Juneau, Alaska is one of the exciting ports visited on a Disney Cruise Line Alaskan Cruise.  While on the Disney Wonder in 2011, we booked an excursion called “Whale Watching and the Mendenhal Glacier” through Disney for our day in Juneau.  This excursion was interesting, action-packed, educational and still left us plenty of time to explore Juneau.

We met our group early (7:45 am) before debarking the ship and taking a motor coach to a quiet marina where we boarded our whale watching vessel.  We had great weather for most of our cruise, but this day was chilly and overcast with a light drizzle. 

The tour guarantees whale spotting – and we did see a few whales (in the distance) and some seals, but there were not as many whales nearby as we’d hoped for.  I’m not sure if this was due to the time of year (early June) or simple bad luck, but we still enjoyed the experience and took lots of photos.  Our boat was enclosed with lots of windows for mostly unobstructed whale watching and there was a naturalist on board to explain the different types of animals seen on our tour.  I had heard that there were a LOT of bald eagles all around in Alaska and we found that to be absolutely true – we saw young eagles, old eagles, and even eagle nests (HUGE).   

Next we re-boarded our motor coach and headed for the Mendenhall Glacier.  This 12-mile-long glacier has its own visitor center (operated as part of the Tongass National Forest) with many, detailed exhibits to explore.  It provides an excellent place to step inside where it’s dry and warm and learn about both Alaska and glaciers.  

The center also offers excellent glacier viewing areas.  The excursion schedule allowed plenty of time for touring the visitor center and walking outside to see and photograph the glacier.  If we had been there longer, there was a very interesting looking nature trail available for hiking that we would have loved to try.    

We returned to the pier around 2:00 pm.  This left us time for exploring Juneau and allowed us to take advantage of the great souvenir shopping Alaska offers.  We could not believe the selection of tee-shirts, jackets, and other items at extremely reasonable prices!  The shirts we bought are still being worn regularly and still look great!   

This excursion is still available, but is now called “Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Quest” – it sounds exactly like what we did, but in reverse order.  The current price is $165 for adults and  $94 for children under 10.  If you are planning to visit Alaska on the Disney Cruise Line, this is a reasonably priced tour suitable for the entire family.  There was something enjoyable for all ages.