Part 3: Awesome Alaska Adventure - our visit to Tracy Arm Fjord

Thursday:

We woke to another relaxing morning. Today was going to be a fun day. We ordered room service breakfast snack (room service is completely free on the ship - minus the tip), and got ready for our Character Breakfast at 9:45.

While we were waiting for breakfast, we worked off some of our morning energy in the Promenade Lounge with the Wake up and Wiggle Dance Party.  Lots of early morning fun!

We would be back in Parrot Cay for breakfast with our servers and lots of characters! It was tons of fun!

The napkin hats apparently came with the breakfast - each person got a handmade napkin hat from our servers Renata (from Hungary) and Sheldon (from Jamaica).

After breakfast, Carleigh and Brigit headed to the Edge until lunchtime. The rest of us wandered and were going to meet on Deck 9 or 10 to stake out our spots for the prime glacier viewing as we entered Tracy Arm Fjord around 12:00.

Tracy Arm Fjord would be a six hour adventure - 3 hours in to the glacier and then the boat would turn around and 3 hours out.  The captain had announced that prime Glacier Viewing would be around 4:00 pm.

It started out as a beautiful day/but turned rainy and misty later on and we were all ready to brave the elements to get a good spot for the next 6 hours.  We found it and settled in - deck chairs, blankets and the younger ones constantly making hot chocolate runs!

 The characters and photographers were wandering around on deck 10 taking pictures.  Also they moved the kids clubs up to the top deck, so the parents could pull their kids out for pictures and then put them back again.  Ours stayed with us the whole time.  What an adventure.

We are in Tracy Arm Fjord and starting to see icebergs in the water.  The water was also turning a beautiful blue/green color due to the glacier silt.  The group waiting for a glacier sighting!

 Brigit and Carleigh trying to stay warm!

Another cruise ship was coming out - only one cruise ship could be deep in the fjord at once.

Marti and I stripped down to our specially ordered Mickey VT shirts for pictures!  It was VERY cold!!!

We finally rounded the corner and the icebergs were getting bigger and the Sawyer Glacier was almost in sight.  I'll pass off to Don's pictures now to give the glacier and the icebergs justice:

(As you look at these pics remember what they told us...that only 10% of the iceberg is showing - so there is 9x what you see under the water)  Some of them were pretty big!

 Started out excited just to see one little iceberg floating in the water early in the afternoon. :)

 Then the water started filling up and the air temperature started getting a lot colder!

 Like I said earlier, only 10% of the iceberg is showing - there's A LOT of ice under the water in these pictures!

 No Glacier yet!

 

Going to round that corner to the right in the above picture

 And there it is! One more corner to round...

 Right in front of us.....a day or two before we sailed into the fjord, a  huge piece of ice had calved (fallen off of the glacier) and created a big enough wave to splash up onto a boat and knock a women down and she broke her leg.  People were saying it was on CNN.

 I learned that glaciers are like rivers of moving ice!  I learned a lot on our Skagway day (tomorrow) - and they keep moving - the glacier that we see tomorrow moves/flows about 12 inches a day...I'm not sure how fast this one moves.

 Below is a close up of a bit of calving that I saw from our stateroom on our way out of the fjord - you can see a bit of splashing near the bottom of the photo

Here is the YouTube video of the Sawyer Glacier calving two days before we sailed into the fjord! Just press play!

We saw Clayton later that evening, and he told us that he was on the bridge (with the captain) during the sailing into Tracy Arm and our cruise was the closest that the ship ever got to the glacier so far.  Clayton said that he was very concerned because some of the icebergs appeared very big, but Captain Gus said to leave the driving to him.  Glad that I didn't know that while we were near the glacier. :)  Thoughts of Titanic come to mind.......

It was beautiful and well worth the 6 hours braving the cold and rain/mist that appeared at about 3:00 and stayed through the duration.  

The girls and I headed down to the room at about 5:00 and Don and Marti stayed up top to take pictures until about 5:45.

We changed for dinner and then headed out for the pre-dinner festivities.  Tonight it was a guy named John Charles - a guitarist/comedian.  He is a regular Disney Cruise performer and was fantastic...he can play just about any song on the guitar and adds his own take on the lyrics...

One of his intro pieces - set to the tune of "When you Wish Upon A Star..."  - "When you're sitting at the bar, wondering where your children are..., take a tip..., you're on a ship..., they can't go far...."

He played/entertained for about 45 minutes and then we headed to dinner at Animator's Palate to eat.

Bed after dinner and getting ready for our Skagway adventures!  Land Ho tomorrow!!

Stay Tuned for Skagway - Dogsledding?  Glacier Flightseeing? Canoeing up to the Glacier?  Shields family animal extravaganza?  Nana and Bubba panning for gold?  Another Disney Game Show trophy?