Alaska with Seabourn 2027

We assemble at Auckland International Airport early this evening and join the direct flight to Vancouver. Cross the International Dateline en route arriving into Vancouver early afternoon of the same day. On arrival, we are met and transferred to our hotel for a 2-night stay. The remainder of the day is free to rest up and relax after the flight before we meet up for dinner this evening.

A full day today, as we venture beyond Vancouver for a wonderful day exploring Victoria, the elegant capital of British Columbia, and the spectacular Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island. We travel by coach to the ferry terminal before boarding for the scenic crossing to Vancouver Island. As we cruise through the Gulf Islands, enjoy magnificent views of forested islands, sparkling waterways and the rugged beauty of British Columbia’s coastline.

On arrival, continue by coach to Victoria, a city renowned for its beautiful waterfront, heritage architecture and distinctly British character. Enjoy time to explore the city at leisure, perhaps strolling along the harbour, admiring the grand Parliament Buildings and Fairmont Empress Hotel, or discovering some of the charming shops and cafés.

Our final highlight is Butchart Gardens, one of Canada’s most celebrated gardens. Wander through beautifully landscaped grounds filled with colourful seasonal plantings, tranquil pathways and impressive themed gardens, all set within a former limestone quarry. With more than 55 acres to explore, there is plenty to discover as we take our time enjoying this remarkable horticultural showcase.

After our visit, return to the ferry for the relaxing journey back to Vancouver, arriving in the evening after a memorable day experiencing two of Vancouver Island’s most treasured attractions.

Vancouver is one of the most captivating cities within Canada, with its multicultural fusion and spectacular mountain and ocean setting. A city tour includes Stanley Bay and Park, Chinatown, Gastown, Queen Elizabeth Park, English Bay as well as some prestigious residential areas of Vancouver. Cross the Lion Gate Bridge and visit Capilano Park. Experience the suspension bridge, the tree top adventure and the cliff walk, plus Salish Nations culture. Later this afternoon we join our cruise ship, Seabourn Encore for our relaxing 14-night Alaska Fjord cruise with various ports of call in Alaska. Our ship departs at 5.00pm.

A chance to acquaint yourself with our ship today as we spend the day cruising the Queen Charlotte Sound. The Queen Charlotte Sound lies between the Queen Charlotte Strait, which winds between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland in the south, and Hecate Strait, which is northward, adjacent to the Haida Gwaii Islands off the Pacific coast of British Columbia. It is a broad reach in the long shipping route called the Inside Passage threading the myriad islands stretching from Washington’s Puget Sound to Alaska.

Ketchikan is a picturesque coastal town with a colourful frontier history, standing at the southern entrance to Alaska’s famed Inside Passage. It began as a salmon cannery in 1885, built by company employee Mike Martin at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek. Once dubbed the ‘Canned Salmon Capital of the World,’ today government, commercial fishing, and tourism are its main industries. The renowned Creek Street, perched on stilts along the mouth of the creek, would bring lasting infamy to the area for the red-light district that burgeoned there during the Gold Rush. The town’s site first served as a camp for Tlingit people, and for thousands of years this has been their home.  Their rich culture is being preserved to this day. A visit to Ketchikan is not complete without visiting one or all of Native American sites such as Totem Bight State Park, Potlatch Park, Saxman Native Village and the Totem Heritage Centre.  Together, these locations comprise the world’s largest collection of standing Native American totem poles. Arrives 7.00am, Departs 3.00pm.

A stroll through the streets and National Historic Park of Sitka is a glimpse into its unique and colorful past. A blend of Tlingit and Russian cultures defines this first capital of Alaska. Although fish canning and gold mining were the initial catalysts for growth in Sitka, the construction of an air base during World War II truly paved the way for Sitka to come into its own. One of Sitka’s most intriguing structures is the Cathedral of Saint Michael, built in 1848 to honor a Russian Orthodox bishop. Sitka’s history begins thousands of years ago with the Tlingit people and their use of the land for sustenance and spirituality. Old Sitka, located just north of the present-day settlement, was founded by Russian-American Company trader Alexander Baranov in 1799. Originally named Novo-Arkhangelsk (New Archangel) under Russian rule, its name was changed to Sitka after Alaska was purchased by the United States in 1867. Sitka is a Tlingit word meaning ‘by the sea.’ Arrive 8.00am, Depart 5.00pm.

