YVRteacher

Hi! You can order the truffles to be shipped to your home or you could find a friend on the cruise to pick up some for you. The flavours are listed on the website in the order section. Another option is to ask your tour driver to drop you off downtown before heading to the ship. I posted the menu for the Skagway Brewing Company and vegetarian items are marked with a “v.” I really wanted the beer cheese soup but it is made with chicken. Why does everyone need to put a dead bird in soup??

Dinner with the officers was held on different evenings this cruise. There are so many higher level Latitudes guests that they had to spread out the dinners. They didn’t do any on Glacier Bay evening because they knew the dining rooms would be full. We had an invitation for the evening we were in Juneau but a 7:00pm start time is just too late for my dad to be functional. Many people with dementia experience sundowning which is evening confusion and disorientation. My dad gets really grumpy and often presents as rude in the evenings and it just wouldn’t have been fair to him to do dinner with officers from 7-9pm. We had dinner with Rumi (the GM) in Le Bistro the evening of Glacier Bay. My dad has been practicing how to tie a tie and he did it! We enjoyed a wonderful evening of good stories, laughter, shared memories and trying to convince my dad to go on the Jewel at Christmas. We all ordered the Soupe aux Quatre Champignons although mine was made without chicken stock. I also had the Cromesquis de Chèvre because who can pass up fried goat cheese balls? Rumi recommended the Sole Grenobloise and he and my dad both had that. I ordered a small portion for dad and Rumi told our server to bring him the whole fish! I didn’t want to complicate things with a special order so selected the Napoléon de Légumes and it was actually way better than it used to be. The spinach was waaaaaaay too much but the flavours were delightful. Desserts This was such a special evening!

If you are doing this cruise, try to position yourself with a forward view as you leave Glacier Bay around 4:00pm. The rangers told us this is the place to see whales and we saw many! It was wonderful! Whale watching from the spa is my new favourite pastime.

Glacier Bay lunch I brought my own food to the Haven restaurant because the Indian food is that good my food dad’s food Dessert

This was in our room on the first day

Map of Glacier Bay The Rangers joined our ship on a pilot boat at Bartlett Cove. We cruised up to Margerie and the Grand Pacific where we had a full hour and a 360 view, back toward Tarr Inlet then did a 360 at Lamphugh and Reid Glaciers. I took my first photo in Glacier Bay from our cabin balcony at 8:09am and my last in Glacier Bay at 12:30pm. Both photos were wildlife captures, with mountain goats in the morning and this lovely creature in the afternoon. She snuck into Cagney’s and I didn't want her to get squashed so I put her out on a deck railing. My dad told Cagney’s staff with a shake of his head and a sigh, “only my daughter would rescue a ladybug.”

Bubbles! So far on this cruise I have blown bubbles in every port and glacier stop.

Glacier bay has lost 8 trillion pounds of ice. The land is rising through isostatic uplift and is experiencing the highest rate of uplift anywhere in the world. The force of gravity is weakening here so I have lost at least a billionth of a pound just from being in Glacier Bay. A few more hours of this and I’ll look like Heidi Klum. Lamphugh Glacier She shows off the blue glacier ice which is a result of densely packed snow which does not absorb blue light from the spectrum.

Surf scoters (hundreds of birds) We weren’t able to go to John Hopkins Glacier today because it is seal birthing season. Screaming babies should be banned from glacier viewing events. I like my glaciers scream-free. After a couple of hours of glacier viewing dad said there wasn’t much wildlife today. I said “there’s a grumpy bear next to me.” He asked “where? as he peered around the deck.

As we were heading away from Margerie Glacier toward Tarr Inlet the butlers brought steaming bowls of clam chowder to the Haven sun deck and my dad was in chowder heaven. He asked me if this was lunch. I said it was snack. He said he didn’t want a snack so I said it was lunch. Then he ate it. It was icy cold up there!

We were 6/10 of a mile from Margerie Glacier. Distances are deceiving! Does anyone remember when the Grand Pacific Glacier was the highlight of Glacier Bay? She used to be so grand! Now the Ferris glacier has swept in front of the Grand Pacific Glacier and the National Parks team is debating whether to stay with tradition and keep referring to her and the Grand Pacific or lean toward a name with greater geologic accuracy which would be the Ferris Glacier. The black moraine you see in the photos is the Ferris Glacier.

Glacier Bay Margerie up close

Hello, Margerie. Always a pleasure to see you.

Glacier Bay was STUNNING today.

The narrow, wooden, winding stairs up to the Haven sundeck are a little steep so I always make sure dad hangs on. As we approached the top of the steps a woman was about to come down. She stopped to let us through but her friend barged ahead and barrelled down the stairs. I told her to stop and let us out but she didn’t. Then I told her she was being rude. I’m cautious not to get in to conflict with other passengers. Friends we made on this cruise had a drink dumped over them in Stardust Theatre last night. The story is theirs to tell and I hope they come on here to share what happened. A security report was filed and I’m curious how this will be handled. What happened to these kind, caring friends was not ok!