Hey Guys!
This post continues our time in Alaska on the Carnival Luminosa.
Our cruise dates were May 8-15, 2025.
This morning our ship would be docking in Juneau.
Click here for 21 things to do in Juneau
Juneau is the capital of Alaska and can only be reached by plane or boat!
The City and Borough of Juneau has a population of approximately 32,255. This population makes it the third-largest city in Alaska, following Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Click here to see how many ships will be docked when you are there
Once again, we woke up to beautiful, snow capped mountains!
We hadn’t docked yet but we were very close since disembarkation would start at 7 am.
Our time in Juneau would be short….only 7 am to 3 pm. However, we had to be back on the ship by 2:30 pm. These ships will not wait on you unless you have booked a tour through the ship and it runs late!
We had to plan our day out carefully in order to see and do as much as we could in such a short amount of time.
I had looked for car rental places in Juneau so, we could once again rent a car, but I was only finding rental companies that were located at the airport in Juneau and that wasn’t going to work.
Tip: I have since discovered that there is an Avis that is a 20 min walk from the cruise ship. It’s seasonal and only open from late April to late Sept. There’s also Juneau Car Rental Company that will pick you at the cruise ship and take you to their rental office to pick up your car.
So, I decided to check out Turo. I had never used Turo before but I had heard a lot about them on some of the travel pages I follow on Facebook.
If you’re not familiar with Turo…it’s like VRBO or AirBnB for vehicles. You rent other people’s vehicles. Crazy isn’t it?!
So, I downloaded the app and started searching for vehicles in Juneau and several came up.
I found a 2018 Nissan Altima that had great reviews and it was only $160 for the day…and that included full insurance!
Tip: You will have to upload your driver’s license when you sign up for an account on Turo. If you book through them, you will also have to take a picture of yourself holding your driver’s license to complete the check in…this will need to be done a day before you pick up the car. The app notifies you when it’s time for check in. Turn on your notifications for the app.
Once again, we wanted to have breakfast before disembarking the ship so we headed to Deck 9.
After breakfast, we headed down to deck 2 to disembark.
Tip: The AJ Dock, where we docked, is situated one mile south of downtown. From there, passengers can walk to the center, which takes about 25 minutes, or use a shuttle service available for $5 for an all-day pass. There are currently 4 cruise ship docks in Juneau & a 5th one was just approved. This blog post will tell you everything you need to know about the ports & about Juneau.
The owner of the vehicle I had rented from, had sent me specific instructions on where to find the car. We had to walk about 15 mins to get to the car.
After finding the car, we had to take pictures and upload to the app in order to show the condition of the vehicle upon pick up.
We then loaded up and headed to our first stop of the day, the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls!
The glacier & falls were located approximately 20 mins from the cruise port.
Views along the way
After a short drive, we arrived to the parking lot….we were literally the only ones there besides a park ranger! It was awesome!
Tip: The cruise ships offer multiple tours for Juneau and Mendenhall Glacier is one of them.
Once we were parked, we started checking out some of the signs near the parking lot.
Tip: Visitors arriving at the glacier via their own transportation, will need to purchase their $5 admission at the kiosk on arrival.
There are bears in this area so be bear aware!
Our first view of the glacier from the parking lot.
Next we headed to an observation area to get our first view of Mendenhall Glacier.
Mendenhall is the only glacier in Southeast Alaska accessible by road. The glacier is about 13.5 miles long!
The glacier has also retreated 1.75 miles since 1929, when Mendenhall Lake was created, and over 2.5 miles since 1500.
The views from the observation deck.
There were several informational signs near the observation area that told you about the geology and the history of the glacier.
After viewing the glacier from a distance, we decided to walk the nearby trails to get a closer look.
They had roped off some of the areas due to nesting birds.
There are several areas where you can get much better views than the observation decks.
We walked right up to the Mendenhall Lake in order to get better pictures and to take pictures of the icebergs floating in the water.
The views were spectacular!
We had another gorgeous day….clear, blue skies!
The reflections in the water captured the rugged grandeur of the snow capped mountains!
The water was so still, the reflections looked like a perfect painting come to life!
We then decided to walk to another nearby observation area.
A shot of the visitor center
After taking our pictures, we headed to the nearby trail that would lead us to Nuggets Falls.
The walk to the falls is approximately 1 mile. The trail is an easy walk on a very flat, mostly gravel trail.
The views on the trail were really beautiful with all of the moss covered trees.
There were signs warning you of bears in the area.
There were several spots along the trail where you could take pictures of the incredible views.
The views of the glacier from the trail, were awesome!
There were signs along the way that talked about the glacier and the waterfall.
More views along the trail
Arriving to the waterfall!
This spectacular waterfall plunges about 377 feet down the rugged mountainside into Mendenhall Lake about three-quarter miles south of the active face of Mendenhall Glacier.
The waterfall is fed by Nugget Creek, which is in turn fed by the Nugget Glacier, a tributary glacier on the mountainside east of Auke Bay.
Tip: Click here for the best waterfall trails in Juneau
The reflection shots here were incredible!
It was like double the beauty! 😉
You could walk right up to the base of the waterfall! That is if you wanted to get soaked!
Tip: Steep Creek at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is one of the best spots to view the salmon run in Juneau. This area right near the visitor center is best for viewing spawning sockeye and coho salmon and black nears during July – September. Bald eagles are also frequently seen here. Click here for more spots to view the salmon runs.
I highly recommend you walk to the falls if you are visiting the Mendenhall Glacier…you will not be disappointed!
Read reviews here
I stood at the base of the massive waterfall, utterly dwarfed by its sheer scale as the roaring water crashed down behind me!
It was one of those moments where photos just can’t capture the scale!
