Alaska Expedition Cruise

[Jess219I]

My husband and I (early 30s, active, somewhat prone to seasickness) are looking to incorporate our first cruise into our summer 2024 Alaska itinerary. I've spent a lot of time dissecting different itineraries and reading reviews, from which I think I've narrowed it down to 5 options:

 

Alaskan Dream: https://www.alaskandreamcruises.com/cruises/2024-alaskas-inside-passage-sojourn/

American Queen: https://www.aqvoyages.com/expedition-cruises/alaska-british-columbia/sitka-to-vancouver/

Hurtigruten: https://www.hurtigruten.com/en-us/expeditions/cruises/alaska-and-british-columbia-wilderness-glaciers-and-culture-southbound3/

Seabourn: https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/find-a-cruise/A4S07B/4442.html

Holland America: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/find-a-cruise/A3S07A/I340.html?destcode=A&csvfilename=cmpgn_AWAVE23&ICID=INTHWEB20221214DFPGNFWHZY&priceType=halbest

 

I recognize that the Holland America option is much more of a standard cruise, but its price tag makes it at least a little tempting compared to the others.

 

For the Alaskan Dream cruise, I'm concerned about the size of the boat with respect to seasickness and was unsure if the culture focus would take away from the active adventure opportunities.

 

Both Hurtigruten and American Queen sound like the exact vibe we'd be interested in, but their newness comes with a general lack of reviews. It sounds like Hurtigruten had a rough first season and American Queen has a lot of poor customer service reviews on their other itineraries. Hurtigruten also does not stop in Glacier Bay and wouldn't offer us the opportunity to do a day trip before embarking.

 

Lastly, Seabourn seems to have great reviews and the Ventures by Seabourn seem to offer that expedition feel, but it seems too fancy for us and would definitely end up being the most expensive, with none of the kayak/zodiac ventures being included.

 

UnCruise was actually where I first started my search, but even though everyone swears it's worth it, I'm not sure I could stomach the ~$900 a day/person that it would set us back... And without spending 14 days, it didn't seem like any of their itineraries got you both up to Glacier Bay and down to Misty Fjords.

 

For the non-cruise portion of our trip, we will spend time in Wrangell St Elias, Valdez, Glacier Bay and/or Kenai fjords depending on the itinerary we select. We will plan to hit Denali and anything else we miss on a future trip, after Denali Park road is open again.

 

Sorry this ended up being such a long read, and thank you in advance for any insight you might have on any of these options!

 

TLDR Young adults looking for advice on active Southeast Alaska Expedition style cruise focused on scenery and wildlife!

[wolfie11]

I do not recommend Alaskan Dream.  The ships are old and show it.  American Queen and Hurtigruten are both good lines.  I have been on Hurtigruten and their guides are excellent.  National Geographic is also a great choice for Alaska and goes to Glacier Bay.  
 

There's a big difference between a small ship cruise to Alaska (Viking, Seabourn) and an expedition cruise.  Hurtigruten, as an example, doesn't have a casino, nightly shows, or lots of bars and restaurants.  It goes to small towns the other ships don't visit.  You will spend a lot of time in the science center looking at plants, animal bones, and other interesting things.  The ship stops frequently for birds, bears, and whales.  You will zodiac right up to glaciers among the icebergs.  There will be talks on history, nature, Native culture, and ship's operations and navigation.  There will be "classes" in journaling, art, yoga to whale songs, and various crafts.  Evening entertainment might be Q&A with the crew, or a sea chantey sing in the lounge.  
 

On a large ship, there will be shopping talks, slots tournaments, and special sales in the onboard stores.  You will visit the main ports along with up to 15,000 other people on a 5-ship day.  You will be shocked at the number of jewelry and cheap souvenir shops in these ports.  If there are whales, you will go past them at 20 knots and no announcement will be made.  
 

