Day 13 - 09/01/25 - Hubbard Glacier

 We slept well although it was still 73°f when we woke up.  I felt no motion and slept straight through for 7.5 hours.  But the best part of waking up was I got to enjoy for the first time in 8 days my first bowl of congee for breakfast.


Arthur, our Cruise Director, did a coffee chat with Emryn, our wildlife specialist.  She's biologist by training and will keep us informed about the wildlife on our cruise.  Immediately following this interview she gave a presentation on where and what wildlife we can expect to see on our voyage.  It was one of the better ones of this subject. The Mariner reception was nice.  We sat with Sue and two sisters, one of which had just did a burial at sea for her husband that morning.


After lunch Emryn gave another excellent presentation on Glacier Bay.  Our regional wine tasting immediately followed and it was in testing but there was no clear winner for a wine that I would like.  


Hubbard Glacier was the primo event for the day.  After the ship dropped off two groups of participants in a an up close tour of the glacier, we headed in for our view.  A Viking cruise ship departed as we entered.  Mt. Saint  Elias, Alaska's 2nd highest peak made a stunning appearance.  The Hubbard Glacier was stunning under the clear blue sky.  With my long range camera I was able to see the bachelor colony of Stellar Sea Lions. And at around 5pm, we retrieved the tour participants and headed out of the bay.

Mt. Saint Elias





Hubbard Glacier




While tonight was dressy night, we ate in the Lido buffet before attending the Captain's toast which was followed by the Repertory Company's presentation of "Solid Gokd" covering songs from the 60's.  It's a high energy show.  I will comment that we entered the World Stage on deck 3 and for the toast we were refused Diet Coke.  Over went down to Deck 2 and were cheerfully served it.  The supervisor there sent someone up to train the deck 3 staff.


In Billboard Onboard, the singer/pianist did a 60's tunes set which was good.  We contemplated going to bed early until I noted that the Aurora forecast was quite strong so we went up to deck 9 aft by the aft pool to search for them.  But alas there was a heavy cloud cover obscuring them.  So after a nice chat with an Aussie couple, we headed off to bed with ne making a stop at the 10:30pm feeding.  The mini fish taco was quite good!


Glacier Bay is tomorrow's principal event.


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