Hubbard Glacier

[Steve in Omaha]

We're on the NCL Jewel in 2 weeks. One of the "ports" listed is Hubbard Glacier - arrive @ 8am & depart @ Noon. What exactly happens on this day?  Why does it say the ship "arrives" and "departs" as if it's in a port like it does at Juneau or Skagway.  For example, the Glacier Bay day doesn't list an arrival or departure time, you just are in the bay.  So why does Hubbard Glacier have arrival and departure times listed.  (I realize there's an excursion that can be booked there.)  Thanks!

[Anita Latte]

That’s just your ships allotted time for being at Hubbard. Every ship has a scheduled time there and there is likely another ship there later in the day. It isn’t a full day there. You can use those times to schedule other things on board or plan where you want to be when for viewing. The ship may pause and spin around and so it’s a “stop” along the journey but not really.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, Steve in Omaha said:

We're on the NCL Jewel in 2 weeks. One of the "ports" listed is Hubbard Glacier - arrive @ 8am & depart @ Noon. What exactly happens on this day?  Why does it say the ship "arrives" and "departs" as if it's in a port like it does at Juneau or Skagway.  For example, the Glacier Bay day doesn't list an arrival or departure time, you just are in the bay.  So why does Hubbard Glacier have arrival and departure times listed.  (I realize there's an excursion that can be booked there.)  Thanks!

 

It is purely NCL marketing hype.

 

You will steam through Yakutat Bay down to the glacier. The Master will stop and spin the vessel, so everyone gets a view. The vessel then steams out of Yakutat Bay to open ocean.

[Steve in Omaha]

1 hour ago, Anita Latte said:

That’s just your ships allotted time for being at Hubbard. Every ship has a scheduled time there and there is likely another ship there later in the day. It isn’t a full day there. You can use those times to schedule other things on board or plan where you want to be when for viewing. The ship may pause and spin around and so it’s a “stop” along the journey but not really.

Thanks for the clear and helpful info!

[Anita Latte]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

It is purely NCL marketing hype.

 

You will steam through Yakutat Bay down to the glacier. The Master will stop and spin the vessel, so everyone gets a view. The vessel then steams out of Yakutat Bay to open ocean.

This is accurate…sort of. The port time generator includes the time of approach and the time of departure. The ships don’t spend all that time IN Disenchantment Bay where Hubbard is. My family was on deck for the entire time and I can say that if you are watching the approach…it’s pretty amazing…you look and look and finally you can start to see the mountain silhouettes in the distance…and as you approach they get bigger and bigger and it’s wonderful to have them come more and more into view. If you can spot a smaller boat in the bay (we did), it puts the elevation of the surrounding peaks into better perspective. Excitement builds as you figure out where the break in the mountains are and where the ship is headed and then as you recognize a peek of the glacier through the entrance to the bay…and then the magnitude of Hubbard nestled back there…

 

Theres only so much admiration you can have though and so yes, the time at the glacier itself isn’t really long at all. So in that sense, you do come and go relatively quickly…but it’s a long way to sail to it and away from it so “steaming” down and out isn’t really an accurate portrayal of the distance and time it takes to get there and back.

[Steve in Omaha]

18 minutes ago, Anita Latte said:

This is accurate…sort of. The port time generator includes the time of approach and the time of departure. The ships don’t spend all that time IN Disenchantment Bay where Hubbard is. My family was on deck for the entire time and I can say that if you are watching the approach…it’s pretty amazing…you look and look and finally you can start to see the mountain silhouettes in the distance…and as you approach they get bigger and bigger and it’s wonderful to have them come more and more into view. If you can spot a smaller boat in the bay (we did), it puts the elevation of the surrounding peaks into better perspective. Excitement builds as you figure out where the break in the mountains are and where the ship is headed and then as you recognize a peek of the glacier through the entrance to the bay…and then the magnitude of Hubbard nestled back there…

 

Theres only so much admiration you can have though and so yes, the time at the glacier itself isn’t really long at all. So in that sense, you do come and go relatively quickly…but it’s a long way to sail to it and away from it so “steaming” down and out isn’t really an accurate portrayal of the distance and time it takes to get there and back.

