What the 5 night Alaska cruise lacked in duration it made up in weather

Masonmj84

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Just finished the 5 night Alaska cruise on the Wonder.

We chose this cruise because we've never previously cruised Alaska and had trouble committing the amount of money Disney wanted for the longer cruises (for example, in mid-summer season, the 5 night cruise was cheaper per night than either the 7 or 9 night cruises). This concern was punctuated by Alaska's iffy weather.

Under the circumstances, we felt like we got our money's worth and then some. While we only had one port stop (Ketchikan), it was a cloudless day where the high reached the low 80's! It seriously felt like a port stop in the Caribbean (without the humidity). The previous day, during which we went up Endicott Arm, was also cloudless and I could not stop taking pictures. It was just so gorgeous. Probably some of the most breath taking scenery I've ever seen and also probably the best day I've ever experienced on a cruise ship. The day before that was also mostly sunny.

The last day of the cruise (sea day heading back to Vancouver) was more typical Alaska cruise weather (overcast, highs in the mid 60's) but we were okay with that given that the previous three days were so beautiful. In fact, at the end of the cruise, the captain noted that our Endicott Arm and Ketchikan days had the best weather of the entire season up to that point. We were truly very lucky, especially given the shorter duration of the cruise.

The one downer about the weather is that Vancouver was very smoky (due to forest fires in the interior of BC) when we left on the cruise and when we returned. But this just made the weather in Alaska all the more enjoyable.

This cruise seriously has me on the fence about taking another Alaska cruise. On the one hand, I feel like we just barely got our feet wet on this cruise and would like to take a longer cruise and see some of the other ports. On the other hand, I feel that we could probably take 20 more Alaska cruises and not ever again have the kind of weather we had. So a future cruise would likely be a relative let down from that stand point.

One more note about the smoke in Vancouver. We arrived in Vancouver on July 27, which was 6 days before our cruise (spent time touring Vancouver, Whistler, and Victoria) and, at that time, the weather was beautiful. The smoke didn't come into the area until August 1 (the day before our cruise) and it was amazing to note the difference in the air quaility from the pictures we took before and after that date.

So, again, we were really lucky from a weather standpoint. Had mostly beautiful weather in British Columbia leading up to the cruise and mostly beautiful weather during the cruise (in contrast, had we done the trip the other way around, we'd have had a lot of rainy weather on the cruise followed by smoke in southwest British Columbia).
 
We were on the same cruise, wasn't the weather amazing? I know what you mean about future Alaskan cruises, you'd like to go again but it seems very unlikely you would have weather like that. I went on one before on NCL and it poured in Ketchikan, this time my husband was complaining about how hot it was! Anyway, this cruise exceeded my expectations. Did you see the orcas and dolphins the last night?
 
We were also on the cruise and it was absolutely spectacular. We enjoyed the weather but we are from Alabama so we could have used a little more cooler weather after days of low 90s and high humidity:-) We saw orcas almost every day of the cruise and had the luck to watch both the orcas and the dolphins with the captain on the last day of the cruise. He seemed to enjoy it as much as we did!
 
I have been on three Alaskan cruises (beginning of July) and have had amazing weather each time. One of my favorite places to visit.
 



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