Cruising Day 4: Tracey Arm Fjord

I got up before everyone this morning, since my internal clock is still Korean. I am super grateful that I’m not waking up at 3am though! One thing I vowed to do on this cruise was exercise, so I got dressed and went to the gym. On my way to the gym I noticed a bunch of older folks just sitting and staring at the water. I then catch the words, “water...spray...spout...toying with us...right there!" I look out the window and sure enough I saw at least three sprays of water popping up from the ocean, and it happened over and over again! Sure enough, there is a pod of whales just right off the port side of the ship, so I stayed and watched whales for about 20 minutes. They spray, and then skim the water and most of the time they dive back down and I get to see their graceful dive down and tail fly up then back into the water. The ocean was glass and it made it easy to spot all the whales. It was such a site to behold and one I haven’t ever seen before!

After getting distracted by the whales for a good half hour, I finally made it to the gym. Since I ran the day before, I jumped on an elliptical and took it for a 40 minute spin. I forgot my phone and headphones, so I spend the entire time looking out the window scanning for whales. It was a great way to exercise today.

I came back and found everyone still getting ready, so I jumped in the shower and got ready right along with them. Since Lori had a hard time at breakfast yesterday, we decided to try Truffles for breakfast this morning, the sit down restaurant and not the buffet. We got seated and ordered our food. That’s where the excitement ended. The food was slow coming out and I needed water, which they didn’t come to even refill.  I ended up drinking all of mine, and Lauren's, and started on Lori's, before the waiter even got back to us. The food was good, but nothing different then the buffet, so we decided faster is better and buffet will be fine for tomorrow. It just took so long to get food and we were all hungry.

After eating we went up to the top deck to watch for more whales and to view the beautiful mountains as we pass them by. The air is chilly, so we are all prepared with jackets and hats and gloves.  The mountains were simply amazing and the water was so crystal clear.

An announcement was made about the boat excursion to the Sawyer Glaciers. I didn’t think anything of it, but Lauren kept making comments that she wanted to go on the excursion. After a few comments and hint drops, I told her she should go, especially since it sounds like she really wants to go. She said she really wanted to go, but she didn’t want to go by herself. I tell Lori to go, but she says no, and mom says no. So, I say, let’s go check and see if there is room, I’ll go with you. The thing was expensive, super expensive, and that’s why I originally didn’t even consider it, but I’m the kind of gal that realizes sometimes you only have one chance and one opportunity in life to do something, and since Lauren wanted this chance, I was going to help her make it happen.

We run downstairs and find the excursion desk and ask if there is any room still on the excursion, and to my surprise they say yes, and the 11:15 has room but you have to go now. We look at our watches and it’s 11:03. So we grab our tickets and book it to the meeting point at the Follies Theatre.

We get to the theatre out of breath, and find the room pretty packed with a slide show presentation going on about wild animals we might see. We end up having to wait about a half hour before we can get off the ship and onto our catamaran.

We get on the Catamaran, and enjoy going down the Tracy Arm and stay close to the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness. The catamaran provided binoculars for all of us, so we all stayed on the deck on the look out for wild animals. We wiz by the mountains and the beaches and I’m just in awe at the grandeur and beauty.

The cruise ship is trailing us, but it is going in the middle of the Tracy Arm, while we are cruising right by the banks. The driver goes from one side to the other in search for wildlife.

We get to a small channel and this is where the cruise ship can go no further and we continue on our journey forward. As we go deeper in the water, we see more and more icebergs. I’ve never seen an iceberg with my own eyes, other then TV, so I was quite astonished at the sight of the icebergs. There were large ones, as big as a school bus, and small ones dotting the passage. The larger ones were white on top, and on the bottom and sides they were a rich beautiful light turquoise blue. The tour guide explained that the blue is an optical illusion with reflections of light, and if we were to take that iceberg and break it apart, we would never find anything but clear ice. But, oh how beautiful they were. Each was a different shape and size. We learned that most of the icebergs were over 500 years old, and came from the Glacier.

As we got closer to the Glacier the floating icebergs became more abundant, causing the ship to go even slower. When we were close enough to behold the Glacier in its glory, but far enough that if a piece crashed down we would be safe from the waves and the falling ice, the catamaran stopped and opened the top deck, so we could all see the Glacier.

