[Fern Harbor, Glacier Bay National Park, Jul 29, 2024]

I was hoping to sleep in but at 6 am the captain came on the intercom to say there were orcas in front of us! Not wanting to have FOMO, I had to wake myself up and go to the bow. They were there!

To pass the rest of the time before breakfast at 7:30 am, we chilled in the lounge. There was a binder with pictures of our crew as well as the pictures of all the passengers the staff had taken when we boarded yesterday. That was neat to see! I especially liked the picture of our captain. He’s from New Mexico and he really does look like Walter White from Breaking Bad!

I was in the hot tub at 8 am, which was as soon as it opened! I was enjoying the solitude and beautiful scenery when some humpback whales appeared. All of a sudden I was surrounded by what felt like all the other passengers! At least I had the best seat in the house….err, on the boat!

The morning consisted of two orientations starting at 9 am. The first one was about land activities, and the second one introduced us to the kayaks. I got to see them up close on the 4th deck. We also got outfitted with muck boots and kayak vests. Unfortunately, these took most of the morning, so there were no activities. Plus, we were still making our way to our destination – Fern Harbor, in the outback of Glacier Bay National Park. There was nothing else to do but go in the hot tub once again before lunch at 12:30.

After lunch we went for Kayak 101 as our activity. Olivia, having experience with kayaks, was in the back manning the rudder, while I was happy to take the front and be in charge of videography. I’ve never been in a kayak before, but I’ve paddleboarded, which helped. The water was super calm, which was also great. Kayak 101 consisted of a super easy kayak around the bay. We were surrounded by a kelp forest, otters, seals and sea lions. One sea lion was really curious and came right behind our kayak! It was a great intro to kayaking and to Alaska!

Once we got back, I got in the hot tub for the third time. I mean, we had no cell coverage and I didn’t want to be inside, so what else was I supposed to do? 🙂

But seriously, I didn’t spend all of my free time in the hot tub. I had lots of conversations with other passengers when I wasn’t in the hot tub and we congregated in the lounge or on the decks. So far we’ve talked with 2 couples from Switzerland. One of them got caught in the Crowdstrike fiasco last week and it took them 5 days to get here. They had other plans in Alaska before the cruise, which they obviously had to miss, but the upside is they did not miss the cruise. We also chatted with one couple from Raleigh, NC (Sam & Linda) and one couple from Boston (Michael & Masha). Olivia and I are definitely bringing down the average age. We are the only two-some that’s not a couple, and there is a single guy who just decided to do the cruise on a whim 3 days ago.

Dinner that day was crab legs. I may have had a whole crab.

We still had plenty of daylight left when the captain went on the intercom again and said there are whales at our bow. We went outside and we were surrounded by them! One crossed right in front of our bow, and another one breached! It was a fantastic end to our first full day on the boat.