Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer
Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer is the only excursion option on Tracy Arm Fjord day. The only other option is to stay on the ship and see what you can see from the deck or your balcony. The excursion cost $189 and sold out fast but additional spots did keep opening up.
Our meeting point was in the main lounge.
We’re heading down to the boat.
CD Andy was greeting people on the gangway. I know he’s supposed to be doing this excursion today. I don’t know if he’ll be on mine or the later one.
I didn’t realize they would have a bar on this boat. I didn’t bring money but wish I would have.
This boat has three decks. The bottom is all indoor with a bar and three bathrooms. The second is indoor/outdoor. The third is an observation deck that is only open when the boat isn’t moving very fast. I’m on the outside portion of deck two.
It looked like there were some great views if you got a front window seat downstairs.
The negative of choosing to be outside is at a certain point they aren’t allowed to use to the outdoor speakers. That means you miss out on the commentary. I was willing to trade the commentary for actually being outside and close to the action.
After a few minutes I realized I was hot. I took off the hat, gloves, and coat for the first hour of the tour. It felt good to me. I do think I was in the minority on that since everyone else stayed bundled up. I’ve got some cold blood in me I think.
I didn’t need the waterproof case for my phone either since there was no danger of it getting wet unless I threw it off the side of the boat.
This is the third deck.
On the second deck people lined the outside blocking the view of many on the inside. I tried as much to stay out from in front of people as possible and moved to the back when I was able to.
For awhile I was thinking if people wanted to pay $200 to look at my backside, we could work a better deal on the ship.
I got great pictures of Splendor throughout the tour because we left Splendor, got passed by Splendor twice, then returned to it.
We encountered a humpback whale.
We also got to see a black bear.
I was on the right side of the boat because the people on the other side missed both the whale and the bear. The bear quickly retreated into the woods as you can see in the above video.
The captain did turn the boat around hoping the other side would get to see the whale resurface but it never did.
This is where I would make a case for moving to the top observation deck when possible or staying towards the back of the boat where you can move from one side to the other. I was pretty much stuck where I was at until the people next to me moved. I was fortunate to be on the right side of the boat.
We saw incredible waterfalls everywhere.
You could see some goats up in the mountains as well.
This is the second boat. It’s a little different than the one I’m on. It only has two decks. Personally I never wanted to use the 3rd deck because I wanted to be closer to the water.
Splendor is coming back around.
The blue ice is pretty cool. Literally.
I think the other boat got to see some sea lions over there. I know people from that boat had pictures of some on ice that we didn’t get to see. Some of this is luck of the draw as to which boat you’re on and which side of the boat you’re on.
I’m going to take us to the glacier.
They mentioned there was free hot chocolate downstairs by the bar. I didn’t want to miss anything so I didn’t go down until we were on the way back. By then all of the cups were gone.
This is the alcoholic beverage selection. I sure would like one of those amber beers. I wish I would’ve thought to bring money.
This gives you an idea of what the view would be like inside downstairs. If you want to sit inside, I would definitely try to secure one of these seats because on the second level people can block your view.
They did have several bathrooms inside downstairs. I’m standing next to them here.
They brought a piece of the glacier in the boat for everyone to see. Then they had a lady throw it back in the water.
We are heading back to the ship.
You can see the people who didn’t purchase the excursion out on deck.
They didn’t like me stopping to snap this picture. But I’m only going to do this once.
I highly recommend booking this excursion. It gets you off of the ship on a day when there’s nothing else to do. I really enjoyed the fast ride through the fjord to the glacier. You get a close up view of the glacier. And maybe you’ll get to see a whale or a bear.
