Gardyloo

Could you tell us a little something about your plans? How many are you, something about your age(s) and whether there are kids in the group? Also do you have any particular interests, any mobility issues, and whether you’re on a tight budget or could afford middle-tier or more expensive pursuits? Not trying to pry, just hoping to make better suggestions. That said, some things to consider: - Your cruise to SE Alaska and back will expose you to lots of snowy mountains, rain forests, islands, Native American culture and maritime wildlife – marine mammals and birds, eagles, maybe a bear or two, things like that. It’s all pretty terrific, but do you want more of it? The lower BC mainland, Vancouver Island, and the whole area bordering the Salish Sea, the term that includes Puget Sound in Washington as well as all the islands and edges of the Strait of Georgia in Canadian waters. The BC Gulf Islands and the US San Juan Islands are part of the same archipelago. - The Cascade range separates the marine side of the region from a drier inland area with landscapes that include “old west” red rock formations like those in the US Southwest, wide areas of high desert, but also stunning winelands, canyons and gorges carved by great rivers including the Columbia and Fraser, endless orchards of apples, pears, cherries and other produce, Native American or First People’s lands, on and on. These landscapes – utterly different from those to the west of the mountains – are just a couple of hours’ drive from Vancouver, Seattle or Portland. - In June, high elevation areas in the Cascades, like Mount Rainier, will still have snow on the ground, potentially quite deep, covering trails. So far this has been a lighter-than-average year for snowfall, but it’s still deep enough that you’re probably not going to have great access to alpine areas. By the way, the main road to the Mount St. Helens observation area is closed due to unstable soils and is unlikely to reopen until next year at the earliest. So back to your question – what to do with, say, an extra week to play with? Here are some ideas to toss around. - Stay put and enjoy greater Vancouver. There are few places in North America that offer as much variety as Vancouver, with enough in-town and nearby attractions and activities to fill several days – weeks, really. Visit the beautiful gardens in Queen Elizabeth Park or wander through glorious Stanley Park. Visit the Granville Island market, maybe attend a performance at the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare festival, held in tents overlooking the city skyline. Visit Grouse Mountain, the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge (a free alternative to the pricey and touristy Capilano bridge) or visit the incredible Richmond Night Market, a vast collection of Asian food stands, shops and attractions held near the Vancouver airport… on and on. Richmond Night Market (Vancouver, BC) (youtube.com) - Vancouver plus an island or two. You could spend a few days in the city, then catch a ferry from Tsawwassen to one of the Gulf islands like Salt Spring or Galiano. These idyllic islands offer hidden coves, forest hikes, art galleries and farmers markets, whale watching… all sorts of activities in laid-back surroundings. Map - https://maps.app.goo.gl/Sc3zuQZBinTjhmqi8 - Victoria/Olympic National Park loop. This would include a visit to Victoria on Vancouver Island, then a ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Olympic peninsula in Washington, a visit to several sites in Olympic National Park, and a return to Vancouver via beautiful Whidbey Island in Washington. Map - https://maps.app.goo.gl/Dugz6GuprXaU7D6m6 All of these, plus those including Seattle, would basically include seeing many of the same natural environments you’d have seen on the cruise, so if it was me – and of course it’s not – I’d choose a different part of the Northwest altogether. - Columbia River and Mount Hood region. I’d fly from Vancouver to Portland (around $160 one way, cheaper than a rental car) and do a land tour something like that shown on this map. Google the places - https://maps.app.goo.gl/wyL5MyUxDf4cS61Z9 These include the marvelous McMenamins Edgefield hotel/resort complex in Troutdale, just east of Portland’s airport – fabulous – then stopping at numerous waterfalls in the “waterfalls zone” along the Historic Columbia River Highway, one of the most iconic drives in the Pacific Northwest. See (at a minimum) Latourell and Multnomah Falls, stopping en route at the breathtaking vista point at the Portland Women’s Forum (aka Chanticleer Point) viewing area for a panoramic view of the Columbia Gorge. Stay for a couple of nights (or longer) in Hood River, famous for its windsurfing, wineries and breweries. Drive the Hood River “fruit loop” through orchards and vineyards, with Mount Hood looming above everything. Drive to Timberline Lodge on the side of Mount Hood, and if you want, ride the “Magic Mile” chairlift up to the permanent ice fields on the side of the big stratovolcano. (They’ll still be skiing; you don’t have to.) Then visit gorgeous Trillium Lake, and if time permits, continue south a couple of hours to Smith Rock State Park, with its spectacular “old west” rock formations. Return north through sagebrush and dry pine forest to the Columbia at Maryhill. Visit the weird copy of Stonehenge on the clifftops over the great river, then visit the eclectic Maryhill Museum of Art with its fascinating collections including many works by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Maybe visit the nearby (highly rated) Maryhill Vineyards. Then back to Hood River, or back to Portland, or if you have enough time, maybe add a two- or three-day loop out to the Pacific coast to see incredible Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach, or Cape Disappointment State Park, on the Washington side of the (awesome) mouth of the Columbia River. An itinerary like this would expose you to an entirely different sort of Pacific Northwest experience than the one you’d get with a Vancouver- or Seattle-based tour, one that I can’t recommend more highly. I’ll stop for now. Whatever you choose, you’re going to have a terrific time, and, like with Alaska, I daresay you’ll be planning a return trip before you’ve cleared security on the way home.

