The first day of my summer cruise from Vancouver through the Inside Passage to Alaska is all about nature. At a distance.
Tucked up snugly in a tartan wool blanket on a white plastic lounge chair, I watch, through glass walls that protect me from chilly breezes, while the spanking new Celebrity Infinity, a 91,000-ton, 1,950-passenger ship, makes its stately way north. We glide through channels so narrow, with mountains rising at a near vertical from the water's edge, that I hold my breath, wondering how the ship manages to scrape through.
The best thing about cruising the Inside Passage – particularly if your itinerary, like mine, starts out with a "sea day" – is the absolute justification for relaxing, near-comatose, all day long. All you have to do is keep your eyes open for the scenery, which is spectacular: rain forests, waterfalls, whales, fish acrobatics, bald eagles, sea lions, fiords, brown bears, evergreen-covered hillsides and, later, snow- and ice-sheathed mountains and truly awesome glaciers. Along the way, a naturalist perched on the bridge points out the passing wonders; her commentary is broadcast throughout the ship's public areas. It's like watching the Discovery Channel at 20 mph.
Ah, Alaska, the ultimate chill-out cruise for the sedentary. Or is it?
On my lap is a list of shore excursions offered by the ship in the upcoming ports of Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. There are two-mile glacier hikes, where you are outfitted with climbing boots, a harness and an ice ax. Sea kayaking around the remote Tatoosh Islands and the Tongass National Forest. Rain-forest hiking. Mountain bike rides and uphill hiking along Gold Rush trails. Sport-fishing. Wilderness safaris. Dog sledding. The menu of shore excursions reads like an exercise in derring-do.
If you've dismissed Alaska cruises as being targeted to the proverbial "newly wed and nearly dead," you're in for a surprise.
Alaska as a cruise destination is in the midst of a demographic transformation. Take, for example, Pauline Hoff of Moraga, Calif., who last summer took her seventh voyage up the Inside Passage. On her last trip, aboard Crystal Harmony, the grandmother of five took her family, all 12 of them. Their first reaction to her invitation was, she says, "Ugh, a cruise ship." Now, she says, "they're begging to go again."
Much of the appeal, Hoff says, lies in the increasingly adventurous shore excursions offered by the cruise lines. In fact, the thrill of ice-picking her way along a glacier, riding in a dog sled and hiking up the Chilkoot trail is precisely what keeps her coming back.
Clearly, Alaska's not just for geezers anymore. While no official demographic studies exist, cruise line executives from Radisson Seven Seas' Andrew Poulton to Princess Cruises' Dean Brown say the audience for this itinerary, which had for years consisted primarily of passengers 60 and above, is now quite diverse. That's why, Brown says, today's shore excursions tilt much more toward natural discovery and adventure activities. "Travelers aren't going to wait until they are 70 to go see Alaska anymore. They're going to do it now."
Alaska is hot. Last year, three major lines – Carnival, Celebrity and Radisson Seven Seas – assigned new vessels to sail this itinerary. Their more sophisticated facilities and amenities – upgraded children's play centers, more veranda cabins, boutique restaurants – appeal to the baby boomer crowd cruise lines want to attract.
And interest in America's "last frontier" is on an upswing. In the post-Sept. 11 era, when travelers have made it clear that they want to stay closer to home, Alaska offers an exotic yet reassuring experience. Cruise lines have reacted accordingly: The majors – Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean – have all taken a ship out of Europe and put it in Alaska. Even upscale Seabourn, which hasn't offered the Inside Passage for years, scrambled to add Alaska to its 2002 summer roster.
For a first-time Alaska visitor, the itinerary doesn't disappoint. Long a marine highway for ferries that transport locals from town to town and for cargo ships hauling food and supplies to otherwise impossible-to-reach places, the Inside Passage provides an intimate glimpse of the state's natural wonders – both close-up and at a distance.
Glacier Adventure
Juneau, the capital and our first port of call, is cut off from other parts of Alaska because its roads all dead-end at impassible mountains and glaciers, including the mammoth ice field known as Mendenhall Glacier. After our ship docks downtown, my mother, my traveling companion on this trip, and I manage to hoist ourselves off our deck chairs to take a helicopter glacier ride – one of the "must-do's" recommended for first-timers on an Inside Passage cruise.
