There are cruises that include days of nothing but water out your window and then there are cruises that a voyage full of never-ending scenery – like the popular week-long cruises that travel along Alaska’s southeastern coast.  There’s still some time to take an Alaska cruise this year or you can get a head-start on planning for next year.

These seven day Alaska cruises are available out of Seattle, Vancouver, Seward and Whittier.  Some are round-trips while others are one-way, providing quite a few options for where to start and what you’ll see at sea.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is the busiest port offering cruises to Alaska.  Holland America, Celebrity, Disney, Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess all sail 7 nights to Alaska from Vancouver starting in early May through mid-September.  Vancouver is one of North America’s prettiest cities and you’ll find plenty of interesting stuff to see and do if you decide to extend your visit before or after your cruise.

Close behind Vancouver in terms of Alaska cruise popularity is Seattle.  It’s another very vibrant place and well worth a couple of days – at least – to take in what northwestern Washington has to offer.  Most Alaska cruises from Seattle are round-trip and include visits to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and other scenic spots on Alaska’s “Inside Passage”.

Less well-known are the cruises that start in Alaska and end in Vancouver.  Whittier, Alaska is a very (very) small town on the western end of the Passage Canal off of Prince William Sound.  Starting your cruise from Whittier gives you the opportunity to see much more of Alaska in your week.  It’s located about about 60 miles southeast of Anchorage.  You’ll fly into Anchorage and then take train or bus to Whittier.  There are guided bus tours available that make the trip much more interesting than just a bus ride from point A to point B.  There are also 14-night round-trip cruises from Whittier on NCL’s Norwegian Sun that take you to Vancouver and back.

Located at the northern end of Resurrection Bay and Kenali Fjords National Park, Seward is the other spot in Alaska from where you can take a seven night cruise.  All of the cruises out of Seward are one-way to Vancouver.   They include visits to Hubbard Glacier or Glacier Bay before following a path similar to the round-trip cruises out of Vancouver.  Anchorage is again the closest city with a major airport – and a very memorable 130-mile bus ride from Seward.

In addition to the complete schedule of 7-night Alaska cruises, TheCruiseNexus.com also has information about longer 10-night, 11-night, 12-night, and 14-night voyages.