The Celebrity Hubbard Glacier cruise – we sailed from Vancouver,
past Vancouver Island and up to Icy Strait Point (the only privately owned cruise port in Alaska, owned by Tlingit nation),
then up to Hubbard Glacier in the Bay of Disenchantment (aka the Galloping Glacier, it’s tidal and still growing. It’s 76 miles long and has a 400ft terminal face) – our captain and the pilot got us SOOO close it was amazing, and we had beautiful sunshine too, making the ice look quite blue. We saw a few episodes of calving at the terminal face, but no huge ones – by the time you hear the crack, it’s too late – the ice has already calved. We also spotted harbour seals and 1 pup there.
Then, working our way back down, we stopped at Juneau (Doyouknow!). It’s the capital of Alaska, only accessible by sea or air, built on gold mining with downtown buildings very reminiscent of that era,
then on through the spectacular inner passage to Ketchikan (Catchmeifyoucan!). Built on the salmon industry with some interesting history. If you visit during salmon season, you’ll see salmon laying eggs in the creek gravel, possibly moving up the specially built salmon ladder and maybeceven a bear in the creek after their favourite food – salmon! We did a lovely self guided walk of historic downtown and Newtown areas and met some colourful locals!
Then, on through the passage back to Vancouver. The scenery was spectacular, and we spotted several whales and dolphins from the ship, we also saw bald headed eagles in Icy Strait. The budget didn’t allow us to take any shore excursions (ship based ones are expensive but you could do cheaper ones from the ports) but as we discovered you don’t need to spend a fortune to see the wildlife – it was just all around us. We had a resident whale watcher Michaela on board (working for the Orca charity) who was very informative about whales and also glaciers.
Recommendations – check out the itinerary and cruise ship as many go to the same places (each port can get very busy if lots of ships are in on the same day). Pick your excursions carefully. Take binoculars!