Navigating the choices for Alaskan Cruises

 

Should an Alaskan cruise be on your bucket list?  The answer to that question is a definite YES!  However, navigating the choices for an Alaska cruise can be very difficult for a novice cruiser, as all too many options are available to choose from.  The cruise itinerary, the time of year, the shore excursions available on the cruise line, the cruise line and the ship sailed by the cruise line all have a factor in which cruise someone should choose.

There are two basic Alaskan cruise categories:

• 7+ Day Inside Passage Roundtrip
• 7+ Day Northbound/Southbound One-Way (w/wo Denali Land Tour)

For those wanting to cruise Alaska for the first time, I recommend taking an Inside Passage roundtrip cruise, as it provides an intense Alaskan experience in a short time and allows the cruiser to make arrangements to travel to/from a single port from/to home.

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Most inside passage cruises will leave from the Home Ports of Vancouver, BC; Seattle, WA ; and San Francisco, CA.  All cruises originating from a United States port will make a mandatory stop in at least one of the following Canadian ports to comply with the US Passenger Vessel Services Act:

• Prince Rupert, BC
• Vancouver, BC
• Victoria, BC

Sometimes, the stop is long enough for a cruiser to explore the port.  Other times, the ship will stop at the port for 3 or 4 hours in the evening, at a time which does not allow the cruiser to fully enjoy the stop. An example of this is when the Carnival Spirit visits Victoria, BC on May 19, 2025 between 8:00 pm and 11:59 pm.  What worthwhile things can a person do in Victoria on this visit?  However, if a cruise spends a significant portion of its Canadian port visit in daylight hours, a cruiser will often have many choices of activities to occupy one's day.

It is not only Canadian ports where Alaskan cruises make abbreviated stops.  For example, on the same Carnival Spirit cruise, the ship will make port in Ketchikan  between 7:00 am and 1:00 pm on May 18, 2025.  If one is not an early riser, this stop becomes meaningless for the cruiser, as there is not enough time to explore this port.  So, it is very important that a cruiser examine the cruise's itinerary and the time spent in each port before booking a cruise - it'd be a shame to go to a port and not have enough time to do the things one can only do in the port.

Most Inside Passage cruises will visit 3 or 4 of the following ports: 

• Haines
• Icy Strait Point
• Juneau
• Ketchikan
• Sitka
• Skagway

and visit one (or, sometimes two) of the following glacier zones:

• Endicott Arm
• Glacier Bay
• Hubbard Glacier
• Tracy Arm
  

Of these ports and glacier areas, I consider Skagway and Glacier Bay to be must-visits.  In Skagway, the White Pass and Yukon Railroad is a must for a shore excursion.  And Glacier Bay is the highest rated place where one can view Alaskan glaciers.

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Many one-way Alaskan cruises will either cruise Northbound from Vancouver and terminate in Anchorage (Seward or Whittier) or sail Southbound from Anchorage and terminate in Vancouver.  One-way cruises are often coupled with a stay in  Denali National Park.  As one would expect, transportation to the embarkation port and from the disembarkation port is a more complex affair, and a part of the trip logistics that I might hand off to the cruise line to make my planning easier.  

An important factor in cabin choice that applies only to one-way Alaskan cruises is whether one has a port side (left) or starboard side (right) balcony cabin.  If one sails North, choose a starboard cabin.  If one sails South, choose a port cabin.  This way, one can get the best views while sailing through the Inside Passage.  Although some ships may make an occasional port in a place such as Valdez, AK, one should focus on travel through the Inside Passage and the land portion of one's trip before/after Anchorage.

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There are so many options one can choose from when deciding to take an Alaskan cruise, that it's hard to go completely wrong with one's choice of cruise ship, cruise itinerary, and cruise duration.  However, I suggest that one try to come as close as possible to this model list of places being visited:

• Glacier Bay (Cruising)
  
  
• Skagway (for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad)
• Juneau (for the Mendenhall Glacier)
• Ketchikan (for the Lumberjack Show and Creek Street)
  
  
• Victoria (to tour the city and visit the Buchart Gardens)
• Vancouver (it's Canada's answer to the USA's San Francisco)

Please note that I have rarely seen a cruise of any length that visits all of these places.  However, there have been a couple of Northbound and Southbound 7-day cruises (with different port stops) which have been combined into a single 14-day cruise that visits all of these places.  To me, this might be an ideal itinerary for a bucket list cruise.

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Although I have just mentioned what shore excursions I'd choose on an Alaskan cruise, there are many more options one can choose from at each port.  Since Alaska is the focus of this entry, I'll list a few excursion choices I've found at each of the Alaskan ports below:

• Haines
  - Native Culture Experience Tour
  - Nature and Wildlife Photography Tour
  - Whale Watching Tour 
  - Hiking
  - ATV Trekking
  
  
• Icy Strait Point
  - Gondola and Forest Tram Tour
  - Seafood Feast and Tribal Dance Show
  - Wilderness Hike
  - Halibut Fishing
  - Remote Wildlife and Brown Bear Search
  
  
• Juneau
  - Mendenhall Glacier Explorer Tour
  - Juneau Tram on your own
  - Alaska Salmon Bake
  - Underground Mine Exploration and Gold Panning
  - Alaska Zip Line Adventure and Axe Throwing
  
  
• Ketchikan
  - Totem Bight State Park and Ketchikan Highlights
  - Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show and Crab Feast
  - Historical Ketchikan & Creek Street Walking Tour
  - Rainforest Canoe and Nature Trail
  - Off-Road UTV Safari, Cruise, Crab & Craft Beer
  
  
• Sitka
  - All About Sitka - Russian & Tlingit Heritage Discovery
  - Alaska Raptor Center, Totem Park & Tlingit Dance
  - Sitka Guided Fly Fishing
  - Fortress of the Bear & Silver Bay Homestead Cruise
  - Sitka Historical Floathouse & Scenic Cruise
  
  
• Skagway
  - Easy Skagway: City, Klondike Highway & The Days of '98 Show
  - Rise & Shine at the Red Onion Saloon & Historical City Tour
  - White Pass Steam Train to Bennett Lake
  - Rail, Summit & Suspension Bridge with Brunch
  - Musher's Camp & Sled Dog Experience
  
  

The above is an incomplete list taken from Princess Cruises' list of available shore excursions.  Similar trips may be available from independent vendors at each port, such as Ketchikan's Lumberjack Show and Skagway's ride on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.  There are more than enough excursion types to keep most people happy.  Hopefully, you will be able to enjoy some of them.  But be sure to enjoy the unique beauty that can be found in America's Last Frontier.