Glacier day cancelled

[laughing husky]

I suspect that you are one of the few that was happy. Several people mentioned to me that they were planning on suing....It seemed to me that the Captain did a remarkable job in keeping people safe....Thanks for your prospective....It is sane and logical.....:)

[aronde]

I suspect that you are one of the few that was happy. Several people mentioned to me that they were planning on suing....It seemed to me that the Captain did a remarkable job in keeping people safe....Thanks for your prospective....It is sane and logical.....:)

 

 

Wow suing who exactly? Mother nature? Lol! We also overheard people complaining at windjammer which amazed me. We had just had 6 days of great weather on that cruise - 13 if you include the cruise prior that we were also on! Missing Hubbard was disappointing but the Captain also said the seas were getting worse the closer they got due to the shallowing water. The situation was bad enough as it was - any worse and I was ready to grab my life jacket!!

[bonvoyagie]

It would be interesting to know if there was any warnings issued about the storm. I know they get reports from the Weather Service.

That could be grounds for a law suit - because the captain ignored the weather report.

 

However if it was truly a rogue storm then it sounds like the captain did his best to keep everybody safe.

[LMKakaThing2]

So sorry to hear you missed Hubbard Glacier. I was on the May 15th sailing of Radiance and the first day we had rough seas but nothing like what I saw (video) and have heard. When we were making our way to Hubbard, I thought for sure we were going to have to turn around because it was so foggy. But eventually we reached the other side of the fog and it was clear.

[aronde]

It would be interesting to know if there was any warnings issued about the storm. I know they get reports from the Weather Service.

That could be grounds for a law suit - because the captain ignored the weather report.

 

However if it was truly a rogue storm then it sounds like the captain did his best to keep everybody safe.

 

 

Captain said the forecast was for a lot calmer seas. Leaving Skagway his report on conditions for the evening/next day certainly made no mention of needing to secure any loose items in the cabin! At Captains corner he was asked about forecast accuracy and he basically stated that these things can happen not only in Alaska but elsewhere.

[aronde]

So sorry to hear you missed Hubbard Glacier. I was on the May 15th sailing of Radiance and the first day we had rough seas but nothing like what I saw (video) and have heard. When we were making our way to Hubbard, I thought for sure we were going to have to turn around because it was so foggy. But eventually we reached the other side of the fog and it was clear.

 

 

The May 22 sailing made it to Hubbard also. The fog slowly descended on the glacier whilst we were there giving it a surreal appearance and it was amazing. Some calving also. Was not overly impressed with the guys on the tender boat though - disturbing the peaceful tranquility of it all with siren noises and yelling through their loudspeaker! Completely unnecessary.

[weatherboy80]

We were also on this cruise last week. The captain's assessment of ~8 meter waves sounds about right to me. I got first hand evidence of the sea when my balcony door popped open just before 4 AM from the strong winds and perhaps a listing ship :eek: Turns out I must have not fully locked the balcony door the night prior - whoops! Everything loose in our cabin ended up on the floor as well.

 

The big problem is that the strong winds (perhaps a gust or two up to 80 knots at the peak - sustained winds were much lower) last Thursday morning (June 4) were out of the southwest which were running perpendicular to the Radiance which was cruising northwest towards Disenchantment Bay to see Hubbard later that morning. To avoid an excessive side to side rolling type situation (moving into shallower water and a coastline that would funnel water/waves) the captain likely put us into a quick left hand turn to put us into the direction of the waves reducing the rolling somewhat. At that point I knew Hubbard would be cancelled later that morning. We actually turned southeast for several more hours that morning making a giant loop out in the Gulf of Alaska while the weather improved somewhat. I suspect a lot of people were quite seasick or they were doped up on anti-motion medicine during the rest of the day as the public areas were quite uncrowded for a sea day!

 

Neither my wife or I got seasick on Thursday, but unfortunately she got a bit sick the next day while we did the Kenai Fjords boat excursion out of Seward. Weather was much improved, but waves out in open water were still quite rough. We got to see Holgate glacier up close so that made up (some) for skipping Hubbard on Thursday.

 

If interested we put together a short videogram of our overall trip on Radiance last week. Even though we missed Hubbard we had a fantastic time overall.

 

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbNGzJq0asnDoY&emid=sharvidgramviewer&cid=EM_sharvvidgramview&linkid=link13

[emeraldcity]

Thank you for the link to your videogram, weatherboy. I'm getting so excited ... we are on the July 10th sailing ... I've waited a very long time to finally take this trip and I loved getting a peek at what's in store for us next month.

[weatherboy80]

No problem - glad you enjoyed. Jealous you have this trip to look forward to at this point ;)

[jessed]

Hi, I'm currently on Radiance of the seas northbound. We were suppose to be in Hubbard glacier today but it was cancelled due to severe weather. Whole ship is moving a lot, stuff was flying in the room last night. Lots of people sea sick. Just a heads up for everyone who is planning a cruise to experience a glacier day.

 

Also I had an interesting conversation with an official (not associated with cruise line) who told me that glacier bay might get closed to cruise ships in next 2 years.

 

We were there the next day - the fifth - on the Zaandam and had a beautiful day. Funny how weather runs sometimes.

[Workingthelist]

We also missed Hubbard on 6/5 due to gale winds causing us to turn back a bit to ride out the storm. But getting into Glacier Bay the next day made the previous day's weather a distant memory.

[clc6p]

We missed Hubbard Glacier on my Radiance cruise years ago. It was a huge disappointment as that was the only glacier visit on our cruise.

 

Since then, I have been trying to book itineraries that have 2 glacier visits so that if you miss one, it is not as disappointing.

 

I hope you make it back to Alaska in the future to see Glacier Bay, Hubbard or College Fiords.

 

 

When we were on radiance 2 years ago, they had to miss the day, but rerouted and took us to another glacier another day. We were lucky 2 weeks ago. The millenium got closer to Hubbard Glacier than they ever have before! It was amazing!