view of distant ships in Juneau from the whale statue

One of the port stops on our Alaskan cruise on Quantum of the Seas was in Juneau. All of the excursions offered there were pretty expensive. The last time I’d been there you could find pretty much anything you wanted to do available at the little booths by the dock for less than what ships excursions cost so we figured to just go see what we could find once we got onshore.

waiting for the glacier bus by the tram

I’d always thought the dock right at the base of the Mount Roberts Tram belonged to Holland America because every previous trip I’ve made to Juneau it was always only Holland America ships that ever docked there. I was quite surprised that our Royal Caribbean ship stopped at that dock, and right next to it one from Seaborne. Considering the size of the Quantum, something very small like a Seaborne ship is probably all else that would fit with it at the dock, but even more surprising was that the Volendam, a Holland America ship, was in town that day and got no dock at all. It had to tender. There were 6 ships total in port. Princess has a dock just down the way from the one at the center of town where we were. Whether they are the only ones to use it or not I don’t know, but when we docked there once on a Princess ship everything on and near that dock said Princess on it. The third dock in Juneau is about a mile from town, which is a walkable distance for many people, but there are shuttles for people docked out there who don’t want to or can’t walk to town.

booths on the dock in Juneau

There are a row of booths right at the dock so they are pretty much the first thing you come to when you get off the ship. Each of the in-town docks has their own set of booths. I’d imagine the out-of-town dock has them as well, but can’t say for sure since the only time I’ve ever been to that one was too long ago to have any idea what is there now. There weren’t any then, but I don’t think there were any at the Holland America dock back then either and the Princess dock wasn’t even built yet.

trolley style bus stopped by the whale statue

The last time I had been to Juneau was pre-covid and at that time those little booths offered pretty much anything the ship’s shore excursions offered, only for a better price. This time the only options were whale watching (expensive), busses to the glacier, or a city tour with glacier which was really just a bus to the glacier with narration about things it drove past on the way there. The only extra stop it made was at a whale statue on the way back. Either everything else was already full before we got there since we were the 5^th of 6 ships to arrive, or they weren’t offering as anywhere near as much as they did pre-covid.

Mount Roberts tram in the lower tram stop

We didn’t have anything better to do so we booked the one that was supposed to be a city tour and glacier visit. We’d all been out to Mendenhall Glacier before, but if there had actually been a city tour it would have been something new. Just mentioning things they drove past on the way to the glacier really wasn’t anything new since the regular glacier bus did that too when we took it once before. So the whale statue was the only new thing we hadn’t seen on a previous trip there.

under the Mt Roberts tram

The busses loaded by the Mt. Roberts tram base. We watched the tram go up and down a few times while waiting for the bus. It used to be really cheap to take that tram, but like everything else it costs a whole lot more now. Our bus for this tour was a trolley which is usually used just for city tours that weren’t running that day so they used it for city/glacier tours. At least it looked like a trolley, but it was really just a bus in a trolley suit.

visitors center at Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier’s visitor center has viewpoints for looking at the glacier, a short film, a gift shop, some exhibits, and some trails.

some of the trails near the visitor center have a fee now

Most trails are free, but a sign in the bus shelter said that a couple of them have a fee now. Since we didn’t see that until we were done there we wouldn’t have known about the fee if we’d gone on those trails unless there was something on the trail about it.

trail by the visitors center

There’s a paved trail leading out to the waterfall and closer views of the glacier below the main visitor center near the parking area.

glacier viewing platform at Mendenhall Glacier visitors center

All the bus stops in the parking area at the visitor’s center had animal names. The farthest one from the visitor’s center was called bear and had a first-come-first served bus that our driver said our tour tickets would work for if we wanted to either leave before the hour and a half time we were given there was up, or to stay later so we assumed that one was for the stragglers that didn’t make their regular bus for any of the different ones that go there. Our tour bus stopped at the one named goat, as did some other tour bus companies, but there was at least one other stop where some busses went.

Mendenhall Glacier 2023

As expected, the glacier was smaller than it had been the last time we were there since like most glaciers on the planet that one is receding.

the glacier and waterfall aren’t even close to each other now

There’s a waterfall separate from the glacier that came out of the face of it at one point, and a big hole in a rock not far from the visitor’s center where that water landed, but it is nowhere near there now. Earlier than that Mendenhall Lake didn’t even exist as the glacier itself went beyond where the lake is now.

icebergs in Mendenhall Lake

The glacier has retreated about 2.5 miles from its farthest point in the mid 1700’s. About 1.75 miles of that since 1929 when Mendenhall Lake was created. Between 1999 and 2022 it retreated 4,600 feet. It has retreated over 160 feet annually for the last couple decades.

kayaks by the glacier

We saw some kayaks paddling around between the little ice bergs near the glacier and thought Mel and Jen might be out there since they had done a kayaking excursion at that port, but it turned out to be a different tour as theirs had not gone near the glacier.

posing with the whale

We caught our regular tour bus back. The stop at the whale statue was a short one, just long enough for people to go out and take photos. It was getting kind of cold by then anyway. The weather prediction for the day had been showers, but we got lucky with just a few light sprinkles off and on.

new building in Juneau

Other than the tram the area next to the ships was mainly shops and a few bars and restaurants. New buildings since our last visit included a big parking garage and a new block of the same stores found at pretty much all cruise ship ports.

More Blogs About Juneau

Cruise Ship Port, Zipline, Glacier Gardens, Juneau, River Raft, Mendenhall Glacier 2013, Mendenhall Glacier 2016, Mount Roberts Tramway, Mount Roberts Tram on a Stormy Day, At the Top of Mount Roberts Tram

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2024