Day 5 – Glacier Bay National Park

Thursday was the amazing Glacier Bay National Park. We entered early, stopping at Gustavus around 6AM to pickup 5 park rangers. Then it was a couple of hours cruising the scenic passages towards Marjerie Glacier. We continued to have wet weather, but thankfully the wind seemed to die down the closer we got to the glacier. It was cool and drizzly wet and foggy.

Although I had been on an Alaska Inside Passage cruise before, this was my first time to Glacier Bay. The glaciers are amazing. And while on deck, you hear so many stories and comments about people and their past cruises here and how much the glaciers have decreased in just a few years. Here are some shots I took at Marjerie Glacier:

If you have a cabin with a balcony, and prefer to sit and enjoy from your own balcony instead of going to the upper decks, not to worry. The Captain will position the ship with the port side viewing of the glacier and stay for 30 minutes, he will then rotate the ship so the starboard side has the same view for the same 30 minutes. So equal viewing for each side, so no need to leave your balcony if you don’t want to!

After the hour viewing, it was time to move on.

Our next glacier viewing would be the smaller Lamplugh Glacier. It took a little over an hour I believe to get there. And here are some shots I took there, and I will note, while looking at Lamplugh, if you look just to the right, then up on the top of the hill, you will see a small glacier, which makes the waterfall to the ocean (see last 2 images):

And here are a couple of additional photos that I took of the area surrounding Lamplugh:

You will enjoy the same viewing of Lamplugh as with Marjerie, 30 minutes one side of the ship then 30 minutes on the other side. Then it was time to move on as we were due in Ketchikan the next morning. Once the ship begins to leave Lamplugh, there will be ranger talks in the Theatre in the afternoon.

The remainder of the day for me was spent dining and visiting with friends, attending the show and cocktails. Cheers to Ketchikan tomorrow!

Day 4 – Skagway

Day 4, Wednesday, we stopped in Skagway. I had a full day planned with two excursions. We docked at about 7 am I believe and folks began to go ashore as soon as the ship was cleared. Because I had an earlier excursion, I had room service deliver a breakfast sandwich so I could eat before going ashore. Princess docks closest to the hill which is painted with names of cruise lines and other things (sorry, didn’t grab a picture this trip). The pier is a decent length, so they do have a little trolley car that will take you to the end if you prefer not to walk it which is complimentary. They also have some cargo containers opened up and put together end to end so you can walk to the end protected from the weather. This was helpful as it was windy and drizzling when we arrived.

Excursion 1:

My first excursion was a mini-bus ride to the Klondike Summit. Even though we could not pass into Canada, we had to bring our passports as you do pass through a customs check coming back down. I ended up not needing to show it to anyone, but had to have it with me. The driver gave a heads up, as several people had large coffee cups with them, he warned there are no restrooms along the route. There is one at the end of the pier before you leave.

The drive is nice and scenic and the driver was full of Alaska history and stories along the way. Several stops were made along both the trip up and down the mountain for photos. I had already heard that the train ride was not going to be able to go as far due to an issue with the tracks. At one stop, he pointed out the reason – land slide on the tracks. Up at the top, we stopped at the Welcome to Alaska sign, which was to be our turn around point since we were not allowed to cross the border. This is the sign folks see as they enter Alaska from the Canada side. Our guide offered to take photos of each of us with the sign, which was great. It’s a large sign so a selfie made it difficult to get a good shot (for me at least!). I was glad I took along my gloves/hat and jacket as that wind chilled you to the bone! Once we all had time to take some quick pictures it was back down the mountain we went. The excursion was about 90 minutes long and the driver offered to let folks out in town if they wanted to shop then they could either walk back to the ship or pay a couple dollars and take the town trolley back. I had another excursion about 90 minutes later so no time to shop. Back to the ship for a bit for me!

Excursion 2:

My second excursion was titled “Alaska Nature & Wildlife Expedition” and was listed as just over 6 hours in length. It began with meeting on the pier then loading up on the fast ferry to Haines. This is about a 40 minute ride depending on weather/water conditions. There are restrooms onboard and covered seating on the lower and upper decks. Some of my photos could be better quality, but were taken through the wet windows of the ferry.

