Ken the cruiser

Day 6 - May 5 - Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

This evening after another tasty meal in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed first to see the new production show, British Invasion, which was great! 😁 Then we were off to watch the always hilarious Liars Club! 😂 The ship left port around 8:30 pm and is now on the way to Glacier Bay! Luckily, we’ll be going there 3 times on our B2B cruise, as the forecast for Hoohah, which is just south of the entrance to Glacier Bay, isn’t looking too favorable.

Glacier Bay reference material we were given today for tomorrow’s visit scheduled from 6 am to 3 pm, plus a map to help figure where it is actually located.

I would imagine HAL gets that berth at a cheaper rate than Princess is paying for theirs.

When we got back to the pier, we noticed the Zaandam was tendering their guests to the pier, even though they were pretty much right next to it. Now I might also note the Grand is docked right next to the Zaandam, and we had to walk about 3 minutes once we disembarked the ship through the tunnel in the below photo to then take a two minute shuttle bus ride to the port! 😂 I’m pretty sure it has to do with the June 2022 rock slide, as the Zaandam did not have a gangway opened on the pier side. After the first rockslide on June 23, 2022, which caused minor damage to Discovery Princess, an environmental consulting firm was hired to thoroughly examine the slope and recommend mitigation measures and emergency procedures to safeguard cruise ships and guests on other parts of the dock. https://www.cruisehive.com/alaska-port-rockslide-work-to-be-done-by-cruise-season/94215

What an awesome excursion! We took a 45 minute ferry ride from Skagway down to Haines. Right before arriving at Haines, there was this little island loaded with sea lions! Haines, Alaska Here’s our ferry, which we also took back to Skagway after the tour of the wildlife center. It was about a 45 minute drive to the center. Photos of that drive will be after the wildlife pictures, as we had a better position on the bus to take them on the way back. The owner and main tour guide, Steve Kroschel, who truly loves all of the animals you will see and treats them all like pets! Of course, some with a little more respect for obvious reasons. It was truly an amazing experience! 😁 A couple of timber wolves. Red-tailed Owl Snowy Owl Red Fox Silver Fox Arctic Fox Porcupine Mink Moose being fed tree leaves and loving it! Caribou Wolverine who likes eggs! 😂 Pine Martin who likes raspberry jam! Grizzly Bear who likes pie! After a little over an hour and 45 minutes visiting the center, it was time to head back to Haines along the Chilkat River and a beautiful mountain range. A couple of Trumpeter Swans. A glacier off in the distance.

We have arrived in downtown Skagway, Alaska on a beautiful but chilly morning that’s supposed to creep into the low 50s by 10 am! 😁

Had to get up at 5:30 am to get ready for a 7 am Skagway excursion. Opened the curtains and this is what we saw as we cruised up the Taiya Inlet towards Skagway! 😁

Day 5 - May 4 - Skagway, Alaska

And we’re off! Next stop Skagway, Alaska early tomorrow morning!

After another tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we went to an enrichment lecture presented by Pete Griffin. Then we were off to the theater to watch the evening show entitled My Journey to Broadway with singer Krystal Washington, one of the production cast singers.

Thanks! All I have is an iPhone SE. But I have found if I take a bunch of pictures, I can usually can find a few that will work. On our Otter, Eagle and Whale excursion yesterday, I took over 580 photos! 😂

Just curious, if Skagway was replaced with Sitka on May 1 (according to Cruise Mapper itinerary below), we were wondering why you were still anchored in Sitka the next day as well, May 2, when we arrived on the Grand Princess Wednesday morning at the northern Sitka pier? According to their below posted schedule, which of course could be wrong, you were supposed to be cruising the Tracy Arm Fjord on May 3. I’m just curious. 😁

Here’s our Skagway excursion for tomorrow where we meet in the theater at 7 am tomorrow morning. That means we have to eat breakfast in the buffet! 😱

Had a fun time on our excursion today. First we headed to the Glacier Gardens Rainforest that took about 15 minutes from the ship to drive there. When we got there after a short introduction about their upside down trees, we hopped on a 16-passenger open-air shuttle that took us to the top of the forested garden area. At the top there was a vista viewpoint to take some photos of the surrounding area. Stellar Jay looking out over Gastineau Channel. Then we headed back down the mountain where we spent about 20 minutes relaxing in a greenhouse-like setting. Some folks just hung out and looked at the flowers while others either had a quick snack or checked out the gift shop. Then we headed to Mendenhall Glacier and were given about 90 minutes to check out the area, which worked out just fine. Barclay’s Willow Blossoms While we were waiting for our tour bus to pick us up, a fun thing happened. A Porcupine decided to cross the road near us to have a little bite to eat. As you might imagine, there were quite a few folks including us that wanted to watch! 😁 Then it was time to head back to the ship. After we got back and had an afternoon snack up at the buffet, we headed to the cabin to relax and watch life pass us by for a while. 😁 Black-legged Kittiwaks and Herring Gulls flying around behind the ship.