Alaska’s Inside Passage – The Route

Please note: My Inside Passage posts are specific to the Ruby Princess ship on its Seattle to Seattle round trip.

The inside passage route is highly recommended by many people and at 7 nights is one of the shortest Alaska trips available from cruise ships. Based on comments from many people, we took the Ruby Princess roundtrip from Seattle during the second week of May.

The boat left from Seattle and it took 43 hours to arrive in its 1st port of Juneau. During those hours, expect to experience a noticeable rocking of the boat from side to side while you are sleeping because you are on the open ocean. Ocean swells will accentuate the feeling and higher decks will feel the effect even more. We were on the Riviera deck which is the top deck for cabins and when we were on the open ocean, the effect was noticeable. Our lanai door, which didn’t properly lock, slid open during that 1st night because of the swells and winds. Some people might find the motion excessive if the weather is stormy. Land never feels so firm and solid until you’ve spent nearly 2 days on the ocean. Remember the scene in Waterworld when Kevin Costner was finding his “land legs”?

We were in a starboard cabin (R417) and thought our cabin had the best views throughout the entire cruise. Yes, the boat does turn around when returning to Seattle, but overall I felt the views were best from the Starboard side on this cruise during the daytime. You know, when you are awake and viewing is better than in the dark.

Juneau was the first port of call and was allocated an adequate amount of time (11 hours) to go on excursions and explore the city. Quoth the Raven, “Where’s the food?” Don’t worry, you’ll understand after reading my post about visited ports if not now. The ship traveled 8 hours during the night to reach our second port, Skagway.

Skagway was my favorite port. This town was a rowdy, lawless pathway to the Yukon gold rush in 1898. If you do some reading (I wish I had read even more) in advance, the town will probably have even more meaning for you. With about 14 hours in port, this became one of the best towns to visit during our cruise. I was also happy this town was not touristy at all.

It took about 10 overnight hours to reach Glacier Bay National Park, the next “port”, and we spent about 6 hours in this part of the cruise. The Ruby Princess was rotated in a 360 degree pattern to view 2 glaciers, so you will have a view no matter on which side of the boat you are sitting. Unfortunately, this was one of the most disappointing segments of the cruise. I think it was because of my personal expectations with hoping to see calving glaciers and perhaps more marine mammals than just seals lounging on mini icebergs. In fact, seals in Glacier Bay and the big ravens in Juneau were the only wildlife we saw except for some deer along I-5 in Washington State.

We left Glacier Bay in mid-afternoon and spent the next 16 hours traveling to Ketchikan overnight. Unfortunately, were in Ketchikan for only 6 hours before leaving for Victoria.

The Ruby Princess traveled 17 hours to Victoria, Canada where we spent only about 5 hours in the evening before returning to Seattle early the following morning.

That ended the cruise and in all it was an enjoyable cruise for many other reasons than just the route taken. But as someone who lived in Alaska recently told me when I mentioned our trip, “You didn’t really see Alaska then”. And I replied, “The only bears, eagles, and moose I saw were on shirts and mugs”.

This cruise showed me one thing I did not expect. I do not think I would enjoy the 5 days it takes to cross the Pacific to Hawaii or Atlantic Ocean on a repositioning crse.