A few days ago I told you about the tiny town of Whittier, Alaska.  We went there to take a glacier cruise, and I’m SO excited to tell you all about it!

We took the 26 Glacier Cruise with Phillips Cruises & Tours.  It.  Was.  Amazing.  Truly!  This was a splurge, and it was worth every penny.  We spent 5 hours exploring the beautiful Prince William Sound.

Glaciers!  We saw LOTS of glaciers,  and the captain got us within 1000 feet of 2 of them.

Wildlife!  We saw bald eagles, one of which looked all kinds of derpy sitting on his wee little iceberg!  We also saw Dall’s porpoises (briefly), harbor seals, lots of sea otters (squeee!), mountain goats, and black legged kittiwakes.  The sea lions weren’t back yet.  There had been reports of a humpback whale in the area, but we didn’t see it.  The ship’s captain altered the set plan to ensure we saw as much wildlife as possible.  That was pretty cool!

 

Icebergs!  The ice was beautiful! And the reflections were amazing!

 

Phillip’s has a No-Seasickness Guarantee for this cruise, and that was a huge factor in my choosing it.  Turns out that the boat used for this cruise, The Klondike Express, was designed and built for THIS cruise!  It’s a catamaran (has two parallel hulls instead of just one), so it’s incredibly stable.  I never once got at all nauseous!  Hooray!

The boat was at only about 30% capacity, so that was nice! When the boat slowed we were allowed to go out on the front deck.  I think we were allowed to go out on the top deck at any time, but our seats were only feet from the front deck, so we just popped out there when we had the opportunity.  Everyone has assigned seating.  I liked the idea of reserved seats!  Our seats were on an enclosed deck, and we had great views.  We sat right beside the windows, so that was an extra bonus.  (Book early.  I suspect they fill up the window seats first.)

The cruise includes a hot lunch.  I was slightly skeptical of it, so we grabbed a light lunch before we boarded the boat.  We totally could have skipped that!  The lunch was delicious, and it included more than enough food.  I had salmon chowder, slaw, a fruit cup, roll, and butter.  Gene had chili and the same side items.  Later in the cruise we were served hot-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies!  SWEET!  Water, hot tea, and coffee were available at no extra cost the whole time, and a bar was available for those who wanted sodas or other beverages.

Phillips contracts with the National Park Service to have a Park Ranger on every cruise.  Our ranger had a good balance of giving us information without giving TOO much information.  Know what I mean?  She was very pleasant and answered questions and chatted with passengers throughout the cruise.

Just in case you can’t tell by now, I highly recommend this cruise!  Go to Alaska!  Take this cruise!

Follow me in social media:

• 
• 
•