MIAMI, April 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amy Hurley of
Boston cruised in Alaska in 2017 with three generations of her
family. Outside of Ketchikan, she
had a jaw-dropping moment – the kind you dream about in
anticipation of a cruise to a bucket list destination.
"We saw four whales spiraling down to create a whirlpool to get
food and jump up with their mouths open," said Hurley, 50, a
hospital fundraiser. "It's rare, and we saw them do it four times.
That was pretty amazing. Cruising is a great way to see
Alaska."
She is not alone in this opinion. According to an annual trends
survey of travel agents by leading travel agency company Travel
Leaders Group, Alaska cruises are,
for the first time, their most-booked U.S. destination, beating out
Orlando and Las Vegas.
Statistics further tell that story. According to the Cruise
Lines International Association (CLIA), the number of cruise
visitors to Alaska is expected to
break records this year with 34 ships bringing more than 1.165
million passengers to the destination. Alaska will be hot next year as well, with 37
ships expected to bring more than 1.3 million passengers.
The high demand for Alaska
cruises has a lot to do with the state's amazing scenery – from
snow-capped mountains and immense glaciers to emerald rainforests.
Travelers return with stories of extraordinary experiences with
wildlife and with guides who enthrall visitors with tales of native
culture, frontier spirit and a rich, colorful history that includes
the Gold Rush. Next year, Alaska
will celebrate its 60th anniversary of statehood.
Princess Cruises, the line that Amy
Hurley cruised on with her husband, young children, mother
and mother-in-law, is operating seven ships in Alaska in 2018. Next year, when Princess
celebrates its 50th anniversary of bringing passengers
to Alaska, it will add one of its
largest and newest ships, the 3,500-passenger Royal Princess, to
the region.
Holland America Line, also with
seven ships deployed in Alaska,
last year celebrated its 70th season in the region.
Carnival Cruise Line, the leader in the contemporary cruise market,
and ultra-luxury line Seabourn also cruise through the state during
its top travel season, from May into September. Next year, Cunard
will return to Alaska with cruises
in May and June.
Both Princess Cruises and Holland America Line have extensive
land operations including rail cars and lodges, making easy
planning for those looking to explore inland to popular places such
as Denali National Park,
Fairbanks and beyond, on a variety
of pre- and post-cruise tours.
Cruise ships typically begin Alaska cruises in Seattle, Vancouver and ports near Anchorage, though there are also longer
sailings from ports such as Los
Angeles and San Francisco.
On any itinerary, passengers have the extraordinary experience of
cruising past blue icebergs to see glaciers thunderously calve into
the sea in Glacier Bay National Park and other equally impressive
settings.
At ports of call such as Juneau
and Skagway, bald eagles fly
overhead as you view totem poles and learn Gold Rush history. Shore
excursions take travelers into the wild by land, sea or air,
including such experiences as flightseeing over a glacier, boarding
a small boat to follow whales and joining active excursions,
including hiking, biking, kayaking, canoeing, glacier trekking, and
even snorkeling.
Attractions in Alaska go beyond
serene beauty. It is a safe and amazing place, including for
multigenerational families, Hurley found.
Her family enjoyed meeting a wolverine at a wildlife preserve in
Haines. Driving back from that
shore excursion, they also caught a surprise view of several bears
lumbering on the side of the road.
While the grownups in her group were impressed when their ship
brought them up close to a calving glacier, the kids had their own
method of glacier-viewing. Says Hurley with a laugh: "They wouldn't
get out of the pool. I have pictures of them in bathing suits in
front of the glacier."
As part of Princess Cruises' award-winning North to Alaska program, local personalities join
guests on board to share their experiences – including
lumberjacks, storytellers, naturalists and photographers.
Princess Cruises' Cook My Catch provides opportunity for guests
on select fishing excursions to have their very own catch of the
day cooked for dinner. Foodies may want to take advantage of the
brand's new partnership with Bon Appétit, by booking the lifestyle
brand's recommended Juneau Foodie Walking Tour.
