Un-Cruise Land Tour + Cruise June 2015 Report

[boulder-girl]

Day 4 of cruise--Pavlov Harbor

 

Today we got to snorkel! There were other morning activities but I don't remember what they were. I was the only one in our group who snorkeled. My husband was planning to but he woke up with a terrible head cold and didn't feel well enough to do it.

 

 

We got our fitted for our wetsuits the night before. They are very thick neoprene. You still get wet but they are so tight and thick that they hold in most of your body heat. The catch is that they are a real pain to get on. That's me on the right, before putting on my gloves. Luckily the guides are very helpful with getting on your last items--like your goggles--when you're all suited up.

 

 

Our flippers on the floor of the zodiac as we motored over to the spot where we were snorkeling.

 

 

We were in the water for about 35 minutes. Which was plenty long. There were tons of starfish, anemones, small jellyfish, and things I can't identify, but not a lot else. The water was pretty murky, too, and visibility wasn't great. It was cool to have done it in Alaska, but it was not the most exciting snorkeling ever. (I'm still glad I did it.)

 

 

 

I don't know what the water temperature was, but it was chilly. But the wetsuits really worked--I was very comfortable in the water the whole time. It didn't feel cold until we got back into the zodiac and had a breeze. The guides were ready with towels and hot chocolate and Bailey's for us to sip as we motored back to the ship.

Edited July 15, 2015 by boulder-girl

[boulder-girl]

That afternoon there were no activities scheduled. Our plan was to cruise around in search of marine life. We did not come across anything significant, however, so we basically just had a relaxing afternoon hanging out on the deck, reading, napping, etc.

 

 

My kid in the lounge with a game. This is where you were most likely to find him when he was onboard.

 

A bunch of Dall's porpoises started swimming along the bow of our ship.

 

 

Here's how we looked watching them.

 

 

 

The ship also had an underwater bow camera that broadcast to a TV channel, so some people watched them on camera.

 

 

[boulder-girl]

The sun deck had some workout equipment available.

 

 

Several people used the machines during the week. There was also a sauna, although I never saw anyone use it.

 

 

King of the world?

 

 

 

 

 

Another amazing Alaska sunset.

[boulder-girl]

Day 5 of cruise--Idaho Inlet

 

This was the one day that was overcast. Typical Alaska day, they said. Still didn't rain on us, which was nice.

 

 

We spent the whole day anchored in Idaho Inlet. One of the options this day was a full-day kayak excursion. My husband and brother planned to do this. My husband's cold lasted just one day, so he felt fine this day, but guess who woke up with the nasty cold this morning? My brother. So he stayed in bed and Sarah found another single interested in going on the full-day kayak with my husband.

 

 

The full-day kayakers were first off the ship. Then once they were out, they opened it up for open kayaking or paddle boarding. (I can't remember if there were other activity options this morning or not.) The 8yo and I started with kayaking.

 

 

 

After we'd kayaked for a while, we went back to exchange the kayak for paddleboards.

 

 

Here's another shot that shows how they launch you off the deck.

 

[boulder-girl]

 

 

They didn't have a paddle short enough for him, so he had a hard time on his own paddleboard, so it wasn't long before he asked to just ride on mine.

 

I almost forgot the most exciting part. There were whales in the bay! We were paddling around and I heard the telltale splash in the distance, and I thought, "That's not really what it sounds like, is it?" And we turned toward the direction of the sound, and sure enough, a minute later, a humpback whale surfaced again. We were pretty far from him, but there were kayakers super close who were even more surprised than we were.

 

 

There were tons of fish in the water, but it was impossible to photograph them because of the reflection from the sky. Huge schools of them were swimming right under the paddleboard. It was really cool to see.

 

 

Then it was time to go back onto the ship for lunch. After lunch, I can't remember what all the options were for activities (I kept some notes but not, apparently, about this). The kid and I did a skiff tour around the bay. We saw several bald eagles, including a juvenile.

 

 

 

This is the young one. He sat here for a while and then flew up into a tree.

 

And that was the exciting stuff for this day. No magical sunset because of the cloud cover. But--spoiler alert--the next night's sunset will more than make up for the one we didn't get this night.

 

Next up: Glacier Bay!

[aussiemandy]

Thanks for this review. The pics are great. You certainly were lucky with the weather, hope we as lucky next year.

