Inside Story: More Ships Migrating to Alaska : TV show ‘Northern Exposure’ may have prompted greater interest in sailings this summer.

The Alaska cruise season will be bigger than ever this year, perhaps due in part to the popularity of TV’s Alaska-themed “Northern Exposure” series. While the program’s Cicely, Alaska, is a fictional town, and the show is actually filmed in Roslyn, Wash., anyone walking the streets of Skagway, Ketchikan, Homer or Juneau will find a lot of Cicely flavor. The only thing you’re likely to miss is the meandering moose. And even that is possible.

But you can experience the “real” Cicely on Holland America Westours’ “Northern Exposure” tour packages that visit Roslyn and the town’s various TV show locations. It’s part of a nine-day program that includes a three-day cruise from Vancouver, British Columbia, on the Noordam or Nieuw Amsterdam, a visit to Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier, a trip up Lynn Canal to Skagway on a day boat, a ride on the historic White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge railway, and a sojourn in Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon Territory. The tours leave June 8 and 27, July 25 and Aug. 10, and fares begin at $1,495 per person, double occupancy.

At last count, there were at least 29 cruise ships scheduled for Alaska this summer, with a total of some 18,600 beds. Princess Cruises leads the pack with six ships, including the two largest passenger ships ever to sail in Alaskan waters--the 1,590-passenger sister ships Crown Princess and Regal Princess.

Alaska offers three basic itineraries. The classic Inside Passage cruise, usually seven days round trip from Vancouver, sails through sheltered waters with land frequently on both sides and calls at southeastern Alaska towns such as Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Sitka.

A second itinerary, sometimes called the Gulf of Alaska or Glacier Route, makes a seven-day cruise between Vancouver and the ports of Whittier or Seward, crossing the Gulf of Alaska to Prince William Sound and allowing passengers a chance to go into Anchorage or add a rail journey north to Denali National Park and Fairbanks.

A third option includes visits to the Russian Far East and Siberia, as well as a sailing above the Arctic Circle. This year, Clipper Adventure Cruises’ 138-passenger World Discoverer is scheduled to cruise there from Nome and the Aleutians.

Glaciers top most Alaska sightseeing lists, and it’s a rare visitor who returns home without having seen one or more of the slow-moving tongues of ice.

The most spectacular glacier viewing along the Inside Passage route is Glacier Bay National Park, with its 15 active glaciers, numerous sea birds and humpback whales. Since the National Park Service restricts the number of large ships visiting during June, July and August, prospective passengers who want to see Glacier Bay should make certain that it is on the itinerary they’re considering. Some Princess and Regency Cruises ships, for example, cruise Glacier Bay on some sailings and not on others.

Small ships under 100 tons, termed “tour boats” rather than cruise ships by the National Park Service, do not come under the permit limits and so can visit freely.

On Gulf of Alaska itineraries, a cruise by the 400-square-mile Columbia Glacier is usually included, and many ships also cruise the College Fiord, where 16 glaciers named for Eastern U.S. colleges cascade down the sides of the mountains. Among the glaciers are Harvard, Yale, Wellesley and Vassar.

Any Juneau visitor can take a shore excursion or even hop a taxi to nearby Mendenhall Glacier, and cruise passengers in transit between Whittier or Seward and Anchorage are usually taken to see Portage Glacier, five miles long and a mile wide.

Traditional cruise ships in Alaska offer all of the same attractions available on other excursions in the rest of the world--lavish menus and virtually nonstop food and bar service, full casinos, nightly entertainment, discos, a couple of dress-up evenings, movies, dancing to big-band sounds, libraries and card rooms, spas and gymnasiums, exercise classes, masquerade nights, captain’s cocktail parties--the works. Most will also include a lecture program from an Alaskan resident on the state’s flora, fauna and history.

Prices for seven-day cruises on these traditional cruise ships start at about $1,000 per person, double occupancy, without air fare, but the minimum fare is higher on some ships. The size and location of the cabin and whether it has windows also determine the price.

Princess and Holland America offer both Inside Passage and Gulf of Alaska cruises. These two companies, the giants of Alaska cruising, operate their own Alaska-based tour companies and provide a wide range of land/sea packages covering Alaska and Western Canada by custom motor coach, luxury rail cars and excursion boats.

Royal Caribbean and Costa cruise the Inside Passage but do not visit Glacier Bay. Regency, Royal and Cunard sail the Gulf of Alaska itinerary, including Columbia Glacier.

The smaller ships and expedition ships follow a similar, less-regimented pattern, with casual dress codes and more naturalist lectures. Some lines--Special Expeditions, for example--also include shore excursions as part of the base price, unlike the large ships. Expect to pay at least $1,500 per person, double occupancy, for seven-day small ship and expedition sailings.

Leading the small-ship entries is Seattle-based Alaska Sightseeing/ Cruise West, with six small U.S.- flag vessels, some of which sail between Seattle and Juneau on seven-day itineraries, others of which cruise by day and put passengers up overnight in hotels in the ports of call. All six ships sail the Inside Passage.

Clipper Cruises will have two ships in Alaska this summer--the yacht-like, U.S.-flag Yorktown Clipper sailing round trip out of Juneau to Glacier Bay and along the Inside Passage, and the expedition vessel World Discoverer, with its ice-hardened hull that sails in the Aleutians, the Bering Strait, the Russian Far East and above the Arctic Circle into the Chukchi Sea. Both ships are equipped with Zodiac landing craft to take passengers on various expeditions on the side.

Special Expeditions positions two 70-passenger U.S.-flag ships, Sea Bird and Sea Lion, for 10-day cruises along the Inside Passage between Juneau and Sitka, and also takes passengers out in inflatable Zodiac landing craft to see Alaskan scenery and wildlife up close.

Seattle-based Yachtship Cruise Line bases two small ships in Alaska for Inside Passage and Glacier Bay sailings, from two to six nights in duration.

To get brochures from any of the Alaska-bound cruise lines, see a travel agent or call Princess Cruises at (800) 568-3262; Holland America, (800) 426-0327; Regency, (800) 388-5500; Costa, (800) 462- 6782; Cunard, (800) 221-4770; Royal Caribbean, (800) 327-6700; Royal Cruise Line, (800) 622-0538; World Explorer, (800) 854-3835; Clipper, (800) 325-0010; Alaska Sightseeing, (800) 426-7702; Special Expeditions, (800) 762-0003, and Yachtship Cruiseline, (800) 451-5952.