Alaska

Alaska

The last frontier, land of the midnight sun, and home of tons of fun! We went to Alaska on a cruise in July of 2026. Our cruise left from Vancouver, and we arrived there a day early because you never want to fly in on the day of your cruise and risk missing your ship!. In Vancouver we explored Stanley Park and Granville Island Public Market. Both are great places to explore and free to do. We ate dinner at Tap and Barrel, which had a great view of the harbor and the food was also pretty good. The next morning, we had Lee’s Donuts - which I highly recommend - and then we boarded our cruise ship! We cruised on Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas and I don’t think that I have any complaints about the ship or service at all. We had a blast! Our ports on this cruise were Ketchikan, Icy Straight Point, Sitka, and Skagway.

In Ketchikan we went snorkeling. Yes, snorkeling in Alaska! My dad and grandma skipped out on this excursion, but the rest of us really enjoyed it. It was really cool to see another seascape and what the Alaskan waters were like. We saw a bunch of creatures like crabs, starfish, sea orchids, and jellyfish. We went with a company called Snorkel Alaska and they were very kind and knowledgeable. The guide also said they sometimes see seals and whales. After snorkeling, we explored the town of Ketchikan. On our port day, there were 16,000 thousand people there so the town was extremely crowded. All of the restaurants had super long waits and we ended up eating at King Crab, which was expensive but good. This was definitely the most touristy spot that we visited and the large crowds were kind of annoying.

The next port that we went to was Icy Straight Point. This was the exact opposite of Ketchikan, as there were hardly any amenities. At the port the guys went fly fishing while my mom and grandma went kayaking. Fly fishing was our favorite excursion by far and I highly recommend the tour guides Game Creek Guides. If you're not into fishing, I know my mom and grandma both really enjoyed kayaking.

Sitka was a surprising port to us in a good way. It was a very quaint and charming town with a population of about 8,000. We went on a private custom tour with Beyond the Dock Tours and our guide Gary showed us all around Sitka. We went to multiple scenic overlooks and learned about the history of Sitka. We also went on a short hike. This was my mom’s favorite excursion and the rest of us also really enjoyed it.

Our last port was Skagway and I can’t say much about the town as we never went into the town itself, but from the ship it looked really pretty. My parents and brother hiked a trail near the port and said it was beautiful. Our excursion here was going on a scenic train ride (White Pass Railway), and this is the most popular tour to do here. We all enjoyed it and it was also very relaxing.

Then, we headed towards Seward, Alaska and viewed Hubbard Glacier in the morning, which was cool to see. After we disembarked our cruise in the town of Seward, we did a 6 hour tour with Major Marine Tours of the Kenai Fjords. We got to go through Kenai Fjords National Park and see a ton of wildlife including humpbacks, sea otters, puffins, Dall’s porpoises, and sea lions. The scenery was stunning and we really enjoyed getting to see this unique area. The only thing that I didn’t like about the tour was how crowded our boat was as it made getting a good spot to see the wildlife tough, but on the other hand, the boat was really nice. When the tour ended, it was 5:30pm and we headed to the train that went to Anchorage. The Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic Train was a scenic viewing train and, wow, were the views breathtaking. There is really no better way to get from Seward to Anchorage, and you’ll miss out if you don’t take that train. Now, if you do this train I don’t think that you really need to do the Skagway train, but if you really like trains and pretty views, then go for it. The train arrived about 10pm in Anchorage, and my dad did not want to spend the time or money at a hotel so we caught a red eye flight that left at 1:30am. Apparently, red eye flights are pretty popular from this location and they are also cheaper. We then arrived to Seattle at 6am before our flight that left at 9am to get back home! I don’t really like red eyes because I can’t really fall asleep on the plane, but thankfully I did this time. Anyways, we really enjoyed this trip and I bet you will too!

Superlatives-

Favorite Excursion: Fly fishing

Favorite Thing We Ate: Free ice cream cones on the ship

Hidden Surprise- The Coastal Classic train ride from Seward to Anchorage