National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 30 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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Another one VERY prone to seasickness (Marine Biologist that gets seasick... can you see the irony?). Have you tried Bonine? I take it the night before, and the morning of the trip and have NEVER gotten sick since (knock wood). I HIGHLY recommend it!!
I must admit we've always thought that's very ironic!
I've got a seasickness tablet here that I love - Travel-eze. It's fruit flavoured, so you just suck on it and it worked a treat for me on the really bumpy catamaran ride over Naples bay on the 2007 Med cruise. Ever since then, I've sworn by those things!
Saturday 3 September – part two: so, with my luck so far this trip, will we find whales?
We were allowed to go outside and eventually I saw the familiar blowhole go and realised that they weren’t lying to me, there were actually whales here! As we stood there, I managed to see the whale’s body and finally the fantail! I couldn’t believe that I had finally seen it! This was already a great cruise.
We were there maybe 10 minutes or so, but we saw the fantail for about the third or fourth time and then no sign of them at all. We stood there waiting, but we got the signal that it was time to head out to other areas in search of more activity.
I was so relieved that we didn’t do too much bobbing up and down on the waves when we were stationary, as that’s what had really messed with my head the last time. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth it was when we were at a standstill. Full kudos to the captain! He was doing a very good job...
Once again, we belted along for what felt like ages, then we slowed, but this time not to see whales, but the sealions on the rocks nearby. There must’ve been hundreds of them! It was an amazing sight.
It was around here that Ali put out some complimentary snacks, salmon and crackers, but I don’t think a single person had any. I think we were all figuring maybe it was better to do it when we got back to shore, but by the time we got there, it was all gone.
We headed off again and this time we seemed to be going faster than ever. I wondered what the heck we were up to, as we bounced up and down. I learnt to take my feet off the floor, as that seemed to hurt less. I couldn’t help but think of my swimming partner, who’d fractured a bone in her spine on a boat just before we left. Ok, so it was different to this one, but all the same, I could see how she’d done it.
I had nothing but admiration for those two brave souls who headed to the restroom during this time, although of course perhaps they had no option but to visit it...
Finally, our captain told us the reason that we’d been belting along. He’d spotted orcas! Oh my goodness, surely this was too good to be true? This was very much Mark’s day, as he loves whales and especially orcas, although previous efforts to see them just hadn’t worked out. Could this be the day?
Well, sadly : it couldn’t be. Our captain searched in vain for them, as we headed rapidly towards our time limit, then we had to turn to go back. He told us when we got back to the harbour that the only reason he’d mentioned it was that he’d seen them blowing air, so knew they were in sight, but when we got there, they were gone. So near and yet so very far...
Soon we were back on dry land, with chocolates out for us to sample. It had been a very good tour and certainly a heck of a lot smoother than anything we’d experienced before. I was very glad we’d done it, as I will be honest, I had nearly backed out when we’d first got to the dock.
We got back into the bus and headed over to the Mendenhall Glacier visitor centre. As we had started to come back, the rain had started and, by the time we got back to dry land, it was fairly heavy. At least it had been dry for the whale watching. I felt sorry for the line of people now waiting to go out on our boat, as they wouldn’t have such a dry time. :
When we arrived at the visitor centre, the rain was showing no sign of relenting and looked like it was in for the day. We headed down first to an area called the pavilion to get some photos of the glacier. It was very impressive, but after the one in Tracey Arm, I was a little disappointed. The colours weren’t quite as striking and it was a bit further away. I guess I’m just getting spoilt now....
WOW! Those shots of the whale(s) are amazing! Did you have your camera on continuous shoot? You actually got a couple of the tail! And then all those seals, too. I'm getting nervous, though, and will have to think long and hard about doing one of those excursions. I hate to think what all that bumping around would do to my back, not to mention the seasickness issue.... Congratulations for making it through.
I agree, while still spectacular, compared to Tracy Arm the glacier isn't as beautiful. Maybe the colors are more vivid when the sun is brighter?
Yay, you saw the whales!!! Totally worthwhile, just for them. So large and so graceful. Too bad you missed the orcas though. The captain sure made the effort! You'd think if you've seen one glacier, you've seen them all, but they really are different. Tracey Arm wins, for sure!
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Glad you saw some whales! Sorry you missed the orcas . Seeing orcas was high on my "to do" list, so we chose to do our whale watching in Vancouver (and yes, we did see some....around 20 of them!). I went on a fabulous whale watch here in New England (Cape Cod) and the humpbacks came so close -Moms and babies actually swimming under our boat -that I was afraid that I would set myself up for disappointment if I booked one during our cruise.
Great photos of the Mendenhall Glacier. We didn't make it there and I was a little disappointed but I was happy with our visit to Mt. Roberts. I guess I can't do everything. That's a travel lesson that I still need to work on .
Wish you had a bit better weather for Juneau. I'm hoping that I'll read that you discovered Tracy's King Crab Shack in your next update. Absolutely fabulous!! As to the food, I was pretty happy with most of my choices on the cruise. Sorry you didn't have the same luck. Then again, I usually choose red meat and avoid seafood so you and I would not have been choosing the same items. And speaking of red meat, I had the best steak ever during the on-deck barbeque. That was Tracy Arm day, I believe. I don't remember seeing that mentioned in your TR so maybe you didn't try that.
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Two endangered species in one day!! Humpback whales and stellar sea lions!! Way to go!! Your photos from mendenhall are lovely too - the blue ice is just phenomenal!! Sorry to see it was rainy - but you made the best of it.
