Alaska Cruise

What is considered the best time of year to take a cruise to Alaska and what ports are key to visit?

That can be subjective based on each traveler. If you are looking for predictable weather patterns, the typical cruise season is rather limited to begin with - generally May to September. Clearly mid season would be the warmest on average, but there may be seasonal times with more or less rain. A search on historical weather patterns would probably be of value. IMO the "best" time would be a balance of when it is historically warmest and with the least chance of rain.

As far as ports of call are concerned, most of the major lines hit most of the more popular ports such as Ketchican, Juneau, Skagway, Seward, etc. The highlight IMO would be a visit to the Hubbard glacier. You also need to consider whether you would prefer (base on flights, intinerary, etc.) a southern or northern route as most Alaska cruises depart and end in different ports and are not closed loop in that regard that would start and end at the same port.

You can only cruise Alaska May through September. In early May, the ice bergs may not have melted enough to allow transit of Glacier Bay. To me, the best part of an Alaskan cruise is the day cruising in Glacier Bay. Typically the ports you want to see are: Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway and anything else is great. If you can do a land portion to Denali, that would be awesome as well. The other thing to consider is that in May through August, the sun is up 16 - 24 hours a day so, if that affects your ability to sleep, taking an Alaska cruise in September might make more sense for you. As we all know, exterior cruise ship cabins are not blacked out that well. If you had an interior it would not matter as much. Or you could use a sleep mask.

This is JMO, but I prefer to sail from Vancouver instead of Seattle and if I had my choice, I'd do a one-way with a land portion - in other words the cruise plus land tour offered by many companies. We've been up to Alaska twice in September. The thing to know is that the seas going up or coming back may be rough. Both times we used Trans Derm Scops for the transit and were fine, although they make your mouth dry and vision a bit blurry - it was better than being horribly seasick - which was the case for most of the passengers and even some crew. On those nights, the shows were cancelled (not that there were many who could have attended anyway) and the ship was rocking and rolling. We were glad to have a midship balcony in both cases as that got the least movement. Once we were up in Alaska, everything calmed down.

The other thing to know about September Alaska cruises is that because it is the end of the cruise season, especially if you are cruising the very last week of the season, the shops have a lot more sales than normal because they are wanting to make a last minute profit since there will not be any more tourists until the following May.

What is considered the best time of year to take a cruise to Alaska and what ports are key to visit?

That's a pretty loaded question. I agree with everything leaveitallbehind said. To add a little to it, someone once told me the best time to cruise Alaska is the months the cruises are most expensive. I guess that makes sense. That's usually mid June to late July.

As for my recommended don't misses......Glacier Bay is a great cruising day. For ports, my favorites are the less populated ones like Skagway, Hoonah (Icy Strait Point), and Sitka. MY favorite itinerary was a one-way cruise between Seward and Vancouver. I enjoyed that itinerary better than the round trip I took out of Vancouver.

What is considered the best time of year to take a cruise to Alaska and what ports are key to visit?

Thank you friends.. you replies have been helpful.

We've gone early September. Kids are back in school, shops are ready to close for the season and bargains can be found. Plants and flowers are huge and beautiful. As far as what ports to visit.....check out an Alaska tour book and decide based on what's most important for you to see.

June, July and August are the best time. Glacier Bay is the must see

Perhaps seeing pictures will help you made a choice. My wife takes pictures on all of our vacations and makes them into slide shows for her website. You can view our two previous Alaska cruises at the links below.

Alaska is amazing. Happy cruising!

>SNIP<

In early May, the ice bergs may not have melted enough to allow transit of Glacier Bay. >SNIP<

 

I've seen you say this a few times and I think you might be confused. Sometimes Tracy Arm is inaccessible because of ice early in the season, but I've never heard of Glacier Bay not being accessible. Can you provide a link to where you read this or heard this please?

PapaD:

Definitely have a good read through on the Alaska forum here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

Loads of information and very knowledgeable posters.

PapaD:

 

Definitely have a good read through on the Alaska forum here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

 

Loads of information and very knowledgeable posters.

CowPrincess - Thank you!

June, July and August are the best time. Glacier Bay is the must see

These are also the most expensive months. You can save a boat load (pun intended) of cash and see the same things (with less kids) in September. :D