Weather – A beautiful sunny day
Waking up at around 8:00am I was feeling good; I had got around 10 hours interrupted sleep and I was feeling soooo much better than yesterday. The others however, had been out until 3am and had only got around 5 hours sleep and so weren't as bouncy (not sure what's worse … me being grumpy, or me with the joys of spring and everyone else dead to the world) … we even had to wake Eddie, or tour guide, up as he had overslept and we would miss the cruise if not.
Ah yes, the cruise. The cruise to see whales and listen to a glacier crack was the only activity on the list that I really, really wanted to do, and I wouldn't mind paying $80 / $100 to do it. Yesterday I found out that the cruise would cost $178.00 for 8 hours which didn't help my mood; most of the previous evening was spent debating with myself whether to go or not. It was allot of money and I could go whale watching in Canada for $80.00 … but everyone else in the group was going and therefore it would be another boring day for me with nothing to do if I didn't go … plus I wouldn't hear and see that glacier crack in Canada.
In the morning I decided to go for it … my budget was shot anyway and I was already going to miss the flight up to Barrow I wanted to do … what's the point in traveling if I'm not going to see stuff (kayaking and cannoeing I can do anywhere … I can't listen to a glacier crack and see whales anywhere). After thinking about the cost for a while I can see why it is so expensive up here; the tourist season is short in Alaska (3 months maybe)and so the cruise company has to make all it's money within a short period of time and yet it still has costs (the boat maintenance, repairs etc) all year round.
The cruise was just fantastic; I got to see sea otters, porpoises and hump-back whales plus I witnessed a glacier crack and fall into the water. Seeing the glacier fall was good, but the sound it made was much better … a huge cracking noise that was out of proportion to the small chunk of ice that came off the glacier; this and the whales was the highlight of the trip.
The others, being tired from the night before slept for parts of the cruise which, when I was paying $178.00, I certainly wasn't going to sleep and so I went here, there and everywhere (front, side, top deck, low deck etc).
Another excellent part of the trip was the 'all you can eat buffet' which had salmon and beef as the main part of the meal (being a traveler I made the most of it and went back for seconds). What I didn't realise is that the pudding (three different types of cake) was 'all you can eat also' and so I only managed two pieces (if I had known I would have had less mains and gone to town on the cake).
The cruise was eight hours long and even though I could justify the cost from the operators point of view (and also that it was one of the best experiences I have had in Alaska) it was hard to justify the cost on my wallet, especially considering that Canada is half as expensive … still what's done is done. After the cruise we headed back to camp for a light tea due to the 'all you can eat buffet' (soup) and most people just went to sleep. I stayed up for a little while but I followed suite shorty … maybe tomorrow we'll go back into town.
Toodle Pip!
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