2026 Great Bear Rainforest Cruise

 This Monday morning had me waking up early in order to watch the entrance into Glacier Bay which I never gave on previous trips. I was up and dressed by 7:15 AM and went up to the Lido for my customary breakfast. The National Park Rangers and their support staff had already boarded the vessel and were setting up their shop for the day in the Crow's Nest area. Up ahead, I could see that cloud level was fairly low, drizzle was falling  and the visibility was not looking promising for the day. Glacier Bay is about 65 or 70 miles long and for this voyage we're going to be able Johns Hopkins and Margerie glaciers. Normal seven day cruises simply choose one or the other to visit. Last year's cruise went to Margerie Glacier while the previous year's cruise went to Johns Hopkins. The first major wildlife spotting point was at the Gloomy Knob where mountain goats typically can be seen. The spotters on the front of the ship spotted two goats, but I was unable to see them with th...

  Overnight, we continued our slow crawl across the  Gulf of Alaska.  There was a little motion to the ocean overnight and throughout the day. This morning, I led the interdenominational service and preached a sermon based on the book of Philemon.  It was very well attended with about 50 to 70 people in attendance. Afterwards there was an Ask the Captain session which was very good. He answered a question that many people had regarding our docking in Anchorage, where the ship seemed to be tilted. He indicated that the ship was purposely ballasted to the port side to raise the starboard side up so that the gangway would be level with deck three which was the highest deck that they could mount the gangway to and keep it level or sloping upwards towards the ship. He was unable to answer the question of why the deck boards on level three on the port side are longer than those on the right side. I suspect that will become a question talked about on the bridge in private. ...

Overnight we had only reached just south of Homer in the Cook Inlet as we had only traveled at 11 knots or so. The ride was smooth and we would be in protected waters for a little bit longer today. It turned out to be a relatively full day in terms of activities. Our first activity was originally planned to be the 9 AM coffee chat with the cruise Director Theresa hosting the celler master Jacque. However, the last minute we decided since we've seen him already in the winetasting that we would go to the Glacier Bay presentation by Holly. While we've been to Glacier Bay many times it's always nice to get a refresher course on what to expect.. Later in the morning at 11AM there was a  Mariner recognition ceremony on the World Stage and the Mariner with the most sailing days on board the ship had over 3400 days. Afterwards, we were treated to a Mariner recognition lunch in the main dining room. The menu there was fabulous with shrimp, cocktail, appetizers, and turf main course ...

  Day two in Anchorage was a shorter day as we had a 4:30pm on board time. We didn't set an alarm and so we didn't get out of bed until 8:30 and prepared for our day. After our customary breakfast in the Lido, we gathered our things, including warm clothing as the temperatures have definitely turned chilly. We scanned off the ship and boarded one of the shuttle buses, which left quite soon after we boarded. On the drive out of the port, the driver reported that he had seen a moose and a bear at the clearing inside the port; however, today we didn't see any. He also played a nice aurora borealis video that was shot by a friend of his. Once we reached downtown and got off the shuttle bus, we walked  the block to the transit center and waited for our number 30 bus, which would take us out to the Costco on Debarr Road. It was only about a 20 minute ride and the bus stop was right across the street from Costco. We did a little shopping there, I got my hearing aids adjusted, and ...

  On this ninth day of our voyage, we were awakened by the sound of the rear thrust motors and the electric winch motors around 8:30 AM. We did not set an alarm as we were not scheduled to be able to get off the ship until 10 o'clock. This is the first time that we have actually docked at the Anchorage port, which is a commercial port. Generally cruise ships go into either Whittier or Seward both of which are about a two hour plus drive away from Anchorage. Interestingly, the tide fluctuation here is quite severe with a 25 foot spread between the high and the low tide. While we were eating breakfast, I could look out and see that we had arrived just after a low tide, but I could actually see the water rising on the muddy bank below the dock. Also, the ship is berthed almost at the end of one of the main runways of Elmendorf Air Force Base. we saw F-22's and F-16 fighter jets landing as well as large cargo jets. It was also very clear blue skies and we could see Mount Denali in ...