Vacation package
Alaska Inside Passage, Seven Nights
Seven nights along the Inside Passage in the only months it runs, calling at small ports and spending a day in front of a glacier. Quoted per person for two sharing. The season is short, which changes when this has to be booked.
Book this one early or do not book it
The Alaska season is about eighteen weeks long. Everybody who wants to go wants to go in the same eighteen weeks, and the ships do not get bigger. Cabins in the good weeks are gone by the previous autumn, and what is left in spring is the expensive grades and the awkward dates.
We would rather say this plainly than quote you something in April and let you find out. If you are reading this in the spring for a summer sailing, ask anyway, but expect the answer to be about what is left rather than what is best.
from $1,420 per person, based on two sharing
This is a starting figure for the season shown. The final price is confirmed in writing before anything is booked and depends on your dates, the number travelling and what is available when we ask. How a price is put together.
Which side of the ship
On a one way sailing the scenery is mostly on one side, and which side depends on the direction of travel. A balcony on the wrong side is an expensive view of open water.
This is the kind of detail an agency exists for. When we quote, the direction and the side are in writing, and if you are paying for a balcony we will tell you whether it is the one worth paying for.
| Sailing | Where the coast sits | What we would book |
|---|---|---|
| Round trip from Seattle | Both sides see it at different times | Balcony optional. The public decks work well and cost nothing. |
| Northbound one way | Largely to starboard | If you want a balcony, starboard. |
| Southbound one way | Largely to port | If you want a balcony, port. |
What the excursions are actually for
In the Caribbean an excursion is a nice extra. Here it is often the point: the float plane, the boat that gets closer to the ice, the train up out of the port. They are expensive and they are the part people remember.
We will tell you which of them can be booked directly at the port for less, and which sell out and have to be held in advance. That distinction is worth more than a discount.
The six questions, answered
| Where and how long | A seven night sailing along the sheltered water of southeast Alaska, round trip from Seattle or one way between Vancouver and a northern port, calling at three or four small towns and spending one day in a glacier bay or fjord. |
|---|---|
| What kind of trip | Cruise, scenic rather than sun. Nobody comes back tanned. The days are long, the light in July is extraordinary, and the reason to go is what is outside the window rather than what is on the ship. |
| What is included | Round trip flights from Boise, the night before the sailing where the connection needs it, transfers between airport and terminal, the cruise fare for two sharing, port charges and government taxes, and a written itinerary with boarding times and the glacier day marked. |
| What is not included | Daily gratuities. Drinks beyond the basics. Shore excursions, which on this trip are a larger part of the experience than in the Caribbean and worth budgeting for properly. Internet, which is poor and expensive in these waters. Travel insurance, which we recommend. Warm waterproof clothing, which people underestimate every year. |
| When it makes sense, and when it does not | It runs from May to September and not at all outside that. May and September are cheaper, quieter and colder, with a real chance of gray days at the glacier. June to August is the reliable window and the expensive one. There is no shoulder trick here: the ships simply leave. |
| What is settled when we confirm | The ship, the sailing date and direction, the cabin category with its position on the deck plan, whether you have a balcony and on which side, the flights, the transfers, the total, the daily gratuity figure, and the line's cancellation schedule in full. |