How many days? A week? More? Can we assume it's a round trip cruise or one way from Seward or Whittier?

Airlines set fares based on very complex and very secret algorithms that constantly monitor factors like pace of sales, the price of competitors' flights, fuel prices, on and on. Trying to outsmart these robots is a fool's errand. Many people think that earlier in the sales window is better, but in fact, sometimes airlines set fares higher in the early days of the booking period in order to hedge against their own costs going up in the 11- or 12-month interim. Fuel costs might spike, labor troubles emerge, whatever, so setting prices high early on gives the airlines a financial cushion. Like I say, sometimes early birds get worms and sometimes they get cats. When you find a fare you can live with, pull the trigger and don't look back. It's easier on the nerves.

Okay, so I'm going - again - to repeat a thought that I seem to post to about half the posts on this board that involve premium cabin travel to Southeast Asia or Australia/NZ from North America. To those that have already heard this spiel, mea culpa. If the OP is one of those who've seen this idea before and have rejected it, apologies and carry on. I keep seeing quotes of fares in the $4000 - $5000 range (or more) for business class round trip or open-jaw flights to Singapore or Bali or both, or to Australia or New Zealand or both. That may be the best one can do given the timing and origin/destination details of the trips, if one is looking at conventional tickets. But many users of this board are serial cruisers, people who travel frequently to far-away places for their cruise holidays, maybe for other (non-cruise) purposes too. For some of those - not all by any means - using special airfare products, in particular round-the-world fares, MIGHT be a method of getting more for your travel dollar/pound/Euro if you want to ride in the pointy end. The key is to see if you can fit multiple destinations into the lifespan (one year) of a RTW ticket, or maybe to develop a "master plan" into which one can stage a couple of years' worth of long-distance travel. The basics: Two of the three big airline alliances, Star Alliance and Oneworld, offer "round the world" tickets that allow up to 16 flights (separate landings and takeoffs) over a period of 12 months from the first flight. You must go around the world, crossing both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the same direction, using member airlines of the alliance through which you bought the ticket, beginning and ending in the same country (with a few exceptions.) The RTW tickets issued by Star Alliance members like Singapore or United Airlines (or Lufthansa, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA and many others) are priced based on (a) how many miles you fly, with several mileage "tiers" from 26,000 to 39,000 flown miles) and (b) on where the travel begins and ends. Those issued by Oneworld members (American, British, Qantas, Japan, Qatar, many others) are priced on (a) how many continents you touch in the course of the trip, from 3 to 6, with no mileage maximum, and (b) also on where travel begins and ends. It's (b) that makes these products attractive for some travelers, because the prices in business class vary hugely depending on from which country the travel begins, not on the nationality or residence of the traveler. I'll give an example using the OP from this thread. A three continent (North America, Europe, Asia) RTW ticket bought through a Oneworld carrier with travel beginning and ending in the USA carries a base price of US$10,426. The same ticket, but with travel beginning and ending in Canada, carries a base price of $7547. If travel begins and ends in Norway, the base price is $4962, less than half the US base price. Star