Scenery from the ship with no glacier viewing day?

[SingingPixie]

I'm booked on a Quantum of the Seas itinerary (r/t from Seattle, stops in Sitka, Skagway, Juneau and Victoria) in just a few weeks that does not have a glacier viewing day on the itinerary. Instead, we have longer days in Skagway and Juneau than we probably would have had otherwise. We're in a port-side balcony cabin. I do want to maximize the amount of scenery we get to appreciate from the ship, despite the lack of a designated scenic cruising day (and recognizing the relatively shorter daylight hours of a September cruise compared to earlier in the summer). For how much of our cruising time will we be in sight of land? I'm assuming that at least on the two sea days, we likely won't have much to look at. I'm planning to be up with the sun, and will try not to make plans (dinner or otherwise) during daylight hours on days when we've been in port and should still be relatively close to land. 

 

Thanks for any hints and expectation-setting you can help with!

[CruiserBruce]

The first and next to last day will be sea days, so not in sight of land. Your sailing between ports will mostly be at night, but there will be some daylight before you dock, and after you sail. In those time frames you will be in the Alaskan Inside Passage, for the most part, so you will see scenery on both sides.

[aussielozzie18]

I thought Sitka was a stunning port to sail in and out of.  We actually followed Quantum into that port.  We saw lots of whales from our balcony through binoculars and the volcano was a stunning sight to see plus seeing all the fishing boats out on the beautiful water early. We were blessed with beautiful weather so that helped.

 

If I recall correctly Junea was a lovely sail in, lots of mountains on either side early in the sail in then I liked looking at all the homes on the edge of the water as we got closer.  Once we docked but not yet permitted to disembark, we saw lots of bald eagles diving into the water near the ship, from our balcony. They were close so didn’t need our binoculars to see them.

 

We were up early getting ready for Skagway and we had a long day (we hired a car and self drove to Emerald Lake) so as soon as we got back on board it was time for dinner, no can’t comment on the sail in/sail out for that port.

 

We sailed from Vancouver and I didn’t think the inside passage was anything special on the first & last sea day.  Just my personal opinion.

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

54 minutes ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We sailed from Vancouver and I didn’t think the inside passage was anything special on the first & last sea day.  Just my personal opinion.

 

 

The OP is sailing from Seattle. They won't be in the same portion of the Inside Passage as someone sailing from Vancouver. They will be going out to sea, west of Vancouver Island. You most likely went east of Vancouver Island.

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We sailed from Vancouver and I didn’t think the inside passage was anything special on the first & last sea day.  Just my personal opinion.

 

 

 

You only sailed through a tiny portion of the Inside Passage, which runs from Olympia to Skagway. Unfortunately, sailing northbound from Vancouver, even at the Solstice, the most scenic parts are during darkness.

 

Very few cruise ships now sail the Inside Passage, so for spectacular scenery you need to book a ferry between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert, which does the entire trip in daylight.