Glacier Bay (Thursday, June 5)

A non-port day...but not a day to sleep in. The Coral Princess entered the waters of Glacier National Park around 6 a.m. and by then we were awake and on our balcony.

Although early for us, we couldn't exactly say we were up at the "crack of dawn"...that had happened much, much earlier! Many layers of clothing helped fight the "wind chill" caused by the moving ship.

Park rangers boarded the Coral Princess and and were on the bridge to provide a play by play narration as we sailed through Glacier Bay. Their commentary matched the views on the left side as the ship entered the bay. Knowing this would be the case was what prompted us to book our port (left) side balcony cabins. Being directly behind the bridge meant we were seeing the views at the same time they described them!

Before we reached any of the major glaciers, Laurel and I ran down to the indoor pool area where the park rangers had set up an information station. Laurel bought a couple of national park books and we both bought the most darling children's book. The photographs in the book show all of the wildlife that we saw on the trip and I have read it to my granddaughter many times. I love that when we get to the picture of the sea otters she always exclaims "Awe...aren't they cute!"

We knew that after taking a bunch of glacier photos, it would be hard to remember which one was which. Laurel (or maybe it was Kent) came up with a solution. To help identify photos we took, we used a map that was delivered to our stateroom the night before. As the ship would approach a new glacier, we would take a picture of the location on the map. 

So it is with a fair amount of certainity that I can say the following is the Reid Glaicer!

I learned a lot from our day in Glacier Bay. Did you know that glaciers hold 75% of the world's fresh water? And that the ice looks blue beause when the snow becomes compacted into ice crystals, all of the other colors in the spectrum are absorbed and only blue is reflected! And...as the rivers of ice flow down the mountains, they gather rocks and debris which is evident as dark streaks such as these in the Lamplugh Glacier. I could go on and on...but maybe posting a few more photos would be a better idea.

The dark layers of debris are visible in the icebergs floating in the water as well.

And of course, since this was Alaska, you didn't have too look too hard to spot an eagle.

 Waterfalls from melting glaciers ran down the mountainsides. The silt-laden water appears to be milky blue.

As the morning progressed, more and more blue sky peaked through the clouds.

Close to a half million visitors come to Glacier Bay each year and the majority of these arrive by cruise ship. To protect the natural resources, the National Park Service only grants two cruise ship permits a day to visit Glacier Bay. The Norwegian Pearl was sailing out of the bay as we entered.

The John Hopkins Glacier was visible by looking down an inlet, but our ship did not get very close due to the  large amount of ice in the water. Three photos...zooming in a little each time.

Some facts from the National Park Service: The John Hopkins Glacier is about 1-mile wide, 250 feet high at the terminus, and 200 feet deep at the water line. It is formed from numerous tributary glaciers, many of which extend 12 or more miles into the surrounding peaks.

At the far end of Glacier Bay the Coral Princess reached the Margerie Glacier.

Also a mile wide and 250 feet high, this glacier is just as impressive as the last!

The little boat in front of the glacier...

...was actually a large tour boat that was dwarfed the the wall of ice!

The Margerie Glacier advances about 2000 feet per year...or around 6 feet per day. This movement causes the glacier to "calve". Sometimes the chunks of ice that fall into the water are enormous and cause giant waves, but not the day we were there. The captain stopped the ship in front of the glacier and in the stillness we could hear giant cracks...some like sharp gunshots...and then like thunder as pieces of ice broke loose. Several times we were able to see the calving action.

As a result of the calving, caves formed along the face of the glaicer and the surface was covered with tall spires.

 After about a half hour, the captain began slowly rotating the ship so that the starboard (right) side could have a turn viewing the glacier. The birds were all excited...the ship must churn up good things to eat!

Once the ship turned, we left our balcony and went to various open decks on the ship to view the glacier. Here it is reflected in the ship's windows.

It was getting close to noon when the Coral Princess started cruising out of Glacier Bay and the four of us went to the back of the ship on Baja Deck (deck 11)...the same deck where our cabins were located at the front of the ship.

While we were there, the park ranger announced that the captain had spotted a grizzly bear on the shore. Even zooming all the way on the tiny speck, it was impossible to tell what it was with my camera. Laurel's camera had a sharper image and with a lot of cropping on the computer...it is still little...but it does look like a bear!

The Horizon Court on the Coral Princess wraps all the way around the front of the ship and judging from the crowds when we went to lunch, must be a pretty popular place to view Glacier Bay. There was no place to sit so we watched until we saw a group preparing to leave and then we pounced on their table. Sitting at the window gave us a good view, but it was so HOT with the sun coming in. After nourishing our bodies, we went back to the solitude (and coolness) of our balcony. (The reflection in our balcony door shows just how close to land we were cruising!)

Throughout the day we saw numerous sea otters, seals and whales but photographs taken on a moving ship just don't do them justice.

Around 3 pm a small boat pulled up to the Coral and the National Park Rangers hopped on board to head back to their station at Bartlett Cove.

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the view as we prepared for the second formal night of the cruise. 

Our 37th wedding anniversary had just been the previous week so Princess helped us continue the celebration by decorating our cabin door AND bringing us a special dessert at dinner. Kent & Laurel's 35th anniversary wasn't until August, but they received the same treatment. I'm sure Alaska cruises are often booked to celebrate special milestones in life!

The evening entertainment was not a big production show with singing and dancing as I usually associate with formal nights. Instead there were two different performers...both "reruns" of entertainment offered earlier in the week on the ship.

At 8:15 we watched a ventriloquist, Dan Horn, perform with his dummies in the Universe Lounge at the back of the ship. He was actually pretty funny! From there we went to the Princess Lounge for the 9:45 performance of Duncan Tuck. I would describe his show as musical humor. His music talent seemed to be quite a bit stronger than his humor however. 

And...I want to throw in a side note here so I don't forget later on...

At the end of the cruise we took a private shuttle from Whittier to Anchorage and Duncan Tuck's wife was one of the nine people on our shuttle. She was very friendly and I enjoyed chatting with her on the drive. Both she and Duncan were flying home to Arizona, but not on the same flight. He works full-time as a cruise ship entertainer and she joins him about half the time.

Hmmmm...wonder if there is anyway I could get Bob to find a job on a cruise ship... 

Coming up next...College Fjord and our last day on the ship.