The small ships like Oceania and Viking are between the two.  You will visit some of the main ports but also some smaller places.  You can get closer to the glaciers. I haven't been on any of these ships yet, but I assume they don't nickel and dime you the way the larger ships do.  
 

Alaska is a really special place.  You should decide how intimate a journey you want and choose accordingly.  Surprisingly, when you add up all the costs on the bigger ships it can come close to what you might pay on a smaller luxury ship or an expedition.

 

Good luck and enjoy your journey!

[GTJ]

Let me add some information about the American Queen Voyages and the vessel Ocean Victory. It may or may not affect your decision. The cruise line is part of Hornblower Cruises and Events, a company started in Berkeley, California, in 1974 as a charter yacht company. (In the early 1980s my father owned a sailboat that was part of the Hornblower charter fleet, but that ended years ago, and I have never had any vested interest in the company.) Over the succeeding years it grew substantially, largely by developing and acquiring ferry operations. An important breakthrough was its expansion to New York City when it outbid the incumbent National Park Service concessionaire, Circle Line, for the provision of ferry service to and from Liberty and Ellis islands. Most recently the company won the contract to operate the NYC Ferry service throughout all of New York City (including the Red Hook, Brooklyn, service that many cruise passengers utilize in traveling to and from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal), effectively displacing the locally-owned NY Waterway service from the East River market. Its expansion into overnight cruises is also relatively recent, with most of its attention focused on inland riverboat cruises along the Mississippi River and its tributaries (these services having been acquired from American Queen Steamboat Company), and also coastal cruises that had been started anew by Victory Cruise Lines. The expedition market is the company's newest expansion. The company now advertises itself primarily as "City Experiences," though not so much for its overnight cruises (perhaps "City" does not fit in well with the overnight cruise image, especially in Alaska!) where it relies upon the American Queen Voyages for branding. It is an American company in a sea of cruise lines that are primarily large international enterprises (both Seabourn and Holland America Lines are owned by Carnival Corp. & plc, while Hurtigruten is Norwegian; Alaskan Dream is a small Alaskan-owned company).

 

The vessel Ocean Victory is new, having been constructed in 2021. The vessel is owned by SunStone Maritime Group, www.sunstoneships.com, and managed by CMI Ship Management, www.cmishipmanagement.com. In turn, SunStone charters the vessel on a semi-annual basis, in the winter to Albatros Expeditions, www.albatros-expeditions.com, for expeditions to Antarctica, and in the summer to American Queens Voyages for expeditions to Alaska. Thus, reviews of the Ocean Victory crew may relate more so to CMI Ship Management than to American Queen Voyages, and so you may desire to investigate CMI more thoroughly. It had been intended for the vessel to be part of the Victory Cruise Lines fleet, but that cruise line was acquired by Hornblower around the same time the vessel was placed in service. The vessel itself was built in China and is registered in the Bahamas, so it stands out from the rest of the American Queen Voyages fleet in not being American-flagged.

[Jess219I]

Thank you both for your detailed replies!

 

On 2/11/2023 at 2:14 PM, wolfie11 said:

 It goes to small towns the other ships don't visit.  You will spend a lot of time in the science center looking at plants, animal bones, and other interesting things.  The ship stops frequently for birds, bears, and whales.  You will zodiac right up to glaciers among the icebergs.  There will be talks on history, nature, Native culture, and ship's operations and navigation.  There will be "classes" in journaling, art, yoga to whale songs, and various crafts.  Evening entertainment might be Q&A with the crew, or a sea chantey sing in the lounge.  

This sounds like exactly what we would be interested in! My additional worry on these options other than their newness is just that the longer itineraries will leave us with less time to do land based exploration before embarking on the cruise on this trip. In an ideal world I think I would like the boat experience of the Ocean Victory or Hurtigruten ship on the Alaskan Dreams itinerary (and with the HAL price tag if I'm being greedy haha). What attracted me to the Seabourn option was their "Ventures by Seabourn" program that allows for zodiak and kayak excursions off the boat and a team on board to lead those excursions, answer questions and do science-y lectures in a more condensed itinerary.

