Seward Travel Forum

Looks like many folks offer to book your kenai fjords tour, most seem to be third party agents. Guess it would be best to book directly with tour operator. I see Kenia Fjord Tours says they are original and #1. They offer full day trip to Northwestern fjord, which I hear is nice. They also offer 2 day trip, with overnight on Fox Island in a cabin, salmon bake and such.
Major Marine tours offers full day trip to Holgate glacier, with reserved seat in heated cabin and buffet lunch. This could be nice to have a reserved seat inside when things are slow, as 9 hours is a long time to stand outside or sit on a crowded bench seat.
Also I guess their are other independent operators. I have heard that Aialik glacier is nice, but don't see anyone that offers this trip.
Any suggestions for which trip is best??

We took the Kenai Fjords Tours. I believe we took the 6 hour cruise which we felt was long enough.(My husband gets sea sick!) We did see some whales and other wildlife. It was a nice trip. Enjoy your time there. If you have a camera it pays to have one that zooms in as much as possible.When I came back from Alasaka vacation I promised myself I would not go on vacation again without a much bigger lense!
Julie

It appears that Kenai Fjords and Major Marine are the primary tour operators. We chose Major Marine for an 8 hour cruise. It was one of the highlights of my land-based Alaska trip and we saw lots of wildlife including a black bear, whales, puffins, mountain goats,etc. Major Marine has a National Park ranger on each tour providing narration. She also came around to all the tables and taked with everyone on board. There is guaranteed seating inside which was necessary since we had periods of rain. It was rough in certain areas and some on board were sick so it's highly recommended to take preventative measures beforehand if you are prone to motion sickness. But all-in-all it was an excellent and memorable tour.

We went on the Kenai Fjords with the stop at Fox Is. for lunch and really liked that. The food was good with great scenery. I would imagine staying on the Island would be very nice. They do have indoor seating on the cruise too. So you likely do not have to sit out on the deck if you don't want. I preferred to stay outside to breathe in the fresh air. And ginger (capsules, tea or ale) is good for motion sickness, just fyi.

Other tour operators you may want to check out are:
AK Catamaran Cruises>> 1888 305 2515 wwwalaskacatamarancurises.com
And Renown Charters>> 1 800 655 3806 www.renowncharters.com

Both Major & Kenai Fjords Tours are good, and they always give a lot of interesting information on all of the marine wildlife as well as the scenery. Yes, you sould book with them in advance. Be aware they will still go out, even if it's raining, so bring lots of layers of foul weather gear. I will say that even when I've been out in rough rainy weather, they've still managed to find interesting animals to point out. They really know their waters!

I've not done an overnight trip, but have done the long day trip, & the seats were really pretty comfortable. You will also be getting up to move around a lot to get the best vantage point for whatever is swimming beside you, humpbacks, sea otters or orcas, you name it.

I discovered the best seasickness remedy I've found yet in a dive shop: Motion Eaze. It comes in a tiny bottle, & you just dab a little behind your ears the minute you start to feel queasy. Works like a charm, even after symptoms start. http://www.motion-sickness.net/

Kenai Fjords and Major Marine are both good companies. Kenai Fjords offers a 6 hr tour that usually includes the glacier you mentioned. If you are sensitive to motion, take something like Bonine before you leave on one of these tours. Candied ginger is great for relieving symptoms. I have seen people getting sick on everyone of these trips. You are in open waters once you leave Resurrection Bay. Any tour less than 6 hrs will not leave Resurrection Bay.