Mom and Me Adventure – Glacier Bay

Mom and I had such an incredible time on our Yukon excursion the day prior and we had stayed up too late gazing at the amazing scenery as we departed Skagway. So when my alarm clock went off at 7:15am, I was slightly cranky. And a quick peek out the window made me even more cranky when I saw the low clouds obscuring the mountain tops. I crossed my fingers and fervently hoped the weather would clear up. Because today we were sailing into Glacier Bay National Park.

You know all of those commercials that show a cruise ship next to icy mountains with small little icebergs (but not Titanic-killing size) floating in unreal blue water? That’s footage from Glacier Bay National Park. It is hyped as one of the most spectacular scenic cruise days on the planet. But if those low clouds stuck around, it was going to be hard to even see tidewater glaciers, let alone the hanging glaciers up in the mountains.

When I woke up, we were just passing Strawberry Island, near the entrance to the National Park and right after where the cruise ships pick up the NPS interpretive rangers. (For those of you that want to play along at home, here’s the map that the majority of the cruise lines take. My cruise took the exact path along the red line.) My mom was still asleep and I was loathe to wake her when the scenery wasn’t all that great. But at 8am, we got a knock at our cabin door, delivering the room service breakfast I had ordered the night before. See, the best thing I discovered about a cruise is that room service (with very limited exceptions) is free on a cruise! Imagine that, breakfast in bed – one of the most decadent pleasures of a hotel stay that can cost you upwards of $50 per person but is free on a cruise. My mom was a bit surprised to have such a treat because she has never in her life had room service.

We lounged around in our cabin, eating breakfast and glancing outside every five seconds. Were the clouds starting to lift? Yes, yes they were. We past Gloomy Knob when the sky began to clear. We were on the port (or left to all you landlubbers out there) side of the ship and got to slowly see the Reid Glacier coming into view. Mom and I quickly bundled up and ran out onto the balcony. We could just see the Lamplugh Glacier before the ship veered to the east, cruising up the Tarr Inlet. Everywhere we looked, there were snowcapped mountains, ice, or glacial blue water. When the sun came out, it was literally breath-taking.

Our ship cruised to the end of Tarr Inlet, where the Margerie Glacier meets the sea. At first, our side of the ship was right next to the glacier. Mom and I were frantically taking photos as the ship began to rotate to provide people on the other side a view of the ice. Realizing what was happening, we made a break for the elevators to take us up to the outdoor observation deck. The outdoor deck was jammed with people but we were lucky enough to stand behind two woman who had apparently set up camp before we even had breakfast. They were bundled up in deck chairs. The ship moved even closer to the ice, treating us to an up-close view of the glacier. Let me say right now, I had been to Iceland prior and even walked on a glacier there. But none of those glaciers had the intense icy blue color that these Alaskan glaciers did. I honestly don’t know if I would have believed that it wasn’t photoshopped until I saw it with my own eyes.

We watched a few icebergs calve off the main glacier, sounding very much like a gunshot followed by thunder. I can’t even imagine how surreal that would sound if you were alone out there, rather than being on a cruise ship with hundreds of loud-ass humans (we actually couldn’t hear it at all from our balcony with our neighbors screaming in each other’s faces; funny that an entire deck’s worth of people were quieter than the six next to our cabin).

Mom and I ran between our cabin’s balcony and the outdoor deck, trying to soak in the experience. Altogether sooner than I wanted, the ship completed its final rotation and began to make its way back down the Tarr Inlet. I wasn’t sure if that was it for the day (and honestly, spending time at the Margerie Glacier like that would still be a thrilling day), but then the ship turned into the John Hopkins Inlet, cruising past Jaw Point and giving us a view of the John Hopkins Glacier. The setting was insanely picturesque: looming snowcapped mountains, a river of bright white ice meandering down to the icy blue water. I took well over a 1000 photos because every time my perspective shifted, the landscape would reveal something different, something amazing.

The ship hung out rotating around Jaw Point for awhile before it made one last rotation and headed back out towards the main channel. We got a much closer inspection of Lamplugh and Reid Glaciers along the way with glimpses of the Brady Icefields in the mountains behind.

Much too soon for my liking, the ship pointed its bow heading southeast, going back down the main channel. We slipped past Mount Abdallah, then Rendu Inlet with its namesake glacier capping the end, followed by Mount Merriam. We caught a glimpse up Muir Inlet but couldn’t see any of the glaciers hidden down that channel. Seals and sea lions played alongside our ship. I momentarily spotted a few otters before they disappeared from view. We sailed past Beartrack Cove, the Beardslee Islands, and then right before Bartlett Cove, I saw a small boat speeding towards our ship. Intrigued, I watched it come alongside our cruise ship, which was steaming ahead without slowing down a bit. Suddenly the small craft was barely a foot away from our vessel and I watched the two female rangers who had been on our ship providing commentary throughout the day nimbly hop from our ship to the smaller boat. I was stunned. I had no idea that was how the rangers got on board and I assumed that the ship must have stopped its momentum to let them board. No, they do that at high speed and whoever the boat captain is has my mad respect. How do you even practice a maneuver like that?

We were now outside the National Park boundaries and turned westward, slipping past Lemesurier Island and the Inian Islands. As moved further away from Glacier Bay National Park, the cloud cover resumed. It was almost as if Mother Nature wanted us to know that she had specially made that sunny day to show off the jaw-dropping scenery of the glaciers.

Mom and I had reservations for that evening’s gala dinner at 7:30pm; so we glammed ourselves up and made our way towards the Main Dining Room. We were shown to the same table as before and perused the menu, which featured surf and turf. Let me say now, I am not a fan of lobster. First, it resembles a cockroach as far as I’m concerned and that alone is enough to cross it off the list of foods I willingly eat. Second, the barbaric cooking method completely turns me off. And finally, it doesn’t really taste like anything to me unless it is drenched in melted butter and why not just eat the butter then? I ordered the surf and turf; but told my mom I would give her the lobster to try. (I don’t think my mom had ever eaten lobster before, at least she claims she hadn’t.) The table next to us was a weird mix of redneck and snobbery, which I found incredibly bewildering. They thought they were highbrow and pretending to be fancy but jaded world-travelers; but in reality, they trotted out the same destinations that high school language classes take on their summer trips to Europe (not to knock Paris or Madrid or anyone who goes there but you can’t say you’ve seen the world when you’ve only seen two places; hell, I’ve been to a lot more than two places and I don’t think I have scratched the surface of everything there is to see on this planet). My mom couldn’t resist dropping questions like “when you were in the Maldives…” and “where was that place in Thailand that had all the temples” and even “is this steak as good as the ones you had in Argentina”. I found it hilarious and slightly strange that my mom was trying to one-up the neighbors with my exploits. But it did throw that table for a loop.

After dinner, I asked mom if she wanted to go check out the main stage again. But like the last time, there was a manspreading convention going on and no available seats for even my mom to sit. We wandered over by the dueling piano bar and hung out until they finished their set. And then my mom started commenting on how the ship was starting to rock a bit more. Taking that as my cue, I suggested that we go upstairs to get her all Dramamined up. My mom crawled into bed before I even finished taking off my makeup.

But I couldn’t blame her. We had had such an action-packed day for saying we didn’t leave the ship and didn’t do anything more strenuous than trying to pick our jaws up off the floor. The scenery in Glacier Bay National Park is something that all Americans (meaning people from the United States; why don’t we have a term for this instead of Americans which could encompass anyone from North or South America? Drives me crazy because I need more precision in my language) should be proud of, should want to protect and ensure that generations to come can experience the same awe and be humbled by the grandeur of nature.