Glacier Bay

[Travel 25]

Why is glacier bay better than hubbard glacier? More calving? More wildlife? Better scenery? Is hubbard glacier worth seeing? Just curious because everybody seems to talk up glacier bay. Thanks for your responses.

[PeterC]

IMHO Glacier bay is much more scenic and there are more glaciers to see. The trip in and out of the bay is wonderful. In our experience the calving was about the same between the Margerie glacier, which is the main glacier you'll hang around in Glacier Bay and the Hubbard glacier.

I didn't think the scenery was as nice entering the Hubbard glacier area.
And since we left the inside passage to get there the seas were rougher.

For our trips the wildlife was the same, although when leaving Glacier bay on our 2 trips we did see many humpback whale, although we didn't get very close.

Is Hubbard worth seeing? Absolutely! It's awsome and an incredible sight to see. Would I like to see it again? You bet!

[Karen16]

I too have a preference for Glacier Bay, superior overall scenery since you travel the fjord over 50 miles. You generally see 4 glaciers, sometimes more. Wildlife is more viewable since it is narrow. I've seen brown bears several times, moose once.
The reference above for the humpbacks is Point Adolphus, it's a toss up if your ship will go out of the way to view, some do, some don't. Best for this area is a port stop in Hoonah and a private whale watch. Key for a desire of viewing is to be out on deck when sailing Icy Strait. If coming from Skagway, often the ships are stalled out waiting for escort into Glacier Bay, plenty of time for whale watching. Last year had a repeating breeching plus several other on the May trip. On the August trip, the cpt. did sail up to Point Adolphus and spent about 45 min with bubble net feeding, lunge feeding etc.