Trip to Alaska - Day 2 - Mendenhall Glacier

Juneau

Saturday, August 11

Saturday morning we got up early,

had breakfast downstairs,

then made our way to a tour bus.

The cruise line, American Cruise Lines,

puts everyone up in various hotel rooms

the night before embarking.

Smart, everyone will board on time :-)

In addition, they provide transportation to the ship's dock,

by way of a small tour through Juneau and the Mendenhall Glacier.

We had a great ride through Juneau with an engaging tour guide.

Finally we were on our way up to see the Mendenhall Glacier.

Wow!

I've never seen a glacier before, I'm amazed!

I was amazed at the blue in color, and learned in

the visitor's center why that is.

I won't give you a geology lesson,

google will tell you what you need to know :-)

The visitor's center was a wealth of information

about the Mendenhall glacier as well as glaciers in general.

They also had a bit about the native animals.

There are lots of waterfalls here, and a great

viewing window from the center.

We opted out of walking down with everyone else.

Soon it was time to get to the ship!

Let me tell a bit about this cruise lines and 

the American Constellation.

This ship is 280' long with 6 decks.

It has a whopping cruising speed of 15 mph.

There are no pools, shuffleboard, or any other form of entertainment.

They do feed you a lot, but not a continuous buffet of food.

The capacity is 175 people, but this cruise has 143 people on board.

Most everyone is our age or much older :-)

We have a gorgeous room with a balcony, on the 2nd deck.

Mom is right next door.

Our first day onboard was learning the layout,

a welcome cocktail and hors d ouevres.

The ship has some nice areas to congregate,

this being the main lounge.

It was a sunny day so we sat outside a bit.

As we made our way out to the inside passage,

we had some amazing views.

 

All of a sudden the captain stopped the ship,

and we saw why!

There was a humpback whale not too far from the ship.

I got a bit of the tail.

The Constellation crew is all about the scenery,

so the captain took his time, spinning the ship slowly around

until he was certain there were no more whales in the vicinity.

Hey, it's time for cocktail hour!

That is promptly at 5:30,

with open bar and more hors d ouevres.

We've met other people from Pennsylvania,

and a few from California as well.

So we don't starve, dinner is served at 6:30 and the food is wonderful!

Every meal you get a choice of appetizer and entree,

and dessert of course!

As we're in Alaska, there is a seafood dish every meal.

Salmon, crab, lobster, yum!

We can sit at any table we want, but we've gravitated

towards this one. We've met some nice people,

and we absolutely love our server, Joy.

After dinner is finished we rested upstairs in our room.

It was lovely out, so we stood outside on our balcony.

The weather today was sunny, 65°.

There is a bit of entertainment nightly, but we have opted out so far.

A nice couple tell stories of Alaska, she sings, he plays piano.

The ship broadcasts it on the TV in the room,

so we've been watching it from the comfort of our room.

Sunday we sailed into Haines...more about that next blog!