Fran Golden - Frommers EasyGuide to Alaska Cruises and Ports of Call

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AN IMPORTANT NOTE

The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours, and busses and trains change their routings. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about, these hotels, restaurants, museums and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Fran Wenograd Golden is a well-known travel writer and the cruise expert blogger for USA Today s Experience Cruise website. She is also a contributing editor and chief blogger for Port hole cruise magazine. Former travel editor of the Boston Herald, she writers for numerous newspapers and magazines including the New York Daily News, Miami Herald, and Virtuoso Life . When not at sea, she and her partner, David Molyneaux, make their home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Gene Sloan writes about cruising for USA Today and oversees USA Today s online cruise site, The Cruise Log (cruises.usatoday.com), which he founded in 2008. He also oversees USA TODAY s recently launched cruise planning site, Experience Cruise (usatoday.com/experience/cruise). In addition to appearing at USA TODAY , Sloans stories are distributed by Gannett to more than 80 other U.S. news outlets. A travel writer for 20 years, he has sailed on more than 100 cruise ships. He lives near Philadelphia with his wife and three daughters.

ABOUT THE FROMMERS TRAVEL GUIDES

For most of the past 50 years, Frommers has been the leading series of travel guides in North America, accounting for as many as 24 percent of all guidebooks sold. I think I know why.

Although we hope our books are entertaining, we nevertheless deal with travel in a serious fashion. Our guidebooks have never looked on such journeys as a mere recreation, but as a far more important human function, a time of learning and introspection, an essential part of a civilized life. We stress the culture, lifestyle, history, and beliefs of the destinations we cover and urge our readers to seek out people and new ideas as the chief rewards of travel.

We have never shied from controversy. We have, from the beginning, encouraged our authors to be intensely judgmental, criticalboth pro and conin their comments, and wholly independent. Our only clients are our readers, and we have triggered the ire of countless prominent sorts, from a tourist newspaper we called practically worthless (it unsuccessfully sued us) to the many rip-offs weve condemned.

And because we believe that travel should be available to everyone regardless of their incomes, we have always been cost-conscious at every level of expenditure. Although we have broadened our recommendations beyond the budget category, we insist that every lodging we include be sensibly priced. We use every form of media to assist our readers and are particularly proud of our feisty daily website, the award-winning Frommers.com.

I have high hopes for the future of Frommers. May these guidebooks, in all the years ahead, continue to reflect the joy of travel and the freedom that travel represents. May they always pursue a cost-conscious path, so that people of all incomes can enjoy the rewards of travel. And may they create, for both the traveler and the persons among whom we travel, a community of friends, where all human beings live in harmony and peace.

Arthur Frommer

The Best of Alaska Cruising

A laska is one of the top cruise destinations in the world, and when youre sailing through the calm waters of the Inside Passage or across the Gulf of Alaska, its easy to see why: The jaw-dropping scenery is simply breathtaking.

Much of the coastline is wilderness, with snowcapped mountain peaks, immense glaciers that create a thunderous noise as chunks break off into the sea (a process known as calving), emerald rainforests, fjords, icebergs, soaring eagles, lumbering bears, and majestic whalesall easily visible from the comfort of your ship.

Visit the towns and youll find people who retain the spirit of frontier independence that brought them here in the first place. Add Alaskas colorful history and heritage, with its European influences, its spirit of discovery, and its rich Native cultures, and you have a destination that is utterly, endlessly fascinating. Even thinking about it, we get chills of the good kind.

The state celebrated its 55th anniversary of statehood in 2014. It was in January 1959 that the Union accepted what had once been a territory as a full-fledged statethe 49th. Every city, town, and hamlet seemed to hold celebrations in honor of the event, showing their Alaskan spirit.

The number of cruise passengers visiting the state did not hit what tourism officials hoped would be the 1 million mark in 2013 (the numbers were about 400,000 shy of that) and were expected to be down slightly in 2014. Still, thats a whole lot of people. In summer, some towns turn into virtual tourist malls. Were talking seasonal vendors, including jewelry stores geared towards the cruise crowd and shelves filled with imported souvenirs. However, the port towns youll visitfrom Juneau, the most remote state capital in the country, to Sitka, with its proud reminders of Native and Russian culturesmanage to retain much of their rustic charm and historical allure. Sure, you may have to jostle for a seat in Juneaus popular Red Dog Saloon (a must-do beer stop, and the oldest tourist attraction in the state) or ask other visitors to step out of the way as you try to snap a picture of Skagways historic gold-rush buildings or Ketchikans picturesque Creek Street, but these are minor hassles for cruise-ship passengers. If you want to get away from the crowds by taking an organized shore excursion, touring on your own, or booking a small-ship cruise that goes to more remote parts, theres opportunity for that, too. In addition, by signing up for the cruise lines pre- or post-cruise land-tour packages (known as cruisetours or land + sea adventures), you can also visit less-populated inland destinations such as Denali National Park, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula, the Yukon Territory, or the Canadian Rockies.