Going Where Few Roads Go : Ships Explore Corners of the 49thState That Can’t Be Reached by Car

If you spread out a map of Alaska and study the veined lines that denote highways, you’ll see how little of that vast state can be reached by road.

But traveling by sea opens up much more of the state. Over the years, we’ve stepped off cruise ships and into the hearts of communities from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians to Barrow, far above the Arctic Circle, and from the Inside Passage’s southeasternmost port of Ketchikan to Little Diomede Island in the middle of the Bering Strait.

Two midsummer cruises aboard Clipper Adventure Cruises’ 140-passenger World Discoverer (July 8 and Aug. 9) will take you to the wind-swept cliffs of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, where cartoon-faced horned and tufted puffins stare comically down from their ledge perches and thousands of fur seals tumble in the icy water among the rocks and kelp. There are Arctic foxes, not white in summer but coal black, looking like small furry dogs, and bald eagles soaring lazily above the sea.

The ship also visits Katmai National Park, where Katmai brown bear can be glimpsed fishing for spawning salmon, and Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island in the Aleutians, nearer Japan and Russia than Washington and Oregon.

Almost everyone in Dutch Harbor works for one of the Japanese-owned fish-packing plants and lives in community housing. Each employee shares a 12-by-12-foot room and bath with one roommate and is fed in a central dining hall at 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and midnight, since work goes on around the clock during the short but busy season.

The 188-passenger Hanseatic, a recently built state-of-the-art expedition vessel marketed in the United States by Seven Seas Cruises, will set out Aug. 18 from Greenland for an east-to-west transit of the rarely visited Northwest Passage. Should the transit be successful in getting through the ice, it will visit Barrow, Pt. Hope, Little Diomede, Nome, Dutch Harbor and Homer before arriving in Anchorage Sept. 14. If not, it will turn around and visit other ports of call.

*

One of the last great seagoing adventures, the Northwest Passage transit by passenger ship has been successful only six times prior to this attempt, the first in 1984 from east to west.

In 1985, on the first west-to-east transit, we sailed aboard the World Discoverer through a world of fire and ice in the Beaufort Sea, surrounded by a surrealist fantasy of towering frozen cliffs on one side and the glittering sand-colored skyscrapers of an Arctic Manhattan, twinkling with lights and belching flames, on the other. A mirage effect called “looming” made the frozen cliffs reflect against themselves in the sunlight, and the “city” of the oil platforms and administration buildings at Prudhoe Bay reflect upside-down and right-side-up in several layers as if suspended in gray aspic between sea and sky.

Along the way, we visited sparsely settled villages in the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic, and went ashore at Beechey Island to see graves from the tragic 19th-Century Franklin Expedition. Zodiac landing craft took us close to icebergs off Greenland and unexplored inlets along Baffin Bay.

But while a few of Alaska’s seagoing visitors this summer will be aboard expedition ships and more casual vessels that offer alternative shipboard lifestyles and explore off-the-beaten-track areas, most will opt for classic, mainstream cruise ships with professional entertainment, dress-up evenings and spa and exercise programs.

With 32 vessels cruising Alaska this summer, offering some 25% more beds than last summer, the range of choices is wider than ever for passengers considering a first, or even second or third, Alaska cruise. Better still, early bookings earn discounts or special bonuses.

Alaska-bound vacationers can select theme cruises that range ofrom country-Western and square dance sailings to photography workshops and big-band sounds, or opt for a luxury rail trip in a dome car through pristine Alaskan wilderness.

They can go in search of moose and musk ox in Denali National Park, traveling between Anchorage and Fairbanks by train, or climb aboard the historic narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Railway in Skagway for a trip up to Dead Horse Pass and the 1898 gold-rush trail to the Klondike.

They can hoot and holler in a turn-of-the-century saloon with sawdust on the floor and dancing girls by the piano, cheer for the hero and boo the villain in a melodrama, or recite “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” with a Robert Service look-alike.

