OK, cross Alaska off our "bucket list". For this adventure we decided to sail aboard Carnival Spirit which sails r/t from Seattle and makes 5 ports of call in Alaska's "Inside Passage". The "Inside Passage" is located in Alaska's pan handle and, much to our surprise, is considered a rain forest. The operative word here is "rain" as in wet, damp weather which causes everything to be lush and green. We were told to expect rain and cool temperatures so we packed accordingly. Every day, but one, had rain with max temperatures around 50 degrees but we were ready and made the best of it.

Many who cruise to Alaska do what is referred to as a "Sea & Land" cruise which tacks 4-5 days of land touring onto the end of a one week cruise. In the interest of economy, we decided to do only the "Sea" portion and simply cruise the "Inside Passage".

Tracy Arm Fjord was to be our first stop on the cruise. Basically the ship wanders it's way thru the fjord which has a glacier inside of it. As often happens this time of year, Tracy Arm Fjord was clogged with ice so the captain decided to cruise an alternate nearby more open fjord. We ended up cruising the Endicott Arm Fjord and taking a peek at the Dawes Glacier. We had pre-arranged an excursion for this stop which involved having a small boat pick us up at the ship and take us closer to the glacier. We were surprised how far the ship went into the fjord but it still wasn't far enough to see the glacier. The small boat was the way to go for that up close peek at Dawes Glacier. I should mention that this was the one and only sunny day we had on the cruise which made for some spectacular images of the snow capped mountains that surrounded us. Read more