boulder-girl

Sunset in Glacier Bay National Park...

I watched it all from the hot tub...very awesome night.

I use a Nikon 1 AW1 for my underwater/waterproof camera needs. Good camera, and it shoots RAW, which was essential to me.

I have not done a big ship Alaska cruise, but I did a small ship with Un-Cruise in June. 60 passengers, 25 crew. Similar to the size of the National Geographic ships. It was awesome!

We did not go to ports...instead we anchored in various bays and went kayaking, paddleboarding, and hiking right from the ship. They offered various skiff tours. We saw whales a few times. (No special excursions needed, as someone else mentioned...the captain stops the ship when you encounter whales and you hang out with them all around you.)

Here's the link to my trip report: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2234240

I went with Quark last winter, and it was fantastic. Quark did a fabulous job and I would definitely go with them again.

I detailed my trip here: http://66degrees.karenjacot.com/ if you want to read more about what Quark trips are like.

Thank you for all of your posts! I thoroughly enjoyed your pictures and report and want to do a small ship trip like this one day! You are an amazing photographer!

Thanks! :)

Thanks for the latest instalment and especially the photos of the boat from your Un Cruise. Your comments regarding a queen bed vs 2 singles and space confirms my thoughts and our decision to book the 2 single beds.

 

I was wondering what footwear you used when kayaking? We usually kayak in warmer weather and wear waterproof sandals but I'm thinking it's a BIT too cool in Alaska, especially in Aug/Sept.

I think you are smart to do the two single beds. You'll be able to get more of your stuff out of the way under the beds.

Paddleboading near the shore in very shallow water. You can see the Keens I wore.

We had such amazing weather the whole time that I wore these every day for kayaking and paddleboarding. Basically for anything that didn't require the waterproof boots. I would've worn my hiking shoes if it had been colder.

Un-Cruise 7-day small-ship cruise from Sitka to Juneau, plus an add-on land package in Denali NP

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2234240

I knew I had to get longer than 200 but I was hoping & praying that 200 could do it! Thanks! Will be looking to rent a longer lens now! :D

 

And WOW!! to the new shot of Mendenhall Glacier!! Absolutely beautiful!!

It's a tradeoff, of course--the bigger lenses are heavier and it's more to carry and yada yada yada. For me, taking photos is a big part of my enjoyment of things, so it was worth it to carry more gear. :)

There was also fresh fruit- and herb-infused water available at the bar during the day. Super refreshing.

They had an open-bridge policy, so you could visit and watch the captain drive the ship anytime you wanted. Here Sarah, the expedition leader, is conversing with the captain.

Navigational map.

What my room looked like. You could choose to have it be two twin beds or pushed together as one bigger bed. These rooms were SMALL. The minus of having the bed as one large bed is that you basically lost the underbed storage space from the second bed, b/c there's no way to reach all the way under there. With two twins (how my brother and son had their room set up) you had more space to store stuff under the beds.

View from the bed to the door. The bathroom is behind that mirrored door--just a toilet and a showerhead. There was a shower curtain you could pull in front of the toilet to keep from soaking it when you showered, but it was pretty cramped in there.

And last but not least, our awesome crew.

Our hotel was the Grandma's Feather Bed Best Western.

Great hotel; great customer service. We had a big room on the corner of the 2nd floor. The room was huge, had an awesome big bathroom, king-sized bed, room for a roll-away bed for our son, a couch. We ate dinner at the restaurant, which was very good. Breakfast is included in the rate but we had to leave for the airport just as they began serving it (5am). They were kind enough to put some things out for us to bring with us to the airport as we left. Great hotel; I would definitely stay there again.

So let me say a little more about ship life here...a few random things about how things worked with Un-Cruise.

The crew kept track of where we went each day on this map. (And I just liked the "escape to sea" sign on that door in the dining room.)

This is what the schedule looked like for activities. Sarah would take note on her clipboard each evening of what each person wanted to do the next day. She'd then put together groups of reasonable numbers. So if a lot of people wanted to kayak and only a few wanted to hike, there might be one hiking group and three kayak groups. She'd post the list that showed the time, what gear they recommended for that trip, which guide was leading it, and names and cabin numbers of guests on that excursion.

The dining room. It was actually split sort of in half by the stairs in the middle of the room, so this is only half of it.

Breakfast and lunch were buffet-style.

Dinner was seated. We had three choices for entrees each night--always one meat, one fish, and one vegetarian. They put out the menu in the morning at the bar and asked that we indicate which entree we wanted on a checklist next to it. We didn't have to stick to that, of course, but that way the kitchen crew had some idea of about how many of each thing they'd need.

Leah, our bartender for the week, had a special cocktail each day at happy hour as well.

Last day...Juneau!

It was a Saturday morning when we sailed into Juneau. We ate breakfast on the ship and then it was time for disembarking.

