Short Alaska cruises?

[mamamia2005]

Hello all

 

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any cruise lines who offer short (3/4 day) cruises to Alaska?

 

Tia

[1025cruise]

None.

 

Due to cabotage laws, its not possible to do an Alaska cruise in under 7 days.

[mamamia2005]

Hmm, ok thankyou! 

Back to the drawing board then lol! 

[Glaciers]

I've seen them come up occasionally. Princess has a 4-day sampler in May 2022 that hits one Alaska port, Ketchikan.

[1025cruise]

 

2 hours ago, Glaciers said:

I've seen them come up occasionally. Princess has a 4-day sampler in May 2022 that hits one Alaska port, Ketchikan.

Probably to reposition the ship from a US port to Vancouver. Or from Vancouver to a US port.

 

Since one cruises Alaska to see Alaska, I don't see the benefit of a 3-4 day. In the Caribbean, that's a quick getaway. For Alaska, that's a waste.

[mamamia2005]

Its basically because we are thinking of doing a trip to Disneyland in California next August, and thought about flying upto Vancouver to do a whale watching trip. My daughter would love to see Orca's in the wild, hence the whale watching. 

But really there's not a lot else that I think would interest us in Vancouver ( 2 non sporty adults and a 13 year old) so thought about adding on a short cruise to make the trip upto Vancouver worthwhile. 

 

Thanks for your comments

[AKStafford]

 

Discovery Voyages does a three day trip in Prince William Sound. You'd fly into Anchorage to get to it.  https://discoveryvoyages.com/voyage/classic-3-day-voyage/

[oaktreerb]

1) Vancouver Island including Victoria is beautiful.....many wildlife viewing opportunities there and whale watching.  Canada in BC has an excellent ferry system.  

2) You could fly into Juneau, AK to go whale watching and glacier viewing at Mendenhall Glacier and Tracy Arm.  

3) The only 3/4 day cruises between Vancouver and Alaska that I am aware of are a segment of the Yukon itineraries from Holland America.  (Vancouver to Skagway and Skagway to Vancouver).  A few years ago HAL did offer some separate short itineraries from Vancouver to Skagway as I recall.  Maybe they’ll bring those back if they have trouble filling ships.  

Edited March 15, 2021 by oaktreerb

[oaktreerb]

Call Holland America.  I looked online and they show a Vancouver to Skagway in August 2022.  No round trips, the distance is too far.  You would have to get to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory for a flight out.

 

[Heidi13]

9 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

None.

 

Due to cabotage laws, its not possible to do an Alaska cruise in under 7 days.

 

This is only true for departures from US ports. They do offer short 3 day cruises from Vancouver to Ketchican and return, at times.

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, mamamia2005 said:

Its basically because we are thinking of doing a trip to Disneyland in California next August, and thought about flying upto Vancouver to do a whale watching trip. My daughter would love to see Orca's in the wild, hence the whale watching. 

But really there's not a lot else that I think would interest us in Vancouver ( 2 non sporty adults and a 13 year old) so thought about adding on a short cruise to make the trip upto Vancouver worthwhile. 

 

Thanks for your comments

 

If whale watching is of interest, you can often see the resident orca pod from the local ferries. Although sightings are certainly not guaranteed. You can also head over to Victoria, where they operate whale watching tours from the inner harbour. Vancouver also has similar day trips.

[Heidi13]

12 hours ago, mamamia2005 said:

Hello all

 

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any cruise lines who offer short (3/4 day) cruises to Alaska?

 

Tia

 

Suggest checking the Princess website for cruises out of Vancouver, as early & late season they often have a 4-day Vancouver to Ketchikan R/T, as they adjust the day of the week for the 7-day sailings. We did it once about 20 yrs ago, just for a quick getaway.

[mamamia2005]

Thankyou everyone for your suggestions 🙂 

[martincath]

In my experience most of the short cruises tend to be start/end of season and either one-ways to/from Vancouver or Vancouver RTs - the PVSA does make things tricky when lines reposition their ships to Seattle for the AK season. This means they're almost all in April/May or Sep/Oct, rather than in August when you're planning to be in CA.

 

But if Orca spotting is your primary purpose for coming north from Disney, and you're not interested in other things to do in Vancouver, you could take advantage of much cheaper domestic-only flights and just spend more time on the US side of the border. You'd be watching the same resident Orca pods that Victoria/Vancouver whale-watching trips visit if you took a trip out of Port Townsend, Port Angeles, the San Juan Islands and other locations in WA state - Orcas don't respect national boundaries, so Canadian vessels go into US waters and vice versa in order to find them and info gets shared on their location between the different tour operators on both sides of the Salish Sea.

 

You'd need a rental car, but driving automatics on the much-wider roads over here is a doddle compared to the UK even if these weird colonials insist on driving on the wrong side of the road... ;-)

 

If you left your big suitcases with your hotel near Disney, you could even try the likes of super-budget airline Allegiant (think EasyJet/RyanAir), which flies into Bellingham just south of the Canadian border - a couple of whalewatch companies operate there, so hopefully at least one survives another weak summer of Covid-reduced tourism. Or rearrange your big flights so you come in to LA but leave from Seattle, to save backtracking?

[mamamia2005]

Thankyou, that's really helpful 🙂