veryuniquetraveler
Sep 2022
We were a little concerned as we did not receive a confirmation e-mail after booking nor a reminder of our cruise the day before, so we went to their office when they opened and received confirmation. Seating is first come first served, but they said there were only thirty some people on our cruise so there was no rush to beat the crowd. It was so nice to be able to spread out and not be with the mob of a tour group for a change. Overall, the cruise was very nice. We went on four different glacier cruises during our trip, and I have to say this was the nicest boat by far. The seats were very comfortable and the bathrooms were bigger and nicer than the other boats also. I was pleased that the crew wore masks and gloves and they were very attentive and helpful. Clam chowder served for lunch was the best I had during our two week trip to Alaska, and I tried a LOT of clam chowder. This was the only one that had any flavor.
Unfortunately, it rained for at least half of our trip and it was very cold. The weather is beyond anyone's control, but bad weather puts a damper on everything. At least this boat was designed well, and had coverage over the sides as you walked from the front to back and there was coverage over the front in front of the wheelhouse and coverage over part of the back of the boat which was also out of the wind. So there were places to stand out of the rain and take pictures while you were observing the sights.
We went past the pipeline terminal and got a good narration of the pipeline system and also about the 1989 oil spill.
We were able to get about 2 miles from Columbia Glacier which apparently doesn't happen too often as you have to navigate through a lot of ice. We saw a lot of wildlife including eagles, puffins, sea lions, sea otters, porpoises, a seal, and mountain goats. It was a great cruise, too bad about the weather. Your experience will entirely depend on how many passengers are on board that day. It was the perfect sized crowd for us to be comfortable. However, if you are there when the boat was full with 150 passengers I'm sure you would have a miserable experience, so luck of the draw.