The staff and crew lined up on the dock as we exited so we could shake hands and give hugs to the people who had taken care of us and given us a great taste of Alaska over the previous week.

Our ship and a couple of sea planes in the dock.

My mom, her friend, and my brother were all flying home from Juneau that morning, but we had a little time before they had to be at the airport. We walked around the town a little before it was time for them to leave.

Our policy is: if we find a staircase, we climb it. This one went up to a residential road. We came down a different staircase a couple blocks down.

After the other three left, my husband, son, and I took a shuttle to our hotel. The only flights I'd been able to find home that left Saturday involved spending the night in an airport on a layover. I don't mind a redeye, but I draw the line at sleeping on the floor of an airport. LOL. So instead we left on a 6am flight on Sunday morning.

We then took a cab to Mendenhall Glacier and did the hike to the falls.

Wow, very cool!

I've been lurking on this board nonstop but once I clicked on your thread, I just had to register to let you know how amazing and incredible your photos are!!! You deserve a standing ovation! These make me even more excited for my upcoming trip!! I also checked out your Antarctica blog and every single photo, I just loudly repeated "wow!" You are truly gifted!!

 

Wish I would've known about the Nikon1 AW1 before I purchased my new camera :(

Camera question. Would you suggest getting a lens longer than 200mm for Alaska or is that doable?

Thanks! :)

In my opinion, 200mm is not long enough. I had an 80-400mm as my longest lens and even that wasn't long enough for a lot of wildlife. A lot of what we saw (like in Denali) was pretty far away. I'd go longer if you can. (Did you know you can rent lenses? I use LensProToGo.com but there are several others online too.)

Have loved reading your post, I've been keeping an eye each day for updates. I was wondering which month you cruised? Your photos are amazing. Can't wait for our cruise next year, we're booked on a 2 week cruise with Un Cruise.

Our cruise was June 13-20. And I think you are going to love your Un-Cruise!

I took the plunge on Photobucket. Now I a cannot find how to resize the images to post on the forum. I see the code to copy, I copy, paste it here, but the image is rather large. Please walk me through how to make a better size for this forum. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Hey Moltar...

Try the instructions given here: http://support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us/articles/200724244-How-to-Resize-an-Image

Be sure to click that "lock" icon when you're resizing so it will maintain the proportions. That way you can choose the width and it will adjust the height automatically.

You probably want to keep them to 900px wide or less. The first photos I posted here I did at 1024px wide and I thought they were a little too big. Since then I've been posting pics at 660px wide.

Post #41 - gorgeous orange sunset photos. Did you photoshop the blue ice that was floating along? I know that the ice can have that deep blue but am really surprised with the sun setting that the blue would be that deep? It is like an orange picture with the blue just standing out. Stunning pictures!

 

Thanks! Loving every minute of this.

Isn't that ice crazy??? I hadn't noticed the color being so intense when we were there, although I wasn't paying much attention to the icebergs. I did boost the saturation of the colors in the image, but the blue was pretty intense even in the RAW file.

And thanks for the nice words! :)

That evening, after dinner, as we were out of Glacier Bay and headed toward our final destination of Juneau, we came upon a bunch of humpback whales. Not just a couple. There were at least 10. It was amazing. They were swimming together, coming up for air together, swimming past one another. Some were right up close, some were farther out.

The captain stopped the ship so we could hang out with them. We all just stood out on deck ooohing and aahing every time they surfaced, and when they just kept doing it, and there were so many of them, people started making jokes. "I got two!" (on camera.) "I got two and a tail!" "I'll see your two and tail and raise you THREE TAILS."

Awesome whale show...great finale to our trip. Well done, Un-Cruise.

I forgot to mention earlier that in the morning, the guides had picked up a chunk of ice from the water and set it on display on the ship. There was a signup form next to it where we could guess at what time we thought it would be completely melted. Whoever came closest would win a prize.

Most people chose times late at night--9pm or later, or even the next morning. My son chose 6:30pm. As 6:30 approached, the ice was nearly melted, but not all the way. The next closest guess was 7:15. We kept checking it anxiously to see if it was going to last long enough for the person who guessed 7:15 to win. A little before 7, when it still had not entirely melted, we were all disappointed that Lyle (my 8yo) wasn't going to win, but he'd come so close. He was excited that he'd gotten that close.

By the end of dinner it had finished melting, with an official time around 7:08. The person who guessed 7:15 was the father of two of the teenagers on board, and when they announced his win, he stood up and said, "I came up with my guess of 7:15 after a conversation with Lyle. He's the one who suggested to me that it wasn't going to last as long as everyone else thought. So I would like to let him win whatever the prize is." HOW NICE WAS THAT? Lyle was thrilled, and they asked him to say a couple words in the mic about how he came up with his guess. He had his 8yo's confidence that no way was that piece of ice going to last hours and hours, so he just knew. The prize was that he got to choose something in the gift shop up to $20. (The gift shop is a little display case in the lounge--you tell the bartender what you want and they find it stored somewhere in the bench seats.) He picked out this Un-Cruise beanie as his prize.

