Whether or not you'll see them from your cruise ship depends on whether or not it passes through areas where whales are sighted frequently, It's also a little bit of luck!
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You'll find whale-watching excursions on offer in every port, but you'll also, with luck, see marine mammals from the ship. The bridge officers keeping extra watch will make an announcement if there's a particularly impressive pod in the vicinity.
So you're ready to set out on a Iceland whale watching trip, but you don't know when to go. The best time for whale watching in Iceland and Greenland is from April to late September-early October, with the summer months of June, July and August recognized as the peak whale watching season.
To fully immerse yourself in the Alaska whale watching season, set sail on your Alaska cruise between early May to early June for the best chances to watch orcas, who like to hang out near Juneau, Ketchikan, and Seward.
For cruise ships, avoiding a whales requires that the captain, pilot, or other bridge personnel detect the whale at a sufficiently large enough distance to change course or speed. This often means detecting the whale several kilometers away.
Collisions with vessels can be fatal. When a whale or sea turtle is hit by a ship or another vessel, these gentle creatures are likely to die or suffer a horrific injury. Ship collisions have been identified as a significant human cause of baleen whales (mysticete) mortality [1].
Minke whalesTypically coming to Iceland during the summer, many often stay long into the autumn and winter. While they're quite a shy species, there are estimated to be between 10,000 and 15,000 minke whales around the coasts of Iceland. That means you have a really good chance of seeing them.
Best Times to Visit Iceland for Smaller CrowdsThe off-season between November and April is ideal for those looking to escape the hordes of tourists, as long as you don't mind the dark (by mid-winter, expect only five or six hours of daylight).
There is no time of the day when we are more likely to see the whales. They come and go and the situation in the bay can change very fast. Sometimes we see many whales, sometimes few. Nature is unpredictable and no two tours are exactly the same – every trip is a new adventure.
When it comes to the best time of day to see whales (morning, afternoon, or evening), there is no definitive answer. One leading operator in North Iceland says that 'afternoon and evening tours are usually less busy, and you get a chance to see whales in a spectacular sunset'.