Alaska: Hubbard Glacier vs. Glacier Bay
 

Hello travelers, which is more scenic - Hubbard Glacier or Glacier Bay? This would be on a cruise, am still deciding which specific ship. Looking at Celebrity Mercury or Infinity and HAL's Oosterdam or Asterdam. I figured if we knew which glacier was prettier that would help narrow down the choices. Thanks for any suggestions!

Glacier Bay is several glaciers and my clear preference. I have sailed all three glacier areas that the cruise ships now go. But you need to look at more than the glacier- you have some Seattle round trips mentioned- these are significantly lacking for scenery as they do more outside passage sailing. Some do a lot of open ocean sailing and just darting in and out of ports then back to sea. For clairfication- you DO get a lot of views sailing Skagway and Juneau- have to go through some nice scenery to get there. :) So look at routes- most cruiselines have a rough draft route in their brochures- not a given but an idea. Look also at time in ports- coming into Juneau at 2pm cuts way down on your touring opportunities. :) EVERY cruise is a compromise- make the best choice for you. Factor in highly price and budget fully for costly excursions- you get only half a trip without them. :)

Thanks so much BudgetQueen. I was really hoping to hear "Glacier Bay" becuase I believe the HAL ships will be less expensive. We can only do a RT Seattle-Vancouver due to my husban'd work schedule, the flights are to hectic for him 1 way to Alaska. I really want to do that in the future though.

We have been to Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchican on a prior ship. The Asterdam spends a whole day in Sitka and a whole day cruising Glacier Bay. That sounds the best so far.

Thanks so much for your input. I was hoping you'd see this, I know you know Alaska:)

BQ is right. Although Hubbard had a very strange -- galloping glacier period in the early '90s, Glacier Bay is the best.

Years ago, nearly all boats went to Glacier Bay, but I believe some started diverting to Hubbard during the boom of Alaska cruise ships and the battle over the quota in this whale sensitive area.

Thanks so much Repete. I've noticed that more compaines do cruise Hubbard Glacier, but it looks like we will be checking into the above-mentioned HAL Asterdam.