Monday, February 26, 2018- Cruise Day 34; Amalia Glacier

Monday, February 26, 2018- Cruise Day 34; Amalia Glacier

We started the day cruising among hundreds of islands, but these appeared to have been ground into rounded shapes with smooth white granite tops and scattered shrubs.  We were starting into the Nelson Channel enroute to the Amalia Glacier. After breakfast, we attended morning trivia.  We were a bit off our game, scoring 16/20 while two teams tied at 18/20 for first. We then sprinted to the Effy store for another drawing and learned a bit about sapphires.  We didn’t end up winning the drawing either.

We watched the channel narrow into a fjord from our balcony and then went for a quick bite to eat before watching “The Mountain Between Us” in the Princess Theatre.  It was a plane crash survival story combined with a romance story with Idris Elba and Kate Winslet.  I guess they figured the plane crash survival story would draw in the guys, while the impossible romance would draw in the women, and it did seem to work.  

We then retreated to our balcony for more scenic cruising.  We could see mountains rising in the distance above the islands we were cruising among.  While we have seen fjords in Alaska, Norway, and New Zealand, each has had it’s own unique beauty, so you can’t really say just because you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.  

We attended afternoon trivia but were even more off our game, scoring only 12/20 while the winners ended up with 16/20, but we still enjoy the challenge and the competition has really ramped up since Buenos Aires.  The lounge is now packed and if you don’t get there early, you won’t find a place for your team to play.  We got aced out of our usual booth, and ended up cramped in an aisle.  

We had afternoon tea, anticipating that we were arriving at the Amalia glacier at 5:30PM.  That worked out well because we wouldn’t be hungry, and could have a later dinner.  We watched the Amalia glacier from our balcony and from the open deck on the bow on our floor, deck 10.  They approached with the glacier on the port side, so viewing it from the bow worked well.  Unlike our Alaska Glacier Bay cruise experience on Norwegian where everything was jammed with people 3 and 4 people deep to get pictures or even a view, there was plenty of room along the railings around the ship and no crowding to see the glacier.  They spun the ship around so that the glacier could be seen by everyone, so we ended up having a great and comfortable view from our balcony.  Ben saw a small piece of the Glacier break-off into the water (calving) with binoculars, but the Amalia Glacier, like most others around the world, has receded over the last few years, and now only a small part of it actually extends into the tidal waters.  We did see a sea lion porpoising about, putting on a show for us.  There were also two deer on the shore near the edge of the Glacier, but you needed binoculars to see them well.  

The Glacier is beautiful with its craggy top and streaks of unbelievably blue ice.  This glacier flows around a volcano, but the top of the volcano was shrouded by clouds.  The ship launched one of its fast rescue boats with a photography/videography team on board for the Reflections DVD they sell.  They also retrieved a chunk of floating glacial ice and brought it on board for display on the Lido deck.  We went by and saw it.  It was sculpted by the water and probably weighed under a 100 pounds. 

We had dinner and attended the early show of Rogerio Tutti, who is a pianist who does his own Liberace like arrangements of classical and pop pieces, backed by the Island Princess Orchestra.  He is a good showman and put on a good show for us.  

We then attended the “Who’s the Cuckoo” Gameshow.  We tied with 5 other teams with 3 out of 4 correct guesses, but didn’t win the tie-breaker, which was to guess the combined ages of the 5 Cruise Director’s Staff on stage.  We weren’t at all upset about not getting a bottle of champagne to share.  We consoled ourselves by hitting the buffet one last time for a late night bite.  They kept the buffet open late because of the late glacier encounter.  

Tomorrow is another day at sea.  We are sailing north, and should hit warmer weather with each passing day.  Today, the temperature was cool enough that you really needed a warm coat outside- Upper 40’s  to mid 50’s.  By the time we reach our next port of call in 2 days, the highs should be in the mid 70’s.  That should feel pretty good.