FAQ

Scheduling Questions:

Q. What if I have other tours planned for my day in Juneau?

A. Not a problem! When booking your reservation, please tell us what tour you have scheduled already.  If time allows, we can either pick you up from your finished tour or drop you off at their location after our whale watching tour. Knowing your time in Juneau is limited, we are willing to work within your time frame to make the most of your experience.

Q. What if my party is traveling with more than six people?

A. The Alaskan Girl, Island Girl & Salty Girl, are each certified to carry 6 passengers at maximum. If you are traveling with more than 6 passengers half of your party may tour on each boat during your whale watching tour. With the boats touring in tandem this allows for great photographs of each other with Alaskan scenery in the background. Feel free to contact us with any specific questions if you are planning for a large group–we welcome any questions you may have!

Q. What is Square Invoice and why can’t I just call you with my credit card number?

A. Square Invoice is an online payment service that is secure (if you are interested in seeing how it is secured please visit https://squareup.com/security) and reliable. It became available to small businesses in 2019 and is being called the “new” PayPal.  Currently, Jayleen is running the office reservations, payments, and captaining full time–this switch to Square Invoice is in an effort to streamline the office details for her. If you would still rather call in a credit card number, you are welcome to do so—however, please allow 24 hours for a response.

Q. Do you ask for a deposit? 

A. Yes, we ask for a 20% deposit at the time that you confirm your reservation. 

Q. Am I reserved before I pay my deposit

A. No, reservations are on a first come first serve basis, if you fail to pay your deposit in a timely manner you may lose your tour time to other passengers who pay their deposit first. Exceptions are made for international travelers on different time zones that have difficulty calling to US time zones–this exception must be asked for and approved. Until you have received a reservation confirmation email with a confirmation number at the top you have not been fully reserved. Currently, we are receiving reservations a year and a half in advance.

Tour Questions:

Q. What type of whales can I expect to see? 

A. The whales that we have seen on 100% of our tours are the Humpback Whales. There is also a chance of seeing Orca Whales (about 20% of tours see these) and Minke Whales (about 1% of tours see these).

Q. Will we only see whales? Is there other wildlife we can see?

A. Good question! We have the potential to see lots of other wildlife, including Bald Eagles, Steller Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Dalls Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise, and many different types of seabirds.

Q. How long am I actually on the water?

A. You will be on the water for a total of three hours, on our standard tour.

Q. How often do you see whales on tours? Is there a better time of day to see them?

A.   We have seen Humpback Whales 100% of the time on all of our tours. With that said we have also taken out tours at all times of the day and the amount of whales seen at a certain time of day varies from day today.

Q. How close can our captain get to the whales?

A. Since Humpback Whales are still endangered, it is a federal law that all vessels must stay 100 yards away. We are also not allowed to cut off their movements to make them move closer to the boat. If these laws are broken then the captain risks thousands of dollars in fines—it is in everyone’s best interest, whales included, if these laws are respected.

Q. Am I allowed to use a drone on my whale-watching tour?

A. Unfortunately, we are unable to use drones on whale-watching tours. There is a permit that is required for any drone use in the Juneau area because the whole area is too close to the Juneau airport and the corresponding flight patterns/paths.

Q. Is there a restroom on the boats?

A. Yes! There is a marine head on both boats—meaning it is very small, but fully functioning.

Q. Are the boats covered?

A. Yes! The boats are fully covered with doors to the front bow and back deck that close for protection from the wind and rain. In contrast on warm days, the windows and back door can be left open to cool the cabin.

Q. Are smoking, alcohol, or drugs allowed on board the boat?

A. No they are not. We are sorry if this proves to be an inconvenience, however, we chose to do this for the general safety of passengers onboard.

Q. What happens if we miss our cruise ship?

A. We are aware of cruise ship port times and will not schedule a tour if the departure is less than an hour from when our tour ends.  If for reasons beyond our power, we are not able to get you to your cruise ship on time, we will make sure you make it to your next port whether we have to fly you or take you there by boat ourselves.  For the enjoyment of our passengers, we strive to make our tours fun and stress-free.  If passengers are too worried that their ship will leave without them then this creates a stressful environment for passengers as well as the captain—so we avoid those feelings as much as possible!