Best time to visit Alaska

[cruiser man 60]

We’ve never been to Alaska but hoping to go in next 2 years and tie it it in with Canada land tours. Can people advise best time of year to see wildlife both at sea eg Whales etc & on land bears etc.

We are from UK so lot of planning & costs so want to pick correct time of year for best experience.

thanks 

[CruiserBruce]

Come over to the Alaska board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/33-alaska/

 

Lots of info there.

[rj59]

Best time is early June. It has the longest days, and half the amount of rain as late August and September. It also has the lowest prices and the least amount of kids, since most are still in school. July is peak travel, so ports and ships are packed, and with ship limits in Juneau and possibly other cities coming up, you might not get to visit a port if it's too full of ships. My secret recommendation is Zaandam out of Vancouver, which only has 1400 passengers, has had the lowest prices, is easy to maneuver in narrow passages in Alaska, and the smaller crowd means few lines at dinner or getting on and off the ship. I was on it 3 weeks ago, and there were lots of Brits and Aussies. You get a more scenic and calmer trip out of Vancouver, since the ships go to the east of Vancouver Island, instead of the open ocean, which had a storm with 5-meter waves on our way back, but our small ship maneuvered through inside channels with beautiful scenery to avoid the storm. 

[Crew News]

6 hours ago, cruiser man 60 said:

We’ve never been to Alaska but hoping to go in next 2 years and tie it it in with Canada land tours. Can people advise best time of year to see wildlife both at sea eg Whales etc & on land bears etc.

We are from UK so lot of planning & costs so want to pick correct time of year for best experience.

thanks 

May is the month with the least rain.

 

Bears are most visible during salmon season which begins in July.  Seeing whales at sea is rare and would require you to spend hours standing at the ship railings each day.  Whales gather in their favorite feeding grounds in Juneau and Icy Strait Point making spotting them nearly 100% every day from May - September on excursions.

 

Juneau

 

Icy Strait Point

Edited June 25 by Crew News

[mwj]

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/the-best-time-to-cruise-alaska-a-month-by-month-guide

[Ray4Fun]

We have been there twice.

 

First Mid July. Wore Long underwear, under the Polartec , under the Goretex. Along with Gloves Hat and scarf. Yes Cold and wet. Yet they kept telling us the week before was 80 degrees and sunny. Lots of people,

 

The Second time we went early April. Trans-Pacific cruise. I was a balmy 60-70. Mostly Sunny. Zip crowds. 

 

Reality is Alaska is a fickle lady. 

 

Crowds will be there during the summer months. 

[nw gardener]

Highly recommend cruising out of Vancouver as opposed to Seattle due to the inside passage.  We also prefer June,  longest daylight,  sometimes drier 😉,  and slightly cheaper earlier in June.  HOWEVER,  take into consideration that both Seattle and Vancouver are hosting the world cup in June 2026. Which means hotels booking far in advance,  airfare will be higher, and far more crowds. We will avoid cruising to AK June 2026.

[Ken the cruiser]

We just got back from a 22-day Alaska B3B on the Grand starting April 30 and had an awesome time. See my below Live From thread in my expanded signature area for what was going on there during the first 3 weeks in May starting at page 4. 

[JeffElizabeth]

We have always liked September for end of the season.  Less crowded towns. Often great deals in the shops. Denali was awesome.  Saw it all three days. 

[Dancing Shoes]

Our last two Alaska cruises have been in August.  First one was 2018/sunny every day, yes.  Second one, 2021 rain one day in Juneau.  I think next time will be June. My friend got back from a land tour to Danali and had nice weather and saw the mountain multiple days!

[CruiserBruce]

13 minutes ago, Dancing Shoes said:

Our last two Alaska cruises have been in August.  First one was 2018/sunny every day, yes.  Second one, 2021 rain one day in Juneau.  I think next time will be June. My friend got back from a land tour to Danali and had nice weather and saw the mountain multiple days!

If you go to Denali any later, you run the risk of smoke obstructing your view of Denali. 

[XBGuy]

@cruiser man 60, we have taken six Alaska cruises.  Most of them have been early in the season or late in the season.  One (our first) was in August.

 

Mrs, XBGuy is always on the lookout for wildlife—especially, whales.  We have seen whales from the ship on every one of our AK cruises.  Most sightings are a bit distant, but whales do appear quite close to the ship relatively often.  We have taken two cruises that embarked the last week of April.  That early in the season many migrating whales have not, yet, reached Alaska.  So, understandably, those cruises had fewer sightings.   On one of those early season cruises we took in a flightseeing excursion in Ketchikan.  While in the air the pilot pointed out three whales swimming below us.  That was pretty cool.

 

Seeing bears from the ship is much more rare.  We have never seen bears from the ship.  There are excursions from various ports that will increase your chance of viewing bears.  We did a great one at Icy Strait Point.  On our very first cruise the ship’s naturalist stated that one guaranteed way to see bears at any port was to find your way to the local dump at about 5:00 pm.  We’ve never tried it.

 

Other wildlife that we can usually spot from the ship includes eagles, dolphins, otters (another favorite of Mrs. XBGuy), and seals.  Late in the season, you will see salmon in the creeks in Ketchikan and Skagway.

 

We are prepared for rain on any Alaska cruise.  The only cruise in which we did not encounter rain was one during the last two weeks of September.  The biggest storm we have ever experienced on any cruise was on the August one in the Gulf of Alaska.  That was actually pretty neat.

 

You are going to have a great cruise @cruiser man 60.  I am envious.

[lyndarra]

I have cruised Alaska in June (2023), August and September. I think June was the best as there was still a lot of snow on peaks. Only had one rainy day in June and one rainy and very windy day in Juneau (August) - so windy that all flights were cancelled, fixed wing and choppers.

Pic is Skagway in June.