Alliance RTWs tend to me more expensive, often a lot more than their Oneworld counterparts, so I'm going to set that option aside for the time being. Note that "base prices" are before taxes and airline fees that get tacked on. These will vary considerably based on specific countries and airports visited, and on specific airlines used. Generally these amount to between 10% and 20% of the base price. Now even the Norwegian base price - call it $5500 all in - is more than a $4500 round trip from RDU to SIN, not even counting the cost of getting to and from Oslo before and after the trip, i.e. "positioning" flights. But here's where the planning comes in. Let's imagine the following for the Zitsky party. Sometime before the SE Asia cruise departs, they fly from RDU to Oslo. Maybe they go to see the northern lights in Tromsø, above the arctic circle. A one-way ticket in economy in December will cost around $500, although at that time of year redeeming some frequent flyer miles is also usually good value. In Oslo they activate the RTW ticket that they purchased before leaving the US. They board a plane in Oslo - in business class - and fly a couple of hours to Helsinki in Finland, where they board a Qatar Airways 789 with flat-bed seats for a flight to Doha. In Doha they connect to a Qatar A350 with "Q-suites," which many feel is the best business class experience in the world, nonstop to Denpasar. Cruise complete, they fly from Singapore to, say, Tokyo or Hong Kong for a layover or just a plane change, then it's across the Pacific to, say, Dallas or Chicago, thence home to RDU. Now here's where the value MIGHT come in. You're home, having used maybe half a dozen of the 16 available flights included in the RTW ticket, and having used maybe 2 of the 12 months of its validity. You have to be back in Norway before the ticket turns into a pumpkin in December, 2025, but meanwhile you've got the option of using 5 of the remaining flights within North America, which by the way includes the Caribbean and Central America. You've also got three flights remaining available in Europe, which includes the Middle East and Mediterranean Africa. A late winter cruise to the Caribbean or a non-cruise week in Costa Rica or the Bahamas? Or maybe a summertime Alaska cruise out of Vancouver? Maybe both? The ticket would get you there, in business or first class, with nothing else out of pocket. Then maybe sometime in the autumn you return to Scandinavia, or maybe a Mediterranean cruise, or maybe Scotland for the Edinburgh festivals, or to Morocco, or Israel, or Oktoberfest or.... who knows? As long as you end up in Norway before the anniversary of the first flight, you're good. So the $5-$6K you've spent for the ticket has not only got you to Singapore and Bali, but it's also gotten you to Alaska, or the Caribbean, or California, or the Greek Isles, or... And all of it in the front of the plane. You'll also have earned enough frequent flyer miles to ride home in business class once the RTW is over, or maybe you just pop for a new RTW and fly home, to be continued later to Australia, or maybe South America, or to South Africa for a safari. It's a big world with a lot of options. What it requires is something of a multi-year game plan - maybe a bucket list - that you can activate. I'll stop here for now. Again, apologies to anyone who's heard this spiel before. Here's a post on TripAdvisor that covers the basics. It's getting old, but most of the information is still valid. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k7409073-About_round_the_world_RTW_tickets-Air_Travel.html Happy planning!

Meant to ask, when in May?

On several occasions I've seen long lines extending from the Southwest counters out to the sidewalk at T1. I'm not even sure I'd be too comfortable with 10:30 but probably okay.