They can book a combination cruise/RV overland vacation, or stay before or after the cruise in a private fishing lodge in a national park.

They can cruise fiords and glaciers by day and sleep overnight in a shore-side hotel, or take an inflatable Zodiac landing craft into remote waters to watch Alaska brown bears fishing for salmon.

The average Alaska cruise passenger is getting younger. Bill Pedlar, vice president of marketing and sales for Princess Tours, an affiliate of Princess Cruises, estimates the average visitor’s age at 50, compared to 58 or 59 a decade ago.

Of the 19 large mainstream vessels scheduled to cruise Alaska this summer, three will be shiny 1993-model ships: Holland America Line’s 1,266-passenger Maasdam, which made its debut in December; Cunard’s 800-passenger Crown Dynasty, which was christened last July, and Norwegian Cruise Line’s 1,246-passenger Windward, which entered service in June.

Itineraries are about evenly divided between the classic Inside Passage seven-day cruise--with many vessels sailing into Glacier Bay--and the Gulf of Alaska seven-day cruise, which includes cruising past Columbia Glacier with an option to visit Anchorage. A few ships--Cunard’s Sagafjord, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Sun Viking and Princess Cruises’ Fair Princess (which sails on 10-day round trips from San Francisco)--offer sailings of 10 or 11 days.

While both itineraries include cruise-by looks at glaciers, passengers should bear in mind that the bigger the ship, the further away from the ice it has to stay. Many large cruise ships, such as those from Holland America, offer alternative small-boat glacier cruises as part of add-on land packages.

Counted among the alternative vessels, which usually number about a dozen, is one large ship, the 540-passenger Universe from World Explorer. A seagoing university in winter, the Universe offers a 12,000-volume library, a roster of expert lecturers and a 14-day cruise that covers nine ports of call, plus Glacier Bay, Columbia Glacier and the Kenai Fjords.

The biggest operator in the small-ship field is Alaska Sightseeing/Cruise West with six small ships, including the 90-passenger Sheltered Seas, which cruises by day and takes passengers to shore-side hotels overnight.

Clipper Adventure Cruises’ World Discoverer and its 138-passenger Yorktown Clipper both sail the Inside Passage, Gulf of Alaska and British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands. The ships emphasize the flora and fauna of the region, with frequent forays in rubberized Zodiac landing craft.

Special Expeditions takes its 70-passenger sister ships Sea Lion and Sea Bird, equipped with Zodiac landing craft, into hidden areas of Alaska’s coastal wilderness in search of humpback whales, bald eagles and sea lions.

One new option for Alaska cruises is a combination cruise and overland recreational vehicle vacation with Holland America and Alaska Highway Cruises. A number of options are available, all combining a seven-day cruise with a seven- or 14-day overland drive. Alaska Highway Cruises has 100 new Class C cab-over vehicles sleeping from two to six persons, and will provide reserved campground spots, maps and other travel information.

Most Alaska-bound cruise lines are offering early-booking incentives. For example, book 120 days ahead of the sailing date with Cunard’s Sagafjord or Crown Dynasty and get a 15% discount on the cruise fare. Book five months in advance with World Explorer’s Universe and earn a three-day Vancouver stay or a two-day Seattle stay before or after the cruise.

For more information, see your travel agent or call companies for free color brochures. Alaska Highway Cruises, (800) 323- 5757; Alaska Sightseeing/Cruise West, (800) 426-7702; Clipper, (800) 325-0010; Cunard, (800) 221-4770; Holland America Line, (800) 426-0327; Norwegian Cruise Line, (800) 327-7030; Princess Cruises, (800) 421-0522; Princess Tours, (800) 426-0442; Regency Cruises, (800) 388-5500; Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, (800) 327-6700; Royal Cruise Line, (800) 622-0538; Seven Seas Cruise Line, (800) 285-1835; Special Expeditions, (800) 762-0003; World Explorer, (800) 854-3835.

Slater and Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears the first and third week of every month.