Amazing – Port Side Travel By Jill

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!

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.