We were advised by Lindblad that late June, early July was the best weather so that is when we went.

We just went on the Linblad/National Geographic short trip through the Inside Passage and had a wonderful time. Our trip started in Juneau and ended in Sitka. In Juneau, there were huge cruise ships and so the town was filled with the passengers from those boats. However, we arrived a few days early and went out to the Mendenhall Glacier early in the morning-- well before any of the passengers from the big cruise ships were out and about. After we left Juneau, I believe we saw a big cruise ship or two off in the distance when we were motoring along but we never encountered them during the day during our outings.

My mass market ship arrive in Juneau at 8am so I was at Mendhenhall Glacier by 9:30 am and it wasn't crowded at all. I didn't spend any time in town.