Alaska: Day 5 - College Fjord and Prince William Sound

Well, we're on our way!   We woke this morning to breakfast being served in our stateroom, and a view of a massive iceberg outside our window.  Over the night, we were told, the Ryndam had passed through Knight Island Passage and Ferry Passage.  We had reached one of the first glaciers in College Fjord, where on a clear day we were told it was possible to see up to seven glaciers including Wellesley, Vasar, Harvard and Yale. Clear, being the operative word here... like McKinley, it was impossible to see most of them today.

But we had lots to enjoy here on the Ryndam.   First order of the day... get some exercise!   

<--Ryndam's gym.  The photo was taken as we were docking in Juneau, later on during our journey, on August 12th.

This was in part to help compensate for the fact we had spent the best part of the day for the past four days on planes, trains and automobiles (buses, actually, but you get the idea).  However, it was also due to an instinct for self-preservation, given the enormous amount of wonderfully rich, but great tasting food here on the boat.  Someone said (I have not idea if this is accurate or not), that you can easily gain a pound a day on cruise ships. Here, on the Ryndam, I can believe it!  So, I'm hoping an hour or two of hard work at the gym might help compensate for the inevitable caloric overload that my poor body will soon be subjected to.

The ship itself is truly luxurious.  Built in 1984, the ship, with a length of 720 feet, a beam of 101 feet and 10 decks, carries up to 1230 passengers and 602 crew members.  It's smaller than many of the other cruise ships we encountered in Alaska, but the smaller size made it relatively easy to get around.

Looking across from the lobby registration desk, with shops and a movie theatre on the other side-->

There are beautiful dining rooms and  lounges, 

... a casino (we didn't spend any time there... there were more fun things to do!)...

...a fairly extensive library combined with an Internet cafe (connection rates, however, are pretty expensive, but they worked), 

an art gallery, 

movie and live showroom theatres, 

swimming pools and hot tubs located in a multi-purpose area with a retractable roof for all-weather use, 

... fine dining and (pictured here) cafeteria style restaurants with fresh flowers, gourmet food, with a view that is pretty hard to match anywhere.

The day magically disappeared.  In the meantime, we proceeded on a southerly course towards Caps Hinchinbrook, marking the eastern exit of Prince William Sound.  The Ryndam then took a southeasterly course across the Gulf of Alaska towards Glacier Bay, our destination for tomorrow.

We had one rather unfortunate experience in the middle of the night, though. Hilary and I woke, quite independently of each other, to the smell of raw sewage in our room. Since neither of us had used the washroom, something was clearly amiss.  In fact, I had noticed it earlier in the hallway near our cabin and in our room earlier in the day, and had alerted senior staff at the registration desk about our concerns.  After an initial investigation, we had been assured the problem had been taken care of, and sure enough, when we had gone to bed all seemed well. Clearly it wasn't. Exiting quickly in our bathrobes, we arrived in front of the office registration desk where the night officer assessed the situation and gave us a temporary stateroom one floor below, to spend the night.   Hopefully a better solution will be provided in the morning.