Today, June 17 2009, was cruising Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. We arrived in Glacier Bay around 7am and saw some spectacular scenery. Two park rangers came about the Zuiderdam. Twofold. They are there to ensure the cruise ship is not doing anything that isn't environmentally friendly and entering areas they're not allowed to go, and to educate the passengers about the national park. They were over the public address systems for several hours. Not continuously because they didn't want to disturb the wildlife, but often enough to let us know what we were looking at.
Around 10:30 or 11am the Zuiderdam came to the Margerie Glacier, and stayed there for about an hour. The ship stayed for half an hour in one direction, then turned around, and stayed stationery for another half hour.
Kerry still wasn't feeling very well and was in the cabin. I came downstairs and said you've got to come up on deck and see this glacier. Its incredible. I also wanted him out of the room so I could get the cabin cleaned and fresh sheets and towels. I saw the cabin stewards in a room across the hall and let them know I was getting Kerry out of the cabin for twenty minutes or so, and could they come in and clean the cabin right away. They were wonderful and said they'd be over there next. Probably quite happy that I'd made their job slightly easier and they didn't have to work around someone in bed.
While Kerry was on deck with me looking at the Margerie Glacier, we witnessed a few calvings. One of them must have been several tons of ice that calved off. It created a huge splash and even rocked the Zuiderdam with the wave action. Later we found out that the park rangers said that was the largest calving they'd witnessed in four years.
After the hour the Zuiderdam moved on to the Jons Hopkins inlet, another beautiful sight, and we stayed there for about half an hour. We couldn't go into the inlet because of the environmentally sensitive area, mainly seals and their pups.
Wow! This national park has some incredible scenery. We even saw a bear on the beach a little later in the afternoon, not to mention several whales in the area.
Throughout the day there were various seminars, mostly about Glacier Bay, but also art, a preview of shopping in Ketchikan, a camera workshop, flower arranging, and a craft class. The movie playing at various times throughout the day was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
This night is was a formal night for dining in the Vista Dining Room. In fact it was the Farewell Dinner, even though we were only halfway through the cruise, oddly enough. That evening playing in the Showtime Theatre was comedian Jeff Burghart.
At 10:30 that night a dessert extravaganza was held at the midship swimming pool area on the Lido Deck 9. I don't know. That late at night I'm not really in the mood for pigging out on luscious desserts.
Also sad to say I became seasick that night. When I was eating dinner in the Vista, which is close to sea level, I had a window table. One of my dining companions was seated beside the table and she was very chatty, so I had to keep looking at her. The waves were high that night and toward the end of the meal I began to be queasy. Oh no....
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