Short Cruises in Alaska?
 

My husband and I spent two weeks in Alaska in Sep 2007 and fell in love with the Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage. We drove all over in our rental car and did a one day cruise out of Seward that we also enjoyed immensely. We want to return to see Denali National Park and do more inland travel. We have no interest in a week-long cruise but would consider a shorter one. I checked out Cruise West because the small ship/10 passengers appealed to me, but their prices are out of our range. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Sorry, of course I meant 100 passengers, not 10!

You may want to do some homework and see what is available for short cruises out of Valdez, Seward, Homer or Whittier. You won't have any time for any of the "cheaper" major lines as they are all at least 7 days. (unless you look at HAL 3/4 one way Vancouver/Skagway).

You can make excellent plans with just doing day boat trips out of each of the above mentioned areas and using coupon books can offer significant discounts.

How much time are you allowing?

Also take a look at the ferries of the "Alaska Marine Highway": http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/index.html

Thanks for your help. I am leaning toward using the ferry system. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if we fly into Juneau and spend 7 to 10 days traveling into, say, Sitka, Skagway, Petersburg, and maybe Ketchikan, won't we have more time to enjoy them and the surrounding areas? Then I'm thinking fly from Juneau to Anchorage and do the driving portion of the trip.

I figure with one rolling suitcase apiece (a challenge since my husband always overpacks big time), we can comfortably travel from town to town. What do you think?

If, with your 10 days, all you do is round trip out of Juneau, I think that would be fantastic and offer you plenty.

Overall, to travel by ferry you need more time, since the ferry is transportation based and arrives/departs around the clock. Best would be to look at 2 nights in ports.

Take a look at the schedules and see what you can come up with.