The alarm went off at silly o’clock and we put on as many clothes as we had and headed up onto deck to see the Hubbard Glacier. At first it didn’t seem like it would be a very successful viewing as the decks were covered in people and we were struggling to see, however it turned out that we should not have panicked as our captain was showing off to his parents who were also on the cruise and proceeded to get us to within 500 metres of the glacier, which is 6 miles side at the toe, just at the time when most of the people had gone inside because they were cold! Happy days, for those of us hardy enough to stay for the duration!
The little speck about 1/3 of the way from the left is another massive cruise ship… gives an idea of the scale of the glacier – it was immense!
Ah, when the glacier viewing was finished it was time to do some cruising as we headed towards Seward. With not much to see, other than some more amazing mountains, and the chance of seeing a whale, the organised fun commenced, including demonstrations of making a black forest gateau (the captain hamming it up for the crowd, and the chief cake maker actually doing it properly). We also watched an ice-carving exhibition by a Filipino ice carver (every ship in the fleet has at least one ice carver, and we were reliably informed that ice carving is a very popular sport in the Philippines).
After all that group fun, we decided to head on to the deck for a round of putt putt, which ended prematurely when it started to sleet… think it is something about us and golf on this trip that is a bit jinxed. With the somewhat cramped conditions, we had to be a bit creative with our stances at times…
To celebrate our last night on the cruise, we headed to the fancy steak restaurant for a lovely meal, then said farewell to our favourite waiters in the Schooner Bar! Suffice it to say, they knew us by name…