The two-hour adventure involves a scenic chopper ride over snow-topped mountain ranges to a glacier that you explore on foot – while wearing special boots with Gore-Tex soles to prevent your feet from freezing. I'm a little worried about Mom, who's not as steady on her feet as she used to be, but she gamely dons the boots, listens to the safety lecture and clambers onto the tiny chopper – six people max – just fine.
In the 30 minutes we're given to explore the ice field, we learn that Mendenhall, which resembles a frozen river because it winds and curves along sheltering mountain ranges, measures 12 miles long and 1½ miles wide. It is receding at the equivalent of 12 Olympic-size pools per day.
The silence is interrupted only by the sound of the wind and exclamations like "Awesome!" and "Majestic!" from the passengers. This is, indeed, a unique experience. The ice, in parts, is the color of a blue snow cone. Gray bits are the remnants of gravel that got caught up in the ice as it slid over the mountains. Here and there, rivulets of melting ice run through miniature canals carved by their warmth. We lie down on the ice and sip from it.
The Outdoor Scene
No outdoorswoman, I chose my Alaska cruise more for the style of the ship and its fancy accouterments – plush cabaret theater, Milanese coffee bar, spa with Thalassotherapy pool – than on what I would see outside it. But after Mendenhall, my mother and I are transformed. We see things differently. Our cruise ship, nice as it is, has become irrelevant. We're hooked on this wild place – its nature, its history, its disregard for man and his foibles.
In other cruise regions – the Caribbean comes to mind – where the scenery tends toward the unvarying sea-'n'-sky, the focus of shipboard life is directed inward. Not so in Alaska; a trip along the Inside Passage is all about the landscape. On Celebrity's Infinity, the view is all-important. Decks are wide, with lounge chairs facing outward instead of pool-ward. Glassed-in deck space protects passengers from weather (even in summer, Alaska is all about weather). There's even a glass-walled bank of elevators.
Another difference between Alaska and other popular multi-generational destinations like the Caribbean is that cruise lines visiting Alaska make a greater effort to integrate the destination into the voyage. There is an emphasis on providing an educational component. Most ships supply a running commentary by naturalists, who report from the captain's bridge on the scenic wonders or the occasional humpback whale sighting.
On nearly every Alaskan itinerary, passengers spend a morning or an afternoon anchored in a glacial bay so they can watch the ice calve. On Infinity, we get our chance to mingle with locals that day, even as we float around the bay, never docking. While anchored in Yakutat Bay – and it's amazing that, with all the ice shards and icebergs, the captain can pull this huge ship to within two-thirds of a mile of the glacier – we can see the six-mile-wide, 300-foot-high face of Hubbard Glacier with perfect clarity.
Every couple of minutes, chunks of ice as big as a Bill Gates's mansion peel off the glacier, sounding like the crack of a baseball hitting a bat, and then shatter on impact with the bay's surface. Providing commentary is David Ramos, a member of the Tlingit tribe who lives in the town of Yakutat. Sitting nearby are his teenage kids. Son D.J. and daughter Melody are dressed in native garb, complete with feather headdresses, waiting for Dad to finish talking so they can wander through the ship, chatting informally with passengers.
For 18-year-old D.J., slouching on the floor in a corner of the bridge looking bored, this is his summer job. The worst thing about it, he says, grinning, is "when people ask us if we still live in igloos." (They don't.) Most common question, he says: "How often do you wear your native costume?"
"You mean besides coming on cruise ships?" he asks, laughing. "Never."
The costume is getting quite a workout this summer. With David's commentary complete, D.J. follows his father and sister out into Infinity's public rooms for what will be a busy day – this ship is the first of three that will come today.
Cruising Trend
With 22 ships plying the Inside Passage during the five-month Alaska season (May through September), cruise line executives estimate that more than 600,000 cruisers visited last year – approximately triple the number of passengers who visited in 1990. That number will increase, they say, as cruise lines continue the trend of bringing bigger ships with higher passenger capacities; this year, Princess's 2,600-passenger Star Princess, a vessel whose 109,000 tons means it is too big to pass through the Panama Canal, will sail Alaskan itineraries.
