We took our little family on the Glacier Bay Day cruise and it was great family fun for all! When you load up on the ship the first thing to do is pick a seat. Since we were cruising with little kids we chose a seat (cushy bench style) a few rows back so as not to disturb cruisers without children right by the window. They gave us each our own mug that we could re-fill at our leisure from the soda fountain. Of course, they had Sprite, my son’s favorite. Then we were free to move about the ship as we wished. We had a great time going outside when the sites were something that we wanted to experience a little closer and ‘natural’ otherwise we hung out on our roomy, cozy bench. If you go, I’d recommend taking jackets & gloves because it got a little cold/windy up close to the glaciers. Along the way, we saw all sorts of wildlife including puffins, sea lions, and a couple of grizzly cubs with their mom. They have a park ranger on board and he was fun to listen to and was available to ask questions as well. Our little boy completed the ‘Junior Ranger’ booklet and then they swore him in officially (it was really cute).
The boat captain was great to slow down during the interesting sites/wildlife along the way. There are a lot of different glaciers to see; I was really surprised. When we got back to the Margerie Glacier, it was AMAZING, to say the least. I will never forget being so close to hear it cracking and calving (the official term for little pieces cracking off into the ocean). The captain did a good job by turning off the boat and doing a few spins so everybody on the deck could get a great view and pictures. My kids were even in awe of it. It was absolutely worth our time and money. We couldn’t go all that way to Alaska and not see the glaciers up close. Along the way back to Gustavus we even saw a couple of orcas (killer whales) migrating, they were pretty far off, but still, it was awesome to see them in the wild. We loved the Glacier Bay Day Cruise and would recommend it to anyone visiting the Glacier Bay National Park.
