Inside Passage - Alternatives to Huge Cruise Ships
 

My husband and I are thinking about Alaska for my 40th Birthday Celebrations.. We would like to do the Inside Passage but are very much not interested in big cruises where we see more of the inside of a cruise ship, or explore towns with thousands of other cruisers.. We are looking for other options to have time to see the sights properly, to not be around so many people and for great opportunities to give our cameras a workout.

Suggest you search cruisecritic.com small ship alaska cruises. I'd love to do those but of course they are more pricey. Alaskan Dream is one that sounds good.

National Geographic runs some tours--very much on the nature side of things. I would loooove to do one.

However, the passengers from other the huge cruise ships will still be there.

The ferry to Alaska maybe?

Alaskan Dreams looks similar to two other providers, Uncruise and Lindblad.. Has anyone travelled with any of these?

Alaskan Dream Cruises is a bit unique. The owners are all from Alaska, and the line is based in Sitka. The ships are so small that many of the calls are in the bays the owners like to fish and camp in ... so you'll find no other cruise ships or pretty much anyone there, and some of the anchorages aren't really ports at all but distant and isolated bays that are much more "Alaska" than you'll find elsewhere, but they hit the popular spots as well. But both Lindblad and Uncruise Adventures offer a really good product.

For most people, the real issue is cost. These aren't cheap cruises, but if you are willing to pay and want to have a smaller, less structured environment, I think you'd be happier on any of these. Lindblad is probably the most upscale of the three, and it offers the relationship with National Geographic plus some fancy technological advances the other cruise lines don't.

American Cruise Lines also does a season in Alaska on somewhat bigger ships.

The first thing we should know (and which you should decide if you haven't already) is whether you're limiting yourselves to SE Alaska or want to see more of the state, particularly the southcentral and interior parts of Alaska like Denali, Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, or areas in the interior or the bush. Coming up with an overall plan will hinge on that decision.

I'm going to put in a plug for the major lines, although I fully understand your reservations. Trying to go independently in an area with mass market tourism is never easy, and always carries a premium price. However, in the case of the cruises, there are a couple of factors to consider and weigh. First is that the "Inside Passage" is very long, and much of it is located in Canadian, not Alaskan, waters. The big-ship sailings from Vancouver start by traveling to the east of Vancouver Island (those from Seattle travel to the west on open ocean) so you're really in part of the "Inside Passage" the moment you leave Vancouver. There are two kinds of big-ship itineraries out of Vancouver - round trip ones that go up into SE Alaska and then turn around, i.e. seeing the inside passage both coming and going, and one-way cruises between Vancouver and either Seward or Whittier, both towns connected by road and rail to Anchorage. In those cases the inside passage is transited during the week you're at sea.

With the big boats,yes, you'll be around lots of other tourists in the main cruise ports (Ketchikan, Juneau and especially Skagway.) But there are ways to get away from those crowds quite easily and cheaply. And on the ships, you don't need to participate in the ice carving contests or poolside bingo; you can stay in your room, sit on your veranda, watch the mountains and trees slide by, and not really feel like you're in some floating town of 3000.

So back to your case. First and quite expensive, you can use any of the small cruise lines mentioned above. Note that most of the small-ship cruises DO call in ports frequented by the big ships; there aren't all that many towns in SE Alaska in the first place, and for any sense of the human story, skipping places like Juneau or Ketchikan carries a price - gold rushes, Native American history, etc. Alaska is more than moose and mountains, y'know.

Cheaper but needing more planning is to use the ferry system. You could fly from Seattle to Juneau, and from Juneau, take some "feeder" ferry trips to some of the other communities in SE Alaska like Pelican or Tenakee Springs. Do a local excursion (by boat or plane) to Glacier Bay. If you're not continuing farther north to Southcentral Alaska (Anchorage, Denali, Kenai Peninsula etc.) take a final ferry from Juneau to Sitka, then fly back to Seattle from there. If you ARE planning to continue north, then change the order of these things and fly to Sitka first, then ferry to Juneau, then the local ferries from Juneau. (This is because of the way the ferry routes and airline routes work in the region.) https://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/vessel_routes.shtml

The ferry/DIY approach isn't going to be cheaper than the major cruise lines on a per-person-per-day basis, but it will give you the freedom to arrange excursions locally, meet more locals, and sample the towns once the boats have sailed (Skagway goes from 10,000 people during the day to fewer than 1000 at night.)

Then we return to the main question - what else in Alaska do you want to see? If your plan is to see places in southcentral, interior, or bush Alaska, then you can fly from Juneau to Anchorage on several daily flights, get a car in Anchorage and off you go. (Or if you want a very memorable experience, fly from Anchorage to someplace off the road system like Nome, Barrow or Kotzebue.) If your plan was to see lots more (and you'll need to tell us how much time you have available overall for this trip) then you might stick with the big ship one-way cruise as an expedient and affordable way to see SE Alaska, then go independent once you're in southcentral Alaska and see all the other things possible.

