The only bear claws that some cruisers to Alaska might see are on the breakfast pastry bar. However, when you do see bears from a cruise ship, they are often far away. Since black bears are sometimes brown, the distinctive hump on the back of an Alaskan brown bear is the easiest way to distinguish it from a black bear.
Cruise West does an exceptional job of helping its passengers to learn about Alaskan wildlife, and this exhibit of a black bear claw and an Alaskan brown bear claw effectively demonstrates the difference in size of the two types of bears. We were lucky enough to see both a black bear (at Mendenhall Glacier) and three Alaskan brown bears (in Glacier Bay) on our Cruise West Spirit of Yorktown cruise.