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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The Northwest Passage may be the “final frontier” for cruisers.

With scheduled cruises to virtually every other corner of the world, the Arctic may be the only truly unique experience left. If you haven’t heard of the Northwest passage, it is that route across the top of world – the waters of the Arctic Ocean running along the northern coast of Canada, Alaska, and Russia.

The Northwest Passage was a fabled trade route for ships since the time of Columbus, before it was finally navigated by Roald Amundsen in the early days of the 20th century. To underscore how significant an accomplishment this was, it took 38 years before a second ship was able to repeat the journey.

As an interesting aside, that second ship is well preserved, and is in the Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia – worth checking out next time you’re on an Alaskan cruise.

Both these expeditions took multiple years, and the ships were frozen into the ice for more than one winter before being able to continue.

Luckily, the Arctic weather is much more forgiving now than it was a century ago. Since 2009, the ice has been clear across the top of the world, making ship traffic much more common.

If you’re not involved in shipping or research, you can still sail the Northwest Passage – and you can do it in style. The Crystal Serenity is scheduled to make this unusual journey in the summers of 2016 and 2017. You can depart from either Vancouver or Anchorage to make the 42-day, or 32-day voyage to New York City.

After leaving Alaska, the Serenity will ply the waters of the Bering Strait – that forgotten part of the world where the United States and Russia are only 50 miles apart. It then follows the northern coast of Alaska, and through the Canadian archipelago before emerging in the Northern Atlantic. Along the way, you get to experience the midnight sun, and have the opportunity to experience scenery and animals not seen in other parts of the world. Polar bears, narwhals, musk oxen and caribou are all present on this unique voyage.

There are several ports of call in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, but not ports that the other cruise ships call upon. If you want the mass-market experience, you’d be better served taking a regular Alaskan cruise. Much like African safaris used to take travellers to visit the unique people and locations of seldom visited locales, the Crystal Serenity visits villages and communities in Alaska, Canada and Greenland that don’t often get visitors.

This gives you the opportunity to interface with local indigenous peoples, and learn about their culture and way of life, all while being able to retreat to the first-class luxury comfort offered on the Crystal Serenity.

For those who like a more active approach to cruising, you can take shore excursions in zodiac boats, or sea kayaks.

The Northwest Passage could be the last truly unique cruise. It’s worth checking out before one of the mass-market lines buys up it’s own Arctic island to disgorge 3000 passengers at a time.

I’d love to help you create a plan to accomplish the items on your travel bucket list.  Get in touch today.  I look forward to hearing from you!