I'll close this lengthy post with one other possibility, just to consider. There are a couple of firms that run 3- and 6-day cruises around Prince William Sound, sailing from Whittier. Prince William Sound offers fabulous sightseeing - tidewater glaciers, lots of wildlife, uninhabited islands, interesting towns... with the advantage that you can fly in and out of Anchorage, making any land extensions easy. You might google some PWS options and see if anything clicks.

Good luck and happy planning!

I don't know anything about this from personal experience, but it was highly recommended to me by a couple whose judgment I trust -- they are older than you,but definitely love to travel and have done many an adventure trip. The woman of the couple is the only person I know who has traveled to North Korea. They also both love to fly fish.
https://www.uncruise.com/destinations/alaska-cruises

Thanks everyone for your contributions.. So, to answer a few questions.. It is early days, but we are thinking we will have between 14 and 21 days for Alaska and would like to see Denali, Anchorage, as well as the Inside Passage.. This is a special occasion trip, so we don't mind one splurge for a once in a lifetime activity.. We will be tying in this trip with some time in Canada, but not sure at this stage whether we will be coming from Canada or Australia to Alaska..

Gardyloo,
Your response is incredibly knowledgeable and thoughtful.

I would agree with that.. Very thorough and helpful, thanks Gardyloo

We went on the Sea Lion with Lindblad, now affiliated with National Geographic. About 70 -80 passengers, wonderful trip away from the big cruise ships. We went to small non touristic ports plus Glacier Bay NP. Saw many whales and other wildlife daily. Naturalists on board who lead you off the ship for kayaking and hiking.www.expeditions.com

We are heading over in mid May, returning late June.. What are your thoughts on timing for the cruise and Alaska? Is May or June better for seeing as much wildlife as possible?

For any activities in the interior such as Denali, May is too early. The shuttle bus service into the interior of Denali Park, for example, doesn't start until the first of June, and isn't fully available until the second, and sometimes the third week of the month.

I can't emphasize enough that you really need to look at this almost as two separate trips - one in Southeast Alaska, mainly water-borne, and the other in southcentral and interior Alaska - probably in a car. Think of it like Oz - would the same month be ideal for visiting both the Great Ocean Road and the northern Queensland coast?

If you want to do an "un-cruise" or something similar, I'd simply arrange things like this:

Fly from (wherever) to Juneau and do the cruise or ferry-based touring around the Inside Passage, say 7 - 10 days max. Then fly from Juneau to Anchorage (90 minutes, around US $175) and get a car. Tour down to the Kenai Peninsula (Seward, possibly Homer) for 5 or 6 days then up to Denali for 3-4 days. Add a couple of days around Anchorage - maybe a glacier cruise from Whittier, Wildlife Conservation Center around Portage, etc. and you're good. If you have more time, or are interested in visiting the arctic or roadless bush, you can fly someplace easily from Anchorage, e.g. Nome on the Bering Sea for its vivid gold mining history, or the Inupiat Eskimo village of Kotzebue on the Arctic Ocean to see how life is lived. Kotzebue is above the arctic circle and visiting in June will let you experience 24h of sunlight (not just midnight sun, but 10 PM and 3 AM sun.)

If you want to do a "regular" cruise in order to save money, then fly from wherever to Vancouver and take a cruise to Seward or Whittier. This will take the same 7 days as above, then just pick up the plan in the same manner as if you'd flown up from Juneau.

If you work within those parameters you can have an excellent experience.

I just went this past June, mid-June is a bit better than early. I used southbound Holland America Cruises (Anchorage to Vancouver) which this year was the only mass market line that did a one way (read inexpensive) cruise which included a day in small-town Haines. Juneau and Ketchikan are more impacted by the multiple cruise docks but the solution is to take excursions (or rent a car and explore out of town).

If you start in Alaska and end in Vancouver you can do your land touring first (eg Denali) and also some independent tours of Kenai Fjords or other places on the Kenai peninsula.

I'm not sure why some people always suggest starting in Vancouver, I prefer the reverse direction because flying out of Vancouver on the same day is so easy.

I suggested it because of the OP's timing. The later you hit Denali in the May/June period the better.

Also for people coming a long way, it's often easier to overcome jetlag on the ship than doing go-go tourism in constant daylight farther north. Plus most flights from ANC to the midwest and eastern US require a redeye departure due to the time change, so arrival times at the airport are a non-issue.

Certainly it's a good idea to look at flights and where they are going to be before or after. Although being AussieHubbyWife in this case I assumed they would be transiting through the west coast (SFO or LAX).

Thanks again.. Your input is fantastic. So, I think best to head from Australia into Vancouver and do 2 weeks in Western Canada first, then head toward Alaska for June where I will turn 40.. arghh!!