Day 4 Cruising toward Hubbard Glacier

Day 4        Saturday          June 23, 2001          

Cruising toward Hubbard Glacier

Woke up about 5:00 AM; found coffee on deck 9.  We were at sea somewhere between Seward and Hubbard Glacier.  It was overcast and no land was in sight.  This was a perfect time for a run.  Deck 10 had a jogging/walking track and four times around was equal to one mile.  I ran three miles that morning.  It may have been, not only the easiest three miles I ever ran, but also the most unique.  For almost the entire run, I was watching for whales.  This was the highest deck on the ship and I could see the water the entire time.  Unfortunately I did not spot any whales.  A good run just the same.

Back to the room and Mary was awake. The choices for where to eat breakfast were: the Windjammer Café (buffet), the Edelwiess Dining Room (full breakfast), or room service (continental breakfast). We made our way to the Windjammer Café for breakfast.  It was a fairly typical breakfast buffet.  There were plenty of things to choose from.  We enjoyed it.

There was no port of call this day.  Later that morning we attended an enrichment lecture on the subject of glaciers.  Unfortunately, it was somewhat boring and the speaker was monotone.  I was disappointed.  We continued to explore the ship.  It was a very large ship.

This is where I will let the cat out of the bag.  Our objective on this vacation was to see Alaska.  As it turned out, for various reasons, an Alaskan cruise appeared the best way for us to do this.  I ended up making the analogy of the cruise to Alaska as being a sampler package.  We would be able to see and experience bits and pieces of Alaska.  As it turned out, it was a very good sampler package.  Eventually I began to simply look at the ship as lodging and transportation.  Don’t get me wrong, it was great lodging and transportation, but it was not Alaska.

While walking (exploring) around the ship later that morning, we ran into Peter and Cathy.  We just sat and talked until lunchtime.  The four of us decided on lunch in the Edelweiss dining room.  It was a good size meal; I had the talapia.  Again, it was good. 

After lunch, about 2:00 PM, we were approaching Hubbard Glacier.  A quick step outside and we knew we had to go back to the room for warmer clothes.  Hubbard Glacier was incredible.  I think we got with in a half mile of the glacier.  The air was as cold as if you opened your freezer door and put your face up to it.    Most everyone had jackets and sweaters on.  Others also had hats and gloves.  The captain kept us there about 2-3 hours.  Apparently it is quite a feat maneuvering the ship so close to the glacier.  While there, we heard a sound that was very similar to thunder.  It was the sound of the glacier calving.  Calving is when chunks of the front of the glacier fall into the sea.  As a result of calving, there were chunks of ice (some very large) floating by the ship.  As an interesting side note, onboard was a naturalist (different from the enrichment lecture), a local I believe.  He was presenting information regarding glaciers; he was only permitted to do this inside, i.e. could not be broadcasted outside over the PA system where we were.  We were told that noise pollution was the reason for this. 

During the entire time outside, while admiring the glacier, the wait staff was coming around selling hot chocolate in Royal Caribbean souvenir mugs.  They sold for $5.95 each plus the 15% gratuity automatically added on.  So, four hot chocolates would cost $27.37.  What even seemed a bit funnier, for the last hour or so, the waiters were saying, “last call for hot chocolate”.  Ironically, if you went down one deck, you could get coffee or hot tea for ‘free’.

As the ship turned around and headed away from Hubbard Glacier, it was almost dinnertime.  This night was the first of two formal nights.  It felt very strange putting on a suit.  We had been in jeans the entire time so far and we were in Alaska (this is my vote for casual dining). 

Actually some cruise lines are casual only with an option of signing up for formal dinner.  That seems like a good way to do this, well in my opinion anyway.  For dinner we both had the salmon.  It was good salmon.  Although it was good, I was disappointed a bit after reading the menu.  There was an asterisk next to the salmon on the menu.  The asterisk was noting that the salmon was Atlantic farm raised.  Okay, my assumption was that we would have Pacific Salmon while in Alaska.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  Again, it was good salmon and we did enjoy it.  We had two deserts that night.  The four of us at the table selected our deserts from the menu.  As we were taking the last bite of our deserts, the Headwaiter, our waiter and a bunch of the wait staff came over to our table with a cake and sang Happy Anniversary to us.  It was a pleasant surprise.  So the four of us enjoyed our second desert of the evening.

John Davidson (Actor, Singer) was the entertainer that evening in the Broadway Melodies Theater.  He put on a very good show.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

After the show, as we walked out of the theater a bunch of people were outside at the railing pointing at something.  Yes, we were curious, so out we went.  A whale had been spotted.  At last, we saw our first whale.  Have no idea what type.  Whatever type it was, it was large.

Ran into Brian and Sharon on deck four.  There was a jazz trio performing nearby.  We sat, listened to the music and talked while enjoying the incredible scenery outside (it was still light as it was only about 10:00 PM).  At 11:00 PM, we headed down to the Viking Crown Lounge, it was 70’s Disco Night with “DJ Simmy & The Almost Village People” (they were good musicians and quite versatile as they performed the next night at the Country & Western Hoe Down – same guys, different outfits).

Day 5 - Juneau