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Well as we alluded to last night thanks to the black out curtains in our state room we both managed the best nights sleep since we have been away. We were still up and awake by seven but we felt like we had a good nights sleep.

One of the few things that we don't like about Royal Caribbean is that they don't allow ironing boards or irons in the rooms and nor do they have any way of making yourself a cup of coffee when you awake in the morning. What this therefore entails is one of us getting up and wearing what ever we lay our hands on and a walk of just got out of bed shame heading down to the fifth floor and the latte-tudes cafe for a caffeine fix. We swore to take it in turns and this morning Mr. Allen was the one making his way down the empty corridors with two Starbucks coffee cups in his hand.

This morning we headed to what we call posh breakfast. This means that we went to the formal dining room rather than going up to the windjammer cafeteria where its all self service. Things have definitely changed on Royal Caribbean, this morning we were greeted to what looked like a makeshift buffet table in the middle of the dining area with all the fruit and cereals laid out and the menu was greatly reduced to what it used to be. You can certainly tell that the cruise market has got a lot more competitive and cost cutting exercises are being made.

Anyway back to breakfast, Jonathan opted for cereal and fruit whilst Trev went for the Spanish Omelet that to be honest did not look that great what it arrived. I think its going to be the windjammer tomorrow, especially as its a day ashore tomorrow.We did sit with a lovely Canadian couple though from Toronto, that was the best bit!

After breakfast we went up to deck 12 and walked around the ship taking in the view, it's a lot nippier than it was yesterday and we were not really prepared. As for the views well to be honest at this time they were all a little distant, a constant line of snow covered mountains all coming down to meet the sea. We knew that we were due to arrive at the Hubbard Glacier around 14:00 so time to do something else.

Jonathan went off to the gym for an hour whilst Trevor went to a lecture in the theatre by two american geoligists that explained all about Alaska and its history along with a talk on the glaciers themselves how they are formed and how they move etc etc.

By now we were reaching the entrance to the glacier, the snowcapped mountains gave way to the entrance that to be honest looked like you were entering into a Norwegian Fjord or similar. We went to the Windjammer for a quick bite to eat then headed back out to the packed out decks to get the best view that we could of arriving at the glacier.

As we entered into the inlet we were now surrounded by land at both sides the difference being that these mountains were covered in pine trees right from the seashore up to the point where the mountains were becoming so vertical that I expect the trees could no longer grow roots as there was no soil so grey rock took their place. The rock of the mountains was broken up by snow channels that filled their natural crevasses (their nooks and crannies if you prefer?)

This was now definitely the Alaska we had been hoping for.

By now our cruise ship was well inside the inlet and started to cut through the ice that had broken away from the glacier face and was now floating in the sea all around us. Occasionally you would hear the glacier creaking and groaning as it moved and grinded. The sound was just like a echoing shot gun having just been fired.

As the ship proceeded very slowly towards the glacier and continued to cut through the ice we retreated from the overcrowded decks and back to our room and the privacy of our balcony. Now this was the way to watch it all, we both lost count of how many time we pressed the shoot buttons on our cameras.

The glacier has a very definite blue hue to it and the ice face itself looks like it is made up of square columns all at different heights, its very impressive and I hope that we have captured that in the photographs that we have taken. As we carved out way through the ice fields and bergs in the sea Jonathan started singing a bit of Celine Dion to Trevor, of course it had to be the theme tune from the film "Titanic".

The ship eventually turned so that it was full length onto the glacier and luckily for us (it was planned) we were there facing it right from our balcony. We had read all the reports on the web to make sure that we had booked a cabin on the right side of the boat and we definitely had.....phew!

We left the inlet at just after four in the afternoon having been stationary for about an hour, it really is awesome cutting through the ice and making your way to a glacier face, we recommend it.

After the excitement of the glacier it was time to get ready for formal night so we donned our tuxedos and headed off to the main atrium for the obligatory cruise photograph (its how we keep a track of how much we are ageing) and then it was pre dinner cocktails in the Champagne bar.

It was actually quite nice to see the amount of people that had made an effort to dress up on the ship as we were not expecting it. To be honest there were not many people in tuxes but that is to be expected as its quite an investment to make for something that you may only wear once or twice, the fact that Trevor and I own at least two each says something of the amount of times that we have cruised and our fluctuating waist bands.

Dinner was at 2030 and we managed to consume another bottle of merlot with ease. To be honest the food was not remarkable but was more than good enough,being a long time cruiser you really to start to see the little things that have slowly trickled away that used to be the things that made it feel special.

After dinner we walked the deck and had a post dinner cocktail before making our way to the Aurora Theatre for our first show of the cruise. Today is was a Motown tribute act three guys with all the moves and the voices to match. It's actually the first time that I have ever seen Mr. Blofeld fall asleep in a performance bless him.

We made it to the end of the show and then it was straight back to the cabin and bedtime.

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