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It has been nearly five years since we went but from what I have been reading nothing has really changed. So hopefully what I have written here will help and still be valid. Skagway was a bit touristy but loved the train ride! I have been on several historical trains and this one was pretty good. Some of the most AMAZING scenery you will ever see! We even found a great BBQ place to eat there! Icy Point Straight was cute and I think the native community has done a great job of preserving and showing off their culture. Hopefully they still serve their fried halibut sandwich in the main building as I have to say it was one of the best I have ever had. My friend told me his family loved the zip line there. My family and I went on a too many people whale watching tour (we all basically liked it), and I went on a "bear hunt" in the afternoon. They pick you up in a bus at the main center and escort you out to a wonderful valley with specific viewing areas. OK, I only saw a pair of ears moving about 1,00 yards away but it was cool to see such a huge animal in the wild. And the scenery was spectacular! Too bad I had a sunset that was a bit better or one of those pictures would be on my dining room wall! Normally I do not like those tourist packages on tour buses. But I have to tell you that we took one that had a tour of the city, went to Mendenhall Glacier (gave us about 45 minutes), and then took us to the Gold Creek Salmon Bake. Ok, again, I grew up going to Disneyland and I kinda figured this could be touristy. NOT! It was a buffet of BBQ'd salmon, chicken and other local favorites. It is still highly recommended and trust me, it was GREAT and a lot of fun! Hope this helps!

Although we went five years ago this summer. I can tell you that the eagles in Alaska were like our seagulls on the beach in Southern California... TONS of them, EVERYWHERE! We saw them on the top of lampposts and many other areas. We were docked at Icy Straight point and were fortunate enough that our balcony faced an eagles nest! It was maybe 1,000 yards away and I really could not do much with my camera gear, but they were there. In Ketchikan, if you can, go to Herring Cove. I think there is a fish hatchery there as there could have been at least 100 eagles hanging out at the mouth of the river. That was on the way to the George Inlet Crab Feast. I was on the bus so I could not stop. But put it in the back of my head whenever we might come back. We are going on our own this summer and am doing whatever I can to get back there as I have heard they are always there. I also had fun time watching them on the stern of our ship in Juneau. It was bow north and the eagles were flying down the mountain around the tram. You'll get eagles I am sure!

If you have not reserved anything yet, I highly recommend anything in or out of Vancouver. You literally can get a "two-for-one" vacation as Vancouver is a destination in itself and not to be missed. We went on Royal Caribbean out of Vancouver and did not realize we should have been there a day or two earlier, not just 24 hours. I also liked the one-way since we were able to take the train from Seward to Anchorage Airport. I mean right to the airport as the train has its own station right at the ticket counters! Going through Seattle I am sure is great but to me this gave us two extra cities within the same trip. Yes, the Anchorage flight back home was not cheap and VERY long. However that train ride across the Kenai Peninsula was amazing!

P.S. NO, you cannot take or buy those puppies! LOL! 4-11/2 years ago they were worth $15,000 each!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUNEAU on Douglas Island! It was a LOT of fun! And you get to pick up the puppies! I have a pic of them attached. Also, my cousins were supposed to go do the same in Skagway but the summer we were there it was so hot they had to cancel it So hopefully you can get either one of those. Also, from what I remember, there are several available within cruise itineraries. It seems a bit cheesy as they use a golf cart without an engine and the dogs pull the thing down the road! It is their summer training and speaking as a dog fan it was terrific and a lot of fun.

Sea otters generally hang out along the coastlines so that is why there have been comments about Seward and Sitka. I have read there are tons of them in Seward and along the Gulf of Alaska near there. I know it is a bit off topic, but if you REALLY want to see Sea Otters up close, and always know you will see them, go to Morro Bay in California. There is a whole family of them that move around the northern edge of the bay, as well as Monterey Bay and the coastline right off of Cannery Row in Monterey, next to the aquarium. Hope that helps!

If it is still available, I HIGHLY recommend the Bear watching trip! OK, so we only saw the ears of one 800 pound brown bear, but we saw it! The Native community has set up a trail with a boardwalk in a meadow and viewing deck over the river in an amazing valley. You take a bus from the visitors center (you MUST try the halibut sandwich, even if it is fried! WOW! Best ever!). This is the real thing as they had someone from the native community watchin over us, with a shotgun. Yes, it was very real but just great. Get your longest lens, though! I hope it is still available Hope this helps and enjoy!

We have only been on one cruise to Alaska and two overall. However I have been traveling for most of my nearly 60 years and did find the the Royal Caribbean cruise we took out of Vancouver, to Seward, was excellent! I think there were about 2,500 passengers so it was small and a bit tight but small enough. I cannot express my opinion enough to go on the one-way out of or back to Vancouver, though. I think you will find that probably 90% or more posts on this subject here on CC will say the same. Vancouver is worth the trip alone with it being a wonderful city. Hope this helps!

