When booking an Alaska Inside Passage Cruise you might think that Glacier Bay is simply a “Day At Sea” with not much to see. This is far from the truth, you definitely want to be out on deck looking at the amazing scenery throughout the day. We were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to completely clear skies and sunshine for our day in Glacier Bay. One thing that was even more awesome about this day was that we were able to see the Northern Lights that night (now I can check that off my bucket list!).

Alaska Inside Passage Cruise – Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay is currently made up of multiple glaciers. In the 18th century, all of this bay was covered by a single glacier- the Grand Pacific Glacier. As the Grand Pacific Glacier has retreated, it has left other smaller glaciers where it used to be. Since we had such gorgeous weather (and calm seas) we were able to spend time both at the Grand Pacific Glacier and the John Hopkins Glacier. Our National Parks Naturalist on board was surprised we got to go down towards the John Hopkins Glacier and spend a good amount of time down there as well.

By U.S. National Park Service – U.S. National Park Service website brochure (webpage with the original PDF file link), Public Domain, Link

We entered the bay early in the morning and starting cruising towards the glacier. We were keeping our eyes out for otters, orcas, and bears as they were still on our wildlife checklist. We heard the naturalist talking about seeing some bears, but even with our binoculars and giant zoom lenses we weren’t able to find them.

While hanging out at the John Hopkins Glacier, we saw a couple little calves fall off the front. We would hear loud cracking noises as the ice shifted then a minute or two later would see chunks of ice fall into the bay.

The water in the bay is a bright turquoise color which reminded me of the Caribbean. Glacier Bay is one reason that I’m glad we had a balcony room because all of us could simply hang out on the balcony and take in the views as we were cruising to and from the main glacial sites. The first day on the boat we had our room steward open up the dividers between our balconies so we could all hang out on one giant balcony outside our rooms.

As you can see in the picture below, I had a little bit of sun by this point in the day and had started to get a little burnt. This is one reason I have sunscreen on my Alaska Inside Passage Cruise Packing List.

The temperature was about 15 degrees lower in Glacier Bay (even in the sunshine) than the day before in Skagway. I was so glad that I had my blanket scarf and nano-puff jacket.

If you are looking to take your own Alaska Inside Passage Cruise, make sure that Glacier Bay is on your list of stops, you will not be disappointed with the breathtaking views!