Alaska - Cruise Day 2 - Scenic Cruising with Mother (Nature) Hubbard

Since we are continuing to travel southbound through the inside passage, our first two full cruise days will be dedicated to two different areas of scenic cruising. If you see the term "scenic cruising" on your itinerary, that's just a fancy way of saying "We're bringing the ship through someplace that you'll want to see but we're not going to let you physically get off the ship." If you do the full transit of the Panama Canal, you'll see the canal transit day listed as "scenic cruising." If actually getting off onto a tour that takes you on a little boat in the canal interests you, that requires choosing the partial transit itineraries. Every Alaska itinerary is going to feature at least one scenic cruising day where the ship visits an area with tons of glaciers and will slow down the speed so that everyone can marvel at the view. The captain will also turn the ship around so passengers on every side will have a chance to see a 360° view. Another nice feature is that a naturalist or park ranger will come on board during these days giving commentary about the specific glaciers and wildlife you are viewing. Ship onboard activities may be limited as they expect most passengers will be out on the open decks watching nature. However, routine services on the ship like bar service and dining room hours will run as normal. Pro tip - you may be visiting Alaska during a time of year when it's warm enough for a T-shirt and nothing more. On these glacier viewing days, you are so close to the coldest places you'll visit on this trip that you'll want to put on extra layers and bundle up when spending any time out on your balcony or the open deck. I spent a good portion of my trip in a T-shirt and light jacket. By midday of these scenic cruising days, I had switched to adding a hoodie, my windbreaker lined rain jacket, a beanie, and gloves. This of course is only if you plan to hang out outside on the ship. Soon as I went back to moving around the interior of the ship, I no longer needed the warm clothes.

Today was devoted to scenic cruising past Hubbard Glacier. There are several options for these glacier viewing days that your itinerary might include. Other options include Tracy Arm or Icy Strait Point as well as tomorrow's planned visit to Glacier Bay. I've heard that Icy Strait Point is one of the best places for spotting whales from the ship. I may be bias but if I ever got to go back to Alaska, I'd choose an itinerary that included Glacier Bay for the colors, the icebergs/glaciers, and the calving. What's calving you ask? No, it isn't cows having babies. Calving is what happens when pieces of a glacier slough off and fall into the water. It makes such an echo that it sounds like thunder often causing you to hear it several moments before you see it.

It was a bit overcast today and we did have some infrequent rain shower coat our balcony but it wasn't bad enough to keep us inside. This post and the next will be quite picture heavy as these spots are a nature photographer's paradise.

Almost like a teaser preview to the real show, you'll start sailing past little chunks of ice in the water well before you're close enough to see the full glaciers. These little chunks are the remnants of what calves off the big glaciers. They float with the current; freezing and melting with time occasionally being polished or sheered by the water forming new version's of nature's ever changing works of art.

The closer you get, the more these random chunks start becoming  more like streams of ice:

And finally you are soon rewarded with beauty on a much larger scale:

I love the variations in color despite the chunks being from the glacier nearby:

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. While it is natural for one's mind to try and form what they're viewing into a recognizable picture, I can't help but see a certain something in the ice in the middle left edge of this picture.

I dub thee Wilson!

Thanks for the heads up about the calving that happened next, Wilson!

Oh no Wilson blew his top!

This glacier piece reminded me of those pom poms on top of some beanie hats or a little kid's snowball stash. For perspective, the below picture shows how close we really were to that same glacier piece.

By the end of today's scenic cruising, we were treated to a calving show from Mother Nature. Picture the thunderous sound in your heads as you notice the spray of water that shoots up into the air displaced by the dropping ice chunks.