Vacation

Our cruise ship arrived in Skagway along with about three other ships, which might make everything busy …

… But we started our day on a booked excursion riding the White Pass Railroad (another train!) upgraded to a carriage with only 14 passengers! There are a lot of choices on the White Pass Railroad, our choice took us up to the Canadian border then returned without ever stopping – but offering fabulous views everywhere!

Returning to the busy town we opted to avoid the crowds and take a walk to Yakutania Point (which also gave us a distant view of Nieuw Amsterdam!):

Today was a second “at sea” day viewing glaciers, this time we stayed on the Neiuw Amsterdam which got us close to the Margerie Glacier!

The day began with heavy fog but it happily cleared as we got further into Glacier Bay …

A few times we saw Otters passing us, apparently drifting in the water or riding on mini icebergs!

Over a few hours we traveled further into the bay, eventually stopping close to the Margerie Glacier – close enough that even iPhone photos were good, though I still used my high-zoom camera to get some photos!

Leaving Glacier Bay in the evening, we were treated to a fine sunset as well as fine food from our upgraded Tamarind restaurant booking.

Our first full cruise day is “at sea” where we spent the afternoon in Disenchantment Bay (!) where we transferred to a booked catamaran excursion getting us much closer to the Hubbard Glacier for incredible views! While I didn’t catch any in photos, we saw multiple ice falls from the glacier, too …

A spectacular day and just the sort of experience we’d hoped for when we booked this cruise nearly a year ago!