Glaciers & Glowtinis - Day 6 Glacier Bay

[Melanie R]

Disclaimer – today will be picture overload!

Today was the day I had specifically booked this cruise for, so I was awake early (again!) and I was really excited, so was straight out of bed to check on the weather – it was still dark when I headed to the balcony, but it was warm and more importantly it was dry, so today was shaping up to be everything I had hoped for even at this early hour (5:30am! )

We were due to arrive at the Glacier Bay National park around 10am where the captain informed us we would be taking onboard some of the rangers who would be available to chat to and to give information on what we were seeing.

It seemed that everyone was of the same opinion this morning as there was a very long queue when I headed to the dining room for breakfast, but it was still early, so I was happy to wait.

I was seated on a table for 2, very close to another table where a couple from Yorkshire were just being seated – they recognised my accent straight away as being a Northern girl, but from the “wrong” side of the Pennines 😁

We agreed to suspend the war of the roses as we introduced ourselves, and they were a lovely couple very keen to chat and talk about their trip and were very interested in hearing about mine. I ordered my usual along with a pot of tea, and had the obligatory conversation that Yorkshire tea was the best in the world before we parted company and set off to enjoy the day.

I headed back to my stateroom to collect my jacket and when I checked the weather and realised how sunny it was, I collected my sunglasses as well. The weather today was just perfect – glorious blue skies, crisp and cool as we were now sailing through the ice and we could see the glaciers in the distance.

I headed up to the top deck as I was keen to hear from the rangers all about the park and the glaciers, and it was already busy with everyone congregating around the front of the ship. I was a little disappointed in the views as we were all trying to take pics through blue tinted glass, but the rangers were fascinating to listen to, telling us all about the wildlife in the area and the name of the glacier we were sailing towards - Margerie 😊

I then heard an announcement over the ship’s pa from the captain, welcoming us all to Glacier Bay and telling us the commentary from the rangers could be heard on the tv in our staterooms!

On hearing this, I headed straight to mine, tuned the tv to the correct channel and was straight onto the balcony. I had my own, unobstructed view of the glacier we were approaching and I was just stood mesmerized by the views in front of me. The atmosphere on the ship was like nothing I’ve encountered before – there were lots of people doing the same as me and watching from their balconies, but the ambiance of the glaciers was such that everyone was stunned into silence – you could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet.

I don’t have the words to describe how amazing this place was, and although I took literally hundreds of pictures, they don’t come close to capturing the sheer majesty of the scene in front of me. I stood there for ages just being in the moment and taking it all in, and I’m not ashamed to say that I was moved to tears several times, I was just so overwhelmed by the fact that I was finally there and it had so exceeded my expectations.

The rangers then told us that the captain was going to turn the ship around so that people with staterooms on the starboard side could see the views that were currently in front of me, we would then be heading further into the bay to other glaciers.

I had been messaging home and sending pics to everyone I could think of, when I got a message through from my sister – she hadn’t realised we wouldn’t be docking today and was asking if I had realised it would be “just another sea day”. It’s hard to explain the difference to an ordinary sea day, but the best I managed to come up with was that it was like taking a full day excursion on your cruise ship! It wasn’t the type of day where you would want to be doing lots of activities as you were onboard, you just wanted to be outside taking it all in!

As we set sail further into the bay, I realised I was hungry and it was lunchtime, but I didn’t want to miss anything by heading to the restaurant, so I ordered some room service. It arrived very quickly (I was advised 20 minutes, I don’t think I waited even 10) and I took it to the table outside to enjoy – I had ordered a croque monsieur with some fries and chocolate fudge cake for desert. It was hot, fresh and tasty and only cost be $3 to be delivered to the room, so worth every cent 😊

As we progressed through the bay to the other glaciers, I was just transfixed by the silence – the only thing you could hear was the groaning and creaking of the glaciers themselves, and we were lucky enough to see several glaciers “calving” throughout the day. Calving is where a part of it crumbles into the water – stunning to watch, but also a stark reminder of the changes our planet is undergoing and the damage being caused to our environment.

