Photos on a Inside Passage cruise

My wife and I will be on the NCL Sun on May 2nd of 2009. We both have a huge interest in taking photos on this trip of the beautiful country and wildlife. We need all the help we can get. Taking photos from the ship? Any tip you can give about what shore excursions we should take. Our cruise ship is supposed to go to Sawyer Glacier, but as John told me the chances are slim that we will get to the glacier. We both would appreciate any help you could give.

Photos on a Inside Passage cruise

Welcome to TA.

I love taking photos too. Is your cruise a round trip or one way? I find that most of the wildlife photo ops are on the land tour before/after the cruise.

But take advantage of things like:

1) Misty Fjords flight or boat tour from Ketchikan

2) wildlife boat tour from Sitka

3) NCL Tracy Arm small boat excursion if available

4) whale watch or Photo Safari from Juneau

5) White Pass rail or car rental and drive to Emerald Lake

6) whale watch in Icy Strait Point

I haven%26#39;t looked to see where your cruise ship goes to, but those are some photo highlights in those cities.

And just get out of town a little bit from the cruise ship docks. You will find lots of photo ops. My first Alaska cruise I walked 15 minutes from the dock to an area near the cannery and saw tons of eagles. Patience is the key - at first there was just one eagle. I waited 15-20 minutes and all of a sudden, lots of eagles.

You can see some of my photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnn.photos

John

Photos on a Inside Passage cruise

Not only will you have beautiful outdoors in which to take pictures, each of the towns you will be stopping in (I%26#39;m assuming the usual Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka) have their own unique character. Make sure you get all that, including totem poles, floating docks, salmon in the rivers and the like.

We%26#39;ve done kayaking (in Ketchikan and a full week kayak trip this past summer on a mothership, covering quite a bit of wilderness), the White Pass Rail (Skagway) and a Bike %26amp; Hike (Sitka)...phenomenal pics from all!

I can link you to a book I made of our last trip, if you are interested. It%26#39;s a great way to put the pics together and we had one printed, as well (it%26#39;s a beautiful coffeetable book).

You%26#39;ll enjoy!

Thanks John,

We are taking a round trip cruise tour (Vancouver). We have stops in Ketchikan 6am - 2 pm, Juneau 7am - 1pm, Skagway 7 am - 9 pm, and then back to Vancouver. This is May 3 -10. Any more help would be appreciated.

Please do. I would love to see it.

I%26#39;ve posted photojournals of our 4 Alaska cruises and many excursions at http://www.youralaskacruise.com/reviews/ - I think they will give you LOTS of ideas. I shoot with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi with 18-55 and 70-300 zoom lenses.

Murray

We were on the NCL Pearl last fall, very nice trip.

We had a balcony and saw more wild life then on the whale watching tour we took in Juneau! Saw whales everyday, orcas, otters, always something out there!

Skagway was our favorite port, lots of hiking options and the train ride was very good.

Ketchikan was also very good and easy walking.

The only tours we booked from NCL were the Whale watching and The White Pass train. Everything else we did on our own. Walking and getting around Skagway and Ketchikan were very easy and really enjoyable.

Both places we went to the visitors center first for a walking map and then headed out.

The inside Passage was the reason we booked this ship, we were on our balcony the entire time. Used a tripod for the video camera and we both had digitals, took hundreds of pictures and saw the glacier calf, it was well worth the cost of a balcony!

We went late Sept so it was very cold,but when the sun came it it warmed up, dress in layers, buy a nice rain coat and waterproof walkers or hikers.

Is this your first cruise?

Here%26#39;s the book I made reference to from our mothership cruise this past July...

鈥hutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly鈥?/a>

Enjoy!

Thank all of you for your help. We can%26#39;t wait!