Seven Seas Mariner - Alaska Wilderness

Where this cruise calls, day by day

5 ports and 3 sea days over 7 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Vancouver, BC

   CanadaDepart
   Vancouver, BC port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Juneau

   United StatesPort
   Juneau port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
4. Day 4

   Sitka

   United StatesPort

   Sitka is the one Southeast Alaska call that faces the open Pacific rather than the Inside Passage, and it was the capital of Russian America until 1867 - St Michael's Cathedral still stands in the middle of the main street. The volcanic cone of Mount Edgecumbe sits across the sound. Its history is also the hardest of any Alaskan port: the Tlingit fought and lost a battle here in 1804, on ground that is now a national park.

   • Sitka National Historical Park, with a totem trail through the 1804 battlefield
   • St Michael's Cathedral and the Russian Bishop's House
   • Alaska Raptor Center's flight training centre for injured eagles
   • Wildlife boat tours into Sitka Sound for sea otters, puffins and whales

   Getting ashore

   Larger ships use the Old Sitka Dock about five miles north with a paid shuttle; smaller ships still tender straight into the downtown harbour.

   Best months

   May-Sep (Jun-Aug best; Sitka is exposed to Pacific weather and can be rough at the shoulders)

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Ketchikan

   United StatesPort
   Ketchikan port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8

   Seward

   United StatesArrive

   Seward sits at the head of Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula and works mainly as a turnaround port for Gulf of Alaska crossings, where passengers swap ship for the Alaska Railroad or a coach to Anchorage, 120 miles north. It is also the road gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park. A new Royal Caribbean-funded cruise terminal with a 748-foot floating dock has been replacing the old railway-side facility.

   • Kenai Fjords National Park boat tour to the tidewater glaciers in Aialik Bay
   • Exit Glacier, the one part of the park you can reach and walk to by road
   • Alaska SeaLife Center on the waterfront, a research aquarium and rescue facility
   • The Coastal Classic train to Anchorage through the Kenai Mountains

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth alongside at the cruise terminal beside the railway, a walk or short shuttle from Seward's small downtown.

   Best months

   May-Sep (Jun-Aug for glacier boat tours; the season ends abruptly in September)