Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruises, Alaska, United States

5Horsiedad 5:00 PM Aug 28, 2021

Nice Boat. Good People
Very nice tour operator. They have two large boats which seem to be equally good. Good staff. Nice xxx from the captain during the course of the cruise. They offer a limited menu for lunch of clam chowder of vegetarian chili. You are free to bring your own food and drink if you like. We didn't see all that much wildlife (you never know what will turn out), but did get very close to the glacier. I would recommend this cruise to other travelers in Valdez.

4SJH-SFSD 5:00 PM Sep 28, 2012

Great Scenery, Lacked Wildlife (on our day at least)
Disclaimer: I've done numerous tours in Alaska such as this, including Glacier Bay NP and Kenai Fjords NP (six times). So, if you've not done anything like this before, you might have rated this a 5 instead of my 4. This is a review of the Columbia Glacier trip, taken in second week of Sept (near end of their season). Good: Boat was comfortable and plenty of room (I'm sure it's more crowded during the peak of their season). Captain very capable and knowledgable. Lunch was typical fare for these trips. Very Good: Glacier viewing. The Columbia Glacier is extremely impressive - six miles wide at the water. Throws off loads of icebergs, which our captain did a fantastic job navigating through to bring us within 1/2 mile of the face of the glacier. Merely OK: Saw a few sea otters (in fact, the best sighting we was was actually upon disembarking back at the dock), a few sea lions lounging on a bouy, and a number of harbor seals resting on icebergs near the glacier, but virtually no other marine mammals or sea birds. There were two large oil tankers moving in/out of Valdez on the day of our tour and there was also a spill response drill taking place so that could have impacted the lack of wildlife encounters on our day. Disappointing: As noted above (and for the possible reasons stated), we saw zero whales or sea birds, and not much else in the way of wildlife. While I would recommend this tour for anyone in Valdez (which is a beautiful place especially on a rare clear and sunny day), if you have a choice between this tour and Kenai Fjords NP I would pick Kenai Fjords every time. Our experiences at Kenai Fjords have never let us down in the way of wildlife sightings plus the glaciers that are always there. One item to note is that inside Prince William Sound, you're typically much more protected from potential heavy seas than you are at Kenai Fjords which can get a bit choppy at times.