As the boat neared the town of Ketchikan, “Salmon Capital of the world,” we were still at a loss as to what we should do there once the boat docked. Normally, we have our activities scheduled out for our trips, but on this one, we just could not decide. The shore excursions offered through the cruise...

Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park was something we were looking forward to seeing. When we initially booked this trip we had envisioned ourselves kayaking the frigid glacial runoffs and dodging calving glaciers. But as it turned out, the cruise line did not offer kayaking excursions in Glacier Bay....

We awoke on the morning of the 4th day of our cruise to find the Volendam docked in Skagway Alaska, the “Gateway to the Klondike.” A town we were excited to explore. During the great Klondike gold rush in the late 19th century, Skagway had 80 saloons and was known as “the roughest town on earth.”...

“This is the capital of Alaska?” I asked as our cruise ship prepared to dock along Juneau’s wharf. “I expected it to be bigger.” But with a population of 30,000 and being completely landlocked with no roads in or out, it made sense why it was so small. Once docked, we made our way down the...

After departing Vancouver on Holland America’s cruise ship, the Volendam, we headed north through the inside passage on our way to Alaska. The first day and a half would have us at sea and on the morning of the third day we would venture into Tracy Arm fjord to see some natural beauty, or something,...

The night before leaving for our 7-day Alaskan cruise we packed up about half of our house to bring along with us. While most trips have us packing light, a cruise is a license to over pack. Especially cruising to an area with cold weather. Not only did we need to bring our regular clothing to wear,...

After one of history’s deadliest maritime disasters, the Titanic, one would think that passenger ships would want to avoid going near icebergs. But nearly 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic people actually pay money to go to areas with icebergs. Why would anyone want to go where it is cold,...