booking through the ship came with a refund if the port call was cancelled.

Pick this if

• Humpbacks are the animal you came to Alaska for and this is your best port for them.
• You want a small boat without paying for a private charter.
• Your ship stays long enough to fit 3 hours plus the walk back.

Skip it if

• You’ve already done a whale trip in Juneau this cruise and would rather see Hoonah, the cannery and the forest.
• Steep ramps are a problem for you or someone in your party.
• Your call is short. Whales are sometimes seen from the port’s shoreline paths for free, and our guide covers what to do at the port without a tour.

Season and timing

You can only do this on a cruise ship day. Icy Strait Point opens to visitors whenever a ship is in port, and the operators time their departures to the ships, so check your date on the port’s ship calendar if you’re unsure which landing you’ll use.

Humpbacks are in Icy Strait across the whole cruise season, and the trip videos bear that out: Where we come from went on 18 June and Guga and Rob on a hot August day, and both found them. What changes month to month is the weather.

June and July are the driest and warmest months. September is almost three times as wet as June, and late in the month the town starts closing up: Live a Little, visiting at the end of September, found businesses in Hoonah shutting for the season.

On the day, a small craft advisory is the thing that cancels boats, not drizzle. The National Weather Service’s marine forecast for Southeast Alaska is the one the captains read.

Time of day matters less than your ship’s schedule. Pick the departure that leaves the biggest gap before all aboard, since the shuttle back from the hub runs only every 30 minutes. Seats do open up late, too. Live the Life Media watched guests being added a couple of days before and on the day itself.

FAQ

Book the boat that fits your all-aboard time first, then plan the rest of your day around the shuttle back from the hub.