 

On 2/11/2023 at 2:14 PM, wolfie11 said:

I do not recommend Alaskan Dream.  The ships are old and show it.

How do you feel this affects the cruise experience? Just dated décor? Less comfortable cabins? Or does it affect their ability to reliably get you where the itinerary promises?

 

On 2/12/2023 at 1:24 AM, GTJ said:

The vessel itself was built in China and is registered in the Bahamas, so it stands out from the rest of the American Queen Voyages fleet in not being American-flagged.

Do you know if not being American-flagged affects their ability to do zodiak landings in Alaska? I think I remember seeing that that was a problem on the Hurtigruten ship...

[wolfie11]

Hurtigruten hired USCG licensed captains to drive their USCG registered zodiacs to solve that problem.  I would imagine American Queen does the same.

[GTJ]

12 hours ago, Jess219I said:

Do you know if not being American-flagged affects their ability to do zodiac landings in Alaska? I think I remember seeing that that was a problem on the Hurtigruten ship...

In 2020 there was issued a legal opinion from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the issue affecting the actual vessel Ocean Victory. You can find that opinion here: http://rulings.cbp.gov/ruling/H311571

 

There were two issues involving use of the the Zodiacs. First, their use for bringing passengers to shore, and second, their use for excursions without ever reaching shore. In the first case, where the Zodiacs would be used as tenders to bring passengers to shore, CBP found that the Zodiacs could be used if they satisfied four specific criteria, the key criterion being "the tenders must be used solely in such carriage where the CBP Port Director is satisfied that it is not safe or feasible for the cruise vessel to berth at a pier." CMI Ship Management had asked specifically about landings at Petersburg and Wrangell. CBP found that the cruise vessel could not safely dock at Petersburg so Zodiacs could be used,  but at Wrangell CBP found that the cruise vessel could safely dock so Zodiacs could not be used. This analysis could be extended to other locations, again the critical factor being whether the Ocean Victory itself could dock. In the second case, where there would be an excursion with no actual landing, CBP found that there would be a PVSA violation for the use of Zodiacs. The CBP did not focus on the cruise vessel itself, but looked at the Zodiacs independently of the Ocean Victory. The Zodiacs are American-constructed and crewed by American mariners, which is fine. The problem is that the Zodiacs are owned by a Bahamas entity (i.e., the Zodiacs are owned by the Ocean Victory, which is registered in the Bahamas), and not owned by a U.S. entity. Not discussed in the opinion is what would seem to be a simple resolution to the problem: simply have the Ocean Victory sell the Zodiacs to some U.S. company, and have a contract by which the Ocean Victory would agree to transport the Zodiacs but not own the Zodiacs. I have no word on what the Ocean Victory is actually doing with respect to its Zodiacs, but presumably there is some type of resolution to the legal issue so that the purpose of the expedition vessel can be achieved.

Edited February 14, 2023 by GTJ

[donaldsc]

We did AK on American Queen last summer.  It was a wonderful cruise.  Very highly recommended.

 

DON

[Glaciers]

@donaldsc  I know you noted that you did an Alaskan Dream trip as well at one time. Would you recommend one over the other?

[donaldsc]

39 minutes ago, Glaciers said:

@donaldsc  I know you noted that you did an Alaskan Dream trip as well at one time. Would you recommend one over the other?

 

The 2 lines are confusing because the names are so close.  This is the one that we went on - https://www.aqvoyages.com/expedition-cruises/alaska-british-columbia/vancouver-to-sitka/?gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy58NUW9AGjQlDbfUA9ik8oC1aAz3FTXzMRA7XJlLHu4mWifx2EvuvJBoCwcYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds.  This was the ship - https://www.aqvoyages.com/vessels/ocean-victory/.

 

As I said - the voyage was wonderful and I would love to do it again.

 

DON