After a quick few days in Anchorage, it was back on the ship heading south to Vancouver. Also, I think you may have had three posts in three days! They do take a while to put together so I hope you are enjoying them😏
Royal Caribbean – Radiance of the Seas, is similar in size [approx 3,000 on board] to our cruise last year [Shanghai to Singapore on the R.C. Mariner of the Seas]. From the swimming pools, spa pools, pool tables, climbing walls, movie theatre, theatre, endless bars, library, mini golf and the odd deck chair or two, there has been plenty to do. Oh, and how could I forget the restaurants! We have seen plenty of whales [and I now feel like one after two weeks cruising!] and of course other wildlife. Funnily this ship is heading to New Zealand – now if we had decided to stow away …
After leaving Seward (which we had to bus to from Anchorage … 2.5 hours) we cruised overnight to the Hubbard Glacier.
A 100 metres tall across the face, which is approximately an 8km wide river of ice, (think a thirty story building!!) and 120 kilometres into the land. The size of it is just phenomenal and the sound of the ‘thunder’ of the ice cracking before it breaks and falls into the sea is just incredible. It is so blue, and we were lucky enough to have the most spectacular weather which of course made it bluer than blue. No pictures you take of these massive glaciers will ever show you just how big they are, as you can’t get anything in your picture to give it some relevance. were lucky enough [after watching several mini ice-slides] to have a large ‘piece’ of ice ‘calve’ in front of us – think of a building (maybe the Sentienal in Takapuna, Auckland) 20 stories high just groan, crack and collapsing into the sea. The sound of that thunder and the ice hitting the water is just fantastic. Even the ship felt the impact of the wave as it hit the water. Actually, we watched the waves [it felt like slow motion] as the waves moved toward the ship. Just an awesome experience. (For those that are on Facebook, I will post a short video of the calving event.)
We spent a day again in Juneau and Skagway exploring a few different places to last week, but stayed on the ship in Icy Strait Point as it was raining in the morning and not a whole lot to do here unless you have booked an excursion.
………. stand by for part 2! ……….
Maytheroadriseuptomeetyou ... 