By Paul Motter, iCruise Blogger | August 25, 2017 ( Comments)
You don’t take a cruise to see Alaska; you take one to experience Alaska. And while many cruisers see quite a bit from the ship, the best Alaska experiences actually occur on tours in ports of call. So, to get the most out of your Alaska experience you should plan carefully; consider your itinerary options first, and then pre-arrange the shore excursions in each of your ports of call.
There are generally three kinds of itineraries for Alaska; (1) a roundtrip cruise from “the lower 48”, or (2) a one-way cruise to or from Alaska and a flight the other way, which offers more days in Alaska. Finally, (3) you can fly to Alaska, sail in the local waters for an entire cruise, and then fly back; these are the most experience immersive cruises generally offered by smaller “expedition” cruise lines.
(L) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - (R) Seattle, Washington, USAStarting with the first (1), Seattle-based cruises tend to spend more time in the open sea, which can mean a rougher ride, especially while sailing north towards Alaska. Cruises from Vancouver usually spend more time in the Inside Passage, the large archipelago of barrier islands running most of the way from Vancouver to the lower Alaska panhandle.
For the one-way cruise (2), you can fly either way, but if you fly to Alaska and let your ship sail along the North Pacific Current from Alaska towards the lower 48 you usually get a smoother and somewhat faster ride. You also spend more days in Alaska ports of call on these cruises.
Best of all is (3) flying both ways and spending your entire vacation in Alaska. Most of these cruises are on small ship “adventure cruises,” which tend to be pricey, but the immersive experience is worth the extra cost. Small boats (under 100 people) can spend full, leisurely days following the wildlife up close. They also carry rubber Zodiac boats and personal kayaks. You can row, or hike, with plenty of time to soak in the scenery. Best of all – they are not on a set schedule, so when they find an amazing adventure, they can stay with it pretty much for as long as they want.
One adventure small-ship cruise line, UnCruise Adventures, offered me the best Alaska experience I can ever imagine. We spent several hours watching “bubble-feeding” by humpback whales, a rare, pod-organized feeding activity that even many locals rarely witness. We also saw remote glaciers calving in ways that were far beyond our expectations. The food was fresh and local, and our fellow passengers were outstanding. But the cost was much higher than an average mainstream cruise line.
Staterooms on Alaska Cruises
Since the Inside Passage offers views of glorious mountains with trees and open skies for miles, balcony staterooms on either side of the ship are highly recommended on Alaska cruises.
The Best Alaska Tour Experiences
Calving Glaciers:
Almost every cruise has an active glacier on its itinerary so you can watch massive sheets of ice peel off or crash into the sea (known as “calving.”) You do not want to miss this – especially if this is the only cruise you ever plan to take to Alaska. But be warned; I have been on an Alaska cruise that missed its glacier watching opportunity.
Why? There are several active glaciers in Alaska, but are not all equally accessible to large ships. One that is blocked more often than most is Sawyer Glacier, deep inside a narrow inlet known as Tracy Arm, so narrow that a small but strategically placed “growler” (a smaller floating ice berg) can block the ship from reaching the glacier. This happened to me. How sad it was to travel all the way to Alaska and not see a calving glacier.
For the best glacier watching, look for a cruise that visits Glacier Bay National Park, with three active glaciers in near proximity. Only a limited number of ships are awarded entry permits every year. The next best option is Hubbard Glacier – one of the biggest glaciers in Alaska with easy access by cruise ship.
Whale Watching:
Alaska is rife with humpback and other whale species; even “killer whales” (AKA orca, actually a dolphin species). It isn’t unusual to see them from the ship, but it certainly isn’t guaranteed either. You might see whales from your balcony cabin, but they won’t swim up and wave a fin at you. Large cruise ships are required to stay on a strict schedule so even if whales are spotted the ship is not likely to slow down so you can watch them.
But you will see whales very close up if you book a whale watching tour in port. My favorite spot is Juneau, where a short 45-min. bus ride takes you to Auke Bay. There you board a smaller boat (50 passengers) with a captain who knows exactly where to find whales in their natural habitat. For a couple of hours you’ll be close enough to the humpbacks to feel the spray from their blow holes - known as a “whale kiss.”
Real Bears:
You won’t see Polar bears in southern Alaska, they live much closer to the North Pole. But if you book a whale watching tour in Juneau your bus will also offer a stop at Mendenhall Glacier Park. Take a walk on the “bear spotting” platform built over a wild stream with spawning salmon. I personally caught some fantastic video of a wild mother brown bear catching and feeding salmon to her two tiny and very vocal bear cubs, so small they could barely climb the banks of the stream. So cute!
If you don’t see bears at Mendenhall, Sitka offers the “Fortress of the Bear” tour. This is a rescue habitat for bears that are too old to live in the wild. If not for this walled-in forest facility these bears wouldn’t survive. This tour also stops at a rescue habitat for bald eagles.
Flight-Seeing to Glaciers:
Another tour option is “flight-seeing” to land on top of a glacier. You can book these tours in most ports. A helicopter will fly over and land on the ice so you can taste real glacier melt off and carefully peer into a crevice.
Once again, Juneau has some of the oldest and best-managed tour options for flight-seeing. So, if you fly in or out of Juneau to meet your cruise ship, take the opportunity to stay a few days. Book a downtown hotel, or a B&B on Auke Bay. You can go whale-watching, flight-seeing or salmon fishing before or after the cruise. Local tours in Juneau may be the best part of your Alaska cruise.
Alaska Land & Sea Adventures
One last option I have not discussed is the “Land and Sea Adventure” where you leave the ship to get on either a bus or railroad car to visit Denali National Park – home of the tallest mountain in North America. Such options are offered by all the major cruise lines, which is enough to deserve an entirely separate article.
