Alaska 2006: The Who, Where, and How (Much) of Sailing the 49th State

When it snows, as it has recently here in the Northeast, some people's thoughts turn to the warm Caribbean while others -- those "in the moment" types of which I'm one -- get in the spirit and start planning trips to the frozen north.

We're not alone. With the start of Alaska's summer cruise season less than three months away, the cruise lines are gearing up, and they expect it to be a big one. All told, the major mainstream lines will be fielding 25 ships in the region, with more than a dozen luxury and niche vessels rounding out travelers' options. Holland America, long one of the leading cruise lines in the 49th state, leads with eight ships, followed by Princess with seven; Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Norwegian Cruise Line with three apiece; and Carnival with one.

Ships, We Got Ships

This summer, Holland America (tel. 877/724-5425; www.hollandamerica.com) is nearly doubling the number of Alaska-bound sailings from its home city of Seattle, offering 61 departures aboard the 1,432-passenger Zaandam and the 1,848-passenger sister ships Oosterdam and Westerdam. Over the past few years Seattle has become a rival to Vancouver as an Alaska cruise hub, with nine big ships in residence for 2006. While cruises from Seattle tend to be round-trip, sailing a loop through Alaska's Inside Passage before heading home, trips from Vancouver tend to sail open-jawed, taking in the Inside Passage and Gulf of Alaska en route north to one of the ports serving Anchorage. The following week's itinerary then sails southbound.

This year, Princess (tel. 800/774-6237; www.princess.com) is leading all other lines on the Gulf of Alaska route, with 71 trips aboard the 2,670-passenger sisters Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess and the 1,970-passenger sisters Coral Princess and Island Princess -- four of the prettiest and best-designed megaships out there.

All of Princess's Gulf trips begin or end at the port of Whittier, an odd little town located on the northern waters of Prince William Sound. The port is a boon to passengers who have booked pre- or post-cruise tours, allowing them to board a train straight to Denali National Park. Other mainstream cruise lines dock in the town of Seward on the southeast coast of the Kenai Peninsula, a 125-mile bus ride from Anchorage, the jumping-off point for Denali and the Interior. Nothing wrong with Alaska's largest city, but there's something to be said for getting right out into the heartland.

New Port Makes Good

While Inside Passage and Gulf cruises long ago settled into their familiar shape -- with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway supplemented by sailing time in natural areas like Glacier Bay, Tracy Arm, Yakutat Bay, and/or College Fjord -- even the mainstream lines sometimes offer variations.

Opened for ships in 2004, Icy Strait Point (www.icystraitpoint.com) is now a stop on many Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and Princess cruises. Centered around a restored 1930s salmon cannery owned and managed by Tlingit Indians from the nearby village of Hoonah, the site offers a dozen culture- and nature-related excursions including bear and whale watching, salmon fishing, a Tlingit cultural performance, and flightseeing over nearby Glacier Bay.

Going Small

For off-the-beaten-path itineraries, check out the small-ship lines, whose vessels typically carry fewer than 100 passengers.

Family-owned Cruise West (tel. 800/426-7702; www.cruisewest.com) is the country's biggest small-ship operator, with eight ships plying Alaska's waters this summer. Some itineraries are similar to the mainstream lines, but there are also 8-night trips that avoid the major ports in favor of small towns and wild areas; 5-night "daylight yacht tours" that sail to beautiful areas by day and deposit you in small-town hotels at night; and expeditionary 13-night trips that sail northwest Alaska's rugged coast and islands, cross the Arctic Circle and the Bering Sea, and visit native peoples on Siberia's stark Chukchi Peninsula.

Small-ship competitor Clipper Cruise Line (tel. 800/325-0010; www.clippercruise.com) offers a similar 14-night Alaska/Russia journey that takes in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, a more wooded region that's also home to more than 300 volcanoes.

Going Luxe

For sailing Alaska in luxury, you have two choices this year: the 382-passenger Silver Shadow of Silversea Cruises (tel. 877/215-9986; www.silversea.com) and the 700-passenger Seven Seas Mariner of Radisson Seven Seas (tel. 800/285-1835; www.rssc.com), which announced just this week that it's changing its name to Regent Seven Seas.

Silver Shadow will sail 11 Alaska voyages between late May and early September, including a 14-day Bering Sea voyage from Tokyo to Anchorage, 9- and 10-day Inside Passage trips from Vancouver, and a 12-day round-trip from San Francisco.

Seven Seas Mariner offers 18 Alaska cruises, most of them 7-night trips between Vancouver and Whittier.

What's It All Cost?

As for price, mainstream Alaska cruises are currently starting from a rock-bottom base of about $750 per person, per week, with balcony cabins starting around $1,250. Small ships run up larger bills, with 8-night Cruise West cruises starting around $3,800 -- about the same as Radisson's luxury cruises. Nine-night Silversea cruises start around $4,900, while Cruise West and Clipper's Bering Sea expeditions beat all for cost, at $8,340 and $6,950, respectively.

Extending Your Trip with a Cruisetour

To help travelers see the mountains, ice, tundra, and taiga of the Alaskan interior, cruise lines offer combination land/sea packages called cruisetours. The most traveled route covers a large swath of Southcentral and Interior Alaska, from Anchorage to Denali National Park to Fairbanks. Other tours visit Kenai Fjords National Park (south of Anchorage), Wrangell¿St. Elias National Park (east of Anchorage), Canada's Yukon Territory, the Canadian Rockies, and even the farthest reaches of northern Alaska at Prudhoe Bay, mile one of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Due to the northerly latitudes, summer days along all these routes can last sixteen to twenty hours, offering plenty of light in which to take in the scenery.