Designated as an International World Heritage Site in 1992, Glacier Bay is also a National Monument, a National Park and a designated Biosphere Reserve. Over millennia, Glacier Bay has experienced many major advances of its glaciers. When first surveyed in 1794 by a team under the command of British captain George Vancouver on HMS Discovery, its vast glaciers extended well beyond present-day margins of the bay. Temperate, coniferous rainforest dominates its southern shores. Black and brown bears, wolves, moose, eagles and ravens all go about their daily routines, while harbour seals and whales frolic within the bay waters.

Glacier Bay has two major arms, East and West, and over fifty named glaciers, some of which push forward at three to six feet per day. Combined with Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Canada’s Kluane National Park and Alsek-Tatshenshini Park, Glacier Bay encompasses the largest protected wilderness area on earth. This is a truly a place of awe-inspiring beauty and an icon of wild Alaska.
Arrive 7.00am, Depart 4.00pm.

As the gatekeepers to the northern entrance of the fabled Inside Passage, the remote Inian Islands stand between Cross Sound and Icy Strait, exposed to the high energy seas of the Pacific Ocean. Tidal currents surging through the narrow channels separating the islands can be severe. Nicknames like ‘The Laundry Chute’ justify their notorious reputations. Arrive 5.30am, Depart 12.30pm.

Icy Strait Point is a unique community on Chichagof Island near the entry to Glacier Bay National Park. It was created and is owned by a corporation of over 1300 Native Americans of various local Tlingit tribes, for the purpose of offering visitors an enjoyable, educational experience of Alaska’s native cultures, as well as the human and natural history of the region. Arrive 4.00pm, Depart 8.00pm.

Tucked in along the shores of the longest fjord in North America and surrounded by breathtaking scenery, Haines is an authentic Alaskan experience. It is an eclectic community and a truly hidden gem. Haines is home to the largest concentration of bald eagles on earth, and grizzly bears gorge themselves on spawning salmon in its rivers. It was originally named Dteshuh, which means ‘end of the trail’ in the language of the Chilkat natives, who used to portage across the peninsula to Chilkat Inlet as a shortcut to their trade route to the interior. The first settlers arrived in 1879 to build a school and a Presbyterian mission. In time, the mission was renamed Haines in honour of Francina E. Haines, the chairwoman of the committee that raised funds for its construction. Haines grew dramatically during the 1899 Klondike gold rush in the Yukon, supplying prospectors with food and equipment.

Juneau, Alaska’s capital, is accessible only by air and sea, due to the rugged mountain terrain that surrounds the city. It has been a world-class travel destination since the early 1900’s. The city has plenty to offer the outdoor adventurer. You may choose to explore on foot along the Perseverance Trail or around Mendenhall Glacier, or board one of the many local whale-watching boats or view the mountains and extensive glaciers of the Juneau Icefield from a helicopter. Although founded by Alaskan pioneers, this area was in use for thousands of years by the Tlingit people and was originally settled by the Auke tribe, taking advantage of the abundant food and natural resources provided by the land and sea. Their descendants continue to gather clams, gumboot chitons, grass and sea urchins to this day. Originally named Harrisburg in 1880, after the gold prospector Richard Harris, the name was later changed to honor his partner Joe Juneau.
Arrive 7.00am, Depart 9.00pm.

The scenic, 150-mile long Chatham Strait runs from the confluence of Icy Strait and the Lynn Canal to the open sea, through the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. Varying between 3 and 10 miles wide, it is bounded on the east by Admiralty and Kulu Islands and in the west by Chichagof and Baranof Islands. The strait has had many names since its original Tlingit one, being designated on maps by Spanish, French and British explorers as well as different bands of fur traders before George Vancouver formally named it in 1794 in honor of William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham.

One of the thousands of islands of the Alexander Archipelago, Wrangell Island sits at the heart of the Tongass National Rain Forest and receives approximately 203 cm of rain per year. The city of Wrangell, a true Alaskan frontier town, sits at the northern end of the island, a short distance from the mouth of the mighty Stikine River. The history of Wrangell is deeply rooted in the Tlingit people, the fur trade and the gold rush. The Stikine River trade route brought the Tlingit people here thousands of years ago, evidenced by some forty petroglyphs at Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site and Totem Park. Stikine Strait is a picturesque channel in the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska between Zarembo Island and Woronkofski and Etolin Islands near the mouth of the Stikine River south of Wrangell. It first appears on an 1848 Russian chart as Stakhin Strait and has been spelled variously on many charts since that time. Arrive 10.00am, Depart 7.00pm.