Let me suggest you change the order of things a little. First, a bit of geography. The waterfront Marriott sits at the bottom of a steep bluff; the Pike Place market and all of downtown are at the top. There are various methods of climbing the grade - a couple of elevators, including one right next to the Marriott (which was out of service for a time and I'm not sure has reopened - a call to the hotel will answer that) as well as some staircases and a skybridge from the Bell Street cruise terminal (across the street from the hotel.) It's not strenuous, but can be time consuming, so I'd probably want to limit the number of times you need to go up and down, if you get my gist. In my view and that of most locals, the Pike Place market is at its best in the mornings rather than in the afternoons. Since you'll still be on east coast time, what I'd suggest is to hit the market for breakfast in the morning (there are several good breakfast places, open from 7 on) and watch the merchants set up, before the crowds arrive around 10 - 10:30. As for the afternoon when you arrive, I think a ferry ride would be ideal then. The ferry dock is around a 10-minute walk south from the Marriott. Ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island, from which it's a short walk to the middle of Winslow, the attractive little town on the island. You can walk (around 15-20 min.) to Eagle Harbor, where there are a couple of enjoyable casual places for a meal - google the Harbour Public House and Doc's Marina Grill - for an early dinner, then it's back to the ferry terminal, back to Seattle, up to the hotel, and hit the sheets. The next day, after the market, you can hit Seattle Center - Space Needle (overpriced IMO) and the Chihuly exhibit, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop) and other attractions. After that, there are numerous possibilities that you could decide on based on the weather, your energy levels, or personal interests. I'll list a few for you to research. - Pioneer Square. This historic district on the south end of downtown is one of the largest contiguous national historic districts in the country - lots of terrific buildings, a popular "underground tour" that visits leftovers from Seattle's great fire, now subterranean as the city was rebuilt over them; lots of pubs and cafes... - Chinatown/International District. The "ID" is full of Asian restaurants, an excellent small museum documenting Chinese-American heritage, and interesting shops. A real favorite among locals is the amazing Uwajimaya pan-Asian supermarket and department store, a tourist attraction in its own right. Note you can use the free waterfront shuttle bus to get from the Marriott and Pier 66 areas to both Pioneer Square and the I.D. - Free Seattle Waterfront Shuttle - Official Page - Museum of Flight. The MoF, located a couple of miles south of downtown and accessible by city bus or easily by Uber or a taxi, is generally regarded as the second-best air and space museum in the country, behind the Smithsonian in DC. This is a fabulous destination, full of very cool exhibits, a decent cafe, and one of the best gift shops going. It's an ideal wet-weather destination, too. - University of Washington campus. The UW campus, reached by light rail from downtown, is very beautiful. The Burke Museum of Natural History on the campus is outstanding. - Ballard Locks and Fishermen's Terminal. A few miles north of downtown (reachable by bus, easier by cab/Uber) the Hiram Chittendon Locks (aka "Ballard locks") allow boat traffic to pass between Puget Sound (salt) and Lakes Union and Washington (fresh) and are fun to see. A mile or so east of the locks is Fishermen's Terminal, home of the Seattle fishing fleet and a big portion of the Alaska fleet. There are a couple of excellent places to eat on the dock; you can then walk off the carbs along the jetties and finger floats past the working fishing boats. This is a real "old Seattle" place and much beloved by locals. There are more, but I'll stop there. Any or all of them would make for a very enjoyable walkabout.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/

Good to know, thanks.

If the planes are still grounded, no doubt Alaska will reaccommodate you on an alternative flight, most likely via Seattle on non-MAX equipment. I certainly wouldn't cancel my reservation in the meantime.

I'm aware that JFK -FRA can be on SQ metal. I was referring to the OP's post with JFK-MUC. I dislike FRA intensely so am probably not a good source on that front.

Option: JB/SQ/LH: ATL-JFK-MUC in Business for JetBlue, Singapore, Lufthansa. Same back from PRG...Pro: Business Class both ways with lounges, Con: more connections across multiple airlines, long layover in JFK on return. JFK-MUC and v.v. will be operated by Lufthansa; the Singapore designation would only be a codeshare flight number. At present that route is designated to be operated with an Airbus A380, presumably with its older 2-2-2 business class seating. It's far from the most modern business class product, but IMO any flat-bed business class offering over the pond would be better than a PE experience.