Beautiful, mysterious, amazing, peculiar, gigantic and gorgeous are words that crossed my mind. Such a crazy naturally made beauty was something else to see. I honestly didn’t know what we were seeing and had no idea what to expect, so it was such a pleasant surprise to see the grandeur of the Sawyer South Glacier.

We learned that the South Sawyer Glacier and the Sawyer Glacier are one Glacier, and years ago, they did connect and it was where the cruise ship had stopped. Due to global warming, the Glacier has been melting away and loosing its face. We learned that the Glacier is made by snow being compared on top of snow and the weight making it turn to ice, and it just keeps layering.

The boat carefully left the South Glacier and picked its way up more north to see the Sawyer Glacier. The Sawyer Glacier was just as majestic as the South Sawyer. The biggest difference between the two glaciers was the ice littering the water around it. The Sawyer Glacier had so much ice that we weren’t able to get very close. It looked as if someone had taken a puzzle and just dumped it upside down and pushed the pieces around. To add to the fun, on all these ice puzzle pieces were little black dots; seals! Tons and tons of seals! It’s baby season, so we were able to see so many pups by their moms. The black spots among all the white are all seals.

Once the catamaran got as close as safely possible, they stopped and opened the top once more. We were able to get great views of the wildlife and the Glacier. Lauren and I were both so terribly sad that mom and Lori didn’t come. I guess none of us knew what to expect, but I am so grateful that Lauren wanted to do this, and I was able to join her. We even teased that we should go back and tell them it wasn’t that great, only because we didn’t want them to know how incredible it was and that they both super missed out. Some of the staff of the catamaran brought one of the small icebergs on the deck for everyone to see.  Some people were picking it up and licking it, and some kids were just rubbing their hands all over it.  Lauren and I decided to just pick it up and take a picture, but not lick it.

We carefully made our way out of the ice puzzles and crept back to the cruise ship. It looked as if the cruise ship had done its own creeping while we were gone those 3 hours, because it was closer to the South Glacier then when we had left the ship. Once we got back on the ship, we were very happy to learn that those on the ship were able to see the Glacier at a distance. So mom and a Lori were still able to see it.

Lauren and I ate lunch and met up with mom and Lori. We planned out the rest of our day, and went over to guest services. There were a few shows coming up in the next few days and we wanted to see if we could get reserved seating and scripts for Lori. Lori is hearing impaired and has a cochlear implant so she can hear, but it’s easier to make out words and music with a script. Mom asked guest services if they offer popcorn during the blockbuster movie showings and surprise, they didn't, so they offered us free drink tickets. Mom was super excited about the drink, because she wanted a milkshake. I don’t think she ever got that milkshake, come to think of it. Mom sure loves her ice cream.

Our first reserve seating was for the blockbuster movie, Spider-Man, into the Spider-verse. We sat down all excited to see a movie, but by about 30 minutes in, we were all dozing off and fighting sleep. We had middle perfect seats, but it just wasn’t the same as a movie theatre. Plus, the movie is good, it’s just not amazing.

When the movie is done, we quickly go grab a bite to eat, so we can make it in time for the comedy show. Thanks to Lori, we were able to get reserve seating in perfect seats for the show. We came in and had seats ready and waiting for us. Thank you Lori! We laugh and enjoy the 30 minute show. I don’t remember the names of the comedians, but it was great because it was the family friendly show, clean, and there were no swear words.

The second comedian used music for his act. He would have someone come on stage and tell them to do something, then make them look stupid. It was super funny. He did a great job coming up with things on the fly. We left the comedy show with lighter spirits, smiles on our faces, chuckles in our throats and small aches in our sides from laughing.

We went up one flight of stairs to the Follies Theatre just in time for the show to start, and thank you again to Lori, we walked right in and had front row seats. We sit down, while everyone else had to scramble for seats to watch "The Brits".

The entertainers did such a good job.  There were eight total; four guys and four girls. They sang and danced and did such a good job performing. The music and show was all centered around the 50’s and 60’s. Mom knew pretty much all the songs, and the rest of us knew a lot of them. The outfits all started in black and white and throughout the performance everything turned to bright colors. We all really enjoyed the show tonight. We loved the most that it was clean and entertaining. Good clean fun, is the best type of fun. We make our way back to our room and are happy to be welcomed back by a cute towel elephant.