Guests who extend their vacation with a Princess Cruises tour
will enjoy stays at one or more of the line's five wilderness
lodges, with access to or from the ship via the line's
exclusive Direct-To-The-Wilderness rail
service. Debuting this year at the Mt. McKinley Princess
Wilderness Lodge is a tree house built by Pete Nelson of Animal Planet's "Treehouse Masters."
On Holland America Line ships, Alaska is well-represented whether you hear
about the history of the Huna people from a Tlingit interpreter,
sip Alaskan Brewing Company beer or taste the flavors of the
Pacific Northwest and Alaska in
signature dishes created by Ethan
Stowell, the star Seattle
chef newly appointed to the line's advising Culinary Council.
"Alaska in Concert" is a
not-to-be-missed concert created for the cruise line by BBC Earth,
with live music set against a backdrop of amazing, four-season
footage from the series "Wild Alaska."
Holland America Line's
award-winning Land + Sea Journeys, which range from 10 to 20 days,
combine a 3- to 7-day cruise and a visit to Denali National Park, Anchorage and Fairbanks. Some also take guests into the
remote Yukon Territory.
Guests stay at Holland America-owned Westmark hotels in
Fairbanks, Anchorage and Denali. New is the opportunity
to enjoy a meal with unforgettable views at the grand, two-story
restaurant in Denali Square at the McKinley Chalet Resort. Expected
to debut in summer 2019 is a 99-room addition that will feature the
first-ever junior suites at the resort, which serves as a base camp
for adventures at the national park.
On Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Legend, sailing round-trip
from Seattle on weeklong
itineraries, passengers will find unique-to-Alaska onboard entertainment, cultural
experiences and Just For Alaska menu items.
New this year are a pair of expanded, 14-day Carnival Journeys
cruises to Alaska, round-trip from
Long Beach, Calif., on the
Carnival Splendor, in August and September. These popular cruises
offer activities focusing on a variety of topics – everything from
photography and cooking to arts and crafts and celestial
navigation.
When Cunard returns to Alaska
in 2019, passengers on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner will benefit
from the line's new partnership with Rocky Mountaineer, with pre-
and post-cruise experiences available on the opulent, all-dome
train fleet. The excursions combine views of untouched wilderness,
historic storytelling and top-notch cuisine, including an
Alaskan-themed afternoon tea.
On Seabourn ships in Alaska and
British Columbia, guests enjoy
both a luxury experience shipboard and an opportunity to explore
remote areas, thanks to its Ventures by Seabourn optional
excursions. Robin West, Seabourn's
director of expedition operations, spent two years researching
itineraries with a focus on going beyond the tried-and-true ports
and into wilderness areas, before the line returned to the region
last year.
"It's a destination where guests can really immerse themselves
in a raw natural environment," West said. "It's a destination like
the Arctic or Antarctica where it
still really has that last frontier, wilderness feeling to it."
The 458-passenger Seabourn Sojourn, a ship equipped with such
niceties as The Grill by Thomas
Keller and an expansive Spa at Seabourn, serves as a base
camp for Zodiac, kayak and hiking tours, run by a 12-person
expedition team that also provides insightful lectures
shipboard.
"What we are trying to do is give our guests periods of times to
immerse in the environment," West says.
The Seabourn itineraries include an entire day, for instance, in
Misty Fjord National Monument, a protected area about the size of
Connecticut. Zodiacs take guests
to awaiting floatplanes for aerial views of such sights as
waterfalls, bears and bald eagles.
West's favorite Alaska
experiences include kayaking around the Inian Islands.
"You come from open ocean and all of a sudden into a channel and
can see some of the glaciers, and in the sheltered water are 50,
60, 70 sea lions on rocks and in the water, slapping salmon with
fish flying all over the place," West says. "Alaska can offer that kind of rare,
mind-blowing experience."
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SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc