sailing through Endicott Arm

I’ve been on a couple previous cruises to Alaska that were scheduled to go down Tracy Arm, but ended up in Endicott Arm instead because the entrance to Tracy Arm was blocked by icebergs. In contrast, Quantum of the Seas was scheduled to go to Endicott Arm. Perhaps because the ship was too big for Tracy Arm, or maybe just because so many early season cruises get diverted to Endicott Arm that they just scheduled it there. Whatever the reason, since that’s where the ship was already going it didn’t have any alternative place to go for glacier watching.

Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay in 2018 on the left and 2013 on the right

The trip down Endicott Arm started very early in the morning, with the expected arrival at the glacier a couple hours later. Most Alaska cruises have a glacier day somewhere, whether it’s Tracy or Endicott Arm, Glacier Bay, or the way more impressive Hubbard Glacier. The Tracy Arm cruises I took that ended up in Endicott Arm were one of my very early cruises on the Norwegian Sun and one with my sisters on Ruby Princess. I went to Glacier Bay twice on Holland America Westerdam. The glaciers there had noticeably retreated in the 2018 trip from where they had been when I first saw them in 2013. Hubbard Glacier I saw from the Oosterdam. If you’re booking an Alaska cruise specifically to see glaciers, Hubbard is definitely the place to go.

several ice floes feed into Hubbard – an immense tidewater glacier

On all those previous trips the ship would park broadside to the glacier, sit there for about half an hour, and then do a 180 so the other side faced it. That way anyone with a balcony got a chance to see it from their own room if they didn’t want to find a public area for glacier viewing – and those with rooms at the back of the ship could see it from their balconies as the ship sailed away. It also gave people plenty of time to wander around the ship and get views of the glacier from various different places.

the scenery is great in Endicott Arm even if you don’t make it to the glacier at the end

We got up early enough on the Quantum to have plenty of time to see the glacier once we got to the end of Endicott Arm. We figured on going to breakfast once that was done. Dawes Glacier is the name of the one at the end of Endicott Arm. Most of the other ships we had been on either made some sort of public announcements regarding things to see along the way as well as when to expect arrival and departure at the actual glacier, or had a specific place to go onboard where that information would be provided. Quantum stayed silent.

scenery in Endicott Arm

We thought we were sailing into Endicott Arm until Melissa mentioned the ship having done a 180 earlier in the morning when she’d taken a stroll out on the top deck. It wouldn’t have had any reason to do that unless it was bailing on going to the glacier and heading back out. We’d gone to the girls cabin for glacier watching since they had a balcony and we didn’t. They also had internet so as soon as she could get a signal Mel checked a mapping app, which confirmed that we were on the way out rather than into Endicott Arm. Which explained why we never reached the glacier as it kept getting later past the time we should have been there. There never was any sort of formal announcement about missing the glacier. They just left that for people to figure out for themselves. Or maybe hoped that people would think they had gotten there early and everyone had slept through it. Which would never have happened because a bunch of people had staked out the front row seats in the solarium way early so they’d get them and would have known the second the ship turned around. Mel is a newbie to cruising and hadn’t been to Alaska before. She hadn’t realized what was going on when the ship did the 180 so until she mentioned it we were unaware.

there’s lots of little ice bergs floating around when in the vicinity of glaciers

Unlike Glacier Bay, which has a lot of glaciers that you pass by, or Hubbard which is huge and visible for miles before you get there, Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm isn’t huge and the passageway is narrow so you don’t see it from a great distance away. There’s not a lot of other glaciers dotting the hills on the way there either.

Sumdum Glacier

We did think we would see Sumdum Glacier on the way out, but hadn’t been looking for it since we thought we were on the way in. We spotted a hillside glacier and took some photos. As soon as we knew we were on the way out of Endicott Arm rather than into it we figured out that had probably been Sumdum Glacier. (It would have been on the other side of the ship on the way in.) At the time we weren’t positive it was Sumdum Glacier since they weren’t announcing anything, but I haven’t seen mention of any other glaciers in Endicott Arm anywhere and the mountains around it look exactly the same as the ones in anyone else’s photos of that glacier so that’s what it had to be. It’s not called that because somebody back in the past thought it was just some dumb glacier. It sits on Mount Sumdum. In Tlingit the name means big noise, likely due to the noise made when glaciers calve. There can be a lot of cracking and rumbling before a piece drops off.

leaving Endicott Arm behind

They did not say why the ship turned around before getting all the way to Dawes Glacier, which isn’t surprising since other than listing approximate times in the schedule for that day they hadn’t said anything about it at all. There must have been too many icebergs floating around or a lot of ice near the glacier blocking the way. Whether or not a smaller ship could have got through I have no idea. As cruise ships have gotten bigger over the years so have the size of ships going to Alaska. Way back when we went there on the Sun it was the biggest ship around everywhere we went that trip. Now it’s one of the smallest in Norwegian’s fleet. Though they didn’t make it down Tracy Arm, the smaller ships I was on did get all the way to the end of Endicott Arm without any trouble. It’s a good thing glaciers weren’t our priority on this trip. The fine print of any cruise always mentions something about itineraries being subject to change. This one specifically said something about going all the way to Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm if it could get there safely, but never made any promises that it actually would.

we didn’t actually make it all the way to Dawes Glacier regardless of what the photo says

We happened across a photographer out on the top deck. Sometimes the photos they take are just photos, but other times they add stuff to them. The ones from that day must have intended to have been done while the ship was at the glacier because they added a boarder around them that said Dawes Glacier even though we didn’t actually make it there.

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