What you can do in port in Alaska
These are the usual stops on an Inside Passage cruise or a one-way cruise across the Gulf of Alaska. A scenic sail such as Tracy Arm, Glacier Bay, or Hubbard Glacier has no pier. You watch from the ship.
An excursion can be added in a port. On a stop of four to eight hours, there is time for one plan, not two. If the ship stays longer, you can add the second. A tour sold by the ship waits if the group is late. A taxi or a tour you arranged on your own does not make the ship wait.
Juneau
Ships dock downtown, a short walk from the tram.
Mendenhall Glacier is about 13 miles from the pier, usually 20 to 30 minutes by bus or taxi. You can walk a trail toward the face, or stay at the visitor center and look across the lake. The Mount Roberts tram starts beside the dock. A whale-watching boat leaves from Auke Bay, about 20 minutes from downtown, and humpbacks are the whales people come to see from late spring into summer. In town you can order grilled salmon, or a chowder made from it. Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm are not Juneau. Those are fjords the ship sails, and there is no pier.
Skagway
The dock is at the foot of town.
Broadway is the old gold-rush street, and you can walk it from the ship. The White Pass and Yukon Route leaves from the depot, a short walk from the pier. The train climbs the Klondike route to the summit. The summit is colder than the dock, even in July.
Ketchikan
Ships dock on the waterfront.
Creek Street is a boardwalk over the creek. You can walk there from the piers. The totem poles at Saxman are a few miles south of town. Totem Bight is about 10 miles north, in a spruce forest above the water. A short stop leaves time for the boardwalk or one of the pole parks. It does not leave time for both parks and a boat.
Icy Strait Point
This is a private dock at Hoonah, not a city pier.
The old cannery building, the zip line, and the beach are on the property. A whale-watching boat leaves from the dock. You can walk to Hoonah from the dock if you want the town.
Seward
Seward is usually the end of a one-way Gulf cruise, not a four-hour stop.
The small-boat harbor is in town. A Kenai Fjords boat goes out through Resurrection Bay and, when the weather allows, toward the glaciers and the whales. If you are staying on, the Alaska Railroad runs between Seward and Anchorage.
Whittier
The ship docks beside the tunnel.
Whittier is the other end of a one-way cruise. The only road and the railroad share the tunnel into Anchorage, so the transfer is part of leaving the ship. There is not a walkable old town at the pier.
Scenic sails
Tracy Arm, Endicott Arm, Glacier Bay, College Fjord, and Hubbard Glacier have no pier.
You watch from the deck or a balcony. When a smaller boat is offered, it can get closer to the ice than the cruise ship can. Dress for wind even in July.
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