Inside Passage Cruise – Seattle Washington to Glacier Bay Alaska & return
We left Seattle at 4pm on the 27th August 2013 aboard the Carnival Miracle travelling in a Junior Suite which was very roomy and luxurious.
The ship is 963 feet long, 106 feet wide, carries 2667 passengers and has a crew of 934.
Ports we visited were Tracy Arm Fjord, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, Victoria and then Seattle arriving at 07:00 on the 3rd of September 2013.
The ship went as far north as Glacier Bay standing off the ice shelf by about 100 metres.
Many sizeable icebergs were encountered on the way.
Whilst moored in Ketichan we went on a half day “Neet’s BayBear Watch Expedition” – we departed via Float Plane for Neet’s Bay – the flot plane trip was good but the bears went in to hiding on the ground.
In Juneau we went on a “Mendenhall Glacier Float Trip” of about 4 hours duration. The trip is a white water rafting trip commencing on Mendenhall Lake with views of the glacier which is 1.5 miles wide and 600 feet high. Moderate rapids were encountered and the water temperature was a cool 33 degrees fahrenheit.
In Skagway we went on a “Dogsledding & Helicopter Glacier Flightseeing” tour which was by far the highlight of our trip.
We departed on a helicopter, flew over Taiya Inlet and landed at a dog camp on the glacier.
Whilst on the glacier we were able to play with the dogs and went on a dogsled ride where we controlled the sled and the dogs