Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Sea Day

Cruise Day 9

Monday, June 17, 2024

We’ve been very busy the last few days so today is a welcome sea day.  After our early morning yesterday, we indulged ourselves and slept in today, but we couldn’t sleep too late as we wanted to attend a lecture at ten.

After getting ready and having breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, it was nearly ten, so we headed directly to the World Stage for a lecture from Kurt on Alaska’s role in World War II.  The talk was very interesting as we had no idea of how involved Alaska was in the war, especially in the Aleutians as two of the islands were occupied by the Japanese and it took fierce fighting to get the islands back.  My dad was in the Navy and served as a radioman on Adak Island at the southern end of the Aleutians nearly 1400 miles south of Anchorage.  He made rather light of it; I had no idea he was part of the action.

After the lecture it was back to our room where I brought the blog up to date and Val took care of some more escrow stuff on her sister’s house.  She also verified some information for several of our upcoming private tours.  By the time we finished it was time for lunch and we were hungry.

After lunch we relaxed and read for a bit in our room as the weather outside was cold, overcast and rainy.  There was a talk late in the afternoon about Dutch Harbor and Nome that included a question-and-answer period that we attended.  The talk was OK, but over the last few years, Holland America has merged the Port Guide position into the Cruise Director’s job and in our minds, that just doesn’t work very well.

Our Grand Africa Cruise was the exception as our cruise director was a former port guide and very knowledgeable, but since then the results have been less than satisfactory.  Her talk this afternoon showed that our cruise director really hadn’t done her homework and only had superficial knowledge of the ports and some in the audience had more information than she did based on some research they did.  I suspect this wasn’t really the fault of the cruise director as they have a lot of responsibilities and may not have time to really do much research on the ports.  Hopefully Holland America will remedy this in the future, but I doubt it.

Afterwards, Val and I looked at our pictures from Valdez and then relaxed until dinner.  We had another good dinner tonight and I have to say that the food has been very good so far.  Holland America started a program for their Alaskan cruises where they emphasized fresh, locally procured fish and I have to say they have really done it.  All the fish we have had so far has been very good, particularly the salmon.  It was another short night for me in the casino as my losing streak continues.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Dutch Harbor but won’t arrive until noon, so we’ll have no reason to get up early, I like these late arrivals.

Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Seward, Alaska

Cruise Day 8

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Today we are in Seward, Alaska.  We have been to Seward before, but only briefly, and we saw nothing of the town.  In 2014 we were on an Alaskan land / sea tour and joined the sea part of the tour in Seward after taking the train down from Anchorage.  We literally walked straight from the train and got on the ship all in about fifteen minutes, we didn’t even know there was town there. 

Looking at the big picture, Seward is the red marker to the left.

Seward location in reference to the Prince William Sound.

Our arrival in Seward was just before seven and our luck with the weather ran out as it was cold and foggy with overcast skies.  We have a short day in Seward and will be leaving at three.  Because of that all the ship tours were leaving early so we were up at 5:30 this morning as we had to meet in the World Stage for our tour at 6:30.  Luckily, the Neptune Lounge opened at six this morning, so we were able to get some breakfast, but we were a little blurry eyed.

Our arrival in a very foggy and overcast Seward.

Just as we were docking a very large and very full barge arrived.

Our tour today is another boat tour called the “Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise”.  Luckily this is not a tender port so when our tour was called, we were able to walk off the ship to the waiting bus that took us to the harbor where we got on the tour boat.

For today's tour we were taken by boat from Seward (the red marker at the top) to the Holgate Glacier (yellow marker on the lower left),

The boat was not as large or nice as the one we had in Valdez, but still very comfortable.  We found a spot in the upper cabin and then went outside for our departure.  It was cold, and we were dressed for it, but unfortunately it was still very overcast with a very low cloud layer, so visibility wasn’t great.

Val spotted an eagle on a post at the end of the jettty.