Although it was five years ago. we LOVED the George Inlet Crab feast! I have been traveling for years and am always leery of these tourist tours. But believe it or not, this was great! It consists of a wonderful boat ride and a fantastic meal of all-you-can eat Dungeness crab! Trust me, this is way better than King Crab! Way tastier. We first took a wonderful boat ride around the inlet with an amazingly talented host. I think she was a biologist or had a degree with that or something. None the less it was an enclosed pontoon boat with about 30 - 40 people. It had a deck on the back for those of us who wanted to either get a better look or photograph the eagles (when permitted). They taught us about how the locals are allowed to catch their own crab. Next thing you know they stopped at a small buoy and our host was bringing up a crab pot! They have a special permit to allow catching since it is "educational" and then release whatever they have in the pot right away. My wife volunteered to show the catch (see attached pics). The also floated by a HUGE eagles nest, I think it had to be about 30 feet across. They go by it all the time and get them to come down with some raw fish. Lastly was the all-you-can eat crab feast. Again I am always leery of these things and thought it would be like a luau in Hawaii being cheesy. I was WRONG! My wife and daughter absolutely loved it as well as myself. Perfectly cooked crab! And we are seafood lovers! Funnest thing was that they had a contest at each table as to how many crabs that table to could eat by stacking them... very funny. Lastly was their fresh blueberry cheesecake Yes, nearly five years later and I still remember it. Oh, yeah, great bus ride down there with the Inside Passage on your side the entire route. Well worth it! Hope it is still the same of course.

Although it was five years ago, we took a whale watching trip out of Icy Straight Point, with probably 30 -3 40 of our "best friends" and yes, it was great, but I'll never take one again with that many people. I felt I was at the zoo getting pushed around anytime a whale came up to breath or we saw a tail. Not blaming anyone as it is usually less expensive to go in a group, just for me I would have liked to have more room to photograph and be a lot closer to the wildlife, as close as the law allows at least. Do go on a whale watching trip, though! That is one of THE reasons to go to Alaska!

I know the original question was posted some time ago, however since I have experience with this excellent question, I thought I would post my answer here in case anyone out there has the same dilemma. This is a great question, especially since I am a photographer that was not a happy camper after lugging all my gear on my cruise to Alaska five years ago. That was mainly because of the time limits you have, as well as (GOD bless them!), my family as well and making sure we all enjoyed ourselves. Mind you, I do have a nice 24"x36" Alaskan Sunset looming over our dining room table! I did lug two bodies, and three lenses, as well as a travel tri-pod. If I was able to sit and really work on a bunch of eagles, like we came across at Herring Bay in Ketchikan, and other sites, I probably would have been very happy. Part of our problem is that we just booked too many things and I did not give myself the time to utilize what I brought. That being said you do have several options to still bring something with you that will get you excellent results. Before I go further, one thing is for sure, LEARN and PRACTICE on whatever you are bringing so that you know and understand whatever camera you have and how to get the results you want. Between my daughter and I we have two pro Canon bodies, a T7i and one of their top point-and-shoots the G7Xii. My daughter showed me some really great results with the G7Xii that she used when she was in marching band in high school. I say that as it shows how compact it is and she felt the lens length was good enough. I also know that it has a lot of similar features as its bigger brothers as you can practically go manual, even add a flat and use JPG and/or RAW. But it is compact. I do not mind the bigger DSLRs as I am utilizing the lenses like the 100-400 that I brought specifically for eagles and my bear finding excursion. Yeah, I got ONE of those in by myself! LOL! Fast forward five years and now you have all the new mirrorless that are way smaller and of course do way more. By the way, as most pros mentioned all over You Tube and the internet, you can get very good results with non "pro" gear, you just have to know your camera. Before I go on, I want to give a shout out to Canon's refurbished product. About 90% of my gear was either bought through them or used. LOVE being able to get stuff from their site since a human put their hands on it and they are any where from 15-20% less, and more sometimes than new. Thing is they also offer long term extended warranties directly from them. One of the few I ever recommend in act. Lastly is please do check out how to use your phone's camera. Again some top pros in the industry are not just talking about them as an alternative, but offer all kinds of information, videos, etc. on how to use them. You can even shoot RAW with an iPhone Pro, or just shoot using Lightroom Mobile when shooting! Scott Kelby is one of those you might want to look up, but I know there are others. I know this is a lot, but you hit my button perfectly as I "been there done that"!

We went on our Alaska trip five years ago on Royal Caribbean out Vancouver. Biggest mistake? NOT planning enough time in Vancouver! My family and I have been to the Caribbean, Germany, Hawaii, most major cities in the US, live five miles from the beach and my kid goes to school in San Francisco. Hands down Vancouver, even if we were there for barely 24 hours to get on the ship, was one of the most beautiful, friendly and food towns we have ever been in. We did get to eat two meals there that were fabulous and knocked me off my chair with the difference in price, at that time at least, then, was probably 20% less expensive then the same high quality meal we had at home. And super high quality! Sushi, shellfish, both terrific. Trust me, we have Vancouver on our bucket list to go back, even if it will be for a weekend! I would not have said anything but when you mentioned not wanting to go to Seattle, it was a slam dunk for me write this. It may have been five years ago, however since I had a sales manager that goes up there almost every month, it sounds like nothing really changed. We want to go back as there are many things you can do there, especially the food! We did stay at the Hampton Inn, which is across the street from BC Place and found it to be nearly perfect. You could walk to the Gaslamp District, find really good food within steps of waling out and the cruise shuttle took us maybe 10 minutes. At the time the front desk was great as well. Hope that helps!