Alaska Cruise?

The best time to go on an Alaska cruise is when you can get the best price. The Alaska cruise season is from mid-May to mid-Sept ONLY. The best prices will be in May and Sept but you will see the same things as other times. The weather is generally warmer in June, July and Aug, but it can also be pleasant in May and Sept. I have been to Alaska twice, once by cruise ship and another for business and spent two weeks there. When we went a few years ago in May it was shirt sleeve weather (70′s) in Anchorage and Fairbanks. The odd thing was, it was cooler further south in Juneau and Skagway than it was up north. It was rainy and cloudy in both of those cities. It will be cold, like coat, hat and gloves weather, when you get close to the Glaciers. When you pack, think layering of your clothes. A couple long sleeve shirts/tops, a sweater/sweatshirt, a light jacket, maybe with a hood.

If you are going to Alaska there are also a lot of options for slightly different itineraries. Some Alaska cruises start in Alaska, (Anchorage, Seward, or Fairbanks) and others start in Seattle or Vancouver. Cruises of the “inside passage” are generally 7 days but you can also do what is called a cruise-tour which may be 10, 12 to 14 days and involves touring by train and/or bus either before or after the ocean voyage. So you have to look very carefully at your options for an Alaska cruise. You should not just say to a travel agent I want an Alaska cruise. Pick one or more of the cruise lines and search for Alaska cruises and look at all of the options available to help you decide.

The best Alaska cruise experience is the CRUISE-TOUR. We did the cruise tour on Princess a few years ago and I highly recommend it. Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity all run cruise tours which take you by train all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska. But Princess, Celebrity and RC have special domed train cars for this. Your best chance to see wild animals will be if you do a cruise-tour where you go further north before or after cruising the inside passage. The only animals you are likely to see in the inside passage is seals. If you get really lucky you may see a whale or a whale pod. On the cruise-tours you can arrange to stop for a night or two in Taketna, or Denali National Park. This will be your best opportunity to see moose, caribou, eagle, wolf, and bear. But you really need two days at Denali so that you have time to get one of the Park Service’s buses that go deep into the park. Regular tour buses , cars and campers can only go about 3 or 4 miles into the park. The Park Service runs buses about 17 miles into the park, but you must get to the visitor center very early to reserve a spot on one of their buses. The train stops going north and south do not get you to Denali in time or allow enough time for the deep back country buses. With Princess, Holland America, Celebrity and RC you can do the tour part first and then go to Seward or Whittier to get on ship for the inside passage part. I recommend doing the tour part first.

Alaska cruises and tours are mostly scenic and cultural. The usual stops for the inside passage portion are Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and College Fjords. The scenic parts are the animals, mountains, glaciers, fjords, and waterfalls. The cultural parts are the Alaska Native, gold rush, fishing industry, and historical sites.

Since you are in the middle of this year’s cruise season you may not find great prices or options. So my recommendation is plan now for next year. Look at the prices be charged right now for cruises and then also look at what the price will be if you go, for example, next May or early June. Pick the date with the best prices, cabins, and tour options. And I do recommend doing the Denali Park tour.