Like spawning salmon, Alaska’s cruise industry has endured an upstream battle over the past few years. 2020’s cruise season in the Last Frontier was wiped out entirely due to something you might have heard of called COVID-19. In 2021, Alaska’s traditional half-yearlong cruise period raised anchor three months late, and it took another lifting — as in a century-old maritime law — to even make that happen.
Which brings us to 2022. With sanitized fingers crossed, ships offering trips of a lifetime won’t have to hibernate like Kodiak bears yet again. If anything, the upcoming Alaska cruising season is shaping up to be more like an insomniac bear jacked up on caffeine.
Barring the unforeseen, from April to October a whopping two dozen or so cruise lines will deploy nearly 50 ships to navigate the Gulf of Alaska more than 725 times for voyages lasting between four and 92 days — longer if adding tours to Denali or some of the world’s best fishing spots.
Filled berths in Juneau are expected this season after years of pandemic hibernation. (Photo by David Dickstein)
What sounds like a modern-day Klondike Gold Rush is really just the cruise industry picking up where 2019 started, albeit three years late. Of the estimated 2 million-plus out-of-state visitors who traveled to Alaska in summer 2019, nearly half came by sea, according to a report sponsored by the Alaska Travel Industry Association. The million and change who arrived via cruise ship was not only a record, but a titanic 14 percent increase from the previous year.
2020 was poised to set another mark before the pandemic wiped out the entire season along with the $800 million that 1 1/2 million projected passengers were expected to spend while on holiday. COVID-19 vaporized another $1 billion of economic benefit from port fees and other ship-side expenses critical to the region’s sustainability.
“For many, the cruise industry is their livelihood and Alaskans rely on us to bring excited tourists to visit their towns so they can share their passion for this exceptional state,” said Lisa Syme, vice president of Santa Clarita-based Princess Cruises.
Majestic Tracy Arm is a popular scenic destination on many Alaska cruise itineraries. (Photo by David Dickstein)
A truncated cruise season was the best Alaska could get in 2021 after a state congressional delegation successfully pushed for the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act that temporarily allowed foreign-flagged cruise ships to sail directly from the U.S. without having to dock first in Canada, which had a ban in place at the time. So, it was in with Seattle, out with Vancouver, during last year’s salvaged season.
Speaking of these Pacific Northwestern gateways, Seattle and Vancouver are the most popular embarkation ports for northbound Alaskan cruises while Seward and Whittier in the Anchorage area get nods for southbound sails. San Francisco also gets a slice of baked Alaska as the fifth-busiest starting and ending point for voyages to where totems stand, salmon spawn and eagles soar.
How quickly cruisers see these proud Alaskan icons depends on the point of origin. Would-be vacationers should keep in mind that the farther the embarkation and debarkation port from Alaska, the more sea days there are on both ends of the itinerary.
That’s not to say a day without stopping at a port can’t be wonderful even on destination cruises that attract guests for their ports and not necessarily just the joy of sailing. Landless days can be a blast on large ships as these floating resorts offer activities of all kinds and for all ages. Smaller ships tend to provide an adult-leaning luxe experience, and their reduced tonnage allows for closer views of the narrow channels, fjords and passages that contribute to Alaska’s bucket-list distinction.
Rafting down Mendenhall River is an exciting activity on calls to Juneau. (Courtesy of Alaska Travel Adventures)
Those looking to check off the nation’s 49th state by cruise will find a buyer’s market this season. Ships and itineraries of many shapes, classes and lengths should match most budgets, and cruise lines and online booking sites are offering sweet deals to woo first-time and frequent cruisers now that the industry is making a comeback. Prices and incentives change too often to cover here, but we can discuss product with relative confidence.
With six ships and 140 voyages, Princess Cruises (princess.com) is the alpha moose of the upcoming Alaska cruise season. The half-dozen vessels, each with a capacity between 3,000 and 3,660, will collectively offer sailings of four to 14 days. Homeporting in Seattle are Crown Princess and the cruise line’s newest flagship, Discovery Princess, which will still be getting its sea legs in the Pacific Northwest after making just a month’s worth of runs south of the border from LA. Grand Princess, Majestic Princess and Royal Princess will do pick up and drop off in Vancouver and Anchorage, while Ruby Princess makes a routine out of passing under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Cruise passengers can interact with furry locals on a dog sledding shore excursion. (Photo by David Dickstein)
Princess and younger-skewing Carnival Cruise Line (carnival.com) offer the most Alaskan cruises from San Francisco. James R. Herman Cruise Terminal will process 14 round trips on Ruby Princess and another 10 on the smaller Carnival Miracle, all with 10-day itineraries of which roughly half are sea or scenic days. The 3,000-passenger Carnival Freedom, the other “Fun Ship” sailing to Alaska this season, has 20 round trips on tap from Seattle.
