Thinking of an Alaskan cruise? Here’s What You Should Consider.

Our team at Embrace the Journey Travel Specializes in Alaskan Cruises. Here are some things to consider when getting ready to plan an Alaskan cruise.  

I would suggest that you have at least 8 days to travel. If you can take off 10 to 14 days, that is even better but for an Alaskan Cruise, you normally need a minimum of 8 days. 

Most Alaskan Cruises are 7 nights – 8 days or longer. There are a few shorter cruises that are 5 nights but I do not suggest these. 

Most Alaskan Cruises leave from Seattle or Vancouver and I suggest flying in the day before the cruise sails out. It’s even better if you can fly in two days before, so that you can explore the port city you are sailing out of before the cruise. 

There are so many choices for an Alaskan cruise but the biggest choice is going to be are you going to do a cruise only or a land and sea trip. This is a link to a blog post that breaks these two down in more detail.

Picking a Ship

When traveling to Alaska my team and I match our guests to the cruise ship that best fits their needs. 

If you are a couple in your 20’s to 40’s there are certain ships that will meet your needs the best. 

If you’re 50 to 80 plus and traveling with no kids, a different ship will meet your needs. 

Then, one of our teams favorites, if you have a multigen group meaning grandparents, parents, and kids there are new ships that were built with these groups in mind. 

To learn about being matched up with the ship that best fits your needs, we have a blog article on picking an Alaskan Cruise for your family.

Pre Booking Excursions – This is another very important activity that needs to be done before the cruise. The Shore Excursions in Alaska normally sell out in advance, read more about picking shore excursions in advance here.

We also want to make sure you see the Glaciers that you are interested in seeing on your sailing 

One of the most popular choices is the Alaska Inside Passage, but there are other choices for seeing different Glaciers. There are also some cruises that are 9 days where you can sail past many more Glaciers. 

These are some of the most popular Glaciers:

• Hubbard Glacier
• Glacier Bay
• Prince William Sound
• Tracy Arm

You also want to think about what port towns are a must for you. Pretty much every sailing stops in Juneau and Ketchikan. It varies on what sailing you are on, whether you will visit Skagway or Sitka.  

What season will you sail? 

This greatly depends on what you want to see. If you want smaller crowds and better pricing than shoulder season, then late April, May and September will work best for you. 

If you want to see more wildlife and the flowers in full bloom with more hours of Sunlight then June – August will work best for you. 

Alaska is such a majestic place and having an idea of what is on your must see list before your cruise helps greatly with picking a sailing and ship. 

Once you are booked, your next big question will be what to pack and what to wear on the cruise. We have a packing list for our guests :)! This is a fun article that Journey Planner Danielle Hupp wrote on packing for her Alaskan cruise in a carry on.

Are you interested in an Alaskan Cruise? Our team of Alaskan Cruise Specialists would love to help you plan.  

Our team has written lots of blog articles on Alaska Travel and we have a blog dedicated to just Alaska Travel if you would like to read more, simply click here.