When will we be in the Inside Passage on first sea day?

[bluedevil72]

We will be on the Ruby in two weeks. We leave Seattle on Saturday and Sunday is a sea day. We get to Juneau at 11:00 AM on Monday morning. About what time on Sunday will we starting sailing in the Inside Passage?  

[karatemom2]

Generally only ships sailing out of Vancouver go through the true Inside Passage. Looking at the map for your cruise from Seattle it appears you go completely outside it on your way to Juneau so you likely won’t experience much scenic viewing until you start coming into Juneau on Monday morning. It does appear you will hit a small section as you go out of Ketchikan on your way back to Victoria so be sure to be out on deck to enjoy that!

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

The first few hours out of Seattle are actually pretty cool, and pretty underrated.  But, by late that evening, you'll be in the open sea, and will remain there until early Monday.  I expect for Sunday to be open ocean.

[AF-1]

I did this same cruise two years ago.  When you leave Seattle you will go thru a scenic part of the the sound.  Then you hit the open pacific ocean.  You will stay out in the ocean until you get close to the coast of Alaska.  You will be several miles off the coast of Alaska until you get close to Juneau.  Then it will be very scenic; as Juneau has a small passageway that your ship navigates until it docks. You will have get some of the most beautiful pictures once you get close to the mainland of Alaska. Have fun I took a screenshot of Juneau below.  In the bottom left pic you can see a large blue icon; that is Royal Princess navigating the passage into Juneau.  It will wind its way around the passage and dock in downtown Juneau.  (The pink dots on in the pic is downtown)

Edited June 19, 2019 by AF-1
added pic

[cruiseryyc]

Leaving from Seattle means you don't go through the Inside Passage.

[geoherb]

As others have pointed out, you won't be close to land until the morning before your ship gets into Juneau. I remember on our first round-trip cruise to Alaska from Seattle getting all excited when the naturalist commented about spotting the bald eagles in the trees. He said to look for the things that looked life golf balls. We saw quite a few. And then when we got to Juneau, we saw eagles sitting on top of light posts, a whole lot closer.

[Eaglecw]

When you leave Seattle Pier 91 at 4pm you’ll head North towards the Strait of Juan De Fuca, it’s interesting the first couple of hours, there’s lots to see off the starboard side. Once you get to the Strait of Juan De Fuca you’ll head west towards the open ocean, it’ll be around 10:30 or 11pm when you head North in the ocean. Once your out in the ocean you'll be to far away from land to see anything. It can get very rough the first sea, it was on June 9th, we had a lot of people get sick. You won't see land again until the next morning and then you'll still be a pretty good ways away from land. You won't see much until you enter Stephens Passage up to Juneau. If you’d like to track your ship before you ship this is an excellent web site to do so. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-131.9/centery:55.3/zoom:11 enter the name of the ship you want to track and your off to the races.

If you want to check the weather in Juneau go to Youtube and enter “Juneau Harbor Webcam -- LIVE from PTZtv” this camera I on top of the Hanger on the Wharf. Great views of the float planes and what ships are in port.

Randy

Edited June 19, 2019 by Eaglecw

[bluedevil72]

16 hours ago, Eaglecw said:

When you leave Seattle Pier 91 at 4pm you’ll head North towards the Strait of Juan De Fuca, it’s interesting the first couple of hours, there’s lots to see off the starboard side. Once you get to the Strait of Juan De Fuca you’ll head west towards the open ocean, it’ll be around 10:30 or 11pm when you head North in the ocean. Once your out in the ocean you'll be to far away from land to see anything. It can get very rough the first sea, it was on June 9th, we had a lot of people get sick. You won't see land again until the next morning and then you'll still be a pretty good ways away from land. You won't see much until you enter Stephens Passage up to Juneau. If you’d like to track your ship before you ship this is an excellent web site to do so. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-131.9/centery:55.3/zoom:11 enter the name of the ship you want to track and your off to the races.

If you want to check the weather in Juneau go to Youtube and enter “Juneau Harbor Webcam -- LIVE from PTZtv” this camera I on top of the Hanger on the Wharf. Great views of the float planes and what ships are in port.

Randy

Thank you to everyone for your replies.  We have actually cruised to Alaska three times......two round trip out of Seattle and once northbound out of Vancouver, so we know how much more scenery there is on the east side of Vancouver Island as compared to the west side.  I guess my initial question should have been when will we reach Stephens Passage.  I actually already have the marinetraffic and the PTZtv apps on my phone but I had never used the marinetraffic app to look at a route.  That's pretty cool.  

 

Thank you Eaglecw for your post.  Your info was spot on.  Even though we cruised out of Seattle a couple of times, it's been a few years and I didn't remember what we would need to be looking for.   Thanks again everyone....Steve