[boulder-girl]

Day 6 of the cruise--Glacier Bay

 

We started out at the visitor center at Bartlett Cove after breakfast.

 

 

 

This morning was overcast and foggy, but as you will see it didn't last.

 

 

On this morning, we had a choice of three different hikes. My husband and I chose the beach walk, and everyone else (on the entire ship) chose the other two hikes. LOL. So it was just us and the guide! The beach had lots of cool stuff to look at, but the bugs were INSANE. I'm not sure what kind of bugs they were, but they were small and they swarmed us constantly on the beach. (We discovered later they weren't nearly so bad in the trees, so apparently everyone else who did the other two hikes made better choices.) I never felt bites but a couple hours later I had red bite marks all over my hairline and forehead...dozens of them. They didn't hurt or itch but they freaked me out a bit. Luckily they had mostly disappeared by the end of the day.

 

 

I see a face.

 

 

[boulder-girl]

One of the coolest parts of the beach walk was that there were a couple of humpback whales playing in the water in the cove the whole time we were there. I didn't get any great pics, though, b/c they weren't that close.

 

 

Some kind of anemone.

 

 

A trail in the woods that we took to get over to the visitor center. This is where we discovered there were way fewer bugs once you were off the beach.

 

 

The bones of Snow, a humpback whale that was struck and killed by a cruise ship in Glacier Bay in 2001. This display opened just a year ago. It was incredible to see the size of it.

 

One of the guides on our ship had been involved in the re-articulation of the bones, cleaning and assembling them and then transporting them back to Glacier Bay for the display. She had given a presentation the night before after dinner about the process, which was fascinating.

 

You can read more about the whole project here:

http://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/nature/whale-68-articulation-project.htm

 

 

Inside the visitor lodge. We had a little time to hang out here. There's a gift shop, museum, restaurant (with binoculars on every table along with the salt and pepper), and this fireside lounge.

 

 

Then it was time to reboard the ship.

 

 

We all had our boots hosed off so we didn't track all that mud inside.

 

We also picked up our park ranger, Ranger Nicole, here.

[boulder-girl]

The rest of today would be spent just cruising. The clouds cleared up pretty soon and we had blue skies and sun. Another spectacular cloud failure.

 

 

 

 

Here is Ranger Nicole giving a talk on Glacier Bay wildlife. The weather was so nice she did it on the sun deck.

 

 

 

Then we reached South Marble Island, where lots of sea lions and birds hang out.

 

[boulder-girl]

More from South Marble Island...

 

 

 

 

 

 

This poor baby eagle had made the mistake of landing on the island, which really pissed off the other birds. They kept dive bombing him. He tried to fly away a couple times but never could get past all the angry birds. (Sorry, I have no idea what the white birds are...pigeon guillemot? cormorants?)

 

 

PUFFINS!!! There were lots of puffins, though I found it hard to photograph them well. They were fun to watch.

[boulder-girl]

One last one of South Marble Island...

 

 

And then a few more from the afternoon as we sail on toward Margerie Glacier.

 

 

 

 

Wildlife spotting from the hot tub...not a bad spot.

 

 

This day happened to be my and my husband's 15th wedding anniversary. On the forms you fill out before the cruise, they ask about special dates during your trip, so we'd told them it was our anniversary. I found this on our bed that evening, with a note that we could bring the glasses to the bar for complimentary champagne. A nice surprise! (The chocolate-covered strawberries were divine, and our 8yo picked off all the chocolate letters and said they were good too.)

 

 

The view out our window as we were getting closer to Margerie Glacier. It was around then that we started seeing icebergs in the water.

[Coral]

Please keep posting. We haven't had many (if any) Un-Cruise reviews. Definitely enjoying it.

[loeytalldog]

Please keep posting. We haven't had many (if any) Un-Cruise reviews. Definitely enjoying it.

 

I second that! Thanks for sharing!

[boulder-girl]

As evening approached, we got closer to Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. It was just after dinner that we finally reached them. It had gotten overcast as we approached.

 

 

 

 

 

Hot chocolate on deck. And GoPro ready for action shots.

 

 

 

My son and I were hanging out in the hot tub most of the time. I kept my cameras on a nearby table and would jump out occasionally to get a photo. It was a little cold standing there wet in my bikini, but anything for a good picture, right?

