Table of Contents:
Tour Overview:
Kenai Fjords National Park is famous for its marine wildlife and glaciers. The park is easily accessible through Seward which is only 2.5hrs outside of Anchorage. Visitors can enjoy an array of activities like day cruises, hiking, kayaking and fishing.
The 6hr Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise will take passengers from Seward through Resurrection Bay into the Kenai Fjords National Park. Along the way passengers are likely to see wildlife like sea otters, sea lions and whales. The cruise will also stop at one of the two nearby glaciers, Holgate or Aialik.
How to book:
Since I was traveling in mid-September, after the peak season, there were only a few tours still running. I booked my cruise through Viator which gave me free cancellations up to 24 hours from departure. You could also book online directly through one of the tour companies.
There were two main tour providers available during my trip, Kenai Fjords Tours and Major Marine Tours. The tour I booked through Viator was with Kenai Fjords Tour as their tour time better fit with my schedule. If you are planning on staying a night in Seward, which I highly recommend, Major Marine Tours is run out of Harbor 360 Hotel so you can book your hotel room and tour all together.
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What to expect:
Check-in for the tour occurs at the Kenai Fjords Tour office. The office is easy to find right in the middle of Seward by the harbor. The parking lot right in front of the office is paid parking run by the city and is only meant for 2hr parking. You can park there at your own risk, which we did without any issues, or you can drive down the street to Kenai Fjords Tours’ private parking lot and take a shuttle to the office.
Check-in at the office is easy, they will confirm how many people are in your group and what your lunch preferences are (we had a choice of chicken or hummus/vegetarian wraps). They will let you know which boat you are on and tell you what time you can expect to start boarding, typically 30 minutes before departure.
The employees in the office were very friendly and helpful through check-in. They were also very helpful the day before when I called to confirm if the cruise would be running due to the heavy rain forecasted. The office was kind enough to check the marine report and confirm that they were expecting to run the tour.
The tour runs rain or shine and is really dependent on the sea forecast. Make sure you are prepared with the appropriate clothes. I wore an insulated rain jacket, rain pants and waterproof boots; I was comfortable for the 6hrs. Others in my group didn’t have on full rain gear and ended up spending a lot of time inside because they were cold and wet.
If you have some time to kill before boarding, there is a small gift shop in the office or there is a Safeway grocery store up the road if you want some coffee and snacks
I would suggest waiting by the docks so you can be one of the first people on the boat. Even though it was the offseason, the boat filled up quickly and there weren’t enough indoor tables for everyone. Make sure you claim a table inside before you start exploring the exterior of the boat. You will want an inside seat to keep warm and eat your lunch at.
The boat I was on had two levels. The main level had indoor seats and the bar which had drinks (coffee, hot chocolate and alcoholic beverages) for purchase. Pro tip: on the exterior sides of the main level there are benches you could sit on that were covered from the rain. The bathrooms were also located outside on the main floor in the back of the boat. Upper level had great 360 degree views with both indoor and outdoor seating.
The tour took off promptly at 11:30am. On the day of my tour it was raining pretty hard all day which unfortunately impacted our visibility. If I had another day in Seward I would have tried to reschedule because the tour was really impacted by the amount of rain. The boat definitely had some rocky moments but overall it wasn’t too bad. I took some Dramamine for my motion sickness before boarding and I was fine for the day.
One of the first wildlife sighting we had was of a bald eagle on the outskirts of the Seward Harbor. Wildlife was kind of scarce on my tour which was disappointing but given the weather conditions and time of year wasn’t surprising. We did see some sea otters swimming and as we approached the Aialik Glacier we saw some sea lions.
The Aialik Glacier was really the big attraction of the day. It did take about 3hrs to get to so you’ll have to be patient. In the cloudy weather it seemed like the blue of the glacier was really amplified which was cool to see. The boat spent a lot of time at this spot so you could take your time taking pictures and videos. While we were there we even saw a large piece of the ice break off the glacier!
On the way back is where we got a nice surprise to make up for the poor weather, we saw a pod of orcas. The captain did a great job of tracking them so we were able to observe them for about 30 minutes. The glacier was cool but seeing the orcas made the tour for me.
While I enjoyed the tour and was glad we were able to do it, the success of the tour is really weather dependent. I think it would have been a different experience if there was better visibility that day. I would still recommend this tour but suggest you have some flexibility in your plans so you could reschedule if the weather isn’t cooperating. Overall the tour company did a great job of making everyone comfortable and showing us as much wildlife as they could.
Crushed it!
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