Among the lines offering cruisetours, Holland America, Princess, and sister-lines Royal Caribbean (tel. 800/398-9819; www.royalcaribbean.com) and Celebrity Cruises (tel. 800/437-3111; www.celebrity.com) have the clear edge in scope and infrastructure. All employ their own tour guides, own their own fleets of comfortable buses, and operate private domed railcars that are hitched up to the Alaska Railroad for the run between Anchorage and Denali, and sometimes Denali and Fairbanks. Princess owns its own string of backcountry lodges. Holland America puts up guests in its owns Westmark hotels as well as using McKinley Chalets at Denali and other properties around the state. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity partner with other hotel/lodge operators for accommodations.

Some of the lines are stronger on particular routes than others.

The classic Alaska cruisetour -- and the one offered more than any other by the four lines -- is the Anchorage/Denali/Fairbanks route. If you're doing your cruise first, you'll embark in Vancouver for a seven-night Inside Passage cruise, probably visiting the towns of Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway (or maybe Haines and Icy Strait Point) plus natural highlights like Glacier Bay, Tracy Arm Fjord, Hubbard Glacier, and/or College Fjord. Passengers sailing with Holland America and Royal Caribbean/Celebrity dock in Seward and are bused to Anchorage for a night's stay, but, as noted above, Princess transfers passengers directly onto their McKinley Express domed train cars at Whittier, thus bypassing Anchorage on the way north.

Most tours include two days in and around the Denali park, with cruisetour guests exploring via the 90-mile semi-paved park road, the only option for vehicular sightseeing. Despite the road and the regular human visitors, Denali's ecosystem is surprisingly intact and abundant with wildlife, which you can often see from your windows. Travelers stay in one of several lodges close to the park entrance. As part of Princess's "Direct to the Wilderness" rail service, guests step off the train from Whittier in the beautiful town of Talkeetna, where the line's own Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge offers great views of the park's namesake mountain -- as long as the weather gods cooperate. Denali (aka Mt. McKinley) is North America's highest peak at 20,320 feet, and is frequently wreathed in mist. Princess guests stay a second night at another Princess-owned lodge near the park entrance.

From Denali, most tours travel north to Fairbanks, a city that's not much to look at by itself but whose outlying areas offer riverboat cruises on the Chena and Tanana rivers, excursions to gold mines and dredges, and opportunities to meet Iditarod sled-dog racers.

Prices for Anchorage/Denali/Fairbanks cruisetours tend to start around $1,400-$1,500 for 10 nights.

Both Princess and Holland America offer extended 14-night versions of this tour that includes a flight to Prudhoe Bay and then a long drive down the Dawson Highway to Coldfoot and Fairbanks. Fares hover around $2,300. Holland America and Royal Caribbean/Celebrity offer some tours that include a stay at the gorgeous Alyeska Resort outside Anchorage. Fares start around $1,400 for the nine-night option, $1,900 for the thirteen-night.

Holland America is the 800-pound subarctic gorilla in the Yukon cruisetour market. Most of its many options include a 3- or 4-night cruise from Vancouver terminating in Skagway, where you travel by bus to Whitehorse (capital of the Yukon) and Dawson City, a historic Canadian gold rush town. From Dawson, the large Yukon Queen II catamaran takes you down the Yukon River to the Native village of Eagle and Tok, a town whose name was shortened from Tokyo Camp when WWII made the Japanese unpopular in these parts. From there it's on to Fairbanks, Denali, and finally Anchorage. Longer tours add a visit to Canada's Kluane National Park, home to Mt. Logan, the second tallest peak in North America. A variation on this tour substitutes the settlement of Beaver Creek for Whitehorse and Dawson. Prices start around $1,850 for eleven nights. Princess offers a 15-night Yukon route that starts/finishes in Whittier and Fairbanks, swapping Whitehorse and Tok for two nights at Wrangell¿St. Elias National Park (see below). Prices start around $2,450.

Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity all offer a different region of Canada on their Canadian Rockies tours, which begin in Calgary and make their way to Banff, Lake Louise (with overnights at the famous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise), Kamloops, Yoho National Park, and sometimes Jasper. A seven-night cruise north to Anchorage follows. Travel is by rail and bus, and prices start from around $2,450 for eleven nights. A shorter variation offered by Royal Caribbean and Celebrity takes guests to the resort town of Whistler for two nights, followed by a night in Vancouver and a seven-night cruise. Rates start from $1,720.

Two other lesser-known cruisetours round out your options.

The Kenai Peninsula, located just across a narrow channel from Anchorage, has long been known as the city's natural playground, packed with opportunities for fishing, hiking, sightseeing, kayaking, and wildlife-watching. Princess's Kenai option is actually a two-night add-on to a regular Denali-Fairbanks route, with prices starting from $1,400. Holland America's is a dedicated 13-night Kenai-centric trip, with nights spent in funky Homer, Cooper Landing, and Anchorage either before or after your seven-night cruise. Expect prices starting from $1,550.

Like its Kenai trip, Princess's Copper River cruisetours include a visit to Denali along with three nights in and around Wrangell¿St. Elias, America's largest national park. The trip includes a seven-night cruise, a catamaran crossing of Prince William Sound from Whittier to Valdez, and accommodation at Princess's Copper River Wilderness Lodge. Prices start from $1,650 for twelve nights.

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