“People go to Alaska to see wildlife for a reason, but you see it in many ways and in many circumstances,” Holland America Line spokesman Erik Elvejord tells passengers. “Don’t expect a lineup of bears when you hit the pier, or pods of whales everywhere the ship goes.” While cruise directors try to play it safe by not making any guarantees, most people who take an Alaskan vacation and go to the Alaskan tundra in search of wildlife don’t leave disappointed. With moose lumbering around in Alaska within city limits and 70,000 sea otters playing in the coastal waters, you’re bound to spot something!

Whale-watching is one of the main tours that people take in the state of Alaska. “The time the cruise ships are up there is when humpbacks and orcas are feeding, so there’s a good chance you’ll see them,” says Robert Blythman, director for Carnival Cruise Lines. He says some excursions, like the Whale Watching and Wildlife Quest in Auke Bay, comes with a money back guarantee. “It’s a 100 percent guarantee that you’ll see the otters,” Blythman added, noting that there are 70,000 of these playful critters swimming in Alaskan waters.

He personally recommends the Sea Otter Quest from the town of Sitka. Humpback whales and killer whales can be seen surfacing and breeching the Inside Passage, which is a popular Alaskan cruise route, or in Prince William Sound, the Kodiak archipelago, Glacier Bay National Park and Kenai Fjords National Park. Humpbacks sometimes disappear for thirty minutes at a time, but the orcas usually move in pods with the ships.

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