Alaska Cruises

Alaska is a short-season cruise. In 2026 Juneau's first ship, Holland America's Eurodam, arrived on April 27 and the port's season ran to October 6. May and September bring cheaper fares and cooler, wetter days; June through August is the warm, crowded middle. Juneau now rations the crowds: 2026 was the first year of a daily cap of 16,000 cruise passengers on most days and 12,000 on Saturdays, down from peaks of around 21,000.

Itineraries come in two shapes. Round trips from Seattle or Vancouver stay in the Inside Passage and usually last seven nights. One-way "Gulf" sailings run between Vancouver and Whittier or Seward, the ports for Anchorage, which lets you add a land tour to Denali but means flying in and out of different cities. Seattle round trips always call in Canada - usually Victoria - because the Passenger Vessel Services Act stops a foreign-flagged ship from carrying passengers between two U.S. ports without a foreign stop in between.

Check which glacier your ship actually visits. Glacier Bay National Park admits no more than two cruise ships a day, and its concession contracts went to a limited group of lines - Holland America, Princess, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Viking and Seabourn among them. Other ships substitute Hubbard Glacier, Tracy Arm or Endicott Arm, which are worth seeing but are not the same day.

Nearly every big-ship Alaska sailing touches Canada, so bring a passport. A Seattle round trip is closed-loop and technically allows a birth certificate and photo ID, but a one-way Gulf cruise is not, and Vancouver embarkations mean crossing the border. The region suits people who want scenery and wildlife over beaches, older travelers and multi-generation families, and anyone happy to dress in layers in July.

Sources: ktoo.org, cruisemapper.com, ktoo.org, cruisehive.com