Once we arrived in Haines, the various excursions (there were several onboard) located their appropriate excursion bus and loaded up and headed their own way. The hope was to spot some wildlife so our bus took us down river roads and inlets in search. But unfortunately, you certainly can’t predict where or when you’ll spot something. We did see a couple of harbor seals and bald eagles. The scenery was nice though. We spotted a couple of fishermen in the river. All I could think was brrr as it was only in the 50s outside, so that water had to have been pretty chilly! Our guide then pointed out a person sitting on a seat attached to a bridge. It is this person’s job to count a particular variety of salmon. There is a gate that was put in. At the end of their work day, they close the gate until the next morning. This all has to do with monitoring the quantity of the species and fishing.

After some stops, they drove us into a campground. This gave us an opportunity to use the facilities and then we took a nature walk. I will say I do not recommend this walk for anybody with balance issues or issues with walking on unstable ground. There were roots everywhere that we kept tripping on, and even though most of us had on hiking boots, we were still slipping on the wet ground. There were also areas they had planks down as a “walkway”. They were not overly wide planks and some were becoming rotten. In other areas, they had planks end over end on top of each other so you had to step up or down on these planks. Overall though it was a nice hike. Quite a variety of fungi spotted, and a yellow blob that honestly looked like vomit as we first approached. It is called Scrambled Egg Slime.

Then it was time to head back to the pier and rejoin the ferry back to Skagway. It was about 5PM when we rejoined the ferry so once back onboard the ship, I headed straight to dinner.

Later, I pulled a few slots, then enjoyed some time at my favorite bar then it was time to call it a night as the next day was Glacier Bay and I knew it would be a slightly early day as well.

Day 3 – Juneau

We were not scheduled to dock until around noon with the ok to go ashore around 1PM. Because of this, the day began as normal, got up and got ready, packed my bag for a day ashore, then I headed to breakfast.

After breakfast, I wandered around, ran into a couple of people I had met earlier so we sat and chat for a while. Before you knew it, you guessed it, it was time for lunch lol.

While at lunch, we completed docking alongside Juneau. At this time, I headed back to my cabin and grabbed my bag then hung out in the Piazza catching up on the latest online. Approval was received to go ashore.

Monday, I opted to let the weather forecast change my mind about going whale watching and to Mendenhall Glacier. So my plan at this point was just to wander in town. I hung out onboard long enough for the excursions groups to get off the ship.

I will note that typically, you meet in the Theatre, they give you the little sticker with your bus number, etc then you go as a group to the bus/pier or wherever you’re supposed to meet. That has changed, at least for now, so you go where-ever your tour ticket tells you at the time noted on the ticket. Most often it was “meet on the pier at xx time” or “meet at the end of the pier at xx time”. Then the person in charge of the group checked you in, and told you where to go.

Once the crowd had died down, I headed ashore. First thing I did was buy a ticket and head up Mount Roberts by way of the tram. If it hadn’t been so wet, I had planned to take a short hike at the top. Since it was very cloudy and drizzly, I just went up, shopped, took some photos of the pier and the ship, then headed back down. Kind of pricey for a quick trip up, but that’s ok. Tickets were $25/pp.

Then I just walked along the pier, did some window shopping, and picked up a couple of souvenirs. The highlight of the day came when, while walking on the pier, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. A bald eagle sat perched on a bridge not far from the pier. Even though it was drizzling, I stopped and changed my camera lens, throwing on my long lens. And I was able to capture some lovely photos of this wet bald eagle!

After a little more meandering and shopping, I headed back to the ship, dropped off my bags (camera and shopping) and yep, you guessed it, it was time for dinner! As always, I shared a table with strangers and had a lovely dinner with nice conversation.

After dinner, I went to the show. Singing/dancing called Sweet Soul Music. They have some talented individuals onboard. I then meandered over to Princess Live to watch the Yes/No game. There were three or four winners out of the six or seven that participated. It was pretty impressive!

At this point it was getting a late and I had a full day scheduled for Skagway so I called it a night.