We were ecstatic to have the opportunity to explore the National Park courtesy of Major Marine Tours. We took the 7.5 Hour Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise tour and it will forever be one of our most cherished experiences. Major Marine Tours is family-owned and has 25 years of experience, making them our number one choice. They provide a variety of cruise tours dependent on your interest and time. We disembarked our cruise ship early in the morning and a courtesy van for the tour picked us and our bags up at the cruise terminal. From there we were driven a short distance to the check in location. Not only do they store your luggage, but we were also leaving to Anchorage on a 6pm train and they transfered our luggage to the train station while we were on our tour.
Boarding the ship, we were first impressed by the layout of the vessel. They have 3 floors of viewing, assigned tables with outlets, available outdoor seating, complimentary binoculars, hot tea and coffee. You also have the options of purchasing a meal on board with your choice of salmon or prime rib which was very delicious. We also loved that there are no single use plastics used on board. Incredibly, they had a National Park Ranger onboard who provided a lot of interesting insights and in-depth knowledge about the park and everything we saw. Here is our 1-Day Seward Travel guide and our full experience of the 7.5 Kenai Fjords National Park Tour with Marine Marine Tours!
Beautiful Scenery
We had plenty of time to enjoy the glacial landscape on the ocean amid the towering mountains, lush forests, waterfalls, and a variety of wildlife. We recommend sitting outside to take in the full experience!
Aialik Glacier
Coming face to face with the Aialik Glacier was one of the most incredible, out of this world experiences of our lives. As we started to get close, we could feel the intense glacier winds. Think about an air conditioner on full blast! Tip: It gets extremely windy nearby the glacier. Make sure that your scarves, hats, and coats are on tight. It would have been very easy to lose something because the wind is so intense. This tidewater glacier sits at the head of Aialik Bay and we felt very humbled in its presence. The face of the glacier is about 1.5 miles wide and 3.5 miles in length. Keep your eyes peeled for glacial calving and for all the seals hanging around nearby. Most importantly, be present and take it in. It's an incredible sight to behold. We really appreciated how much time Major Marines gave us here to enjoy the glacier while slowly moving around to different viewpoints.
Orcas
Toward the end of our tour we were lucky to come across pods of orcas! Major Marine did a great job locating them and directing us where to look. The park ranger even used an underwater microphone all while telling us all about orcas and how they live. We really appreciated all the knowledge provided and that we were given plenty of time to take photos and watch these beautiful animals in their natural habitat.
We were so impressed by the amount of wildlife Major Marine Tours located during the tour and we got to see everything on our list! Perhaps our favorite sighting was an otter who came up close and looked like he was waving hello. For smaller animals like this, make sure to take advantage of using Major Marine's complimentary binoculars!
We had an amazing tour with Major Marine Tours and would highly recommend them to anyone visiting Seward of the Kenai Fjords National Park! If you liked this post please let us know in the comments and pin this below.
Was a fantastic excursion. Very informative, thank you for sharing.
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