CME Cruises Visiting Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier

Endicott Arm offers a quintessential Alaskan experience, distinct from the commercial bustle of port towns. This is a day dedicated to scenic cruising, where the ship navigates a 30-mile fjord carved by ancient ice. The scale here is humbling; sheer granite cliffs rise thousands of feet directly from the emerald water, often decorated with vertical stripes of cascading waterfalls. Unlike the open ocean, the water here is usually calm, turning the fjord into a mirror for the scenery above. The destination is the Dawes Glacier, an active tidewater glacier standing over 600 feet tall. As you approach, the water becomes cluttered with floating ice sculptures—from small 'bergy bits' to massive, sapphire-blue chunks. The highlight is the 'white thunder' of calving, where massive slabs of ice fracture and crash into the sea. While the visual is stunning, the sound is equally memorable. Wildlife viewing is excellent here. Look for harbor seals hauling out on the ice floes near the glacier face—this is a primary breeding ground for them. Mountain goats appear as white specks on the high cliffs, and brown bears are occasionally spotted along the shoreline. We recommend spending this time on the open decks rather than behind glass; the sensory experience of the crisp air and the roar of the ice is lost indoors. If your itinerary offers a small boat excursion here, it is worth the investment to get closer to the water level and the glacier face.