WOW! Those shots of the whale(s) are amazing! Did you have your camera on continuous shoot? You actually got a couple of the tail! And then all those seals, too. I'm getting nervous, though, and will have to think long and hard about doing one of those excursions. I hate to think what all that bumping around would do to my back, not to mention the seasickness issue.... Congratulations for making it through.
I agree, while still spectacular, compared to Tracy Arm the glacier isn't as beautiful. Maybe the colors are more vivid when the sun is brighter?
My camera doesn't do continuous shoot, so I was delighted to get any shots of the whales!
You're probably right about the colours being more vivid when the sun is brightr.
Glad you saw some whales! Sorry you missed the orcas . Seeing orcas was high on my "to do" list, so we chose to do our whale watching in Vancouver (and yes, we did see some....around 20 of them!). I went on a fabulous whale watch here in New England (Cape Cod) and the humpbacks came so close -Moms and babies actually swimming under our boat -that I was afraid that I would set myself up for disappointment if I booked one during our cruise.
Great photos of the Mendenhall Glacier. We didn't make it there and I was a little disappointed but I was happy with our visit to Mt. Roberts. I guess I can't do everything. That's a travel lesson that I still need to work on .
Wish you had a bit better weather for Juneau. I'm hoping that I'll read that you discovered Tracy's King Crab Shack in your next update. Absolutely fabulous!! As to the food, I was pretty happy with most of my choices on the cruise. Sorry you didn't have the same luck. Then again, I usually choose red meat and avoid seafood so you and I would not have been choosing the same items. And speaking of red meat, I had the best steak ever during the on-deck barbeque. That was Tracy Arm day, I believe. I don't remember seeing that mentioned in your TR so maybe you didn't try that.
Oh my goodness, the experience in New England with the whales sounds amazing.
We didn't see the on-deck barbecue on the Tracy Arm day. I suspect that it was probably out during the traditional lunch-time hours and as we'd had brunch that day, we weren't hungry, so we didn't go looking for food until about 3pm. By then, I'm sure it would've been done. I also wonder whether they moved it somewhere else, given the poor weather that day.
Wonderful pictures of the whale sightings sorry you didn't get the chance to see the orca's but at least you didn't get seasick the glacier pics were beautiful and if you had better weather I think the colors would have been even better! Marnie was able to capture some absolutely brilliant pictures of it but she did have beautiful weather. Can't wait for more!
Saturday 3 September – part three: admiring the view from the dry
We went to see the video about the glacier and my goodness, I wish I’d seen it on a day like the way they filmed on, as it all looked so beautiful in the sunshine. There were even people in short sleeves and children cart wheeling. Well, not today, there weren’t...
When we came out, Bob and Mark walked down a trail to see the salmon and thought they also spotted a black bear in the distance...
Meanwhile, Barb and I stayed at the visitor centre, shopping and admiring the view from the dry...
I also got some photos of how the glacier has retreated over the last 50 years. It’s quite scary what’s happened in that time. I guess that’s the true effects of global warming.
And this is how the same area is today:
We headed outside and saw a couple of eagles:
We met back up at the bus, which was picking us up at midday. Barb and I made it on to the bus and saved seats for the guys, although she did have to go through quite a pantomime to get their attention and show them that we were already on board!
Our final stop was for a salmon bake and, by now, I cannot begin to tell you how hard it was raining. It was literally just non-stop and you just had to be out in it for a few minutes and you were soaked. Fortunately, it’s obviously something that they’re used to dealing with. The seating area was covered by plastic, although you did have to walk from the soup area, where they cook the salmon and the dessert area, getting wet, which was a bit daft.
We started with clam chowder, which wasn’t bad, although it was a bit salty, which left us all gasping for drinks. All they had were hot drinks, understandable in one way I guess, but sometimes you just want some water, as opposed to coffee, tea or hot chocolate.
For entree, you can load up your plate as often you like with a combination of salad, hot and cold pasta, cornbread (which I thought at first was a dessert... ) and then either chicken or salmon. It was all pretty good and I couldn’t complain about any of it, although of course when you’re producing in those quantities, it’s not haute cuisine, if you know what I mean. I still am not a huge fan of Alaskan salmon, as I find it too rich, but it was better with the brown sugar sauce that came with it.
Bob had dessert, but didn’t really seem to rate it, so neither of us bothered with it.
Once we were done eating, we checked out the gift shop first, where we found the salmon glaze and a tea towel. Inside was quite a sight...
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This was already a great cruise. 
It was an amazing sight. 
: it couldn’t be. Our captain searched in vain for them, as we headed rapidly towards our time limit, then we had to turn to go back. He told us when we got back to the harbour that the only reason he’d mentioned it was that he’d seen them blowing air, so knew they were in sight, but when we got there, they were gone. So near and yet so very far... 
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Katie's graduation
sorry you didn't get the chance to see the orca's but at least you didn't get seasick
the glacier pics were beautiful and if you had better weather I think the colors would have been even better! Marnie was able to capture some absolutely brilliant pictures of it but she did have beautiful weather. Can't wait for more!
I guess that’s the true effects of global warming. 
It was literally just non-stop and you just had to be out in it for a few minutes and you were soaked. Fortunately, it’s obviously something that they’re used to dealing with. The seating area was covered by plastic, although you did have to walk from the soup area, where they cook the salmon and the dessert area, getting wet, which was a bit daft. 
) and then either chicken or salmon. It was all pretty good and I couldn’t complain about any of it, although of course when you’re producing in those quantities, it’s not haute cuisine, if you know what I mean. 
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