Disney Cruise - Tracy Arm

After a two days and nights of transit north the cruise liner entered the Alaskan Inner Passage and we started a fantastic five day transit south. The inner passage is about 800km of waterways is used by freighters, tugs in tow and fishing boats looking to avoid the rough seas of the open ocean. And it a haven for many cruise liners, providing great scenery and opportunities to visit less travelled townships along the way.

 

 Our very first iceberg. Ice is continuous breaking off the glaciers creating icebergs of all shapes and sizes. During the winter the weather makes travelling the Inner Passage dangerous at best.

 

 Icebergs dead ahead!!!!!! Lucky we had a big boat.

 

 Our first sighting of the Sawyer Glacier. It was amazing from this far away, the scenes only got better.

 

 Like I said, Lucky we've got a big boat. This is one of only a few Alaskan fishing boats we saw. Balls of steel.

 

 Jaxon was not to fussed by the big block of ice. The Disney staff really catered for everything. On this particular day they knew that most people would be on the upper decks looking at the glacier so they organised outdoor games for the kids.on the basketball court.

 

 Indi was normally very good going into the kids' clubs. But when she could see us through the netting of the basketball court there was no way she was staying in there.

 

 The Sawyer Glacier. Magnificent. A river of ice thousands of years old.

 

 Yep it was cold.

 

 It's hard to get the photos to do it justice. The ice was so blue it was unbelievable.

 

 As water freezes it expands (you knew that) so the glacier helps form the Inner Passage.

 

 Not that you can tell from this photo, but those black bits on the ice are hundreds of seals. Very cool.

 

 Global warming or just the ongoing cycle of the earth. Either way we were lucky enough to see an estimated 200 tonne block of ice break away from the glacier and fall into the water.

 

 It was very loud and sent seals sliding in every direction.

 

The Sawyer Glacier is at the very top of the Inner Passage so they had to turn the ship around when it was time to leave. Not a bad view of the glacier from our cabin.