When I heard the announcement from the captain that we were starting to head out of the bay and would be dropping the rangers off in around an hour, I decided to pop out to the International Café for a latte. Me and the rest of the population of the Coral Princess it would seem! There was a lengthy queue, but I decided to wait and was served within around 10 minutes – but was told today there would be no takeaway cups or stirrers used until we had left Glacier Bay in order to protect the wildlife. I was happy with my coffee in a mug and took it back to my stateroom to enjoy the passing scenery as we headed out of the bay.

I had spent so much time today being overwhelmed by what I was seeing, that although I had been on my own for most of the day, I needed some more time alone just to reflect and come down from the highs of the day, so I stayed out on my balcony with the scenery just passing by and put a movie on my iPad (with headphones so as not to disturb the peace of the ship)

As the sun started to set and the scenery became more difficult to see in the dark, I reluctantly tore myself away from the balcony and headed inside to get ready for dinner – tonight was a formal night. I was heading to the main dining room again and this time the queue was a lot shorter as I was a little later normal.

I was put in my usual section again and had the lovely Alex as my server who very quickly gave me a menu and made sure the wine waiter headed over for me to order my cocktail (my notes are very remiss here as I have no clue what cocktail I ordered! )

I had the tomato soup to start, followed by the short rib beef, both of which were lovely as usual. The menu choices were often not very inspiring, but I can’t fault the quality of any of the food I was served for the whole trip 😊

Alex brought over the desert menu, and nothing really took my fancy but they did have petit fours as an option, so in my naiveté, imagining a couple of bite sized treats, opted for those along with a cappuccino.

I was served 16 petit fours – and none of them were bitesize! It was way too much to even think about eating, but I tried 1 of each and they were all amazing – and now that I’m home writing the report up I’m kicking myself that it didn’t occur to me to take the remaining ones back to my stateroom!

I headed out of the dining room and wandered over to a bar to order another cocktail (this one was a seabreeze) when it suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea how much I had been spending, and maybe I ought to check my balance at the reception desk! Unlike other cruise lines I have sailed with, Princess didn’t display this on your tv for you, so I headed over to get a balance. I was given my printout and saw the balance at the bottom and was shocked – not at how much I had spent, but at how little! I had been ordering cocktails, coffees and I had also had 2 spa treatments, yet my balance was under $150. This didn’t seem right at all as the spa treatments were over $60 each, but then I realised I had been refunded for my cancelled whale tour which was making my balance so low. Well, there was only one thing to do at this point – shop!

I wandered through the shops and stopped in front of the Swarovski crystals and spotted their Disney collection 😍

I had soon bought Pascal to accompany Rapunzel who I already had at home, and the assistant asked me to come back the next day to collect it once she had boxed it up for me.

It was getting quite late by now, and I had an early start the following day in Ketchikan for the first of 2 tours I had booked, so I decided to call it a night and headed back to my stateroom, climbed into bed and watched the rest of the movie I had started earlier (Thor, The Dark World).

Today had been the most perfect day I could remember in a very long time ♥️

[formosagirl]

Absolutely stunning photos Mel, I cant imagine how breathtaking this would have been in real life.

Really enjoying your report😊

[Melanie R]

Originally Posted by formosagirl

Absolutely stunning photos Mel, I cant imagine how breathtaking this would have been in real life.

Really enjoying your report😊

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Thank you - it truly was an amazing place to visit ♥️

[jocat]

Wow! Those views are simply stunning Mel.

An Alaska cruise is on our bucket list and I can see why you felt Glacier Bay was a must. I didn’t realise that not all Cruises do that route though.

[Melanie R]

Originally Posted by jocat

Wow! Those views are simply stunning Mel.

An Alaska cruise is on our bucket list and I can see why you felt Glacier Bay was a must. I didn’t realise that not all Cruises do that route though.

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They give permits for 10 years apparently and more lines have been granted one from this year - I know RCI now have itineraries including it in their new schedule

[smedley]

Those photos are amazing

[anji]

Simply stunning. So jealous! Photos are awesome

[kateh134]

Absolutely amazing scenery.

[MrsGrumpy]

Wow. Just wow!

[MariaLynda]

Wow, some amazing photos! (oh and the food ones too haha!).