We just got back from our 9-day Alaska cruise on the Norwegian Joy and had the best time seeing southeastern Alaska. Visiting Alaska has been on my travel bucket list for some time now, and when we looked at things, we realized that doing a Norwegian Alaska cruise out of Seattle would be the most cost efficient but also allow us to see the most. We also realized after our trip last year to Zion/Grand Canyon that we just really love visiting national parks and want to see as many as we can – this trip knocked out one of them!
Truthfully, I felt like I went into this trip unprepared. While I researched some excursions and stuff, there were some things that I didn’t realize until we got to Alaska (#1 being how much it rains)! I wished I had read a megapost about someone giving some tips, packing list, things they wished they did differently, etc. before I booked things, because I definitely would have done a few things differently. So that’s what I’m sharing here today! Obviously I’m not an Alaska expert or anything, but I did gather quite a bit in talking with fellow travelers who had gone to Alaska multiple times, so hopefully I can share some of the tips and knowledge I learned with you all.
P.S. We booked this trip through Costco Travel and it saved us a lot of $$$. If you are a Costco member, look and see if they are offering Alaskan cruises because it may be a lot cheaper! Also, I talked about this for our Las Vegas trip, but you can also get free Norwegian cruises (or hundreds of dollars of discounts) through MyVegas rewards. It would take some time and effort to get your Alaskan cruise this way, but I wrote a post all about MyVegas tips if interested!
Norwegian Joy Alaska Cruise from Seattle
Day 1: Seattle
Technically we got to Seattle the night before our cruise – we arrived at about 10 pm. I highly recommend arriving in Seattle (or whatever port) the day before your cruise, just to give yourself some insurance in case you run into flight issues like delays or cancellations.
In Seattle, we took the light rail from the SeaTac airport to Hotel Max in downtown (the Westlake light rail station was like a 2 minute walk away!). I highly recommend doing this – its only $3 per person, which is much cheaper than an Uber or taxi. You can pay for your ticket at the station or pay for it with the TransitGo app. The light rail was very easy to navigate and we felt very safe on the Seattle light rail even at night.
In the morning, we made our way to Ben Paris over by the Pike Place Market. Ben Paris is a little pricey, but the food is so good. You won’t regret it!
Then we walked over to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. They have tours you can do there for how they roast their coffee and learn to taste specific flavors in coffee. We just bought and split a coffee flight. The Reserve is really nice, plus they have coffee, drinks, and treats that you can’t get at a regular Starbucks.
Then we walked back over to the famous Pike Place market. I was not expecting it to be so big! You could spend a lot of time walking through the different stores there. But then right before our 11 am checkout, we headed back to our hotel to checkout and head to the pier to board the ship.
We were crunched for time but there are a million amazing things you can do in Seattle (space needle, tours, etc.) like some of these tours:
Once we were aboard we liked to grab some lunch on the boat immediately and then explore the Norwegian Joy a bit to get ourselves acclimated.
Day 2: Day at Sea on the Norwegian Joy
I do feel like I must preface by saying that we are not frequent cruise people. We aren’t big drinkers (so it’s a no on the drink package) and we aren’t big on gambling in the casino. Despite this, there is plenty to do on the Norwegian Joy. There is an actual go-kart track (I think it is $15, although we didn’t end up doing this), water slides that drop out from under you, hot tubs, shows, etc.
We started our morning at the gym, which was decent. More than a hotel gym, but I would have loved a couple more machines.
I am convinced that Spice H2O is the hidden gem on the boat though. There are a couple of hot tubs on the main pool deck and there is one in the spa (I think?), but you have to pay for a pass for the spa pools. Spice H2O is free, for ages 18+ most of the day, and has a huge hot tub. It’s not indoors, which is the biggest bummer, but it does have a roof, so a lot of wind and rain is blocked.
We found ourselves most often on the observation deck. There are plenty of couches and chairs to curl up and read and take in the sights of the mountains and water.
