South Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm Fjord | Disney Alaska Cruise Trip Report 2014

Chapter 27
Totally Glacial


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It was an odd experience how our ship suddenly turned a corner to reveal the end of the fjord and Sawyer Glacier in the distance.

We still had to get around some ice before we could get any further, but at least we knew that we wouldn’t have to turn around before catching our first glimpse.

The further the ship maneuvered, the clearer the view of the ice wall became.

I think we just lucked out that the starboard side (where our stateroom was) happened to have the best view of the glacier, because I think that the port side mostly just looked out on the mountains to our left. Not that the mountains were anything to sneeze at, however. They were quite beautiful in their own right.

Since we didn’t know how much closer we’d be allowed to get to the glacier itself, Tracy and I started taking photos of each other to prove that we had at least gotten this far.

Sometimes camera zoom really comes in handy, because we were able to make the glacier look like this even from really far away.

We had our eyes peeled for seals as we continued to cut the distance between us and the end of the fjord. We’d heard several times from Jimmy, Doug Jones, and our table mates that this area was the best place to see seals (including babies) since this was where the mothers typically came to give birth. No matter how closely we stared into our binoculars, however, we just couldn’t find any of these animals—although we did have several false alarms.

The other natural wonder we’d been told to look out for was “calving” along the glacier—which is the scientific term for when giant chunks of ice break off from the glacier itself and fall into the water. Jimmy kept describing the sound associated with the ice falling as the “white thunder,” and the sight was supposed to be very majestic.

As you can see, we still had quite a ways to go if we were really going to get right up to the glacier itself. And all that ice up ahead made us question how much farther Captain Fabian would be taking us.

We’d continued making progress…

But then larger bergs started to block our path.

More epic zoom.

Spending so much time out on our verandah, we realized that the books aren’t kidding when they say it gets to be darn cold in Tracy Arm. Here is Tracy all bundled up and wearing our blanket as a makeshift sarong.

This view looks back behind the ship to show what we had just finished sailing through.

Since we knew our prospects weren’t looking great for getting that much closer, we decided to leave our stateroom and see if the views from anywhere else on the ship happened to be better than our own private show. Deck 9 was so incredibly crowded, it was like night and day when compared to the serenity of our verandah.

And the view really wasn’t any better. In fact, I think I preferred the one from our room.

Right around this point, I think we finally stopped moving forward.

It was funny, because none of the ice in our immediate vicinity looked particularly threatening, but I think the fact that there was just so much of it was the final deciding factor. Back down on our verandah, we could see that Captain Fabian had come out to the bridge (remember, we had a prime view of a lot of the navigation equipment) and was starting to change our course.

Still, it wasn’t as though we turned around right away. In fact, we kept just blasting ice away from the ship using several of the techniques the captain had told us about earlier in the day. Here’s a berg that’s being dislodged by the ship’s stabilizers expelling water.

Here’s a video that shows how we dislodged some of the ice by bumping it and also gives you a better idea of the view from our stateroom as we sat near the glacier.

[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA5fEDVqj3I” ]

The longer the ship just sat there, the more we wondered what was going on. Fabian looked clearly as though he had a plan.

But we also basically didn’t move more than a few feet for over an hour. Truth be told, we started to get a little bored and Tracy nodded off in her deck chair.

I feel like this was the iceberg that finally stopped us. It was a pretty big one.

And boy, was it blue—especially around the edges.

Finally, after about an hour-and-a-half in the same place, we had completed turning around. Now the glacier was in the other direction as we started to sail away from it.

There was still plenty of ice to deal with as we went back in the other direction.

But we were basically ready to go inside.

Especially Tracy, who just wanted to go back to sleep.

Before it disappeared from our view, I took one last look back at the majestic glacier. It was the first one I’d ever seen in real life, and it was sure beautiful.

And then, totally out of nowhere, I saw a huge puff of something that looked almost like smoke rising from the glacier as a big chunk came calving off its face. By the time I could even yell out to Tracy, the entire event was done. I have no idea how I just lucked out and happened to catch it. From talking to other people throughout the rest of the cruise, it sounds as though no one else was still paying attention at that point to see it happen. I’m sure that it wasn’t as awe-inspiring as it is when you are right up close to the glacier, but it still definitely made an impression on me.

With the calving checked off my Alaska bucket list, I could really finally head inside without worrying about missing anything. So I took one last photo of the direction in which the ship was now heading before warming up in the stateroom.

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About Wandering Mouseketeers

We are Taylor and Tracy — husband and wife from Boulder, CO — and we love all things Disney, as well as general travel. This website was originally created to showcase our Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line trip reports, but we've also got an entire series of blog posts about what it was like to live for a year and a half in Orange County, CA. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading about our various adventures. All of our Disney trip reports have lots of pictures and details that you can use to plan your next vacation!