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Gulf of Alaska

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    • TravelerRuedis Panamericana Ca&Alaska
      Day 20

      Valdez - Whittier Fähre

      April 30, 2023

      Heute nehme ich die Fähre von Valdez nach Whittier, 145 Km rund 5.5 Stunden. Das Wetter ist leider nicht besonders, die Wolken hängen tief. Von dem schönen Panorama ist nur der untere Teil sichtbar. Doch ein kleiner Lichtblick gabs trotzdem, Fisch Otter auf einer Eisscholle!Read more

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    • TravelerWomotrip USA/Kanada/Alaska
      1
      Day 196

      Fähre Whittier - Valdez

      August 22, 2022 ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

      Fahrt durch den Whittier Tunnel (13$), welcher abwechselnd auch von der Eisenbahn benutzt wird.
      Gebucht haben wir die Fähre nach Valdez für den 24.8. Das Wetter ist aber so was von miserabel und Whittier ebenfalls, dass wir am Terminal fragen gehen, ob ev. noch Platz auf der Fähre ist.
      Juhui, unser Womo wird als letztes Fahrzeug noch knapp reingequetscht.      Read more

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    • Around the World
      3
      214
      Day 171

      Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

      July 4, 2023 ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

      AMAZING ALASKA

      Which State is the Eastern-most, Western-most AND Northern-most State of the entire U.S. ?

      - 663,268 square miles on the mainland of Alaska
      - 15,000 square miles of fjords and inlets
      - 34,000 miles of indented tidal coastline
      - Mount McKinley 20,310’ and the highest peak in North America
      - 1/3 of Alaska lies in the arctic circle
      - 4/5 is permanently frozen
      - Tundra - half of the State’s surface are treeless plains
      - 130 active volcanos in Alaska
      - Earths most active earthquake belts

      Today we went to Hubbard Glacier (named for Gardier Hubbard, the founder of National Geographic Magazine) Hubbard is known for its advancing ice margin of up to 7’ per day and 3 story icebergs that cave turning deep blue.

      We traveled all day to get close to this glacier. Ships make an “appointment” to come into the glacier bay surrounded by ice to watch some calving (the 20+’ pieces of ice that break off and tumble into the bay with a loud crashing sound). The Hubbard glacier is 76 miles back from Mt Walsh and the face of is 7 miles wide extending 350’ above water level. At 4:30pm the deck was crowded with everyone ready as we approached for our 5-6pm time slot. And then … our Cruise Director Dottie Kulasa and Captain Maroje Brajcic got on the loudspeaker to inform us of the fog (very) quickly rolling in and the added danger of trying to get through the broken ice that extended for miles.

      What to do? Sit tight, take some photos, enjoy the sunshine and comradery, drink, watch as the Captain turns the ship around to keep us safe (remember the Titanic) and chat about where everyone was going for dinner! If you have never been to Hubbard Glacier (we have) and you want to see its majesty, see our last photo.

      P.S. In case you didn't figure out the trivia question above, its ALASKA!      Read more

    • RTW Redux ... 2023
      22
      Day 202

      At Sea

      July 1, 2023 ⋅ 🌧 48 °F

      It’s mid-morning on this day at sea as we cruise from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians to Kodiak, Alaska.

      I should actually say as we jiggle and shimmy our way to Kodiak as today we are experiencing the roughest seas of our thus far 202 days on Insignia on this voyage. The sea state looks to be 12-15 feet or more to me. We’ll see what Captain Maro has to say in his noon update.

      Oddly, the bangs and clangs that usually reverberate through the hull as the ship slaps back down after being lifted by the waves are missing … at least at our location near the stern of the ship. Many will more than likely disagree, but that to me is a sign that Insignia is handling the conditions well … despite the pitching we are experiencing.

      Not crazy enough to go out on the veranda, so both videos are from inside the cabin … the bow view is from the TV.

      With all this jiggling, I wonder if Mui’s staying between the lines in his art class 🤭      Read more

    • RTW Redux ... 2023
      Day 202

      Itinerary Revision #18

      July 1, 2023 ⋅ 🌬 48 °F

      Indeed, in his noon announcement, Captain Maro confirmed my 12-15 foot estimate for the swells we were battling this morning as being in the 13-15 foot range. (If this sentence doesn’t make sense to you, see the previous footprint.)

      That confirmation, however, wasn’t the takeaway message from the Captain’s announcement. In fact, the stats followed the words I’d been expecting (but hoping not to hear). Namely that Kodiak, Alaska has been canceled. I had been monitoring the map and couldn’t see how we would make it there tomorrow as scheduled. Now, we all know that we won’t.

      Captain Maro explained that he took the steps to cancel the port due to a gale warning in the area … with winds of up to 50 knots. Instead, we’ll have another day at sea tomorrow. We hope to arrive in Seward, Alaska on Monday as scheduled. In fact, if the “Currents” delivered to the cabin this evening is to be believed, we’ll be arriving at 7:00a instead of 8:00a. I’ll believe that when it happens 😊.

      In the meantime, we continue to jiggle along. The swells may have diminished just the teeniest-tiniest bit, but somehow Insignia’s movements seem more pronounced.

