Glacier Bay

Peter, John and I started our day early to see our arrival in Glacier Bay. At 6.10am Star Princess embarked Glacier Bay National Park Rangers at the entrance to the park for our journey into Glacier Bay. I am glad for some of the information from our cruise ship log of our journey. We spent most of the morning admiring the view and taking photos. It was very cold and all the layers were required along with the beanie and gloves.

As we were arriving in Glacier Bay

Such beautiful views as we made our way into the bay. We passed Marble Islands which were the home for heaps of sea lions lounging on the rocks. Such a lovely sight to see the sea lions in their natural habitat.  

As we cruised up the bay there were some warming drinks to be had on board as the waiters walked around with a cart offering a variety of coffee with additives. I had a Nutty Irishman which was Frangelico, Irish Cream, coffee topped with whipped cream. It was very nice and warming and probably the only time I would have alcohol before 10 am in the morning. Peter also had an Irish Coffee which is very unlike him but he did say when on a cruise do as you want to. As we cruised it was unbelievable the vistas we were being treated to. 

The boat very safely navigated the icy waters to the John Hopkins Glacier. The glacier is 19 kilometres long and was the first glacier we came to. There are really no words to describe it as it was just magnificent. It was named after the John Hopkins University in 1893 by Harry Fielding Reid.

John Hopkins Glacier

Up close

It is amazing how you get so many different perspectives from the boat and when I was looking at photos of the glaciers I did think that i had the wrong one but it is just the angle from which the photos are taken.

As we continued to cruise the bay it was hard to draw ourselves away from the views. Not only the glacier but all the pieces of floating ice which littered the water. 

The next glacier was the Margerie Glacier. Margerie is 34 kilometres long and extends 34 kilometres upstream from Tarr Inlet and is 1.6 kilometres wide. Another spectacular sight. It is named after a a French geologist and geographer Emmanuel Margerie in 1913.

Margerie Glacier

Up close

The whole time we were there the rangers are pointing out wildlife when they see it. One such thing was an eagle which landed on an iceberg. I got a photo of it, not so sure about the quality but here it is. Another bird on a cold perch was the seagull which were everywhere. The eagle might look better with a bit of editing when we get home.

After spending more than 3 hours cursing the bay and being gobsmacked at the views the rangers disembarked and we made our way out of Glacier Bay.

We had lunch and I found Cheryl and we spent the afternoon relaxing around a couple of different spaces on board. The boys didn't know where we were but that was ok we enjoyed a couple of G&Ts before making our way back to our rooms to get ready for dinner at one of the speciality restaurants The Crown Grill, which again was very nice.

There isn't much more to say about a day that was fabulous except WOW!!