Family Vacation to Alaska - Day 5

Monday, 28 May, 2007 – Glacier Bay

I hit the fitness center again this morning at about 6:15 am and used the elliptical machine then lifted weights for about 25 minutes. We had already entered the Bay and I spotted otters, whales, and birds on the water. Pretty cool. I returned to the cabin at about 7:30 and soon our breakfast arrived. I don’t remember Seth and I utilizing room service when we last cruised on HAL – of course, we were pretty “green” then and not the seasoned cruisers we are now. ;-) Room service was great and on time each morning. I ate my usual cereal with 2% milk, sliced bananas, coffee, and fruit. I got showered and we then headed up to the Lido restaurant to meet up with Mimi, Papa, and Amina. Rhys ate breakfast again with them and then we moved to the aft deck to “stake out” our spots for viewing Glacier Bay.

While I was on the elliptical machine, I watched as a small boat pulled up to the ship carrying the Park Service Rangers and Tlingit interpreter who would be spending the day on our ship narrating and telling us about the glaciers that we would be seeing today. We had “Ranger Rick” doing most of the narrating over the ship’s PA system. We first saw the Lanplugh glacier and saw a small part of it calving.

As we studied the glaciers, we were purchased HAL coffee mugs which they filled with hot chocolate and we were also given bowls of Dutch pea soup which I enjoyed immensely.

It was chilly out again – high 40’s, low 50’s today but it was mostly clear and dry. Our next viewing was the Johns Hopkins glacier then the Margerie and Grand Pacific glaciers.

As we came upon the Margerie glacier there were 2 episodes of calving – a smaller one followed by a much larger one. It was awesome and almost on cue.

The Grand Pacific glacier was covered in black silt.

As we were cruising to the Margerie glacier, Ranger Rick pointed out 3 brown bears on the mountain side which were tricky to see but we were thrilled that we had finally seen some bears.

After viewing all of the glaciers, we packed our things up and went for lunch in the dining room. They were setting up for an Alaskan salmon bake on the Lido deck but we wanted to eat in the dining room today. I stopped by to take a picture of the largest pie I’ve ever seen (or maybe it was cobbler).

In the dining room, I had the peach soup which was delicious.

It seemed like all of the fruit based soups were very tasty. I went with the gourmet burger and fries which was very good.

After lunch, Rhys went to the kids’ Club to meet the park rangers while Amina went with Mimi and Papa to the National Park Rangers and Tlinglit Hoonah Interpreter presentation at 2:15. I parked myself in the library and worked on my journal and actually took a brief nap too. At 4 pm, I picked Rhys up from Club HAL and we went back to the cabin to change as the kids were dying to go swimming.

We went up to the 8th deck, Lido, and snapped some pictures by the bears in the pool.

It was quite chilly – the air temp outside being only in the low 50’s. The ceiling of the pool area is retractable but was actually partially open this afternoon. Nevertheless, the kids enjoyed themselves hopping in and out of the pool and hot tub.

The pool was heated. As they were swimming, they did slide the ceiling closed with a loud metallic thud. At 5 pm, we headed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

This evening was a casual evening and we were treated to Dutch night. We all donned our Dutch caps – black caps for the boys and white ones for the ladies – and took pictures.

I did remember to take pictures of the menu this evening.

This evening I tried the crab and artichoke dip which was very good.

I had another bowl of Dutch pea soup which I had really enjoyed up on deck this morning. For the entrée, I chose Nasi Goreng Rijstaffel which was an Indonesian combination plate with Indonesian fried rice, spicy chicken drumstick, beef Sumatra, prawn crackers, and a fried banana.

It was absolutely delicious – spicy but not too spicy. I remarked to Krish, our dining steward, that this was my favorite entrée of the entire trip thus far. He mentioned that this was the food that he frequently ate for breakfast each morning. You really can’t go wrong in a dining room full of Indonesians ordering Indonesian food. For dessert, I had the Bananas Foster which was very good.

This evening we split up from the kids sending Rhys to Club HAL and Amina with Mimi and Papa to see the show. Seth and I wanted to catch the movie in the theater this evening at 8:00 pm. We missed the complimentary popcorn. Krish had mentioned that for dinner tomorrow night the crew was planning a special show/presentation “not to be missed”. It was the Master Chef dinner but we were scheduled to have dinner at the Pinnacle Grill. Seth and I stopped off at the Pinnacle Grill and changed our reservations for a second time to Thursday evening at 6 pm. Since this was our evening in Victoria and many people were going ashore on excursions, we had no trouble changing our reservations. We had no plans to leave the ship this evening since we were docking so late.

We watched Freedom Writers in the Wajang theater which was very good. It resembled Morgan Freeman’s “Lean on Me” somewhat and starred Hilary Swank who, at times, seemed a little too girlish and cheerleader-like. It was based on a true story and was inspiring. We returned to the cabin after the movie and called it a night. A very relaxing day with wonderful views of glaciers that we’d not seen before.