      Since alcohol and the motion of the ocean don’t necessarily play well together, we opted not to go to tonight’s O Club Party … the second one for this segment. But I’ll leave you with one stat that I know OCA Cella will mention … only 50 of the 560 people who are currently onboard are first-time O cruisers, everybody else is a repeater.

      Hoping for calmer seas overnight and into tomorrow so that we can make some serious headway towards Seward.

      P.S. Just for fun, I am inserting two collages of photos of some of the things we did in Kodiak when we were there for three days in 2010.      Read more

    • Around the World
      2
      Day 164

      Around the World Brunch #3

      June 27, 2023 ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

      For the third and last time we had a brunch for the Around the World Team. Maybe it was all the champagne, but it sure seemed that they went even further this time to make it special.

      Yes, there were every type of breakfast offering you could imagine and many lunch options (although there were even more items that couldn’t fit on the menu) but there were additionally more desserts than ever.

      What a great idea to seat us right next to the desserts so I didn’t even have to get up … only reach over for some more sugar. At one point, the Executive Chef reached over and gave me an entire tray of napoleons … how generous and we also polished off the bounty cake, giving Krista and Tim the bow to celebrate their 48th anniversary (the first time … since they had 2 days of celebration because of the IDL).

      The meal was highlighted by the Panache String Quartet only a few feet away … making it very pleasant to eat and drink and talk and listen to music and have cappuccinos and REPEAT from 10-2p!

      PS Loved the traditional croque-monsieur!      Read more

    • Jenn JinhongAlaska - June 2022
      Day 7

      Not a bad way to end a cruise…

      June 25, 2022 ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

      Last stop of the cruise.
      Seeing the glaciers at College Fjord.
      Named after Ivy League colleges. Female colleges on the west, male colleges on the East. The largest and still growing is named Harvard Glacier. Notably missing is Princeton, mainly cause there wasn’t a Princeton alumni on the expedition… lolRead more

    • TravelerSeattle-Alaska
      Day 14

      At Sea- Hubbard Glacier

      June 7, 2022 ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

      We started the day with coffee and pastries delivered to the room. How very civilized.

      After a very busy land tour, we were very happy to have a sea day, be able to sleep later, and have a chill day.

      About 3 pm we began to cruise along Hubbard Glacier. There just aren't words...

      In addition to the enormous glacier, we saw Sea lions basking on ice chunks, and an otter out for a swim.

      We had dinner at the French Bistro- Scallops, Goat Cheese croquettes, Fruits de Mer, and Poire Helène for me, Escargots, Fruits de Mer and Maron Clementine for Wayne, and Scallops Duck a L'Orange, and a Chocolate mousse log with a lovely Pinot Noir for Julianna. The waiter also brought us a Floating Island that was quite delicious.

      Julianna and I went to the "Rock You Tonight" show featuring music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Something for everyone. Then at 10:15 we went to watch sunset. It was the first sunset I'd seen while in Alaska, since the sun set at almost 2 am when we were in Fairbanks. This was a Very. Long l. Sunset- and then it still didn't get very dark for a long time.

      With memories of another spectacular day, we turned in.      Read more

    • Travelerchilly summer nights.
      Day 271

      Spontanious (Suprise) Glacier Water Tour

      September 24, 2019 ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

      We actually wanted to go hike. But then we met a couple who told us about this (way to expensive, but really amazing) boat trip the the glaciers. So we changed our plans and went on a cruise catamaran to see some sea-otters, sea lions, seals, a black bear and massive glaciers reaching out into the water. We were lucky and could go so close to the Harvard Glacier. Then Surprise Glacier and 24 others on our way. We saw them calving. We tried the ice.
      What a change of plans and, wow. What a day.
      And not enough. While heading to Homer afterwards we saw a moose and a moose-cow. Nearly too much for one day 🙈😄 but, yes, I’d do it again. ☺️
      *****
      Eigentlich wollten wir wandern gehen. Aber dann trafen wir zwei Personen, die am Tag zuvor eine (viel zu teure, aber so beeindruckend schöne) Gletscher-Cruise-Bootsfahrt gemacht hatten. Also waren wir kurze Zeit später auf eine risigen Edel-Katamaran und beobachteten See-Otter (wie süß!!!!😍), Seelöwen, Robben, einen Schwarzbären und unendlich große, massive Gletscher, die bis ins Wasser reichten. Wir hatten Glück und konnten ganz nah an dem Harvard-Gletscher ran, danach zum Surprise-Gletscher und dazwischen 24 weitere. Wir haben sehen können, wie sie kalbten und haben das Eis gekostet. Was für eine Tagesplanänderung!
      Und als wäre das nicht genug, sahen wir noch einen Elch und eine Elchkuh auf der Fahrt hinterher. Fast zu viel für einen Tag. 🙈😄
      Aber ich würde es wieder so machen. ☺️      Read more

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    • Around the World
      Day 164

      Dinner and Abby’s show

      June 27, 2023 ⋅ 🌧 46 °F

      Thank you Cruise Director Ray, Assistant Cruise Director Robbie, ATW Concierge Millie, First-Best Friends on this trip Pat & Norm, and my wonderful wife Karen for this extended birthday celebration and "Big O Toast" around the table.

      What better way to be continue the night than by being entertained this evening by the one and only Abby Hope. [Note: my invitation for dinner came from Abby, who didn't eat but instead "just" sang]. Great evening! Thx.      Read more

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    Gulf of Alaska

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