The Best Alaska Cruise for Couples

Alaska is a better couples destination than its reputation suggests, and for an unexpected reason. It is a place where doing nothing together is the point. Long scenic days, early morning fjords and late northern evenings create unhurried shared time that a port heavy Mediterranean itinerary never does.

Most romantic travel writing is about warm evenings and private beaches. Alaska has neither. What it has instead is scale, quiet and time, which turn out to be at least as good.

The lines, ranked for couples

1. Celebrity

Celebrity does three things better than any other large ship line sailing Alaska: it cooks better, it looks better, and it carries almost no children.

The food and beverage programme is genuinely the strongest in the segment, with a serious wine list and sommeliers who know it. Edge class ships carry the Infinite Veranda, a cabin where the balcony sits inside the room behind a glass wall that lowers electrically, which is the most weather appropriate cabin design in Alaska. Eden, the three deck room with a full height glass wall, is the best space on any Alaska ship for watching a fjord pass.

Book AquaClass. It costs modestly more than a standard veranda and includes Blu, a smaller restaurant with a better menu and no reservation queue. On a seven night sailing you feel that difference every evening.

The trade off is no Glacier Bay access.

2. Oceania

Smaller ships, better food still, longer itineraries reaching ports the big lines skip. No youth programme at all, which means an entirely adult ship. R class cabins are compact for the price, which is the main caveat. See Oceania Cruises in Alaska.

3. Holland America

The value pick. Calm, adult, well served, with a genuine wraparound teak promenade deck that is the best place on the ship on a scenic cruising day. Frequent Glacier Bay entry. It skews older than Celebrity, which some couples find restful and others find flat.

4. Seabourn or Silversea

For a milestone trip. All suite ships of 450 to 750 guests, all inclusive fares, and expedition activity that puts you in a kayak rather than at a rail. Seabourn holds Glacier Bay entry on selected sailings, which no other luxury line reliably does.

The cabin

• Aft cabins on many ships carry larger balconies and a wake view, and sit away from the main thoroughfares.
• Ask for a queen configuration at booking. Beds are often set as twins by default.
• Avoid connecting cabins. There is a door in the wall and you will hear through it.
• Mid ship on a middle deck if either of you is sensitive to motion.

If your ship carries a large forward observation lounge, as Norwegian Bliss and Royal Caribbean Quantum class do, an oceanview cabin plus that space is a defensible alternative to a balcony. See balcony versus interior.

The six moments worth planning for

1. The dawn fjord transit. Endicott Arm at 5:30 am, glassy water, almost nobody awake. Set an alarm.
2. The glacier evening. After a full day at the ice, the ship is quiet and the June light lasts until nearly 11:00 pm. Book specialty dining for this evening rather than a port night.
3. A small boat, not a big one. A twelve passenger wildlife boat in Sitka is a shared experience. A hundred and forty passenger catamaran is a coach on water.
4. College Fjord at 9:00 pm. On a northbound sailing the last scenic evening arrives when everyone else is packing.
5. Sailaway from the stern. Watching Skagway recede up the Lynn Canal beats the theatre.
6. One quiet port. Skip an excursion entirely and walk a town together. Ketchikan is the best candidate.

Adults only spaces

In Alaska the covered ones matter far more than they would in the Caribbean. A Princess Sanctuary day pass on a glacier morning is one of the better small purchases available on the ship.

For a honeymoon or anniversary

• Tell the line at booking. Every line records special occasions and most will do something.
• Book one genuinely special excursion. A helicopter glacier landing in Juneau at $400 to $600 per person is the most memorable thing available on an Alaska cruise.
• Consider a one way Gulf itinerary. Ending in Anchorage with a few days at a lodge makes a better honeymoon shape than returning to where you started.
• Consider September. The clearest air, autumn colour, and markedly fewer people.

Given a fixed extra budget, we would spend it on the helicopter and one exceptional dinner rather than on a cabin upgrade. The cabin is where you sleep. Standing on a glacier at 2,000 feet is what you will still be describing in ten years.

More in Alaska cruises for couples.