Note: This is the 7th of 16 posts about our 20-day trip that included a 16-night cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ship SPIRIT from Vancouver, British Columbia north along the inside passage to Sitka, Alaska, and then across the North Pacific Ocean to the Hawaiian Islands, before ending in Honolulu, Oahu. This post has 10 photographs with captions and some narrative. Photos by me (Bruce) taken with SONY alpha 6400 or Google Pixel 6 Pro unless otherwise indicated. (Photos by Linda taken with Google Pixel 6.)
SATURDAY 02 September 2023 — (T7,C4) Cruising Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, Alaska
This was day 7 of our travels and day 4 of the cruise. Our destination for today was Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (GBNP&P). We had an early departure from the port at Ketchikan yesterday, as it was a long sail from there to the Bay and our itinerary was planned to give us as much sailing time in the Bay as possible. We anticipated that this would be one of the scenic highlights of our entire trip, and it was, in spite of less-than-ideal weather conditions. The weather also made photography a bit more challenging, but I think we did okay.
Glacier Bay is a National Park & Preserve, so ships (cruise and otherwise) cannot just sail in as they please. Access is controlled and cruise ships, in particular, have to book entrance for their itineraries well in advance. They also have to stop near the entrance of the Bay and pick up a National Park Service Ranger/Historian, who remains on-board until the ship leaves the boundaries of the park/preserve. The Park employee does double duty, both explaining on the P.A. system what the passengers are seeing, as well as (I suspect) “advising” the Captain about conditions in the Park so no harm comes to the ship or the Park. Not a harbor pilot, of course, but an official Park presence for sure. The Park employee is returned to their base as the ship exits the Park.
Our first large glacier appears on the port (left) side of the ship as it works its way north into Glacier Bay. (Photo by Linda.)
Our APA and AMA “proof we were here photo for GBNP&P. (Photo by Bruce using Linda’s phone.)
There were great views in every direction all of the time. This photo is looking forward from the forward lounge. The large glass windows distort the exposure and color. I’ve corrected it as best I can. (This image is 1200×675 pixels. Clicking on it will display it full-resolution on a device with a sufficient screen resolution.)
The exposure on this photo was so bad I could not correct it. I wanted to use it as it’s a nice shot of Linda and shows the forward observation lounge. I adjusted it to make it “artsy.”
This is the same basic view as the previous two photos with an attempt at natural color corrections. Some of the forward observation lounge windows are visible along with a few passengers for scale.
Winding our way around headlands as we sailed deeper into the Bay was exciting as we (literally) never knew what was around the next corner (even though we had a map of GBNP&P). (Photo by Linda.)
Linda caught an especially nice photo of this headland with higher mountains behind. I think this photo captures just how rugged GBNP&P is. (Photo by Linda.)
The end of the Bay, ABIR. The day started out overcast and grey, with weak light. By later in the afternoon, the clouds had opened up a bit to let in light and reveal blue skies. (This image is 1080×608 pixels, and can be displayed at full-resolution on an appropriate device by clicking on the image.)
Linda on the pool deck (13, ABIR) with mountains looming in the background, relatively close to the ship. The experience of seeing the Park from a cruise ship was grand.
The land comes down to meet the sea as we sail south out of GBNP&P. I liked the way this green island stood out against the somewhat monochromatic mountains and clouds. (This image is 1200×628 pixels. You know what to do.)
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