All of the nonstop flights from Anchorage to Chicago (Alaska Airlines, United, American) are "red eyes" that leave late at night and arrive in the early morning. For example, in July the Alaska flights depart at 10:25 and 11:40 PM, arriving at O'Hare at 7:42 AM and 8:57 AM respectively. That's the case with most flights from Anchorage to the Midwest or East; the length of the flight plus the 3- or 4-hour time change rules out any mid-day departures from Anchorage. If you route through some west coast hub like Seattle, the flight times are even longer and the time change is no better.

There are two trains daily in each direction, one leaving in the early morning and the other in the early evening. Both take around 4 hours. The morning departure from Seattle is too early for same-day connections for passengers arriving at SEA by air, and the morning train departure from Vancouver is too early for those disembarking the same day from a cruise ending in that city. The evening departure from Vancouver arrives in Seattle too late for any flight connections to non-west coast destinations, except overnight flights to midwestern and eastern cities. Most flights leaving from both cities with destinations in the Midwest or East depart in the early morning, typically 7 - 9 AM or earlier. That's because the 4 to 6-hour flight is in addition to a 3-hour time change, making typically for late afternoon or early evening arrival times at their destinations. Since many people need to connect onward, that time window in crucial if people don't want to get home in the late night or wee hours. The alternative is to wait around Vancouver (or Seattle) until numerous "red-eyes" leave at 9 - 11 PM or even midnight, making for early morning arrivals in the east, with ample time to connect. Many cruise passengers find themselves needing to spend an additional hotel night in one city or the other in order for train connections to work, not to mention the added cost of transport to or from the train stations and/or airports. It's important to be realistic about the cost and convenience factors when planning air or land connections between the two cities.

Even better when you factor in the frequent flyer benefits, especially with premium cabin bonuses. Lots of redeemable miles, elite FF status, etc.

Unfortunately for Oneworld RTWs the point is moot for the time being as no Oneworld carrier serves WDH since Comair (South African affiliate of BA) went tango during Covid.

Oneworld's RTW tool has been in "beta" (more like alpha-minus) for over a decade. It's really hopeless; if you get to the actual purchase phase it'll likely freeze or tell you that flights are unavailable (when they actually are.) The gold standard is the American Airlines RTW desk - 1-800-247-3247 - who can book RTW tickets efficiently and quickly. As a rule, AA wants at least one over-water segment in the RTW to be on AA metal or booked with an AA codeshare flight number. It's easiest to pull off when you know all the answers first. A subscription to Expert Flyer is very useful in this regard. EF can tell you which flights have availability in the RTW ticket booking classes (L for economy, D for business and A for first class RTWs) so if you contact the RTW desk and have a complete listing of flights by date, while knowing that there are seats in the proper fare bucket for that flight, the RTW desk people can book the ticket badda bing. They'll send off to their rates desk for final pricing; that usually takes less than 24 hours, then you phone with a credit card and the e-ticket comes back pronto. Piece of cake. Oh, meant to add, the Canadian v. US pricing difference isn't to be sneezed at - for a 4-continent business class RTW the base price ex-Canada is over US$3000 less than the US price. Well worth a hop up to Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

For business class at present the lowest base prices (in USD) are mainly to be found in trips originating in Japan, Norway, Namibia, Algeria and Pakistan. There are cases where people have been able to ticket Oneworld business class RTWs at good prices from Egypt, but not all the Oneworld members will issue ex-CAI tickets at present. Remember these are for base prices; country- and airport-specific taxes, as well as carrier-imposed surcharges, can make a big difference in the bottom line, so generalizing is not terribly reliable.