[boulder-girl]

 

 

And then we started pulling away from the glaciers, and the clouds opened up, the sun peeked through, and we had one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever experienced.

 

 

Some other people had joined us in the hot tub. I kept jumping out to take more pictures, and then thinking, "Ok, that's really the last one I'm taking." Until the light would change again and I'd jump out for a couple more.

 

 

 

[boulder-girl]

More sunset photos...these were taken over the course of just over an hour. It was a little before 9pm when we started pulling away from the glaciers.

 

 

 

 

 

It had started sprinkling very lightly in the middle of the sunset, resulting in an incredible full rainbow. This was 10pm.

 

Not long after, I finally went inside and read for a bit in the lounge before going to bed.

[boulder-girl]

Day 7 of cruise (last day)--Glacier Bay

 

This was our last day on the ship. We had anchored overnight next to Lamplugh glacier, which is where our morning activities took place.

 

 

This morning we had options of a guided kayak trip, a skiff tour, or a "mountain goat scramble," in which you got to scramble up some rocky cliffs next to the glacier for awesome views looking down on it. I thought that sounded pretty cool, but I had been looking forward all week to kayaking in Glacier Bay, so that was my choice. My husband, son, and brother also chose kayaking. My mom and her friend did the skiff tour.

 

 

The water is full of silt from glacier melt, giving it this surreal color.

 

 

 

 

[boulder-girl]

 

Passed the camera off to my brother so I could be in a picture.

 

 

Up close with an little iceberg. The water was COLD. It was much colder here than it was in the other places we'd kayaked. Recent glacier melt.

 

 

A skiff tour going out.

 

After everyone was back on board came another highly anticipated activity--the polar bear plunge! Time to get your swimsuits on and jump off the boat into water that's around 32 degrees F. I don't have exact numbers for how many people participated, but I think it was at least a dozen.

 

My 8yo surprised me by doing it--he had been saying for months that there was no way he was jumping in. But when the time came, he put on his swimsuit and went out there and was one of the first to jump in. He got out VERY fast and basically ran up to the hot tub. (Smart kid.) My husband, brother, and I all did it, too.

 

I don't have photos of this yet, but I will eventually. The guides took photos of us jumping in (haven't received those yet), plus my mom and her friend (who did not jump in) got some photos (don't have those yet either!). I'll probably come back and post a couple of them here once I have them.

 

 

During the afternoon as we cruised out of Glacier Bay, one of the teenagers on board gave a short talk that Ranger Nicole had asked him to prepare as part of earning his junior ranger badge. Here he is talking about what he felt made Glacier Bay NP special.

 

The guy in the blue shirt behind him is the ship's captain. There were three people who took turns driving, so when he wasn't driving or sleeping, he was often with us, keeping us updated on what was going on.

 

 

My son earned a badge, too, although she didn't make him give a talk. She had given him some other activities to complete. It was awesome having her on the ship with us--she answered tons of questions about topics from wildlife to glaciers to her uniform to what her daily life is like to...everything.

[boulder-girl]

That evening, after dinner, as we were out of Glacier Bay and headed toward our final destination of Juneau, we came upon a bunch of humpback whales. Not just a couple. There were at least 10. It was amazing. They were swimming together, coming up for air together, swimming past one another. Some were right up close, some were farther out.

 

The captain stopped the ship so we could hang out with them. We all just stood out on deck ooohing and aahing every time they surfaced, and when they just kept doing it, and there were so many of them, people started making jokes. "I got two!" (on camera.) "I got two and a tail!" "I'll see your two and tail and raise you THREE TAILS."

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome whale show...great finale to our trip. Well done, Un-Cruise.

 

 

I forgot to mention earlier that in the morning, the guides had picked up a chunk of ice from the water and set it on display on the ship. There was a signup form next to it where we could guess at what time we thought it would be completely melted. Whoever came closest would win a prize.

 

Most people chose times late at night--9pm or later, or even the next morning. My son chose 6:30pm. As 6:30 approached, the ice was nearly melted, but not all the way. The next closest guess was 7:15. We kept checking it anxiously to see if it was going to last long enough for the person who guessed 7:15 to win. A little before 7, when it still had not entirely melted, we were all disappointed that Lyle (my 8yo) wasn't going to win, but he'd come so close. He was excited that he'd gotten that close.

