Allen Marine Tours — Local services in Juneau

I took my family on the best of Juneau excursion from Princess Cruises from Allen Marine. It was quite expensive costing a family of 5 a $1,000 to go on the excursion so it was not cheap. The bus driver to the boat was nice and pointed out some of the highlights of the town delivering us to a boat for whale watching.

The boat was far too small on top for the amount of people that went on the excursion so it was hard to get good views to see much of the wildlife. We only saw the tops of a few whales so not really much to see. There was hardly any narration about Juneau or the animals making it just a boat ride.

Next they took us to a place for lunch for a Salmon bake. It was all cooked by high school and college aged kids who really had no clue how to cook a piece of chicken or salmon. The chicken was totally undercooked and pink making it unsafe to eat. The salmon was fine but I am not really a big fish person so I basically went hungry along with my son so the lunch option was a total bust.

Next we went to Mendenhall Glacier but only got 45 minutes to see it. The bus driver told us to take the steep creek trail but we got no views of the glacier from there and totally ran out of time to really see it because of the bad advice.

Overall, this excursion is totally not worth the cost. I recommend you go with another provider other than Allen Marine since it will be cheaper, you will get a similar experience for a fraction of the cost and hopefully better advice then what we received from...

IN CASE YOU WANT TO USE THIS TOUR COMPANY. Went on one of these excursions with PRINCESS CRUISES. I paid $664 to see a WHALE AND WILDLIFE tour. Got to see whales at a far distance but NO WILDLIFE. Never a mention from the captain of the boat who spoke seldom or the naturalist who spoke often. Getting off the boat I asked the naturalist why we didn’t see the wildlife part ( seals, sea lions,) let me correct myself…why didn’t we go to where they are. She said this is JUST a tour for the whales. No I said I paid to see wildlife too. The description is WHALE AND WILDLIFE tour. Did I get on the right bus from the cruise port. Yes! The right boat for this tour, yes. Funny thing is later on the cruise ship we met a couple who in just randomly talking about their day went on the same ALLEN marine tour, obviously same day, DIFFERENT boat AND they got to SEE the WILDLIFE part. I sent an in-depth email to Nicole Davis who clearly didn’t read my email. I explained to her that our “captain “ of the tour didn’t even MENTION WILDLIFE. Just whales. Why? Because that’s all we were going to get to see. Why didn’t the captain say something or anything like “ let’s go over this way to search out sea lions otters seals”…no not one mention of it. And by the way we met two sisters who took a private boat tour the same excursion and guess what… they got to see all the wildlife we missed. So enjoy your money Allen marine and thanks for...

This tour was a shore excursion through our cruise line, and it was one of the best we have had - Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching. Our driver, Cameron, who drove us around town, to the glacier, and then to the docks, was also engaging and knowledgeable about Juneau. He suggested a 1-mile hike to Nugget Falls, which was well worth it. The view was spectacular. On the bus ride to the docks, we saw a large number of bald eagles just sitting on a field waiting to fish.

We had an unforgettable whale watching trip with Captain Jenna and her incredible crew. From start to finish, the experience was engaging, informative, and full of surprises. Captain Jenna’s knowledge of the local marine life stood out—she took us to see multiple whales, playful sea lions, and we even saw some eagles.

One of the highlights was Kelp, a whale who kept flapping his fins and charming everyone on board. But the most memorable moment was when Captain Jenna sang “Happy Birthday” to two baby whales—in whale language. It was adorable, heartfelt, and absolutely perfect. Dory would’ve been proud!!!

You can tell the entire crew loves what they do and genuinely cares about the ocean and its wildlife. Their passion for marine conservation came through in every part of the trip. We truly enjoyed ourselves and would recommend this experience to anyone visiting the area. A fantastic day in Juneau for watching wildlife and...