No idea if this might be of any interest to you, but you might benefit from something like a "Circle Pacific" air ticket or even a "Round the World" (RTW) ticket if this trip is one of a couple of different cruises or other trips you have planned, especially if you're interested in riding in business class. Based on your posting history it looks like you've been on overseas cruises a couple of times this year and plan for more next year. When would the NZ cruise occur and is it a round trip from NZ to NZ, or a one-way trip, perhaps ending in Australia? Sometimes when you can foresee trips a year or even two in advance, you can concoct an air travel plan that is considerably more cost-effective than multiple there-and-back ones. For example, say your cruise calendar looked like this (or you could make it look like this.) November 2024 - NZ cruise February/March 2025 - Caribbean cruise from Miami or San Juan May/June 2025 - Alaska cruise from Vancouver October 2025 - Mediterranean cruise from Rome (The Caribbean cruise could be from anywhere else, or it could be a Mexico cruise out of San Diego; or the Med cruise could be out of Barcelona or anywhere else in Europe - this is all imaginary anyway.) Because round-the-world tickets have prices that vary hugely depending on where the travel begins and ends (not on where you live) it's often best to travel to some "cheap" origin point on your own dime, then "activate" the RTW ticket there. The tickets are good for a year and include up to 16 flights for one price, so you'd have to plan to return to the "origin" country within 12 months from the first flight. Let me illustrate using the above imaginary schedule. Late October 2024: You fly on your own dime to Oslo, Norway. Why Oslo? Because for the time being it's among the cheapest places in the world from which to begin or end RTW trips. I'll mention prices in a minute. Anyway, you enjoy the Norwegian capital for a couple of days (or tour around Norway on your own) then, using the ticket that you've purchased online months earlier, you board plane in Oslo and fly east. Maybe you connect in Doha, Qatar, or in Helsinki, Finland, and the next stop is, say, Singapore. Spend a couple of days enjoying the best food in the world, then it's on to Sydney or Hong Kong. Another stopover if you want (in order to get your body clocks adjusted) then on to Auckland for your cruise. Cruise over (say mid-November) you cross the Pacific - maybe stop in Hawaii or just straight to LAX, change planes (with or without a layover) and home to the DC area. Back to life as we know it. Midwinter 2025: Time for a sunbreak, so you hop on a flight to Miami or San Juan or wherever, Cruise for a bit, or it could be just some island time if you don't want to cruise. A week or two, than back home. Spring/summer 2025: Off to Vancouver for an Alaska cruise, then back home to DC. September/October 2025: Back to Europe. Maybe a Med cruise from Rome, or Octoberfest in Germany, or the Scottish Highlands covered in purple heather. You end up back in Oslo before the anniversary of the first flight. Ticket over. You'll have earned enough frequent flyer miles in the course of the year to fly home for free, or if you're an RTW addict by now (highly likely) you'll just buy another one and head home. Here's an imaginary map showing the overall route for the year. So that all might sound exhausting, and it could well be so. But if it's not, then consider the cost/benefit picture. Sitting in economy, an RTW ticket covering all those flights if starting in Norway will have a base price of $1912. There will be taxes and fees on top of that (these vary depending on which airlines you use and which airports you stop at) which will likely add around $200 - $300 to the total. If you began and ended the same trip in the USA, the equivalent base price would be $5374. roughly three times the Norwegian price. Can you get to Oslo from DC for $3500? Oh yeah. Now, say you want to ride in the pointy end on the same itinerary. The business class price for the whole trip, starting in Norway, is $5467. The US equivalent would be $11,071. To repeat, this is an imaginary trip. You could use the same method to include South America, or more of Asia, or Africa... If it's overkill, so be it, but if you continue to cruise more than once a year or you have a travel bucket list involving faraway places, this might be of interest. So maybe you could share what your cruise and travel plans are looking like for the next couple of years and we could see if something like this might work for you. Not trying to pry and if you say "nope" to the whole idea, so be it. But it might make for an interesting "thought experiment."

There are two cruise terminals, one close to downtown, the other a couple of miles north in a more industrial area. Pier 66, the downtown one, hosts NCL and Oceania and some transients. The other cruise lines (HAL, Princess, RCL et al) use the more distant terminal at Pier 91 (aka Smith Cove.) Any downtown hotel will be a short cab ride from either pier. There are two hotels, the Downtown Marriott and the Edgewater that are across the street and a long block north (respectively) from the Pier 66 terminal. There are many, many threads about Seattle hotels in the "West Coast Departures" board.

