Silversea Sailing to Alaska

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Alaska.  To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed since I have seen other glaciers and fjords in more spectacular locations (like Greenland, Norway and Antarctica).  It is true that the Alaskan scenery may not quite live up to the other destinations, but it is spectacular scenery, nonetheless.   Plus, there is very little jet lag to visit Alaska (only an hour for me) and the flights are much shorter ☺

Cruises to Alaska leave and end from several different ports.  My cruise started in Vancouver, Canada and ended in Seward, Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula.   These were all new destinations for me.  

I spent 3 nights in Vancouver before my cruise and the area has a lot to offer.  I was able to walk to Stanley Park and see the Totem Poles, take a nature cruise to see seals and eagles, visit some of the museums and eat several great meals (including a famous Honey Dip donut at Lee’s in the Granville Island market...photo below to entice you).  

I stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront and it is right across the street from the cruise terminal.  Guests staying there can even have the hotel transfer their luggage directly to the cruise ship.  You drop it off at the bell stand and see it again in your stateroom on board.  This is a wonderful service and is complimentary  (a gratuity for the bell staff is greatly appreciated).  I have a great relationship with this hotel and can offer you complimentary perks for booking with me.  

I sailed on Silversea’s new ship Silver Nova.  This was one of the largest cruise ships I’ve sailed on with about 700 guests.  However, by cruising standards, this is still a very small ship.   Silversea is known for excellent service and the guest to staff ratio is nearly 1:1 and every guest has a butler (even the lowest category of room has a butler).  The staterooms are large and well appointed---even the entry level classic verandah suites.  My bathroom was huge and had double vanities and a large shower with a bench to sit on.   Some staterooms also have a bath tub.  The balcony (also called a verandah) had enough room for a small table and two chairs AND room to walk around and take photos.  This is a great space to have in a destination like Alaska where there are long hours of daylight and stunning scenery every day. ​

The cruise started with a day at sea---it is a long journey from Vancouver to the first port stop of Ketchikan.  Silversea offers a wide variety of excursions and I chose to kayak in Ketchikan.  Ketchikan is the wettest city in America and they get over 13 FEET of rain each year.  The way I kayak I typically get wet anyway…..so I figured that was a good activity if it did rain ☺  The weather cooperated and we only got a few sprinkles and had a wonderful time enjoying the pristine waters.  We even have a few playful seals follow us and we saw about a dozen eagles. ​

Our next stop was the capital of Juneau.  I walked into town and saw the state capital, governors mansion and some of the older churches in an easy walk from the port.  My main excursion to the famous Mendenhall Glacier wasn’t until the afternoon.  This was my first helicopter ride ever and this was a great way to start.  The heliport is a short drive from the port and the helicopter ride to the glacier is about 20 minutes with the scenery getting more spectacular with each moment.  My excursion allowed me to land on the glacier and take a short walk.  You are provided with boots to place over your shoes with spikes on the bottom for traction on the ice.  I felt like a small little dot on this huge glacier….it really is impressive, both from the air and on the ground.  Small little streams of water run through the glacier and you can lay on your belly and take a sip.  You fly out the way you came in, but the perspective is looking out at the green trees and ocean on the way back…still pretty stunning. ​

The next stop was Skagway and I was scheduled to go on the White Pass Railway.  Skagway had a large landslide last season and it closed the main pier where cruise ships dock, so now every ship has to use tenders.  Tenders are smaller boats that hold about 50 people that bring you from the ship to shore.  They are enclosed and fairly comfortable, but it can be a bit logistically challenging to get everyone off the ship in time for excursions.  There were hundreds of people going on the train and while the staff kept saying not to worry, I can tell my looking at the time that my group was not going to make the train.  Sure enough, by the time we made it to land, the train was long gone.  Silversea offered guests the option to go on a later train that left about 1.5 hours later.  I decided it was a beautiful day and that I would prefer to be outside.  Skagway has a couple of hiking trails right from the middle of town.  I took a trail that took me up to a lake and the trail went all the way around---it was a nice way to spend a few hours.

​Our last port stop was Sitka and I had already planned to hike here.  I hired a guide to take me into the Tongass National Forest---this was another trail that you can join right from the town center.  The national forest has a large amount of biodiversity and is a nice place to explore--- Iwish I was there in the berry season as there are several kinds that grow right along the trails, but I was a few weeks to a month early.  I did see a baby banana slug.  Not exactly the same as seeing a moose or bear, but it was something different.​

The next day was scenic sailing at the Hubbard Glacier.  Many Alaskan sailings have a day like this.  People can get confused as the glacier is listed as a port, but you aren’t able to get off the ship.  The ship gets as close as it can safely to the glacier, so you can appreciate the colors, size and the loud noise of calving (when pieces break off the glacier and fall into the water).  We had about 10 calving  events that day---by the time you hear the noise, the ice is already in the water.  We spent about an hour at the glacier.  The staff turns it into an event---if you choose to come out to the top deck for a head on view, there is hot chocolate, glühwein, coffee and snacks.   We arrived at the glacier around 9am, but the glacier scenery (meaning when there started to be small little icebergs) started more like 7:30am and we weren’t back out to open ocean until around 11:30am, so it was a full morning of scenery. ​

My sailing ended in Seward which is on the Kenai Peninsula—about 2.5 hours by car from Anchorage or about the same amount of time by scenic train.  I decided to spend a few nights after the cruise to explore this area.  The Kenai Peninsula is a popular destination, but it sees only a small fraction of the travelers that Denali National Park does.  I liked the idea of smaller crowds.  I rented a car for one day to drive across the peninsula to stop at places like Cooper Landing and Kenai.  Kenai is about 3 hours from Seward each way.  I only rented the car for 1 day for a couple of reasons---first, Seward has a great free shuttle service that takes you around town throughout the day and second because the rental car was crazy expensive at about $300 for 24 hours!  This is going rate and later in the season it isn’t uncommon to see even higher prices.  If you don’t need to explore on your own, you can join a day tour.  ​

I enjoyed this area and saw Exit Glacier, saw a moose walking along side the road early in the morning and had one of the most eventful whale watching tours I’ve ever been on.  We saw a pod of humpback whales bubble net feeding.  It is a technique for surface feeding….all of a sudden you see a large flock of birds as the water starts to churn and then boom, the whales surface with a mouthful of fish and breach.   We watched this pod for a good long while as they moved from spot to spot.  We also saw a lot of seals, sea lions, puffins, and eagles.
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I really enjoyed my time in Alaska and can see why this is such a popular destination.  Please contact me to get started planning on your own Alaskan journey.