Home of Stuck at the Airport – Seattle’s summer cruise season runs from mid-April to mid-October.
This summer, a record-breaking 2.1 million passengers booked 330 ships and headed north to Alaska in search of wildlife, glaciers, mountains, forests, fjords and more.
We have flown but never sailed. To Alaska. However, we spent some time this week getting an update on at least three of the dozen major cruise lines that fly from here to Alaska.
Holland America’s circumnavigation
Many cruise lines’ schedules include sailings spanning several months and more than 100 days, taking passengers around the world or to multiple continents as part of a single journey. Bookings for these bucket list trips fill up quickly.
Dutch American Volendam The ship is docking in Seattle on its current 133-day Great World voyage while sailing south from Alaska.
The company is based here, so it hosted a party on board, where we met the company’s mascot, Louie the lion, and heard the big announcement about the company’s two ambitious 2028 voyages.
Two Grand Voyage itineraries include a 129-day circumnavigation or a 90-day deep dive in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
We fell in love with Australia and New Zealand on a two-week Holland America cruise a year ago, and this cruise added to a long list of places we’ll go back to someday for more.
So if we could increase our savings plan now, a 90-day “deep” trip would be the ideal way to do that.
Princess Cruises hosts Alaska-themed drone show
Princess Cruises’ newest cruise ship, star princess (Capacity: more than 4,000 passengers) recently embarked on her maiden voyage to Alaska, with 20 round-trips planned for the season.
To celebrate, the cruise line hosted an impressive free Alaska-themed drone show at the Space Needle at Seattle Center.
Sample “Star Seeker” by Windstar
Windstar’s newest ship with 112 suites star seekerlaunched its maiden voyage from Miami in January and sailed from Vancouver, British Columbia to Alaska during the summer before heading to Japan in the fall.
As the ship (Windstar calls it a yacht) headed north, we were able to hop aboard for a quick overnight trip between Seattle and Vancouver to test out the cabins, dining options, and other onboard amenities.
We give it all a thumbs up.
We learned one of the reasons why day trips like this are so popular.
We met a couple who are huge Windstar fans and have booked a month-long trip to an exotic location later this year.
Seattle-area residents took advantage of a day trip from Seattle to Vancouver to familiarize themselves with the ship ahead of their 31-day stay. Smart!
(Top image courtesy of Visit Seattle)