The 108-mile Behm Canal runs from the Clarence Strait through the Alexander Archipelago of Southeast Alaska, and into the channel separating Revillagigedo Island from the mainland. It forms part Inside Passage on the route between Ketchikan and the Misty Fjords National Monument.

Scottish-American naturalist John Muir compared the 2,294,343-acre (930,000 hectare) Misty Fjords National Monument to his favorite place in America, Yosemite National Park. Often shrouded in mist, Misty Fjords is a true wilderness. Its vertical granite cliffs, which reach 3,000’ (900 m) above sea level, descend another 1,000’ (300 m) below the water’s surface. Carved by glaciers and covered in a green carpet of mosses and lichens, Misty Fjords receives more than 150” (381 cm) of rain per year. Western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and western red cedar dominate the prolific vegetation along its shore. Mountain goats, brown and black bears, coastal wolves, sea lions, bald eagles, ravens, Dall’s porpoises, orca and humpback whales can be spotted along its shorelines and throughout its waters. Arrive 8.00am, Depart 6.00pm.

Prince Rupert, set amongst the coastal mountains, is the jumping-off point for travelers joining the coastal ferries to Haida Gwaii, Vancouver or north to Alaska. Highlights include the quaint Cow Bay with its shops and restaurants, the Museum of Northern British Columbia, the totem carving house or the stunning sunken gardens.
Prince Rupert certainly has abundant wildlife. The region is home to the highest concentration of grizzly bears in North America. The Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary, established in 1994, was the first area in Canada to be protected specifically for grizzlies and their habitat. Founded in 1910, the town was named for Prince Rupert, who was a governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670. Prince Rupert is the northern terminus of the Canadian National Railway and an important port for goods moving towards Alaska. Arrive 8.00am, Depart 11.00pm.

Grenville Channel is a long, well-protected channel along the northern British Columbia coast between the large Pitt Island and the mainland. It is an important shipping lane, and you are likely to see ships of many different types and sizes as you pass through. The shores are mountainous on both sides, with two notable peaks about halfway through, Mt. Batchellor on the east side and Mt. Saunders on Pitt Island to the west.

Whale Channel is a picturesque waterway separating Gil Island from Princess Royal Island in British Columbia’s Inside Passage. Surrounded by snow-capped mountain ranges and teeming with marine life, it is a diversion from the main shipping lane, located roughly halfway between Prince Rupert and the First Nations village of Klemtu.

The Princess Royal Channel separates the largest island along British Columbia’s coast from the mainland. It is located roughly halfway between Bella Bella in the south and Prince Rupert in the north, in one of the province’s most remote areas. The island is uninhabited, although there are two small villages in the channel, the First Nations community of Klemtu on Swindle Island and Hartley Bay on the mainland. Wildlife, by contrast, is plentiful, including Kermode, black and grizzly bears, deer, wolves and foxes. Golden and bald eagles nest in the region, as well as the endangered marbled murrelet. In the waters, there are abundant salmon, elephant seals, whales, orcas and dolphins.

Located on the now-dormant Alert Bay volcanic belt, Cormorant Island is host to Vancouver Island’s oldest northern community, the small town of Alert Bay. It is located in the traditional territory of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation and today is a blend of both aboriginal and pioneer culture. A walk along the shores of this tiny 0.69-square mile (1.8 sq. km) island will amaze you with its history, spectacular views and abundant wildlife. Remnants of its former fish-salting plant from the 1800’s remain along the harbor. The U’mista Cultural Centre is Canada’s longest-running First Nations museum and home to the famed Potlach Collection. This collection of ceremonial regalia was confiscated for preservation by Canadian authorities in 1922, and finally returned to the community during the 1980’s. Seabirds, humpback, orca, and gray whales, sea lions and white-sided dolphins are all present in the surrounding waters. Alert Bay was named in 1860 for the Royal Navy ship HMS Alert which conducted survey operations in and around the region.
Arrive 6.00am, Depart 4.00pm.

Sadly, this morning we disembark our ship. We have hotel rooms reserved until our flight home this evening.

Arrival time is early morning. Welcome home.