A past exploration of Glacier Bay National Park.Sometimes we plan our travels years in advance; other times we simply wake up and realize a birthday requires a change of scenery. This morning, Jay and I rather spontaneously decided to book passage on another Alaskan cruise to help celebrate my birthday later this month.
We are no strangers to the BC and Alaskan coastline. We have already sailed these specific waters five times stretching all the way back to 2001. Our very first cruise of any kind was a seven-night Alaskan run on the Regal Princess twenty-five years ago this May. We also sailed in September 2022 aboard the ms Zuiderdam, specifically to celebrate Jay's birthday as the autumn chill started to set in.
Despite those seasonal outliers, our recent history reveals a clear and undeniable pattern. We heavily favor the month of July for these coastal retreats, having completed exactly three separate summer voyages up the passage. My 60th birthday in July 2019 was celebrated aboard the ms Nieuw Amsterdam. We returned to the same waters in July 2023 on the ms Volendam, hauling our friends, Ed, Shinji, Tim, and Jiwan along for the ride. Most recently, we spent July 2024 navigating the fjords on the ms Koningsdam with my sister Laurie and her friend, Michelle. I've now come to expect birthdays in Alaska.
July in Alaska simply works for us; the weather is tolerable and the glaciers remain reliably frozen. Beyond the agreeable climate, the rugged geography essentially forces our hand. There are simply no roads connecting many coastal towns. Even Juneau, the state capital, is completely cut off from the continental highway network. When we sit down to calculate the costs, simply walking onto a ship right here in Vancouver ends up being significantly cheaper than flying almost anywhere else for a week of hotel and restaurant bills.
Ketchikan, Alaska is, perhaps, my favourite, port town.
To pull off a booking on this spontaneous voyage, I contacted Arlene; she is our eighty-year-old cruise specialist operating out of the Expedia Cruises agency right here in New Westminster. Given the extremely busy summer season and our notoriously last-minute request, I honestly did not think she would find any available space. Against all odds, she managed to secure a single remaining cabin on the newly renovated Celebrity Solstice. We have absolutely zero experience with this particular cruise line, which means we are looking forward to a completely fresh dynamic on board.
Looking at the sheer volume of our previous coastal sailings, one might assume we have memorized every pine tree between Vancouver and Juneau. Yet the appeal of the Inside Passage remains stubbornly intact. We keep going back because the logistics are effortless, the scenery is consistently grand, and it provides a perfectly structured environment to simply sit back, eat well, and watch the ice float by without managing a complicated daily itinerary.
A helicopter ride to explore a glacier from Skagway, Alaska.