Alaska
akapostille.Com

Alaska is a land of superlatives. It is, first and foremost, the biggest state in the Union. At 570,000 square miles (365 million acres) it has the equivalent of one-fifth of the landmass of the combined Lower 48 states. (Yes, it's bigger than Texas -- twice as big, in fact -- and it would take three Californias, 12 New Yorks, or 470 Rhode Islands to equal it in size!) It is home to North America's tallest peak, Mount McKinley (known to the locals as Denali) whose 20,320-foot crown dominates the Alaska Range. Barrow, on the Arctic Ocean, is the most northerly community in the U.S. Even its disasters lead the pack: the Good Friday earthquake near Anchorage in 1964 measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, the highest ever recorded in the nation.

The message is clear: Alaska is big and bold, and while hardly the most populous state in the nation (with 627,000 residents, it ranks low, low, low), it is an intriguing, culturally diverse destination with thousands of miles of scenic coastline that make it a natural for cruise ships. Each of the ports offers a different perspective on life in the most northerly U.S. state. Ketchikan (which dubs itself "Alaska's First City" because it's the first place ships dock on the northbound Inside Passage cruise) is a center of Tlingit (pronounced KLING-kit) Indian culture. Its totem pole parks and museums reflect that Indian heritage. Juneau, the capital city, and one of America's most photogenic seats of state government, seems, in some ways, less Alaskan than other ports -- as might be expected from a city in which a third of whose residents are civil servants, many of them outsiders. Skagway, the port of entry for 1898's Klondike gold seekers, is heavily Gold Rush-era oriented (if, that is, you can overlook the sign on the side of the Mercantile Building which proclaims "We proudly serve Starbucks coffee"). Petersburg's theme is Norwegian, Valdez's is the Alaska Pipeline (it's the southernmost terminal), Sitka's is Russian ... and on and on.

It's no wonder that more than 700,000 cruise visitors flock to the state during its all-too-short season (mid-May to mid-September) each year. They come to enjoy the history, the frontier ambiance, the wildlife and -- above all -- the scenery. Towering mountains, massive glaciers, tranquil (and sometimes turbulent) waterways, countless miles of rainforest and Arctic tundra -- these are the magnets for cruise passengers.

Who Goes There?
Nine cruise lines have scheduled a total of 27 large ships in Alaska service this year (not counting the six companies that offer service on small ships with capacities ranging from 6 to 235 passengers). Most of the major lines are represented. The two biggest Alaska operators, Princess and Holland America, each have no less than seven ships in the market. Just your basic, run-of-the-mill 800-pound gorillas! The two Royal Caribbean Cruises brands -- Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity -- combine for another six.

Choosing an Itinerary
There are essentially two Alaska cruise itineraries -- the Inside Passage and the Gulf of Alaska. The first is primarily a seven-night round trip voyage from Seattle or Vancouver. Princess, Crystal and Silversea also offer 10-night and 12-night versions out of San Francisco. The Gulf itinerary is a seven-night one-way cruise between Seattle/Vancouver and Seward/Whittier, the two ports for Anchorage. An occasional misconception among would-be cruisers is that a Gulf of Alaska itinerary does not offer passengers the opportunity to visit the Inside Passage ports. It does. The gulf in question is that stretch of water north of Glacier Bay and the south side of the Kenai Peninsula, where the Anchorage ports are located. To get between those ports and either Seattle or Vancouver, it is necessary to pass along the Inside Passage coastal strip so a typical Gulf of Alaska cruise will probably include the likes of Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway.

A word of caution: If you are going to run into choppy seas it's more likely to be in the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska than in the largely protected stretch of the Inside Passage.

As an alternative to the big ships (some as big as 113,000 tons and carrying 2,600 passengers) cruisers can opt for a different kind of trip on one of the smaller vessels -- such as the luxury yachts of American Safari. The advantage of all of small ships, of course, is that they can go to places that the big boys can't -- for instance, the Indian village of Kake, Petersburg, Wrangell Narrows, and a dozen tiny inlets too shallow for the megaships. Also -- again as a function of size -- they have the maneuverability to follow aquatic wildlife when it's spotted, to get a little closer than their bigger competitors. (It should be noted here that in order to protect the sea creatures, there are legal restrictions on the amount of time any vessel of any size may "shadow" wildlife.)

Tags:  superlatives america ocean anchorage