Cruising Juneau through Glacier Bay

On the Admiralty Dream

We arrived in Juneau and got to our hotel after 10:00 pm on Friday. Thankfully the Welcome Breakfast on Saturuday (for the next phase of our John Hall’s Alaska Tour) was late enough, we could get a decent nights sleep.

Juneau Saturday

After breakfast, we had 4 hours to wander around Juneau on our own, before a tour of Glacier Gardens with our reconstituted tour group. (There are 16 from our National Parks Tour, ~12 from the Alaska Grand Slam Tour, and ~9 arrived just for the cruise.)

We got to the dock, with only 15 minutes for us all to board the Admiralty Dream before it had to leave the dock at 5:00 pm. After that, we were escorted to our room for the week, did the Abandon Ship Drill, and had our first dinner on board. It was a bit delayed, as we took time to watch some Orca swimming around the boat.

Visits to 2 new National Park Sites:

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve (#305 & #306), is one of America’s crown jewel national parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, covering 3.3 million acres of rugged mountains, dynamic glaciers, temperate rainforest, wild coastlines and deep sheltered fjords. It is known as Homeland to the Huna and Yakutat Lingít, and is a highlight of Alaska’s Inside Passage.

We apparently crossed into Glacier Bay around midnight, and cruised deep into the park for most of the day to view tidewater glaciers, icebergs, and waterfalls, while keeping watch for wildlife. We saw mountain goats, Stellar sea lions, harbor seals, puffins, Orca and more. Before exiting the park, we stoped for a couple of hours at the Glacier Bay Visitor Center & Lodge area for a couple of hours (with wifi). Then we began our cruise around to Haines.

Little cell service for days…so that was 4 days ago

For more pictures (later), see Adventure Album: Alaska!

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