You made that sound kinda wonderful!  So you'd advise being on-deck as opposed to watching from our balcony?  If the ship "arrives" at 8am, what time would you suggest we start watching?

[Anita Latte]

At 8AM, your ship will be on approach and still in open waters and you might catch a first glimpse of the mountains at 8 if you are forward facing. Check with your crew, our Hubbard day time slot opened at 7 and because I was super enthused for it all we set an alarm for 6:30 and got bundled up for getting on deck. I was on a Celebrity ship that had a forward deck so we went up there and looking at my own trip report, I took my first real photo at 7:03. I had taken more before that but they aren’t anything special because you can’t really tell what you’re looking at. 7:03 is when the camera was able to distinguish the mountains and produce a nice photo. 8 minutes later our heading changed and we were headed into Disenchantment Bay and you could see it up ahead. By 9:30, we were leaving Hubbard. 
 

I stuck with the forward facing view because that’s what I wanted. And I didn’t have a balcony room, only ocean view. It worked well for use because our ship master kept facing forward for a while. Then he spun us around twice, doing donuts. They was a lot of ice on the surface, not icebergs, and you could hear the sound of the ship crunching through it on the way out…which I know about because we went down to a side deck on Deck 4 after the donuts stopped.

 

On my next trip, whenever that is, I hope to have a balcony…and if the ship I’m on has a forward facing deck, I’ll do that again for the approach, but then I’ll high tail it back down to my balcony to see the actual glacier and hope to get more perspective on the heighth of it. From Deck 12, where I was…we were kind of looking down at the glacier…not that it wasn’t impressive, but I’ve seen photos from small boat excursions and also had a glimpse of the mountains at least when we were leaving the bay to get a sense of scale. 
 

Now, if your balcony is on the port side…then you might see the mountain range towards the left. That’s where I kept photographing…the right side wasn’t as impressive at the time for some reason, so your view of those mountains could be lovely when your ship adjusts its heading to go into the bay. 
 

Also…you could be better off on your balcony for warmth. The wind on Deck 12 was wicked on approach…but it was calmer and sunny in the bay. There were also ship parts interfering with my photos…couldn’t get away from them…on your balcony, you probably won’t have weird ship parts sticking up in the view. I might have been frustrated on a balcony on my day though because as I said, he seemed to face forward for a while, and then when he turned…it wasn’t all calm and sedate…it was literal donuts and our Master was almost giddy when he talked about doing TWO. IDK what kind of view people on the side of the ship got…which could explain impressions like the PP above talking about streaming in and out.

 

I wrote a pretty detailed description of my experience in my trip report…not sure if you really want to see it or not because sometimes I find that looking at pictures beforehand too much can take away from the real deal when you finally get there. I referenced my own report to try to answer your question and give you the best answer I could.

[Anita Latte]

I wanted to add because it just hit me…having a morning time slot…the sun will be just above the mountains around the glacier and you’ll be looking towards it, looking towards the glacier. You’ll want to remember sun glasses and/or a cap/visor with a brim.

[donaldsc]

3 hours ago, Anita Latte said:

This is accurate…sort of. The port time generator includes the time of approach and the time of departure. The ships don’t spend all that time IN Disenchantment Bay where Hubbard is. My family was on deck for the entire time and I can say that if you are watching the approach…it’s pretty amazing…you look and look and finally you can start to see the mountain silhouettes in the distance…and as you approach they get bigger and bigger and it’s wonderful to have them come more and more into view. If you can spot a smaller boat in the bay (we did), it puts the elevation of the surrounding peaks into better perspective. Excitement builds as you figure out where the break in the mountains are and where the ship is headed and then as you recognize a peek of the glacier through the entrance to the bay…and then the magnitude of Hubbard nestled back there…

 

Theres only so much admiration you can have though and so yes, the time at the glacier itself isn’t really long at all. So in that sense, you do come and go relatively quickly…but it’s a long way to sail to it and away from it so “steaming” down and out isn’t really an accurate portrayal of the distance and time it takes to get there and back.