Another awesome Alaska sunset.

The next morning we docked in Juneau and the cruise was over. The rest of our group flew out that morning, but we stayed one day in Juneau, so I do have a few photos from there as well. Those will be next!

Passed the camera off to my brother so I could be in a picture.

Up close with an little iceberg. The water was COLD. It was much colder here than it was in the other places we'd kayaked. Recent glacier melt.

A skiff tour going out.

After everyone was back on board came another highly anticipated activity--the polar bear plunge! Time to get your swimsuits on and jump off the boat into water that's around 32 degrees F. I don't have exact numbers for how many people participated, but I think it was at least a dozen.

My 8yo surprised me by doing it--he had been saying for months that there was no way he was jumping in. But when the time came, he put on his swimsuit and went out there and was one of the first to jump in. He got out VERY fast and basically ran up to the hot tub. (Smart kid.) My husband, brother, and I all did it, too.

I don't have photos of this yet, but I will eventually. The guides took photos of us jumping in (haven't received those yet), plus my mom and her friend (who did not jump in) got some photos (don't have those yet either!). I'll probably come back and post a couple of them here once I have them.

During the afternoon as we cruised out of Glacier Bay, one of the teenagers on board gave a short talk that Ranger Nicole had asked him to prepare as part of earning his junior ranger badge. Here he is talking about what he felt made Glacier Bay NP special.

The guy in the blue shirt behind him is the ship's captain. There were three people who took turns driving, so when he wasn't driving or sleeping, he was often with us, keeping us updated on what was going on.

My son earned a badge, too, although she didn't make him give a talk. She had given him some other activities to complete. It was awesome having her on the ship with us--she answered tons of questions about topics from wildlife to glaciers to her uniform to what her daily life is like to...everything.

Day 7 of cruise (last day)--Glacier Bay

This was our last day on the ship. We had anchored overnight next to Lamplugh glacier, which is where our morning activities took place.

This morning we had options of a guided kayak trip, a skiff tour, or a "mountain goat scramble," in which you got to scramble up some rocky cliffs next to the glacier for awesome views looking down on it. I thought that sounded pretty cool, but I had been looking forward all week to kayaking in Glacier Bay, so that was my choice. My husband, son, and brother also chose kayaking. My mom and her friend did the skiff tour.

The water is full of silt from glacier melt, giving it this surreal color.

More sunset photos...these were taken over the course of just over an hour. It was a little before 9pm when we started pulling away from the glaciers.

It had started sprinkling very lightly in the middle of the sunset, resulting in an incredible full rainbow. This was 10pm.

Not long after, I finally went inside and read for a bit in the lounge before going to bed.

And then we started pulling away from the glaciers, and the clouds opened up, the sun peeked through, and we had one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever experienced.

Some other people had joined us in the hot tub. I kept jumping out to take more pictures, and then thinking, "Ok, that's really the last one I'm taking." Until the light would change again and I'd jump out for a couple more.

As evening approached, we got closer to Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. It was just after dinner that we finally reached them. It had gotten overcast as we approached.

Hot chocolate on deck. And GoPro ready for action shots.

My son and I were hanging out in the hot tub most of the time. I kept my cameras on a nearby table and would jump out occasionally to get a photo. It was a little cold standing there wet in my bikini, but anything for a good picture, right?

One last one of South Marble Island...

And then a few more from the afternoon as we sail on toward Margerie Glacier.

Wildlife spotting from the hot tub...not a bad spot.

This day happened to be my and my husband's 15th wedding anniversary. On the forms you fill out before the cruise, they ask about special dates during your trip, so we'd told them it was our anniversary. I found this on our bed that evening, with a note that we could bring the glasses to the bar for complimentary champagne. A nice surprise! (The chocolate-covered strawberries were divine, and our 8yo picked off all the chocolate letters and said they were good too.)

The view out our window as we were getting closer to Margerie Glacier. It was around then that we started seeing icebergs in the water.

More from South Marble Island...

This poor baby eagle had made the mistake of landing on the island, which really pissed off the other birds. They kept dive bombing him. He tried to fly away a couple times but never could get past all the angry birds. (Sorry, I have no idea what the white birds are...pigeon guillemot? cormorants?)

PUFFINS!!! There were lots of puffins, though I found it hard to photograph them well. They were fun to watch.

The rest of today would be spent just cruising. The clouds cleared up pretty soon and we had blue skies and sun. Another spectacular cloud failure.

Here is Ranger Nicole giving a talk on Glacier Bay wildlife. The weather was so nice she did it on the sun deck.

Then we reached South Marble Island, where lots of sea lions and birds hang out.