Smaller ship, obscure ports recommendations please.

[Mountaineer0313]

Currently onboard Celebrity Millennium sailing southbound to Vancouver after a fantastic 12 days in Alaska. We’ve done this cruise before, only did the Northbound the first time. Now I’m looking for possibly a small ship choice, that visits the more obscure ports, instead of the typical Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait, and Ketchikan. Any recommendations for something like that?

[Glaciers]

UnCruise, Alaskan Dream, Lindblad. Overnight in Glacier Bay, Misty Fjords, Taku Harbor. Port stops that can include in Petersburg & Kake, for example. The food is exceptional.

[AKStafford]

In addition to the small ship cruises in Southeast Alaska, there's Discovery Voyages in Southcentral Alaska: https://discoveryvoyages.com/

[donaldsc]

We recently did a cruise on the American Queen Ocean Victory and it was excellent.  We have also done a cruise on the American Dream ship which was also very good.  I will also throw out a 3d possibility - do a cruise on the Alaska Marine Highway ferries.  Would take a bit of planning to set it up and you might end up staying in some small towns for a few days until the next ferry comes through but I guarantee that it will be a unique experience and you will get to meet a bunch of really interesting people.  As an even more way out suggestion check out the charter yachts on this site - https://expeditionbroker.com/type-of-trips/charter-yacht-trip/.  On some of them you do not have to charter the entire yacht.

 

DON

Edited September 16, 2022 by donaldsc

[GTJ]

13 hours ago, donaldsc said:

I will also throw out a 3d possibility - do a cruise on the Alaska Marine Highway ferries. Would take a bit of planning to set it up and you might end up staying in some small towns for a few days until the next ferry comes through but I guarantee that it will be a unique experience and you will get to meet a bunch of really interesting people.

I agree with much that reasoning, and also empasize that using the Alaska Marine Highway allows one to plan their own itinerary rather than having to live with what the cruise line planners have selected. That said, however, that usefulness of the Alaska Marine Highway has diminished substantially in the last few years. Previously there had been multiple vessels operating along the mainline, and so it might have only required staying in an intermediate port for a day or two before the next vessel would come to call. Now, however, there's only a single mainline vessel, the Matanuska, generally operating on a weekly cycle between Skagway, Juneau, Bellingham, and intermediate port, plus some additional service by the Kennicott, operating on a 2-week cycle between Kodiak, Whittier, Juneau, Bellingham, and intermediate ports. Thus, one would expect to have to wait an entire week for the same vessel to return and continue onward in the same direction. It is a budget problem for the State of Alaska. Nonetheless, the ferries do go to many places that the cruise lines do not, including places served by the various "day boats" also operated by the Alaska Marine Highway (and a few other ferry lines).

[donaldsc]

26 minutes ago, GTJ said:

I agree with much that reasoning, and also empasize that using the Alaska Marine Highway allows one to plan their own itinerary rather than having to live with what the cruise line planners have selected. That said, however, that usefulness of the Alaska Marine Highway has diminished substantially in the last few years. Previously there had been multiple vessels operating along the mainline, and so it might have only required staying in an intermediate port for a day or two before the next vessel would come to call. Now, however, there's only a single mainline vessel, the Matanuska, generally operating on a weekly cycle between Skagway, Juneau, Bellingham, and intermediate port, plus some additional service by the Kennicott, operating on a 2-week cycle between Kodiak, Whittier, Juneau, Bellingham, and intermediate ports. Thus, one would expect to have to wait an entire week for the same vessel to return and continue onward in the same direction. It is a budget problem for the State of Alaska. Nonetheless, the ferries do go to many places that the cruise lines do not, including places served by the various "day boats" also operated by the Alaska Marine Highway (and a few other ferry lines).

 

I did not realize that the ferries were having issues.  That is a shame.  They were fun to "cruise" on.

 

DON

[GTJ]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

I did not realize that the ferries were having issues.

If my memory is accurate--I think it is--until not long ago there were three vessels operating between Skagway and Bellingham, each on weekly cycles, a fourth vessel operating between Skagway and Prince Rupert on a twice-weekly cycle, plus the cross-gulf vessel operating between Kodiak and Bellingham on a fortnightly cycle. Thus, in each direction there were, on average 5-1/2 trips per week. As to the Prince Rupert vessel, all of the trips--two round-trips weekly--operated between Prince Rupert and Juneau, but only one round-trip continued north of Juneau to Skagway (because the sailing time to Skagway would be long for both round-trips to be completed within a single week). Thus, north of Juneau there were only, on average, 4 trips per week by these mainline vessels. However, the Alaska Marine Highway operates additional day boats between Juneau and Skagway (on average, these day boats operate 3-1/2 trips per week), so with the mainlines and the day boats combined, there had been even more service north of Juneau compared to the rest of the mainline. Now, however, we've decreased from those 5-1/2 trips per week to 1-1/2 trips per week . . . a 73 percent reduction in service!

[Northern Aurora]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

 

I did not realize that the ferries were having issues.  That is a shame.  They were fun to "cruise" on.

 

DON

 

Our current governor, who is running for re-election and has faced a recall petition, has indicated multiple times that he wants to close the Marine Highway System and totally privatize the system.  He proposed in June 2018 to totally eliminate all funding of the Alaska Marine Highway effective as of October 1, 2018.

[donaldsc]

10 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

Our current governor, who is running for re-election and has faced a recall petition, has indicated multiple times that he wants to close the Marine Highway System and totally privatize the system.  He proposed in June 2018 to totally eliminate all funding of the Alaska Marine Highway effective as of October 1, 2018.

 

So he will continue to spend state funds to maintain land roads so people who do not live in isolated places can get from place to place.  However he does not want to spend state money so that people who live in isolated communities can have the same services.  Do I have it right?  That could end up killing some of the smaller isolated towns.

 

DON