But despite the obvious economic benefits bestowed upon Alaska by cruise passengers' dollars, many locals – from politicians to park rangers to residents – are concerned about the negative effects of rampant tourism.
On many days during cruise season, as many as seven ships, each carrying an average of 1,600 people, are docked in Juneau, population 30,000. Skagway's 825 year-round residents are even more swamped when ships are in town.
This causes problems. Roads are clogged with tour buses, and the air hums with the near-constant overhead buzz of floatplanes and helicopters taking tourists on "flight-seeing" trips. In a region known for the beauty of its natural setting, pollution is a huge issue, affecting land, sea, sky and wildlife. Restrictions against waste disposal and smoky emissions are stricter here than anywhere in the world. Alaska has the authority to inspect ships, regulate pollution and penalize violators.
In addition, cruise lines can be assessed $1-per-passenger fees, which the state uses to fund environmental needs. On a local level, Juneau is now charging cruise lines an additional $5-per-person fee. But an announcement by lawmakers in Haines, a town 80 miles north of Juneau, that would limit the number of cruise ships backfired when Royal Caribbean and Celebrity dropped it as a port of call.
For its part, the cruise industry is interested in maintaining Alaska's natural environment, even if the commitment has to a lot do with self-interest. "What's unique about Alaska for cruising – unlike Florida, where you're only sailing in state waters to turn around – is that you are in state waters for much of the time," says Princess's Brown. "These restrictions are proper, and protecting the environment is the right thing to do."
It's not just talk. Ships from Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Celebrity have been outfitted with gas turbine engines, which limit smokestack pollution. Princess, with help from environmentalists in Juneau, designed a cruise dock that allows its ships to plug into electric power when in port – so it can turn off its engines altogether.
Yet, despite tighter restrictions, accidents still happen. Last year, the 2,002-passenger Norwegian Sky was found to have trailed a half-mile-long stream of waste through the Inside Passage. Rhapsody of the Seas accidentally discharged some 200 gallons of laundry wastewater. It was thought – though never proven – that a cruise ship was responsible for a collision with a pregnant humpback whale, an endangered species, that instantly killed the mammal near Glacier Bay.
Inside Passage Jam
Having been warned that the proliferation of cruise ships was a pervasive problem, I was pleasantly surprised to see few ships as we traveled through the Inside Passage. Ships that cruise along the Inside Passage, which varies from wide to barely navigable in places, are tightly choreographed and must adhere to strict schedules.
On our last day "at sea," we traveled south, toward Vancouver, in a wide stretch of channel. Celebrity's sister ship Mercury, at least a thousand feet east of us, was also sailing in a southerly direction. Suddenly, Carnival Spirit came chugging up the channel from the south, headed for the expanse between us. When it passed, it created the illusion of an eclipse-at-sea, obliterating the view of the smaller Mercury for a few minutes. There were more people hanging over the rail watching that spectacle than those who, at the same moment, were watching a humpback whale perform acrobatics on the starboard side.
Carolyn Spencer Brown is a California-based freelance writer.
DETAILS: Cruising Alaska
Alaska's Inside Passage, the world's longest sheltered inland waterway, extends for almost 1,000 miles from Bellingham, Wash., to Skagway, Alaska. Most of the big mass-market cruise lines, such as Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, Princess and Royal Caribbean, sail this route.
On the luxury end, there are fewer players; this season, the choice is between the 940-passenger Crystal Harmony and the 490-passenger Radisson Seven Seas Navigator. Crystal is the only line to offer a 12-day round-trip itinerary from San Francisco; most of Radisson's voyages are of the seven-day variety.
Cruise West is the biggest player among small, more destination-oriented cruise lines; it largely dominates the Alaskan scene in its category.
ITINERARIES: Mass-market cruise lines typically offer two varieties: "Inside Passage" and "Gulf of Alaska." Both last seven days and visit, basically, the same roster of ports, mixing and matching between Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Sitka. Both also include a half-day visit to one of Alaska's major glaciers (passengers watch from the rail – this is not a port of call).
