Planning a 2 week trip for August/September 2006. We're thinking of an Inside Passage cruise and then touring the state for another 5 days or so. We're really not into the large luxury liners. Something smaller and more casual with some adventurous land excursions would fit the bill. Considering the many options that Alaska offers, I'm really looking for any advice on a first time trip. Thanks in advance!

You may want to look into Glacier Bay National Park. Some of the smaller cruise ship go into Glacier Bay. We just returned from Glacier Bay / Gustavus two weeks ago. We did not do a cruise but stayed at Gustavus Inn for four days. We used the Inn as our home based. From there we took the Glacier Bay boat tour, hiked in Glacier Bay National park, went fishing, went whale watching and sea kayaking for a day. We than went to Juneau for three days. My brothers family did a Bear viewing trip to Admiralty Island from Juneau. Glacier Bay / Gustavus was the highlight of the trip.

We cruised with Cruise West in Costa Rica and loved it. They have many options available for Alaska and people who had cruised Alaska said that was one cruise they would do again. Glacier Bay Cruises also does the inside passage with varying levels of adventure available.

As nice as Inside Passage cruises are, consider a trip that crosses the gulf and terminates (or begins) in Seward (preferable) or Whittier.

From there, your land options are much better than the Passage-alone trips and you'll get a much better feel for the state -- although 5 days for land tours will only give you a very small taste.

Just returned from a ten day land/cruise tour starting with flying into Fairbanks. The land/cruise tour was completely organized and planned by Princess Cruise Line. In a word ... Fantastic . . . no, better than Fantastic. Princess really has their act together. No one, not even Disney can compare to the outstanding organization of the entire trip that Princess displayed.

We opted to start our adventure with 3 days on land begining in Fairbanks which, in part, consisted of a stern-wheeler riverboat trip down the Chena River, a motorcoach trip to Denali National Park and a two night stay at the Denali Park Lodge. Horseback riding, seeing moose, bald eagles and black bear from the saddle of your steed was magnificent. A full day's tour into the Denali tundra allowed us to see up close and almost personal caribou, grizzelies, bald eagles, dall sheep, just to mention a few things. Then a full day trip (including breakfast and lunch) aboard the passenger train, The Midnight Sun. Had our own private table in the vista lounge (glass top and sides) to view spectacular scene after scene including outstanding views of Mt. McKinley (all 20,000+ feet of her). Note: We were extremely fortunate to have bright sun and blue skies the entire ten days . . . I am told by train and cruise personnel that having Mr. Sun out at all is a rarety not to mention ten days.
Nevertheless, sun or cloudy, you can't argue with the magnificent scenery.

We boarded the Sun Princess (just the right size ship), about 857 feet long and 14 decks or so, in Whittier. We had a cabin with balcony on the 10th deck at mid-ships, port side. TIP: If you are travelling north to south (Whittier AK to Vancouver, you want port side; starboard if you are going south to north). Approximately 1800 nautical miles to Vancouver.

The service and attention to detail is exquisite and you won't be disappointed. Our route took us to College Fjiord, Glacier Bay, Skagway, Junneau, and Ketchikan. You should plan day excursions whenever you hit a port. We booked through Princess, which appears expensive, because it is, BUT, they put together quality trips and you won't be disappointed.

In Skagway we took the narrow gauge railroad up through the White Pass and saw some of the most spectacular scenery. On the return trip to Skagway, we visited a replica of an old gold mining camp, complete with
'madams' and a chance to pan for real gold. The day finished with a visit to the famous Red Onion Saloon and a trip upstairs to see where the ladies of the night practiced their trade (complete with the ghost of Diamond Lil.

Next was Juneau where a photo safari and whale watching trip was planned. Yes, we saw and heard humpback whales ... some were breaching less than 100 yards away. Outstanding.

Ketchikan was a trip to the bays and waterways to haul in dungeness crabs aboard their crab boat which was followed by a crab dinner. This was the best. One of the highlights was a pretty good sighting of a black bear on the shore as we headed in for our crab bake.

But, perhaps as memorable as some of what I reported above, is the unbelievable quality of the environment, food, and entertainment aboard this magnificent ship (The Sun Princess). I could write much more just on the ship, its extraordinary crew, the live shows, food and more food, etc. on this beautifully appointed vessel.

I hope you will consider this way to visit Alaska and view the Inside Passage the way it should be viewed.

This was our first cruise and first visit to Alaska and without a doubt will return . . . perhaps doing the exact same itinerary once again. Good luck and enjoy.

DonAZ

DonAZ,that's a great trip report! On our first trip to AK we took the ferry from Bellingham. This was certainly a nice, casual approach. We did not take advantage of getting off to explore places like Juneau. We left the ferry in Skagway and drove to the Anchorage area. The car was staying in AK so we flew home from there. The ferry is a slow scenic approach but you won't see glaciers and snow until you are toward the end of the route. As much as I enjoyed the ferry trip (several talks each day by someone from the Forest Services) it didn't compare to the 9 hour Kenai Fjords trip out of Seward. True, a pair of orcas swam next to the ferry at one point but we saw more AND stopped to watch them on the KF trip. If you research old posts you will get a lot of information about favorite places others have gone. Last year when we visited I planned our trip around some events I wanted to attend. I got a kick out of running into people who were originally from my home state and people who said they went up on vacation and never left. Happy planning!

Thanks for the quick response. This forum really is the best and as usual, all of the suggestions are top notch. We have a lot of decision making to do, but I'm confident that the trip will be fantastic because of the great advice. Please keep it coming!