As far as shows, we saw the Elements show which was very cool for the magic and acrobatic aspects. It’s a bit strange though lol We had 2 comedians on board and Cody Woods was absolutely hilarious! Highly recommend getting there early to reserve your seats though because the comedy club is not very big.
Day 3: Ketchikan (Ward Cove)
Ward Cove was our very first port in Alaska. We booked a kayaking excursion through Norwegian called Tatoosh Islands Sea Kayaking. We originally booked the Eagle Island kayaking excursion through Norwegian, but it got cancelled. This one through Viator is a different company than we used (ours was through Southeast Exposure), but looks very similar and may be a better price than booking through Norwegian! It ended up being great, we saw a whale, sea lions, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and plenty of bald eagles. I love kayaking, so I really enjoyed this one, and luckily we were blessed with beautiful weather!
Despite this being a longer excursion, we still had plenty of time to jump on the boat to change and eat and then take the free shuttle to explore Ketchikan after kayaking. Ketchikan is very cute, although there is a lot of touristy shops that you’ll see 200 of in every other port. I’d say that the most popular thing to do in Ketchikan is the lumberjack show. We didn’t do it, but everyone said it was cute. Doesn’t sound like a “must-do” in Ketchikan, but I also saw some duck tours which looked very cool! This other one with bears and totem poles and local beer also sounded awesome!:
A note about the shuttle in Ketchikan: When we did this cruise in mid-May 2025, the cruise ship ports in Ward Cove which is a 15 minute or so free shuttle ride away from Ketchikan. Last year there was some road damage from landslides and they are still repairing the roads. This makes the shuttle take a bit longer, so when we went to get in line for the shuttle to return to the ship, the line had probably 1000 people in it and was going to take a long time to get through. We ended up in line next to a super kind couple who called the only taxi company in town and asked us if we wanted to split the cab. All that to say, if you are going when the road is still under construction, expect long lines with the free shuttle back to the ship, but you could hail a taxi (although there aren’t a lot of them!).
Day 4: Juneau
Did you know that Juneau is the capital of Alaska? I thought it was Anchorage for a long time! Juneau was one of our favorite ports. Norwegian provided a free shuttle to get us from downtown and back which was a lot better than the Ketchikan one!
We walked around a lot, popping into coffee shops, book stores, and souvenir shops and even visited the capital building. Then we got some lunch at Deckhand Dave’s, which was highly recommended by many including my parents. It’s a food truck, but there are plenty of picnic tables on a covered patio right next to it. They had great fish tacos and the dirty fries were super tasty!
We then decided to take a little hike (despite not really planning and therefore wearing the right shoes oops!). We did the Gold Creek Flume Trail that is a very easy walk and accessible– a lot of it is on a wooden platform so it is even ground. We accessed the trailhead by going to the end of Evergreen Avenue.
The Gold Creek Flume Trail is not long at all, so you then have the option to either walk to go back the way you came, go back to downtown via Basin Road, OR do another hike because it connects to Mount Roberts Trail or Perseverance Trail. We ended up doing part of the perseverance trail after but it was about 3 miles and I was ready to go back into town, so we did about half of it!
While we didn’t book an excursion for Juneau, the top 2 things I would say are the Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching. Here are some options through Viator if you are looking for an option that may be cheaper than booking through Norwegian:
Day 5: Glacier Bay National Park/Icy Strait Point (Hoonah)
Day 5 is half day-at-sea and half in Hoonah, Alaska – aka Icy Strait Point. In the morning, you go through Glacier Bay National Park on the boat and get to see a couple of glaciers. We saw the Johns Hopkins glacier while we were there and another big one (the name escapes me!). They pick up a group of national park rangers onto the Joy who will point out interesting things and give you history about the park and the glaciers over the pa system of the boat. We were SO excited for this and thought we had a plan. We planned to get to the observation deck nice and early and camp out there all morning to watch the glaciers go by. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, so while we got decent seats, there was a lot of people there and no one seemed remotely interested in listening to the rangers so we couldn’t hear what they had to say! We ended up going out on the pool deck where there is a covered area with heaters, but still, people were so loud that it was impossible to hear the rangers. If you have not yet booked your room yet, or have the ability to upgrade yourself to a balcony room, I highly recommend it. We were recommended to do this and regret not listening. We would have had a 10000x better experience watching the glaciers from our balcony, drinking our coffee, and listening to the rangers on the TV in our room without dealing with loud strangers. I know it costs more money to upgrade, but think of it like an excursion for Glacier Bay!
