- Glacier Bay
A cruise, our worst nightmare, trapped on a ship with several thousand other people. Why, I hear you ask? We decided that we really wanted to see Alaska and this seemed a relatively cheap way of doing it. We'd spoken to a couple of other people and decided to take a chance and do a week cruise up the Inside Passage on the Crown Princess, embarking in Vancouver and disembarking in Whittier.
As part of our strategy to avoid as many people as possible, we booked a stateroom with a balcony. Seemed like a good plan. Before you dismiss us as a pair of curmudgeons, oh no, wait, we are. We rolled up a little early to embark and just as well, as two ships were boarding and the queues were a nightmare. It quickly became clear that we were likely to lower the age group somewhat as customs had provided hundreds of chairs for those unable to stand in the customs lines for any length of time. However, they were also providing cookies, a thoughtful touch.
After two hours we got on board and found our stateroom, along a huge corridor where we were greeted by the lovely Henri who looked after us wonderfully well.
Standing on the balcony, we finally had an idea of the sheer size of the ship, 16 floors high and 3800 passengers, and one staff member for every three guests. How many would we meet?
We had our first experience of the buffet experience before we sailed, my goodness, our first view of wholesale gluttony. Terrifying. As we walked in we were handed a plate the size of a christmas turkey platter and it was clear we were amongst professionals and had no hope of competing, even hubby, who's legendary status in the world of 'all you can eat' pasta is well known. Here however, he quickly admitted he was in the amateur league. The food was excellent and well presented, and as healthy or as unhealthy as you could want. We filled up on fruit and salad but all around us plates were piled so high I expected to see crampons and icepicks in order to climb the mountains of food. And no discrimination in what went on the plate, and in no order, it was all piled on together. Ouch.
We also had our first experience of the Princess hard sell, for $7 a day you could have unlimited sodas, and for $49, unlimited drinks of any sort. Now there was a challenge. We passed on that one.
As we sailed out of Vancouver, we were pretty excited though and we stood on the balcony as we sailed off into the sunset.
Our first day was spent at sea and we spent it on the balcony bird watching which we enjoyed thoroughly. We realised we were missing out on unlimited shopping opportunities. It was the first time we realised that when in Alaska you are supposed to buy diamonds, and there were numerous live presentations in the theatre showing us what to look for. Wow, we never knew. As well as that, there was bingo, horse racing, more shopping, a spa where you could have numerous treatments all designed to make you younger, slimmer and more beautiful. I decided that all the money in the world wasn't going to make that happen.
Our primary interest in the cruise was wildlife and scenery so we had done quite a bit of pre planning for our shore excursions, which mostly involved hiking and bird watching so when we arrived in Ketchikan we set off to climb a small mountain, which was beautiful. We had a quick look around the town before we got back on the ship, but were quickly beaten back by the sheer numbers of people all looking around the old town. There were three cruise ships in with a total of probably 8000 people, and for the locals it must be a huge part of the town's income, but it scared the bejesus out of us and we retreated quickly. We went to the gym. Yep, honestly, amazing!
The next day was Juneau, Alaska's capital, a small laid back town. We took the first tramway up to the top of Mt Roberts and surveyed the view over the fjords and mountains, which was absolutely stunning. The cruise ships in the harbour dwarfed the town below. We were lucky enough to see a marmot up close before it got too busy, and they retreated from the crowds. We had a walk amongst the snow before heading back down for a bus out to Mendenhall Glacier, a beautiful sight with a lake and mini icebergs floating around. Here we were lucky enough to see a porcupine with a dental problem of some magnitude, given its orange teeth. Once again we decided we couldn't face shopping and instead booked a whale watching trip in the evening. Despite the best efforts of the crew to avoid having to go and look at them, OH and I spotted some Killer Whales which was one of the highlights of the trip and something we had always wanted to see, so that capped off a lovely day.
The following day was one of the big highlights for us, a day's cruising around Glacier Bay National Park, the biggest maritime national park in the world. Apparently holidays are for relaxing, lying around and taking it easy. Really? So there we were, wide awake and getting up at 3.50am. Well, we didn't want to miss anything did we?! And the sun was already up so we decided we should be. We were on the poop deck, as hubby insisted on calling it as we sailed into Glacier Bay. Words cannot describe just how beautiful the scenery actually was, and the fact that the sun was shining only made it even more special. Ok, it was freezing cold, but several layers and some hand warmers took care of that. Our only concern was how were going to fit breakfast in, and we decided to go in shifts, so I sent hubby first, only for a hump-back whale to start breaching as soon as he'd gone. Oops. And yes, we met another bird watching couple so of the 3800 people on the ship we found two others we could talk to! It was a really magical day, bright blue glaciers, strange looking puffins, sea otters laying around on their cute furry backs without a care in the world. Well, until an orca wandered by. Harbor Seals hauled up onto ice, Bald Eagles perched on the glaciers, eyes peeled for fish. We spotted a Grizzly on the shore a long way off, our first one. We spent all day outside drinking in the views whilst below us in the bowels of the ship, art auctions and bingo went on without us.
I decided to treat myself to a massage while on board, well, that was entertaining! Whilst I lay on the table, my kind masseuse tried to sell me everything for what was ailing me, short of liposuction and cosmetic surgery. After an hour's massage I was presumably ripe for a selection of products to make madam regain her youth, all $300 worth! Hubby killed himself laughing when I got back and said something along the lines of 'I told you so'. He was kind enough to tell me I didn't need it though, so he escaped a beating.
Skagway was another small gold rush town, quaint, isolated and full of tourist shops. We bought a couple of gifts but spent most of our time exploring the trails around town.
Our last foray was into College Fjord, our only day of bad weather, so much so that we couldn't see much of the glaciers. What it lacked in scenery though was more than made up for in atmosphere as we slid amongst the ice and icebergs, hearing the ice crack and groan alongside us. This was my idea of Alaska! We were absolutely freezing and at one point retreated to looking out of our window. We even invited our new friends as they had an inside room.
I should at this point mention the formal nights, of which there were two. Formal frocks and dicky bows were the order of the day, and we wandered around to have a look at the show, people dressed up in the piano lounge, noses pressed against the glass thinking that this definitely was not us. We ordered room service instead. I can't do smart at the best of times, and I wasn't about to start now. It was an enjoyable sight though seeing all the Indian ladies decked out (ha ha), in their best saris.
We snuck into Whittier so quietly in the night that we didn't even realise we had docked until we woke up. We disembarked for the next park of our trip, up to Denali Wilderness Park and then back to Vancouver to the Great Bear Lodge.
It was a wonderful trip, we saw whales, moose, bear, caribou, a wolf, lots of birds. We also saw what life is like on a cruise ship for many people and were horrified by the gluttony and waste of food. We were bemused by the glitzy decoration, live bands, piano bars, casino, and shopping opportunities and overawed by the scenery. Are we glad we did it? Absolutely. Would we do it again? Probably not. We are independent travellers by nature and we felt like fish out of water, but it was also nice to have our bags whisked away and miraculously appear at each new site. It was nice to be waited on by lovely, friendly staff in comfortable surroundings. But deep down we are still the people who have been known to curl up on a coffee table when no other bed is available and accidentally end up in the wrong town because we couldn't make the bus driver understand where we wanted to go.
We are already planning our next trip to the Arctic, on our own, binoculars at the ready
- Moose
- Bbrrrrr!
- A small American breakfast!
- There's a bear in there
- Arctic Ground Squirrel
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