Alaska: Glacier Bay National Park

Today is a scenic cruising day and I am up early. We have a 7:15am presentation by the park rangers from Glacier Bay National Park here in Alaska that have stealthily boarded our ship even earlier this morning. Luckily my aunt has saved me a seat much to the disappointment of other passengers that were eying my seat. There are some morning snacks, which is good since I haven’t had time to eat yet.

Today we are on the ship all day and the goal is to find a good viewing deck when we get close to each of the glaciers. This is the time when I regret not splurging for a balcony room. While I am pushing myself awkwardly in the tiny available spaces to get a good view I dream of having a coffee and sitting on my balcony with a delivered breakfast waiting for the glacier view to come to me. As usual my anxiety is unnecessary because we spend quite a while at each glacier and the boat slowly rotates giving one ample chances to get a good view of the glacier – multiple times.

Lamplugh Glacier

Margerie Glacier

The only disappointing thing is that we are too early in the season to see calving, or when pieces of ice break off as part of the natural cycle of glaciers – though some are receding more due to climate change.

I forgot to include last night’s meals in my previous post so here are some pictures of the tartare, lamb chops, and port wine I had last night.

Tonight for dinner we visit the speciality BBQ restaurant to get some meats and southern favorites.

I go to a late comedy show. Luckily we don’t have an early rising in the morning.

Alaska Cruise: Skagway and Yukon

We have arrived in Skagway. I affectionately call this the poor man’s port. Not that it’s all that bad per se but part of the port was damaged years ago in a landslide and it cannot safely disembark all the ships it needs to anymore. If you are one of the unlucky ships you have to travel by tender to the port, which we had to do. Honestly it wasn’t all that bad of a journey – we just weren’t getting the first class services we got at the other ports.

Today we are going to the Yukon and White Pass. We take a bus on the way to Canada and we take the scenic train ride on the way back. Once again we are blessed with amazing weather so it turns out to be a lovely day.

We have a hour or so until our tour meets so we walk into town to browse and get some coffee. It is early and not many places are open yet. It seems like it might be a little more lively in a couple hours.

Our bus ride to the Yukon goes almost in parallel to the train we will take later; we see it occasionally along the way. The view from the bus is amazing but we do stop briefly along the way for some great views.

We finally get to the Yukon, specifically Wild Adventure Yukon where we have some free time. There are animals to see or you can participate in dog sledding. Me being weird about animals used as entertainment skip the dog sledding but after spending some time watching the dogs ramp up for the sledding I realize that they really enjoy the work. When the dogs sense the sledding is about to begin they bark and jump excitedly. It was sad when one group of dogs start howling in sadness when they realize it is not their turn to go out. If I had the opportunity again I might actually try dog sledding.

We leave the Yukon on our way to the rail station to take the famous train ride. We have one last stop at Carcross where there is some shopping and an adorable general store.

We finally board the train for our scenic ride back to Skagway.

It’s been a long day so we return straight back to the ship. I try to stay up and have a little night fun but we have an early start tomorrow so it’s off to bed.

Alaska Cruise: Juneau

Today we are docking in Juneau, Alaska. I have another excursion booked but it doesn’t leave until the afternoon so there is no rush to get off the ship. My cousin and I are going on this excursion today so we coordinate our day. We’ll disembark this morning to explore Juneau, eat some king crabs then meet up with our tour group.

Even though the line is long we pay the expensive fee to take the tram up to the Roberts Peak. There is some First Nation’s exhibits, hiking trails and some gorgeous views of below. We hike one of the trails.

There is an option to hike down but I am unsuccessful in talking my cousin into it, plus we don’t know how long it would take us and our priority is to get some king crabs legs at Tracy’s King Crab Shack. We wait in the line for Tracy’s. It isn’t the longest but we do wait a bit – however it is worth it. Seeing the hefty price tag we decide on a 1lb per person instead of the bucket and it is the perfect size. I walk out still very full and very satisfied. The only thing we ask for more of is some butter and my cholesterol will hate me later for it.

We still have time to spare before we meet our tour so we walk as far as we have time for towards the other end of town.

Our tour is whale watching and a visit to Mendenhall Glacier afterwards. Each of these things can be coordinated on your own for probably cheaper but it seemed safer to book through the cruise to save the planning hassle and there is a better odds they would get you back in time to board the ship before it leaves; there is always that risk when you go off on your own. If I did it again I’d probably do a choose your own adventure day because I would have liked a little more time to hike the longer trail at Mendenhall Glacier and we did not have enough time on our visit for it.

This is the third whale watching tour I have attempted – the first was cancelled in New Zealand due to weather and the second in the Azores was only filled with dolphins – so I am hopeful at another chance to see whales. We do see some breaching briefly from the window of a cruise ship bar but that doesn’t count. Fortunately we are successful on this boat. At first I am slow to see them because I am always on the opposite end or side of the boat when it happens and it isn’t easy as a shortie to get a peak from behind other people, but I eventually get my views since it appears there is enough whale action to go around.