Then later in the day, we arrived in Icy Straight. We booked whale watching there and had a phenomenal experience. It was through the local tribe, so the money from our excursion directly benefited them economically and they all expressed gratitude for that. We saw TONS of whales for mid-May, we saw Eagles, porpoises, and sea lions. It was cold and wet, so make sure that you wear layers and dress appropriately; but our boat did have an inside area where you could go in to warm up.
After, we briefly stopped into Hoonah via the free lift. I believe that there are shops and a cannery there to visit. There is also a HUGE zipline that we watched people on, that would be a really fun excursion if you are braver than me!
Day 6: Skagway
We went for a hike immediately upon porting in Skagway. We did the Lower Dewey Lake trail system which connects to a few other trails like Icy Lake. It was a beautiful hike and only moderately difficult the first 1/2 mile as there is a steep-ish incline. We kept doing different trails and ended up hiking probably 8 miles!
The most popular thing to do in Skagway is the White Pass Railway. It is right next to the cruise port and I heard that it has beautiful views. My parents did the white pass railway years ago and they said it was nice, but just fine, so we decided to spend our money on a different excursion! I did find this white pass railway + glacier hiking excursion that sounded really interesting, but it may be too long depending on how long your cruise is in port!
The town of Skagway is absolutely adorable. They have tried to keep a certain aesthetic to their buildings and towns and it makes it so photogenic. There are several buildings that are original and are part of the National Historical park and free to visit. Skagway was big during the Klondlike gold rush, so you can learn a lot about that.
We got the BEST coffee at Glacial Coffeehouse and got a sweet treat in the form of a doughboy at Klondlike Doughboy. Highly recommend both of these places! The doughboy is kind of like an elephant ear, its sooooo yummy!
We knew we had to get fresh fish and chips at some point on our Alaska trip, so we split some at Skagway Brewing Company. It was so good and fresh!
Day 7: Sitka
Sitka had so much more to offer than we expected. We saw a science museum, there is the raptor center, fortress of the bear, plus NPS historical sites. We got some great coffee at Highliner Coffee Co and then visited the Sitka National Historical Park. This is free to enter and they have an interesting video, artifacts, and information about Sitka and the totem poles they have there. Then we did the trail by the park where there are lots of replicas of totem poles along the trail. It’s an easy walk, but very beautiful!
We then walked to the Sitka raptor center. There are additionally some trails around the raptor center that we did.
I would have really liked to go to Fortress of the Bear. Sitka does have a city bus and one of the stops is to fortress of the bear; however, when we went, the bus does not run on weekends. We didn’t feel like going through the hassle of a taxi (especially since there are not a lot of them on Sitka), so I recommend planning on doing an excursion for fortress of the bear, or using the city bus if it is actually running lol
We stopped by the Sitka Russian Orthodox church and Russian Bishop’s House which is part of the National Parks Service. Russian orthodox plays a big role in Sitka’s history, which you’ll get a better understanding of if you visit the totem pole park first and watch their video!
We also just walked around downtown a lot and visited a lot of different stores in Sitka. One of our favorites was the Russian American store and Alaska Pure Sea Salt Co. We got some of their vanilla salt and it’s so good!
