The $699 Alaska cruise is not the trip you are picturing.
Mike plans Alaska cruises and cruisetours from Grain Valley, Missouri. Glacier Bay permits, the right ship for how you actually travel, and honest numbers instead of a headline fare that leaves out the flight to Seattle.
Call Mike at 660-672-9636 or email mike@adventuresbymj.travel.
Who this is for
You want to be on deck when a glacier calves, and you would like someone to have checked that your ship actually has a Glacier Bay permit before you paid for it. You are fine with rain. You would rather watch a humpback from a small boat out of Juneau than shop for jade two blocks from the pier.
A seven-day Alaska cruise runs roughly $2,500 to $4,500 per person once you count the fare, the flights into Seattle or Vancouver, excursions and onboard extras. Inside cabin fares land around $700 to $1,200. Balcony fares run $1,400 to $2,500. Small-ship and luxury sailings start near $4,000 and climb from there.
The $699 headline you have seen is a fare, not a trip. It leaves out taxes, port fees, excursions, gratuities, Wi-Fi and the airfare that gets you to the ship. Here is the full cost breakdown.
The lines Mike books, and who each one suits
Princess for most first-timers. More Alaska sailings than any other major line, Glacier Bay access, and land packages that connect your cruise to Denali.
Holland America for the quieter version of the same week. Naturalist-forward programming, and the only other major line with consistent Glacier Bay access.
Norwegian for families and for anyone who does not want to be told where to be at eight. Freestyle dining, more flexibility.
Royal Caribbean for the big-ship week. The most onboard activity by a distance, though the naturalist programming is lighter than Princess or Holland America.
Celebrity for couples who want genuinely good food and a modern ship without crossing into luxury pricing. The longer comparison is here.
Glacier Bay is the part to get right
Glacier Bay National Park caps how many ships enter per day, and those permits sit with specific lines on specific itineraries. Two sailings that look identical on a booking site can differ by whether one of them goes into the bay at all. Hubbard Glacier and Endicott Arm are both worth the trip, and neither one is Glacier Bay.
On the ports: Juneau has the best variety, Skagway and Ketchikan and Sitka each have their week, and any of them can feel commercial if you walk off the ship without a plan. The port-by-port guide is here.
When to go
May through September is the season. June and July give you the best weather, the most active wildlife and more than twenty hours of daylight. May and September mean fewer crowds and lower prices, with a real trade on weather that Mike will be honest with you about. More on timing here.
What Mike does that the booking engine does not
- Check the Glacier Bay permit before recommending a sailing, rather than after you have paid a deposit.
- Tell you when the balcony is worth it. On an Alaska sailing it usually is, and he will say so plainly.
- Book Juneau whale watching with a small operator instead of the two-hundred-person boat when the timing allows.
- Fly you in a day early. Sprinting through Seattle in June is not how you want the trip to start.
- Say when a cruisetour with a Denali land segment serves you better than seven nights at sea.
We have done this one ourselves
Ziplining at Icy Strait Point was every bit as good as it looks. Flying above the trees with the Alaskan wilderness underneath was one of those things that made us laugh, scream and immediately want to go again. That is the difference between an excursion someone sold you and one someone has actually done.
Start here
Send Mike the month you can travel and who is coming. He will come back with two or three sailings side by side, tell you which ones have Glacier Bay, and tell you which one he would book for his own family.
Call 660-672-9636, email mike@adventuresbymj.travel, or use the contact form.