Our View on Alaskan Cruise Ships
We’ve never actually taken a cruise in Alaska but in some ways we the idea: the Inside Passage of Alaska is basically only viewable from a boat – so why not take a big boat with unlimited shrimp scampi? The main reason is simple: these boats travel only at night. You wake up each morning in a different port (Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka etc.) along with up to five other cruise ships. The result is that these cool, little 3,500-person towns are swarmed by 10,000 plus cruise ship passengers, all of whom seem to be looking for ice cream and jewelry. (Our favorite are the various Great Alaskan Fudge Companies – even though not a single ingredient found in fudge is actually made anywhere close to Alaska.) The cruise ships stop at these ports (with the exception of a token day spent in Glacier National Park) so that passengers will shop at cruise-ship owned stores and take cruise-ship owned excursions. (And even if they don’t actually own the companies they take up to a 50% cut for supplying the customers.) If you are quite old and on a tight budget, these trips are probably fine. But if you aren’t both, there are great other ways to see southearn Alaska.
Including taking:
A smaller boat: Though spendier because they aren’t cashing in on the shore excursions, you can get into smaller places and actually hike around, and spend some time with the naturalists they have on board.
A very small boat: We chartered a whale-watching boat for five days with friends and camped on a different island every night. Here are the details.
An Alaskan Marine Ferry. These boats carry cars and stop at some places most of the cruise ships float past, but they stop for just a few hours. If you book early, you can get a cabin or just sleep on deck.