The "Inside Passage" voyage departs and returns to the same home port – Vancouver or Seattle – which simplifies the airfare issue. "Gulf of Alaska" is a more challenging itinerary because passengers fly into Anchorage, then take a three-hour bus ride to the port of Seward to begin the cruise. The trip ends in Vancouver (or the reverse). Airfare can be more expensive with this itinerary because travelers are flying into and out of different airports.
Small-ship operators like Cruise West, which had eight of its 100-passenger vessels plying Alaskan waters last summer, have more flexibility because of their smaller size and typically stop at the standard ports, as well as at smaller villages that can't accommodate the bigger ships.
BEYOND THE BASICS: Check into add-on trips into Alaska's interior. While most of the lines offer the option, Princess dominates the infrastructure, owning and operating lodges in Denali National Park, on the Kenai Peninsula and along the Cooper River, among others. These two- to five-day add-ons involve lodge accommodations, meals, a scenic double-decker train ride and transfers to your ship's port of embarkation.
THE SEASON: Cruise season runs from late April to late September, and peak time – when the weather is warmer and less stormy – extends from mid-to-late June through August.
WHAT IT COSTS: Last summer, particularly late in the season, cruise price wars had reached Alaska – with upscale lines like Princess and Holland America selling select cabins on certain voyages for just over $500 per person, based on double occupancy. More typically, plan to pay between $1,200 and $2,000 per person and beyond, depending on stateroom level; that price includes port fees but not airfare. Look for even more competition this year, simply because the lines have more ships – and bigger ones – to fill, since they've pulled some vessels out of the Mediterranean.
My cabinmate and I paid $1,300 each for a tiny cabin with a picture window on Infinity, but we regret that we didn't ante up for a balcony, since so much of our trip was spent running up and down the stairs to the outer decks to check out the wildlife-of-the-moment. We bought our flights separately, paying about $500 round trip from Washington to Vancouver.
Other incidentals:
Tips for on-board staff (cabin stewards, waiters at dinner): about $80 per person.
A la carte expenses on board for such optional features as alternative restaurants.
Hotel stays for the nights before and after your cruise.
Shore excursions. The more unique, the higher the price tag – anything involving helicopters or floatplanes will run you $200 or more. Other adventure-related shore excursions, such as cycling or kayaking, cost in the $75 to $100 range. City tours are the cheapest option (but most cities are so small that all but the most fragile can simply walk around on their own). Plan on saving about 30 percent if you book a shore excursion with a local tour operator.
WHEN TO BOOK: Now's a good time. Cruise lines offer more bargains and freebie upgrades at the beginning of the year. Plus, if you want fast-selling veranda cabins or suites, book as far ahead as possible.
Want a drop-dead bargain? Try for last-minute fares during fringe periods, such as early May and late September. Remember, though, that weather then may prove vexing and could hamper exploration – particularly excursions involving sightseeing by air.
INFORMATION: Probably the best source of information for potential cruisers is www.cruisecritic.com, a well-indexed and easy to navigate site offering cruise news, port profiles, listings of hundreds of ships and itineraries, and active message boards with reader rankings of ships and destinations.
– Carolyn Spencer Brown
Cruising Alaska: The Major Players
Here is a list of cruise lines offering Alaska itineraries this year.
Big Ships
Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Spirit, 800-438-6744, www.carnival.com
Celebrity Cruises' Infinity and Mercury, 800-437-3111, www.celebritycruises.com
Crystal Cruises' Crystal Harmony, 800-820-6663, www.crystalcruises.com
Holland America's Amsterdam, Ryndam, Statendam, Veendam, Volendam and Zaandam, 800-426-0327, www.hollandamerica.com
Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Wind, 800-327-7030, www.ncl.com
Princess Cruises' Dawn Princess, Ocean Princess, Regal Princess, Sea Princess, Star Princess and Sun Princess, 800-774-6237, www.princess.com
Royal Caribbean International's Legend of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas and Vision of the Seas, 800-327-6700, www.royalcaribbean.com
Small Ships
Cruise West (eight ships), 800-580-0072, www.cruisewest.com
Radisson Seven Seas Cruises' Navigator of the Seas, 800-477-7500, www.rssc.com
Seabourn Cruise Line's Seabourn Spirit, 800-929-9391, www.seabourn.com