The moment was truly unforgettable as I stood surrounded by Alaska’s raw and powerful nature!
Sometimes I find myself more concerned with taking the perfect picture instead of taking in the sheer beauty that surrounds me. Take time to “smell the roses” instead of taking the perfect picture that you may only look at once or twice.
A shot of my sister standing near the massive waterfall
The landscape that surrounds the glacier and waterfall
My mom had etched our names in the sand near the waterfall. In the middle of such wild beauty, it was a quiet reminder of how meaningful these shared moments really are.
After taking way too many pictures, my mom and I decided to walk the Steep Creek Trail near the visitor center.
Click here to see a map of all the short walks and hikes that you can do
The trail is only about 1/2 mile loop and can be walked in about 10 minutes.
Read reviews here
On this trail, you could see bears, porcupines, beavers, eagles and more!
The boardwalk crosses Sheep Creek and marshy wetlands.
This is where you would come to watch the salmon spawn during the months of June – September.
The views from the boardwalk were really pretty.
You could even see the glacier from the boardwalk.
Sections of the trail were gravel and took you through wooded areas so be on the lookout for bears!
The trees were covered in moss….so beautiful!
After finishing our walk, we headed to the visitors center.
We had to wait around until 10 am for it to open. Their hours during the summer months (May – Sept) are 10 am to 5 pm and they are closed on Saturdays. However, the grounds surrounding the visitor center are open from 6:00 a.m. to midnight year-round.
Views of the glacier while standing at the door of the visitor center
Once the visitor center opened, we rushed inside to find a t-shirt…we only had a few minutes to spare because we had booked a whale watch tour and had to be there at 10:45 am.
Views of the glacier and waterfall from inside the visitor center
After purchasing our souvenirs, we headed to the Auke Bay Harbor for our whale watch tour.
The drive was only 10 mins away.
This is one of the most popular things to do in Juneau since there are whales that live here year round. You are pretty much guaranteed to see whales!
Many tour operators offer excursions from May through September, with peak viewing from June to Sept.
After arriving, we had to pay $5 to park.
Tip; The meters where you pay, are near the building where the restrooms are. You will need to know your license plate number in order to pay. Leave the receipt on the dashboard for proof of payment.
We booked our tour online with Harv & Marv’s because they have been around for years and had great reviews. They also offer smaller group tours.
Read reviews here
Our confirmation email had very specific instructions on where to meet our captain so we headed to that area to wait.
The area we had to wait at overlooked the marina.
Tip: If you’re interested in renting your own boat, those leave out of the Aurora Harbor.
There were lots of signs that told about the different whales & birds in the area.
While we were waiting, we spotted an eagle flying overhead!
We also spotted the “resident eagle” at the harbor…so cool!
Auke Bay Harbor is considered a hot spot for observing bald eagles. They are often seen around the docks and in nearby trees.
The captain was right on time and led us to our boat.
Since we only had one other couple booked with us, they put us on a smaller boat.
It was so nice not being surrounded by tons of tourists!
After going over a few safety precautions, we were on our way!
The views from the boat were spectacular!
On the boat, we even had bench seats with a table…it was so nice! The captain had free bottled water, sodas and snacks.
Our tour lasted approximately 2 hours and we saw orcas, humpback whales and sea lions!
The boats can only get so close to the whales so unless you have one come up to the boat, you will most likely only see them from a distance.
We saw lots of whales spouting and several whale tales but we never got to see any really close up.
Every tour is different so you never know what you will see!
The views alone are worth it!
Tip: I highly recommend that you take something for motion sickness before going on any of these tours…the water can be rough and you can really feel the motion on the smaller boats!
After our tour, we hurried back to our rental car and headed to a nearby gas station to fill up the rental car before dropping it off.
We then drove the 20 mins back to where we had picked up the rental car.
However, there was nowhere to park the car! All the spots had been taken!
I went into panic mode as we now only had about 20 mins to get back to the cruise ship and the walk back was going to take about 15 mins!
My sister suggested we drive back to where the ship was docked and look for a parking spot there so that’s what we did.
Thankfully, we found a spot where there was plenty of parking. So, I followed the instructions from Turo and locked the key back up in the lock box, took pictures of the car and uploaded them to the Turo app and checked out!
I messaged the owner through the app to let them know where we had left the car and they were perfectly fine with that!
It was definitely a stressful situation for a few minutes!
After taking care of the car, we boarded the ship where we headed straight to deck 9 to have lunch.
I opted for a burger and fries and it was really good!
Views from our table
After our late lunch, we walked around the ship for a while.
Some of the views from the ship
We passed the area where they displayed all of the pictures they take of passengers so we decided to look for our pictures.
We found a few of them….my mom ended up purchasing two different ones….I think the cost was approx. $25.
Later that evening, we headed to one of the theaters for another musical.
It was pretty good…I’m not a music person so I can take it or leave it but the performers did a really good job.
After the show, we made a reservation on the Carnival Hub app for dinner in the dining room.
The food was much better in the dining room and you had much better options than what was on Deck 9.
After being seated, we took a few minutes to look over the menu.
Each person got an appetizer, their main course and a dessert.
For an appetizer, I ordered the stuffed mushrooms and they were delicious!
For my main course, I ordered the pepper steak. It was really good too but I thought it was odd that it came with French fries on top of it!
For dessert, I ordered some kind of chocolate pudding that came with ice cream and it was so good!
Also, if you dine in the dining room, the staff put on a short show with music…it’s really fun and upbeat!
Views from our table
After dinner, we headed to the fitness center to work off some of those calories!
Later, we called it a night!
Thanks for reading!
Read Days 1-3 here, Day 4 here & Day 5 here & Click here to see links to all of my blog posts