A note about the Sitka shuttle: the Sitka shuttle is free and provided by the port – not Norwegian. While it is free, you still have to book your shuttle ticket online and show them a screenshot on your phone to get on. You can book it on Norwegian Wi-Fi without paying for the Internet package, but you do have to book a specific time. Here’s what I will recommend: it is much better to book the time frame for too early, than too late. I was feeling exhausted and ready to leave at 3:15, so when we got to the shuttle pick up location at 2:45, we had to wait until about 3 pm until they would let us on. This wasn’t a huge deal to us; however, there was a HUGE mob of people all trying to get on the shuttle at that time and time slots were sold out. The workers would say “if you have a ticket for 2:45 or earlier, you can get in line” and they were VERY strict about this. The mob was not happy lol So my tip is that if you booked your return ticket for noon, that gives you more flexibility to leave whenever you want – even if you don’t want to end up boarding the shuttle until 4 pm.
Day 8: Day at Sea
Day 8 was another day at sea. We were pretty chill on this one. Reading a lot of the day on the observation deck. Garrett did try out the water slides and froze his butt off though!
Day 9: Victoria, BC
Victoria was maybe my favorite port! It is such a beautiful town and we felt like we didn’t scratch the surface of seeing all it had to offer.
You can walk to downtown if you are determined enough. I think it would take you about 20-30 minutes to walk to fisherman’s wharf and then about about 20 minutes to get to Chinatown. We paid for a day-pass for the shuttle to get us to downtown though for I believe $18/person for a day pass.
We started off going into the Parliament building, which is interesting and free!
I really wanted to do the Butchart Gardens while in Victoria, but no one told me they are about 1 hour away from downtown Victoria! We were having so much fun exploring downtown that we decided not to venture out to the gardens, but I would LOVE to go back to Victoria and see them. I do recommend booking a shuttle to take you from downtown Victoria to the gardens to save yourself $$$ over paying for a super expensive taxi.
There are so many things we didn’t get to in Victoria, like the Butchart gardens, fisherman’s wharf, some beautfil parks, Craigdarroch Castle, etc. All the more reason for us to return!
There were soooo many vintage clothes shops, cute boutiques (Flavour was awesome), coffee shops, and bookstores in downtown Victoria, which are all my favorite things. We walked to Chinatown which is the oldest Chinatown in Canada and second oldest in North America. Definitely check it out and go through Fan Tan Alley. I felt determined that I wanted a BBQ pork bun and the place I really wanted to go to was sold out. So if you can go visit Wah Lai Yuen and they aren’t sold out, let me know if the BBQ buns are worth the hype!
There are also some beautiful churches we visited before going to Earl’s for an early dinner. We took advantage of their happy hour menu and had some delicious margaritas, flatbread, and their corn dip. It was all awesome and the service was stellar!
Day 10: Seattle
And then we were back in Seattle! We took advantage of Port Valet (HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!) so they sent our big bags to the airport which freed us up to enjoy our morning in Seattle without our suitcases.
We strolled through the Olympic sculpture park, got delicious mochi doughnuts at Dahlia Bakery and then headed back over to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery.
If it hadn’t been closed the day we were there, we 1000% would have gone to the pop culture museum. I was so bummed it was closed!
Then it was back on the light rail again to head to SeaTac to get home and squeeze the kiddos!
Biggest Tips
BOOK THE BALCONY ROOM!!!! I know you’re saying “Sara Ann, but it’s more expensive!!!”. Learn from my mistakes. We booked an inside room and we have other times on cruises to save some $$$. The inside room is not bad, but for this specific cruise and itinerary, consider the upgrade to a balcony as your excursion for Glacier Bay (since its technically an at-sea morning). We had the hardest time hearing the park rangers talk about Glacier Bay because everyone in the public spaces was so dang loud. It actually was driving us bananas. We regretted getting an inside room solely for the aspect of Glacier Bay. It would have been so nice to sit in our room on our balcony, drink coffee, and listen to the park ranger via our TV in our stateroom.
