One of the things I learned about cruising is that your picture of a port city is very much determined by the excursions you take. There is a lot to do in Juno, but the limited time in any port also limits your activity, so it’s important to choose your excursions wisely. We chose the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Quest, and while we enjoyed our time, the 1 hour and 15 mins we had at the Mendenhall Glacier was nowhere near long enough for us, and we felt rushed and somewhat disappointed. That being said, I was able to get some good photography time in, and the scenery from the whale-watching boat was spectacular.

Clicking/tapping any photo will enlarge it to full-screen.

Arriving in Port

We arrived in-port a little later in the morning than most other ports, and the weather was unusually bright and warm. Still, because of the shadows cast by the mountains, some interesting photos were still possible.

Whale Watching

When booking the cruise, and our excursions, whale-watching was the one thing I was most worried and excited about. I was worried because I suffer pretty severely from motion sickness and therefore spending 3 hours on a boat seemed impossible. At the same time, I was excited about the potential to see whales closer than what was possible from the ship; this was one thing I had to do while in Alaska. Because of my excitement, I remained optimistic and rented a 200-500mm telephoto zoom lens specifically for this excursion, and I was glad I did. For the majority of the trip, I found myself wishing I had a 70-200mm, as my 24-70mm was often not long enough, while the 200-500mm provided too much reach for most situations. However, for this excursion, it was perfect.

All the whale photos below were taken with the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens attached to my Nikon D780 DSLR. These were all captured at 480 to 500mm with additional cropping in post. While we were not fortunate enough to see a whale breach, I’m still happy with the photos I did get, which would not have been possible without the long lens.

Cow and Calf

Whale Flukes

Whale-Watching Tips

The whale-watching boat we were on, piloted by Allen Marine Tours, had both an upper and lower deck, and if you didn’t want to be on deck in the wind, the observation seating in the interior had great, unobstructed views. As great as the observation decks were, with over one hundred and fifty people on board, it was not easy to secure a great vantage point from which to take photos of any whales you were lucky enough to come upon. Staking your claim on a good spot on one side of the boat also meant you risked getting no shots of a whale on the other side.

While out on the boat, I did pick up on a pattern that all humpback whales seemed to follow. If you are looking to capture photos of the whale’s fluke (or tail), this pattern is great to know:

When a humpback first surfaces, it will blow a spout of water, which is usually how they are spotted.
After spouting, the humpback will arch its back out of the water three more times.
After the last arch, it will dive, exposing its tail.
Once its tail goes under, it will stay submerged for 10 to 20 minutes before it comes up for air again.

Following this pattern, you can predict when the whale will show her fluke, and when you can start looking for a spout from another whale nearby.

One more tip

In the US, there are conservation laws that dictate how close a boat is allowed to get to a whale, and while I don’t recall the exact distance, let’s just say, it isn’t very close. If you are going to get a close-up photo of a whale, it is because the whale has decided to come close to you. According to other whale watchers on the boat, Mexico has no such laws allowing you to get very close. While I imagine that is great for tourists, it isn’t great for the whales, as the boat rotors can, and do, cause a good deal of harm.

Scenery from the Boat

To capture photos of both whales and scenery, I had two cameras strapped to me: My D780 with the 200-500mm, and my D3400 with the 24-70mm. This allowed me to take some great land/seascape photos with my shorter zoom while still being ready for whales with the longer zoom.

Mendenhall Glacier & Nugget Falls

Mendenhall Glacier

For a sense of scale, in the left-hand corner of the photo above, there is a small black object just below where the glacier meets the water. That small black object is an inflatable raft with between 8 and 12 passengers. If you want to get close to the glacier without paying for a helicopter ride, the rafting excursion is your best bet.

Nugget Falls

A walk to Nugget Falls, round-trip, is about 45 mins for a person in average health. Seeing that we only had 1 and a quarter hours, and wanted to get photos of the glacier, we decided not to take the walk and risk being late for the bus back to port. As I said at the opening of this post, for what we wanted to do, the time allotted was insufficient. I would have loved to spend more time enjoying nature, walking to the falls, and taking photos.

Juneau

If you spend all of your time walking up and down the tourist main street, your view of all of the ports will largely be the same. Other than Icy Point Straite and Hoona, all the other stops had the same shops and sold the same things: diamonds, beer, and tourist t-shirts, hats, and trinkets. Honestly, they all just felt like tourist traps and left a lot to be desired.

Even through all the sameness, if you look hard enough, you can find something interesting, like reflections and totems.

No Room in the Inn

For busy ports like Juneau, the docks are reserved for the larger ships, the ones that host 4,000 passengers, instead of only 2,000 like ours. For smaller ships like the Norwegian Spirit, since there are no available docks, you have to tender to and from the shore.

Waiting in line to tender back to the ship.

Even when waiting in line, there are opportunities to take photos!

If you would like to see my other posts related to our Alaskan cruise, see Cruising Alaska with Norwegian Cruise Line.

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Juneau, AK