Like Princess, the more senior-leaning Holland America Lines (www.hollandamerica.com) is deploying six ships this season. Ranging in capacity from 1,916 to 2,650 passengers, Eurodam, Koningsdam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Noordam, Westerdam and Zuiderdam will account for roughly 120 Alaskan cruises, all but two of seven days; a pair of 14-day round trips one week apart will close out the cruise line’s season in September.
The majority of Norwegian Cruise Line’s (ncl.com) 101 scheduled Alaska cruises this season — on Bliss, Encore, Spirit and Sun — are weeklong roundtrips out of Seattle. The line’s fifth ship servicing Alaska is Jewel, a vessel familiar to Southern California cruisers that will make runs between Vancouver and Seward except for one 11-day voyage that embarks from San Diego on April 22.
Ten months after being the first megaship to sail to Alaska in nearly two years, Royal Caribbean’s 2,476-passenger Serenade of the Seas is set to return much closer to capacity than when it sailed out of Seattle just 25 percent full due to the heavier restrictions at the onset of resuming service. Serenade will be homeported in Vancouver this time, sharing a terminal with its older sister, Radiance of the Seas. Out of Seattle, Quantum of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas, both of Royal Caribbean’s second-largest class that holds 4,905 passengers, will also make weeklong round trips. In all, Royal Caribbean (royalcaribbean.com) is planning 84 seven-day voyages this season.
Celebrity (celebritycruises.com), Cunard (cunard.com) and Disney (disneycruiseline.com) also offer higher-end big-ship Alaskan adventures, and if more opulent ogling of Mother Nature’s handiwork is what you fancy, an ultra-luxury cruise is just a fatter wallet away on Oceania (oceaniacruises.com), Regent (rssc.com), Seabourn (seabourn.com), Silversea (silversea.com) and Windstar (windstarcruises.com).
Sleepy Skagway wakes up when cruise ships pay a visit to this popular stop on the Alaska Panhandle. (Photo by David Dickstein)
Budgets, schedules and cruise lines aren’t the only factors to consider when searching for your dream Alaskan cruise. There’s also a matter of what you want to see and do in what the indigenous Yup’ik called Alyeska — or “Great Land” — from which the name Alaska is derived. While there’s really no such thing as a bad or dangerous port on an Alaskan itinerary — something that can’t be said for, say, the western Caribbean, some calls are much more touristy than tranquil.
Four ports in the latter category are on the itinerary of nearly every Alaskan cruise. Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and Skagway may be overrun with souvenir shops and other businesses as authentic to the Last Frontier as an Olive Garden in Rome, but the state capital, “Salmon Capital of the World” and “Garden City,” respectively, offer a wide range of shore excursions and attractions.
Cruise lines dont have a monopoly on shore excursion bookings in touristy Juneau. (Photo by David Dickstein)
Recommended activities at each of these ports include Mendenhall Glacier Float Trip and Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau; Saxman Native Village and Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan; the Sea Otter & Wildlife Quest and Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka; and the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad and Dog Sledding & Glacier Helicopter Flightseeing excursion in Skagway.
Smaller ships often include a port or two where crowds are as non-existent as a Diamonds International or Del Sol store. Sorry, but a coupon from the ship’s shopping host won’t get you a free charm or color-changing keychain in Icy Strait Point, Haines or Wrangell.
The Land of the Midnight Sun offers stunning sunsets views for cruise passengers. (Photo by David Dickstein)
Social distancing on an Alaskan cruise doesn’t come cheap as the difference between sailing with 300 as opposed to 3,000 can be five digits more for an all-inclusive seven-day cruise — and that’s with a post-pandemic discount. Not to fear, oh frugal ones; at press time, weeklong Alaskan sails on big ships were starting as low as $300. Who needs a butler, balcony and unlimited booze anyway?