Alaska Cruises in the Summer - Part 12

 

Day 7 (July 31, 2023) Crown Princess visited Yakutat Bay from 12 noon to 5 pm, passengers could see the Hubbard Glacier between 1:45 and 3:15 pm.

As usual, I had warm breakfast 🧇☕ in Horizon Court on Deck 15. Both July 31 and August 1 were my veggie days🍃 I didn’t have any issues with finding vegetarian dishes on the cruise😊 I was told hot chocolate was free only on glacier day. I ordered one and it was super sweet.  Next time I will just bring my own hot chocolate powder to the cruise😏

Congee was offered in the breakfast buffet, great! But there were no shredded ginger and shredded green onion so I topped it with shredded carrot 🥕 No white pepper too, just put some black pepper then.

無薑絲蔥絲就放蘿蔔絲喺粥上面, 無白胡椒就灑黑胡椒啦! 

After breakfast, we attended a presentation “A Wondrous Scene: Discovering Alaska’s Glaciers” in Princess Theater around 10:30 am. 

Some of the glaciers mentioned were Muir, Carroll and Portage …

Muir Glacier and Carroll Glacier are glaciers located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Portage Glacier is a glacier on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska and is included within the Chugach National Forest. It is located 6 km west of Whittier.

Climate change or global warming has a serious impact on the glaciers. Muir is one of the vanishing glaciers, now it becomes ocean water. Carroll is another fast-melting glacier. There was a glacier in 1906 but completely gone in 2004. Portage glacier is also retreating. 

全球暖化導致很多阿拉斯加冰川溶化或消失。

After the seminar, we visited the information room next to Princess Theater. The map above reminded me of my Koningsdam cruise since it passed by Tracy Arm Fjord on the way to Juneau on the same day.

Map of Yakutat Bay with Hubbard Glacier. 

Here is the entire map of Alaska. It’s hard to connect the pieces without looking at the whole picture. Our cruise only travelled along the south at the right side of Alaska map.

Still finding the entire map too hard to read🤔No worries, here’s a very clear one showing some ports that I have been to including Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. Last time, I visited Glacier Bay National Park on Koningsdam cruise. This time I visited Hubbard Glacier on Crown Princess.

Same as Koningsdam, there was a morning market in Crown Princess on glacier day. 

The best way to spend time in the morning or at noon was to have light meals by the window while the ship was entering Yakutat Bay.

Very beautiful blue colour …. some floating ice too.

Let’s go outdoor. Everywhere was full of people, couldn’t find a good spot to watch the scene.

What a stunning view! The colour of Hubbard Glacier is truly amazing😍

According to Glaciers - Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), Hubbard Glacier is North America’s largest tidewater glacier. It is 76 miles (122 km) long, 7 miles (11 km) wide and 600 feet tall (350 feet exposed above the waterline and 250 feet below the waterline). The glacier was named in 1890 for Gardiner Hubbard, the first president of the National Geographic Society.

Wonder why the ice looks blue?  The answer can be found on Inspirational Thoughts: Alaska Cruises in the Summer - Part 4 (chan38.blogspot.com).

Since it was super crowded on the upper decks, we went down to Deck 7 for the stunning view. It had less passengers. 

I was able to catch a moment of ice calving (not a big one). My partner suspected ice calving was caused by the movement and interference of our cruise ship. Well, I think that’s possible too! 

We were running around on Deck 7 like hamsters🐹to catch the best view of Hubbard glacier while the ship moved to another side.

It’s leaving the glacier. Let’s go back to the top!

Bye Bye Hubbard Glacier🙋 I hope it will be well protected and not retreated like the others 🙏

Looking at the sea, I noticed the water has two colours again. First time I saw that was in front of Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay. The colour difference is caused by the content of the water. The blue one is salt water while the muddy one is freshwater.  I guess it should be the same concept for both?

Because of global warming or whatever reason, Alaska glacier surroundings are not as cold as before. People stayed in outdoor swimming pool and hot tubs on glacier day.

Oops … I thought only one ship visiting Hubbard Glacier each day in the summer. There was another ship going there.

Let’s zoom in. It was Holland America Noordam. Too many cruise ships disturb Hubbard daily. I think once a day should be enough.  

Afternoon tea started at 3 pm in DaVinci Dining Room on deck 6. I was excited to try it and compare with Koningsdam afternoon tea.

I expected a three tier of pastries 🍰would be served. Where were the pastries? Oh! Waiter and waitress were carrying different tray of pastries to my table and asked if I wanted some. 

原來服務生把不同糕點拿來問我要不要, 人多時還要搭枱,好有酒樓feel😅

Dinner time we had meal in another classic dining place: Michelangelo Dining Room on Deck 5.

With vegetarian meal, I ordered Crispy Thai Vegetable Spring Rolls as starter and Fettuccine Alfredo as main course.

 I love Lychee, Raspberry & Rose Mousse so I picked it for dessert 😋

At night on the cruise, I always enjoyed walking around, listening to some relaxing music and watching people dance 𝅘𝅥𝅮💃

Next morning August 1, 2023 was a whole day at sea also another veggie day for me. Started with vegetarian breakfast in the spacious Horizon Court. It was always a nice area to enjoy the breakfast or lunch buffet. It would be even better if there was an automatic handwasher/sanitizer at every corner of the restaurant just like Koningsdam’s Lido Market. 

I believe there should be more interesting maps hidden in the information room.

With enlarged map 🔍 the left shows the cities or places I have been to when I live in Metro Vancouver🍁 The right shows the cities or places I have been to when I visited Alaska. Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay are in blue boxes since I have been to there on a different cruise.

When I wondered who would buy the stuffed animals🧸in the souvenir shop on cruise? One of the Chinese families we met at the afternoon tea purchased it.

Not only gifts, some necessities can be purchased on cruise. But the price would be at least double or even triple of what we can buy from our own grocery stores 😧 Huggies wipes cost $4 USD on Crown Princess (around $5.48 CAD).  Guess how much in Real Canadian Superstore?

Regular price $2.49 CAD, now on sale for $1.29 CAD. Huge difference!

There was always an activity in the Piazza on Deck 5, let’s check it out. Just before noon, they got Stanley and McKinley’s Tricky Trivia Trivia! Who is Stanley and who is McKinley???

Those were the stuffed animals I saw in the souvenir shop. Ah! The bear🧸is called Stanley and the moose🫎 is called McKinley.  

My vegetarian dishes🍃from Horizon Court’s lunch buffet. I was satisfied with the meal since it looked healthy to me 🥬🥕

It was another formal night and I transformed myself into purple lady again! This time I learned how to dress up better. 順便拍照留倩影 😊

The clutch purse was made by my mom with shiny beads and the bracelet I wore was the star shaped silver bracelet purchased in Koningsdam😉

We were invited to Gala Dinner. All dishes I chose were vegetarian including Warm Tri-Colour Quinoa and Butternut Squash and Vegetable Strudel. 

Food was good but service was very slow. We decided to give up dessert in order to be on time for the production show.

During the dinner, I received a compliment from the lady sitting next to our table. She loved my purple shawl 💕

The show in Princess Theater ran from 9:30 to 10:20 am. It was “Encore” performance.

Ballroom Elegance Takes the Stage in an "Encore" Performance | Princess Cruises (youtube.com)