 

By the end of dinner it had finished melting, with an official time around 7:08. The person who guessed 7:15 was the father of two of the teenagers on board, and when they announced his win, he stood up and said, "I came up with my guess of 7:15 after a conversation with Lyle. He's the one who suggested to me that it wasn't going to last as long as everyone else thought. So I would like to let him win whatever the prize is." HOW NICE WAS THAT? Lyle was thrilled, and they asked him to say a couple words in the mic about how he came up with his guess. He had his 8yo's confidence that no way was that piece of ice going to last hours and hours, so he just knew. The prize was that he got to choose something in the gift shop up to $20. (The gift shop is a little display case in the lounge--you tell the bartender what you want and they find it stored somewhere in the bench seats.) He picked out this Un-Cruise beanie as his prize.

 

 

Another awesome Alaska sunset.

 

The next morning we docked in Juneau and the cruise was over. The rest of our group flew out that morning, but we stayed one day in Juneau, so I do have a few photos from there as well. Those will be next!

[EMED2010]

Yes...I used the AW1, which is waterproof, for all the images taken from my kayak or paddleboard. I love it! The image quality is fantastic. I chose this particular model because it can shoot RAW (instead of jpgs), which lets me keep control of the processing in Lightroom, which was a priority for me. It's pretty fast to focus and pretty accurate with exposure in auto mode.

This is great to hear. I am planning on buying this for my trip in three weeks.

[Coral]

Post #41 - gorgeous orange sunset photos. Did you photoshop the blue ice that was floating along? I know that the ice can have that deep blue but am really surprised with the sun setting that the blue would be that deep? It is like an orange picture with the blue just standing out. Stunning pictures!

 

Thanks! Loving every minute of this.

[Coral]

 

Most people chose times late at night--9pm or later, or even the next morning. My son chose 6:30pm. As 6:30 approached, the ice was nearly melted, but not all the way. The next closest guess was 7:15. We kept checking it anxiously to see if it was going to last long enough for the person who guessed 7:15 to win. A little before 7, when it still had not entirely melted, we were all disappointed that Lyle (my 8yo) wasn't going to win, but he'd come so close. He was excited that he'd gotten that close.

 

By the end of dinner it had finished melting, with an official time around 7:08. The person who guessed 7:15 was the father of two of the teenagers on board, and when they announced his win, he stood up and said, "I came up with my guess of 7:15 after a conversation with Lyle. He's the one who suggested to me that it wasn't going to last as long as everyone else thought. So I would like to let him win whatever the prize is." HOW NICE WAS THAT? Lyle was thrilled, and they asked him to say a couple words in the mic about how he came up with his guess. He had his 8yo's confidence that no way was that piece of ice going to last hours and hours, so he just knew. The prize was that he got to choose something in the gift shop up to $20. (The gift shop is a little display case in the lounge--you tell the bartender what you want and they find it stored somewhere in the bench seats.) He picked out this Un-Cruise beanie as his prize.

 

What a cool fellow passenger! Your son's smile in these pictures make it look like he is having the time of his life! He will so remember this trip forever!

[boulder-girl]

Post #41 - gorgeous orange sunset photos. Did you photoshop the blue ice that was floating along? I know that the ice can have that deep blue but am really surprised with the sun setting that the blue would be that deep? It is like an orange picture with the blue just standing out. Stunning pictures!

 

Thanks! Loving every minute of this.

 

Isn't that ice crazy??? I hadn't noticed the color being so intense when we were there, although I wasn't paying much attention to the icebergs. I did boost the saturation of the colors in the image, but the blue was pretty intense even in the RAW file.

 

And thanks for the nice words! :)

[maileehawj]

I've been lurking on this board nonstop but once I clicked on your thread, I just had to register to let you know how amazing and incredible your photos are!!! You deserve a standing ovation! These make me even more excited for my upcoming trip!! I also checked out your Antarctica blog and every single photo, I just loudly repeated "wow!" You are truly gifted!!

 

Wish I would've known about the Nikon1 AW1 before I purchased my new camera :(

Camera question. Would you suggest getting a lens longer than 200mm for Alaska or is that doable?

Edited July 17, 2015 by maileehawj

[aussiemandy]

Have loved reading your post, I've been keeping an eye each day for updates. I was wondering which month you cruised? Your photos are amazing. Can't wait for our cruise next year, we're booked on a 2 week cruise with Un Cruise.