The difference between mass-market and luxury cruising is probably more pronounced in Alaska than any other market. This is not to say that the mass-market lines do a bad job in Alaska, but the contrast between those and the luxury lines is quite stark.
The big mass-market players in Alaska are Princess and Holland America. Princess’s ships are all over 100,000 tons are carry more than 2500 passengers, and as such have a hard time making it to anywhere other than the three stock ports of call: Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchican. HAL has slightly smaller ships, but with a few exceptions, are mostly restricted to the standard ports of call as well.
Take Skagway as an example – this small town has only 800 permanent residents, with a bit of extra infrastructure because the cruise ship industry is such a huge part of their economy. However, if you haven’t been there before, you can only imagine what happens when a town of 800 welcomes 10,000 or more passengers who are disgorged from three or four ships on the same day!
The experience is a lot like Disneyworld at spring break, except with mountains and glaciers.
Contrast that experience with what you’ll get on a luxury line, like Crystal, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, or Seabourn; or on an adventure-style line like Un-Cruise or Lindblad.
On a smaller ship, you’ll be visiting ports along with a few hundred other passengers as opposed to a few thousand.
Second – smaller ships are able to reach smaller, more interesting ports. If you’ve already seen Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, it might be time to check out Icy Strait (Hoonah), Sitka, Prince Rupert, Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, or Nome.
The scenery anywhere in Alaska and British Columbia is spectacular, but what you often miss on the big ships is the art, culture, and people of the ports. You will be surprised how many of the people working in the shops in Ketchikan are actually university students from Washington State! In the smaller ports of call, you are much more likely to actually meet a local, or to connect with indigenous peoples.
Further, the small ships purposely time their schedules so they are not at a port of call when there is even ONE other ship, much less three or four.
So if you’ve cruised to Alaska previously, and been left thinking, “Wow, what spectacular scenery… but now I know what it looks like to the local cattle herds”, you might want to give Alaska another try on a smaller ship – it’s guaranteed to be a different experience.
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Sue Bradley
