CRUISE: Into the Wild

By Liz Fleming

Whether it’s humpbacks, orcas, calving glaciers or cheeky saloon girls, an Alaskan cruise is full of surprises for those seeking adventure.

Simply sailing into the icy splendour of Glacier Bay was enough to convince us that our cruise would be everything we’d hoped for. Surrounded by towering cliffs of ice, my husband, Jamie, and I were almost too overwhelmed by the scenery to remember to take photos of it. As the ship cruised slowly, we became aware of an eerie growling sound coming from the ice. Then what sounded like a cannon shot tore through the frigid air.

We watched with our mouths hanging open as a massive skyscraper-sized shard of ice calved from the glacier wall ahead of us. It crashed into the bay, causing an equally massive explosion of water and ice to hurtle skyward. Though our ship, the Holland America ms Oosterdam weighed more than 82,000 tonnes, we felt it rock as the waves hit.

THE ICY SPLENDOUR OF GLACIER BAY

© HOLLAND AMERICA LINE

Welcome to Alaska. If the wild is what makes your heart beat faster, this is the destination for you. As adventure lovers, we’d always wanted to explore this popular northern cruise destination and had already ticked another of the must-see boxes. We’d taken a Zodiac shore excursion out of Juneau aboard a small marine exploration and research vessel in search of whales.

EXPLORING ALASKA BY CRUISE SHIP

© HOLLAND AMERICA LINE

Binoculars trained hopefully on the water, we’d been anticipating a long wait, but just as we left the harbour, our guide shouted, “On your left!” We watched mesmerized as the first humpback whale blew, shooting spray high into the air. Then it broke the surface with its enormous, glistening ebony back. And finally, a magnificent, picture perfect whale tail rose into the air, then disappeared again back into the water.

Had that been all we’d seen that day, we’d have been satisfied, but no, Alaska was just getting warmed up.

That whale had brought his buddies and soon a circling pod of humpbacks was raising their tails and spouting in a mad, wild dance. “They’re making a bubble net,” our guide explained.

WHALES MAKING A BUBBLE NET

© REINHARD PANTKE

When humpback whales hunt, we discovered, they work as a pack, circling their prey and blowing out enormous underwater jets of air. The fish they’ve encircled are caught in a bubbly maelstrom from which they can’t escape. When those trapped fish float to the surface, the hungry humpbacks rush in to feast.

We’d barely had a chance to sit back down in the boat when black dorsal fins appeared – many black dorsal fins. Perhaps a full dozen. The teamsters of the ocean, the orcas had arrived. Sleek and graceful, the killer whales were prowling for their own lunch as the seabirds screamed and wheeled overhead, hoping to pick up any fishy scraps left floating on the waves.

ORCA WHALE, ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL PREDATORS

© NK SANFORD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

After an unbelievable hour of whale action, we headed back to the Juneau harbour, sure that after calving glaciers, bubble-netting humpbacks and prowling orcas, we’d just about wrung every bit of excitement from our holiday.

We were wrong. It turned out that the wild in Alaska comes in many forms.

SKAGWAY, THE NORTHERNMOST POINT OF ALASKA’S INSIDE PASSAGE

© REINHARD PANTKE

“You can call me Essie,” said the saloon girl we met in Skagway, with a swish of her black and red skirt. “Essie X. And if you say that fast a couple of times, you’ll get the joke.”

What followed that opening line was a fascinating tour of the Red Onion Saloon, a place where gold rush prospectors with pockets full of gold nuggets once paid a dollar a dance, or five dollars for 15 minutes of heaven in the cramped rooms upstairs. A wall of dolls with china heads sat above the bar, each one representing one of the working girls. If her doll was gone, that girl was busy making her fortune, our guide explained. Business was so brisk, Essie told us, that when those women retired at the end of the gold rush, they were among Alaska’s wealthiest citizens.

SALOON GIRL AND WAITER AT RED ONION SALOON

© MATT HAGE

Though most of the excitement of an Alaskan cruise happens on shore, life onboard the ms Oosterdam had its pleasures and learning experiences, too. One evening, after a morning kayak trip and an afternoon hike through the Alaskan rainforest, we relaxed in the theatre, listening to a presentation by Rob Scheer, a plaid-shirted, axetoting champion lumberjack. After describing his career as a world-famous feller of trees, he offered his best advice for any visitor to this wild and beautiful part of the world: “Alaska isn’t the kind of girl who’s going to meet you on the porch,” he said. “You have to go right out and get to know her.”

Wise words, indeed.

HIKE THROUGH THE ALASKAN RAINFOREST