Expect rain. I feel dumb saying that I booked this trip without known that southeastern Alaska is basically a rain-forest. In Ketchikan, on average, it rains 233 days out of the year with 149.5 inches of rain per year. So more often than not, it is going to at least be misty and cloudy. It really didn’t bother us at all (we actually loved it), but make sure that your jacket is waterproof.
PORT VALET! Norwegian will leave information about Port Valet at your stateroom, but it is totally free, and if you have a decent amount of time between disembarkation and your flight home out of SeaTac, why not let them ship your bags for free to the airport for you?! It frees you up so that you can go actually enjoy some things around Seattle without your suitcase.
Excursions Through Norwegian vs Other Sites: we booked both of our excursions through Norwegian, but you can certainly save some money booking through something like Viator, or even stalls at the port once you get off the ship. If you are doing a longer excursion that may be pushing it close to the time to return to the boat, I recommend booking though Norwegian. If something happens on your excursion that would get you back to the ship late, the ship may leave without you. But if your excursion is through Norwegian, they will hold the ship for you!
Use the light rail if flying into SeaTac and staying in downtown! In Seattle, we took the light rail from the SeaTac airport to Hotel Max in downtown (the Westlake light rail station was like a 2 minute walk away!). I HIGHLY recommend doing this – its only $3 per person which is much cheaper than an Uber or taxi. You can pay for your ticket at the station or pay for it with the TransitGo app. The light rail was very easy to navigate and we felt very safe on the Seattle light rail even at night.
If not doing an excursion, be aware of limited transportation in these towns and plan accordingly. With the exception of Victoria, these ports are relatively small towns/cities. For example, if you are hoping to get to somewhere like Fortress of the Bear in Sitka, if you port on a weekend, there is no public transporation to get you there. You will need to take a taxi (which are limited) or book an excursion.
Do whale watching in Juneau or Icy Strait Point. We were told by several people that the best places to do whale watching for this southeastern Alaska itinerary is Juneau and Icy Strait. That’s not to say you couldn’t see whales in other places – like I said, we saw a whale on our kayaking excursion in Ketchikan. But, according to the experts, Juneau and Icy Strait are your best bets.
Packing for Alaska in May
Waterproof jacket – this one from North Face is fleece lined, so it can keep you warm on the not SUPER chilly days
Puffer jacket – this one and this one from North Face are most similar to the one I brought with me that was the perfect puffer for this trip. It’s not so heavy and fleecy that you get overheated if it warms up, but adding a layer or 2 underneath will keep you perfectly warm.
Hiking boots/shoes that double for rain – if you are planning on doing a lot of adventurous excursions like hikes, canoeing, kayaking, etc. I would bring some water-proof hiking shoes like these from L.L. Bean or these from Timberland. If you are planning on just doing more casual walking for your trip, tennis shoes that are good for walking or some water proof duck boots might be a better choice.
Leggings/yoga pants (helpful for layering)
Quick dry pants – I bought these from Old Navy for the trip and they got super wet while kayaking, but dried very quick
Long sleeve shirts/sweat shirts/sweaters
Touch screen gloves – these gloves are great because you can still use the touch screen of your phone to take pictures with them on!
Beanie and hat- doubles as a hair protector from all the rain
Athletic socks and wool socks – bring plenty of regular socks, but a few pairs of wool socks for colder days helps.
Bathing suit (without metal/plastic fasteners or grommets if you plan to do the water slides!) – if you plan on going to the hot tub, make sure to pack a bathing suit! And if you are brave enough to do the water slides, they cannot have any clasps or gommets made of plastic or metal on them.
Outfits for dinner – I hardly wore any of the nice outfits I packed haha! But if you plan on going to the main dining room, I believe you cannot wear hats, hoodies, or jeans with holes in them FYI
Sunscreen – even though its cold, you can still get sunburned! Especially if you are out on the water or at a glacier from the reflection.
Reusable water bottle – especially helpful if you are doing hikes!
Small backpack or pack – my husband loves this bag for under $20, its a perfect small size to throw a water bottle, your phone, and wallet in.
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