Most Alaska cruises are round-trips out of Seattle or Vancouver, but I wanted something different — so we booked a one-way sailing from Vancouver to Seward aboard the NCL Jewel. September in Alaska can be a gamble weather-wise, but luck was on our side: temperatures hovered in the 50s nearly the entire trip, with just one rainy day in Juneau. This route let us pack in more scenery than the typical loop, calling at Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway before spending a few glorious days cruising Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier on our way to disembark in Seward.
Compared to my cruise just ten days earlier, getting to Vancouver was refreshingly simple — a non-stop Air Canada flight from Puerto Vallarta, and in Business Class for only $650 USD per person. The way home would be trickier: from Anchorage to Seattle to Mexico City and finally Puerto Vallarta, roughly a day and a half of travel via Aeromexico/Delta, but still just $520 USD in Business Class. The takeaway? Business Class doesn't have to break the bank — the deals are out there if you keep looking.
We were meeting my daughter and her husband on this cruise, and NCL's included airfare deal from Denver worked out to just $658 USD roundtrip for both of them, plus $200 for airport transfers — another great value. Since we were traveling all the way from Mexico, we booked a hotel near the cruise terminal the night before, and on a clear day it was an easy four-to-five-block walk to the ship.
Setting Sail from Vancouver
Embarkation had its hiccups — checking out of Canada and into the U.S. (since we'd be in American waters the rest of the trip) meant long immigration lines. If a country is going to require exit clearance for thousands of passengers, maybe don't staff it with two agents? Thankfully, the U.S. side had about six agents working, and NCL backed it up with roughly 30 check-in staff, which kept things moving. Once aboard, we grabbed lunch and wandered the ship to reacquaint myself with the Jewel, which I'd last sailed in March 2023. A few hours later we reunited with my daughter, and with that, we sailed away into a beautiful Vancouver evening.
After a full day cruising the Inside Passage, we arrived in Ketchikan — famous for its rainfall (140-plus inches a year), prolific salmon fishing, abundant wildlife, and its proximity to Misty Fjords National Park. August is peak season for watching salmon fight their way upriver to spawn. We got lucky with a dry, if foggy and cool, day. Tides here are dramatic, swinging as much as 20 feet between low and high — a real feat of engineering for docks and gangways trying to keep pace. We wandered into the Alaska Fish House and couldn't resist the fish and chips made with silver salmon fillets. Excellent choice. The town was buzzing, with three cruise ships in port at once.
Juneau: A Rainy Day at the Red Dog Saloon
Next came Juneau, Alaska's capital and a city unlike any other — there are no roads in or out; you arrive strictly by boat or plane. It's the second-largest city in the U.S. by land area and serves as the gateway to Mendenhall Glacier, a favorite for shore excursions. This turned out to be our only rainy day, so naturally, we did what any sensible traveler does: headed to the bar. The Red Dog Saloon delivered beer, food, and live piano from an 84-year-old performer belting out his own original songs. I'd actually been in that same saloon many times back in the 1980s, when I worked for Cunard Cruise Lines sailing Alaska for a summer — walking back in decades later was a genuinely fun full-circle moment.
Skagway: Gold Rush History and a Ride to the Sky
Our final port was Skagway, best known as the jumping-off point for the White Pass narrow gauge railway, which climbs toward the site of Alaska's first gold discoveries. A morning stroll led us to the Red Onion Saloon and some irresistible fried bread from the Klondike Doughboy.
That afternoon, we boarded the White Pass Train for a roughly two-hour ride with jaw-dropping views — climbing from sea level in Skagway to nearly 3,000 feet in just 20 miles. It's a steep, thrilling climb, and the scenery is worth every switchback.
Into the Ice: Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier
With the ports behind us, the next couple of days were all about the ice. in every sense.First up was Glacier Bay National Park, home to Margerie, Grand Pacific, John Hopkins, and Reid glaciers, with National Park Rangers onboard narrating the scenery. It brought back a favorite memory from my Cunard days in the '80s, when we tendered ashore to collect glacier ice — meant for an ice sculpture at the midnight buffet. A genuinely cool experience,
The following day brought us to Hubbard Glacier in Disenchantment Bay — a massive wall of ice stretching 76 miles long and plunging 1,200 feet deep, part of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and originating all the way in Canada's Yukon Territory. We were treated to some small calving events, always a breathtaking sight when a slab of ice crashes into the sea.
Journey's End in Seward
Our seven-day cruise wrapped up in Seward, a few hours south of Anchorage, meaning a bus ride was in order to catch our flights home. I booked ACT (Alaska Cruise Transportation), whose route included a welcome one-hour stop at the Alaska Wildlife Park. After feeling like we hadn't spotted much wildlife along the water, this stop more than made up for it — a sanctuary for rescued animals given a safe place to live out their lives.