 

You are missing one important point.  Hubbard can have really good calving events and the longer that you stay there the higher the probability that you get to see one.

 

DON

[Anita Latte]

35 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

You are missing one important point.  Hubbard can have really good calving events and the longer that you stay there the higher the probability that you get to see one.

 

DON

For sure…we passengers have no control over how long our ship stays there though. Idk when they come out with the port schedules but you can check historic data and hope it’s similar if we use the data to pick a ship…this is the Hubbard schedule for 2023:

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HUB-Hubbard-Glacier-2023.pdf

 

At a glance, ships seem to mostly have 4 or 5 hours…I saw one with 7 and one with 12!

[Northern Aurora]

3 hours ago, Steve in Omaha said:

You made that sound kinda wonderful!  So you'd advise being on-deck as opposed to watching from our balcony?  If the ship "arrives" at 8am, what time would you suggest we start watching?

 

 

You will not want to stay in your balcony.  Disenchantment Bay gets narrower as your approach Hubbard

and there will be scenery on each side of the ship.  Also, while we have never been on a NCL vessel, we have been on ships which, in good weather, opened the helipad when nearing the glacier.  And how fast the ship travels to the glacier face may depend on how much ice is floating from the calving action.  

[wolfie11]

19 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

You are missing one important point.  Hubbard can have really good calving events and the longer that you stay there the higher the probability that you get to see one.

 

DON

However, OP is on Norwegian.  They pranged a ship there in 2022 and now have strict protocols about how close their ships can proceed.  We were there about 10 days ago and got within 3/4 mile.  The Norwegian Spirit was parked about 8 miles from the glacier and never went any further.  It was foggy, and you could barely make out a strip of white that was the glacier thru the fog.  I felt really bad for those poor passengers.  I wonder what the captain told them when they saw two other ships steam past them and get up close to the glacier?  They didn't even have the opportunity for the small boat tour.

[Anita Latte]

@Steve in Omaha See the photo included here to see how close this sailing got to Hubbard. Every sailing is unique.

[donaldsc]

10 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

However, OP is on Norwegian.  They pranged a ship there in 2022 and now have strict protocols about how close their ships can proceed.  We were there about 10 days ago and got within 3/4 mile.  The Norwegian Spirit was parked about 8 miles from the glacier and never went any further.  It was foggy, and you could barely make out a strip of white that was the glacier thru the fog.  I felt really bad for those poor passengers.  I wonder what the captain told them when they saw two other ships steam past them and get up close to the glacier?  They didn't even have the opportunity for the small boat tour.

 

Yet another reason to take a small ship cruise instead of one of the genormous of the seas tubs.  We did AK in a ship that held ~150 passengers.  When we visited glaciers they got as close as was comfortable and then put us on zodiacs where we got really close.  While we were sitting and watching the glacier we even had a crew zodiac from the ship come by us to serve us hot chocolate and spiked hot chocolate.  Much better than an overly large cruise ship.

 

DON

[Coral]

I have a friend on the Sapphire Princess and they got really close yesterday as well.

[RussNJodi]

On 8/16/2023 at 4:02 PM, Anita Latte said:

I wanted to add because it just hit me…having a morning time slot…the sun will be just above the mountains around the glacier and you’ll be looking towards it, looking towards the glacier. You’ll want to remember sun glasses and/or a cap/visor with a brim.

Funny thing is I was going to recommend the opposite, as we couldn't get into to see Hubbard because of morning fog that burned off in the afternoon. Hubbard really does appear to be hit or miss. 

[df5250]

We were on the Jewel and visited Hubbard Glacier on 8/1 in the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day. We were told this was the closest the ship had gotten all season at .6 miles from the glacier. The ship did not turn at all until it was time to leave.  We were lucky enough to be on a forward facing balcony that day. The Bow and forward sun decks were packed! It was spectacular! The photo does not do it justice! 

[bstreep]

We were on Norwegian Spirit a couple of weeks ago, maybe 20 miles.  Royal Radiance last week, 6 miles.