Right/starboard northbound.

Assuming there are two or more of you, have a look at the Alaska Airlines-branded Visa card, which will not only give you a big bunch of Alaska miles on signup (very useful program) but which will also give you an annual "companion certificate" with which one passenger pays the going price and a companion pays $99 (plus some taxes, ending up usually at $122) for the same itinerary - one way, round trip, multi-city. So if one ticket costs, say, $600, the price for 2 would be $722, or $361 each. Alaska Airlines Visa® Credit Card - Apply Today

Fiji is half owned (well, 46%, the rest by the Fijian government) by Qantas. Of the South Pacific islands, I think Tahiti is the big missing link in direct Oneworld coverage.

Well first, welcome! While this often elicits groans, the fact remains that the best advice you can probably get at this point is to do some independent research - not so much on which cruise line or itinerary, but on Alaska itself. How you spend your time (always not enough) and dollars (always a lot) visiting and experiencing Alaska is (in my view) a much more complicated subject than you'd encounter visiting the Caribbean or visiting national parks or other scenic destinations in the lower 48. It's more on a scale similar to visiting Europe - huge variety, huge range of experiences, impossible to see more than a small part in a typical vacation period, be it two weeks or two months. Cruises travel between the western US and Canada through the Inside Passage of Southeast Alaska (the "panhandle") and some go as far as Southcentral Alaska (Seward, Whittier, Anchorage etc.) but obviously can't go inland to interior Alaska or to western or northern parts of the state. So learning about the various attractions in those different parts of the state is job one. Many people combine a cruise through SE Alaska with a land tour in Southcentral and interior parts of the state, but even then, the size of Alaska, the distances between places and the logistical challenges can limit what's practical to experience in a couple (or a few) weeks' time. Cruising in SE Alaska is mass tourism. Millions of people visit annually, the majority on big cruise ships carrying anywhere from 2000 to 4000 or more passengers. The ports of call are small communities - Juneau is the biggest at 32,000 people. It's not uncommon for 4 or sometimes 5 cruise ships with, say, an average of 2500 passengers on each, to call at Skagway, population 900 counting dogs, on the same day. Do the math. Of course, there's a reason for this. The landscape - ocean, mountains, forests, glaciers - is spectacular. Even viewed from the ship - like with Glacier Bay or the Hubbard Glacier near Yakutat - the scenery is beyond awesome. But once you're off the ship, you need to choose between self-arranged visits or go with organized excursions that will of necessity involve many other people. Now there's a huge variety of experiences offered in these excursions, but you're not going to be alone. Now if you have the time and resources to include both a cruise and some time in Southcentral or interior Alaska, the options for independent travel increase. You can join a cruise tour, which will be very much a get-on-the-bus-get-off-the-bus experience, or you can rent a vehicle and hit the road. Now it's worth noting that there aren't that many roads, and the places they go can also be popular with visitors, but obviously with less intensity than in a cruise. There are national parks, but they're NOT like the parks in the "lower 48." The interior of Denali NP is accessed only by bus, and for the next couple of years even that will be curtailed by roadworks on the only road into the park interior. Other national parks, like Wrangell-St. Elias NP or Kenai Fjords NP, can only be reached by foot, by air, or by water. It's not like driving from Old Faithful to Mammoth Hot Springs, parking the car and walking to the viewpoint. You'll probably see more wildlife in one day in Yellowstone than you'll see in two days looking from the bus windows in Denali. Which is not to say you shouldn't come, nor to say that you won't want to come back again and again. Alaska is addictive, if for no other reason than its very size. Just beyond that mountain range is a whole 'nother world. Others will chime in on which cruise line or which itinerary is best, but you'll be doing yourself a favor by going through trip reports here on CC, or on TripAdvisor or other travel websites. Alaska's a case where homework really pays off.