Hubbard Glacier

Today was a day of “scenic cruising” to the Hubbard Glacier so we didn't rush to wake up. We weren't scheduled to get there until almost 3pm, so we took our time getting ready. We had a good, if not great, breakfast of custom omelettes and pastries in the Horizon Court and spent some time exploring the ship since we didn't do that last night. The ship is very nice and it really doesn't feel like there are almost 2000 passengers on board. I do have to make a comment about the (lack of) size of the shower in our stateroom. Let's just say it was small for Angela, and I'm almost a foot taller and 150lbs heavier than she is. Otherwise, our stateroom is perfectly adequate. I'm so glad we got a balcony. Even though we didn't spend a great deal of time out there, I really appreciated the option of having it and the floor to ceiling windows really make the cabin seem much larger than it actually is.

During our little walkabout, we stumbled into a presentation given by the onboard naturalist Kathy Slamp. Turns out that she has lived in Alaska for most of her life and while she has no formal background in science or biology, she gives a pretty good talk. We heard about her family's pretty amazing journey to Alaska and her childhood years in Fairbanks and Juneau during the '50's and '60's. If I had one comment about her speaking style it's that she tends to be a little too hyperbolic when describing something like a glacier or whatever.

Anyway, we had an English “Pub Lunch” in one of the restaurants (Princess evidently does this on days with no port calls) and went up on deck for our “Scenic Cruising” at the Hubbard Glacier. This glacier is massive: it's 72 miles long; the face is 6 miles wide and over 400ft tall above the waterline and 200ft deep below the waterline. Contrary to popular global warming hysteria, it's actually advancing, and at quite a rapid rate at that. In fact, it regularly chokes off a neighboring fjord it grows so quickly.

Unfortunately, the approach to the glacier through “Disenchantment Bay” was so clogged with “brash ice,” “growlers” and small ice bergs that the ship's captain didn't feel safe to go any closer than about 6 miles. Too bad, because it would have been really cool to get close to it and hopefully get a shot of a large berg calving off. After spinning around so both sides of the boat could get a view, and after having the ship's photographers in small dinghies get silly pics of people waving at them from their balconies, we turned on the jets and headed for Glacier Bay National Park.

Since tonight was a formal night and since we made a conscious decision not to bring formal wear, Angela and I ate in one of the specialty restaurants on the ship, Sabbatini's. Good lord was there a lot of food. Instead of just picking one of each course, they basically brought one of everything and all we had to pick was our main entree. We both picked Chilean Sea Bass (which was delicious and perfectly cooked), but honestly by the time it came, it was hard to enjoy because we were both stuffed. We did have a nice conversation with a just-retired couple from Green Bay and didn't actually finish dinner until after 10pm.