sailing the inside passage

[cruise47]

We just want to see the beautiful scenery of Alaska and the whales.

So, Is it better or leave from Seattle or Vancouver?

 

Plus, we enjoy good dining restaurants food and service. We primarily sail in a balcony on decks 8 or 9.

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by cruise47

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, cruise47 said:

We just want to see the beautiful scenery of Alaska and the whales.

So, Is it better or leave from Seattle or Vancouver?

 

Plus, we enjoy good dining restaurants food and service. We primarily sail in a balcony on decks 8 or 9.

 

Most of the cruises from Seattle on HAL are round trip, you stop at Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and cruise Glacier Bay. I have not done one from Seattle. The Vancouver departures stop at all of the above and end in Seward (Anchorage). If you do the one way cruise you can also add from 2 to 5 extra land days for a day or two in Anchorage, Denali Park and Fairbanks. You can also do the land first with Seward departures going south and reverse the above itinerary back to Vancouver.

 

IMHO doing the one way with a land package is the best way to see as much of Alaska as possible. There are some great places to eat in both Anchorage and Fairbanks with Alaska cuisine that included a lot of crab, seafood and even some Elk and Reindeer meat.

Edited May 15, 2019 by terrydtx

[RocketMan275]

Some of the HAL cruises out of Vancouver do not end up in Steward.  They start in Vancouver and end in Vancouver.

[RedmondCruiser]

Have done several Alaska cruises and the inside passage is spectacular and you will enjoy it.  This all depends on when slack tide is in the Seymore Narrows.  Ships only transit this area at slack tide for safety reasons and this will dictate the time of day  that you do through.  We normally cruise out of Seattle, which means that we go on the outside of Vancouver Island and this is a boring passage.  Have a great cruise.

[bennybear]

I would go out of Vancouver either round trip or one way.  Vancouver and Anchorage are great places to visit as well.  The Canadian inside passage also has spectacular scenery.  I wouldn’t miss it! 

[RoyalVisit]

Just off the Nieuw Amsterdam this morning and we greatly enjoyed cruising the Inside Passage. We had lovely weather for the majority of the time and had loads of opportunities to see whales both at a distance and closer to the ship (binoculars are a must) along with seals, otters (mainly in Glacier Bay area), eagles, and other terrific creatures. This was our first Alaskan cruise and I cannot wait for our next! 

[Cruise Raider]

On 5/13/2019 at 1:13 PM, grsnovi said:

Only you can decide that.

Sitting on my balcony at 5:30am watching whales between the ship and shore (which was less than 100 yards) as we slowly cruised into port one morning is one of my favorite memories of a previous Alaska cruise.

 

I always say that if there is one itinerary to splurge on a balcony, it is Alaska.  Our last time up there (it was our 12th Alaskan cruise ... and certainly not our last), we did just that and got a balcony cabin.  We spent so much time out there watching whales and the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen.

This next sailing for us, we got an inside cabin due to budget constraints, but also booked a cabana for the entire week just to make sure we had a wonderful area to view all that beautiful scenery along the way.  If we are offered an upsell for a balcony instead, we are jumping on it and will cancel the cabana.  

 

[cruisingnewtoit]

25 minutes ago, RoyalVisit said:

Just off the Nieuw Amsterdam this morning and we greatly enjoyed cruising the Inside Passage. We had lovely weather for the majority of the time and had loads of opportunities to see whales both at a distance and closer to the ship (binoculars are a must) along with seals, otters (mainly in Glacier Bay area), eagles, and other terrific creatures. This was our first Alaskan cruise and I cannot wait for our next! 

We DH & I were on NA Aug 2018 we saw 1 whale and no other animals from the boat. The prior week the natuaralist recorded lots of animal sightings. It was still a great trip. Loved the crew on NA.

 

We are sailing Millie a X ship mid June 2020. It's a southbound trip. Hoping for more success.

[RoyalVisit]

16 minutes ago, cruisingnewtoit said:

We DH & I were on NA Aug 2018 we saw 1 whale and no other animals from the boat. The prior week the natuaralist recorded lots of animal sightings. It was still a great trip. Loved the crew on NA.

 

We are sailing Millie a X ship mid June 2020. It's a southbound trip. Hoping for more success.

I guess it's like the Alaskan weather...unpredictable! we also saw a young grizzly on our excursion from Skagway to the Yukon.