Seward is located at end of Resurrection Bay and after getting underway, we sailed back out of the bay with the ultimate destination being the Holgate Glacier.  As we made our way south out of the bay, we wandered around some of the islands looking for wildlife.  There was some whale activity at one spot, but mostly just spouts and an occasional view of a back.  We also saw more sea lions and sea otters and a large number of puffins.  The puffins are similar, but not quite as colorful as the ones we saw in Iceland last summer.

 

We did see some whale activity, but it was pretty far away

The scenery was all very beautiful, but unfortunately, still shrouded in fog.  It did look a little brighter though, so we hoped it might lift.  We swung around the end of the Aialik Peninsula and headed up Aialik Bay towards the Holgate Glacier.  We were getting hungry, and lunch was being served in the cabin so Val and I left our viewing spot and went in.  We had chicken tamales with chips and salsa, that were pretty mediocre, but good enough and we were very hungry, so they tasted good.

It was very foggy and overcast.

Just as we finished eating, we turned up the narrow Holgate Arm and could see the glacier ahead and surprisingly, the sun came out.  This inlet was very beautiful with tall mountains on both sides and the glacier at the end.  It was amazingly beautiful with the sun out.

The glacier wasn’t as large or interesting as the others we have seen, but it certainly was in a beautiful setting.  We spent quite a bit of time there as the captain rotated the boat around several times and talked about the area.  This was the furthest point on our tour today, so after spending a while viewing the glacier, it was time to head back towards Seward.

 

As we made our way out the glacier area, we lost our sun and were back in the overcast, but it was a little lighter than it had been.  The captain heard a report of some humpback whales by one of the islands in the area and headed in that direction and that’s where the highlight of the day occurred.

As we arrived at the spot, the captain said there were whales spotted on the port side of the boat so, along with everyone else, Val and I rushed over there and found spots along the railing.  I was near the aft part of the boat and Val was in the center, and just as we settled into our spots, a whale breached right in front of Val very close to the boat.  She was ready and got an amazing picture, the best whale picture either of us had ever gotten.  I was looking the other way, and was able to turn and see it, but no pictures for me.  We did see quite a bit of other activity like tails and fins hitting the water, but no more breaching, Val had been very lucky.

 

Probably the best picture of the trip.  The whale breached almost right in front of Val and she was quick enough to get the picture.

The whales must have moved on as the activity stopped and it was time for us to head back to Seward as the ship was leaving early today and we had to be on board by 2:30.  One nice surprise as we headed back to Seward was we were served fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and they really hit the spot.  The sun broke through the overcast as we neared Seward, and we could see what a beautiful spot it was located in.  The tall, snowcapped mountain all around the end of the bay in contrast to the blue water of the bay made for a very scenic setting.

The crew passed around a block of ice from the glacier.

Back to Seward

This was a really nice trip today, and we really enjoyed it.  The scenery was spectacular, particularly when the sun shone and to see a whale breaching was a special moment for us.  The tour company name was Kenai Fjords Tours, and we were very satisfied with them and like all the other boat tours we have taken, the captain was a woman who not only did a great job of piloting the boat, she also provided a knowledgeable and entertaining narrative.

We made it back to the ship just in time at 2:30 and were soon in our room and out on our balcony enjoying the now beautiful weather and mild temperatures.  We sailed away at three and as we sailed south the fog and cold weather returned.

The same pictures I took this morning, but now you can see the mountains around Seward.

They almost unloaded the whole barge while we were gone.

I spent the afternoon downloading the pictures we took this morning and then Val and I went through them.  We relaxed until dinner, but had to get ready a little early as this was another formal night.  We have a bit of love/hate relationship with formal nights as it is a pain to have to get dressed up, but it is kind of nice to see so many fellow passengers in their formal wear around the ship.  As might be expected on an Alaskan cruise, there are many that skip the formal nights, but much as I hate to put on a suit, it is still (although dying) part of the cruising tradition.

After dinner, we were off to the casino, but it was a short night as we were both tired from our early morning wakeup call today, so it was early to bed for us.  Tomorrow is a sea day as we sail down the Aleutian Islands towards Dutch Harbor, our next port.