The question usually comes up at a kitchen table with three cruise brochures open, one showing a ship in front of a blue glacier face, another a lodge below Denali, and a third a long list of ports with Tlingit-sounding names. Each one carries a different fare, and none of them seems to cover quite the same trip. The honest short answer is that an Alaska cruise costs what its length, its departure port and its extras add up to, and the sections ahead show how to read each of those pieces.
How much does an Alaska cruise cost?
The cost of an Alaska cruise depends mostly on how long you sail, where you board and whether you add a land stay, and the fare you see is only the starting point of the total. A week on a big ship from Seattle and a long cruisetour that ends near Denali are priced as very different trips, even when they share a few ports.
Before comparing fares, compare what each fare buys. The lines below describe their Alaska trips in quite different ways, and the table lines up the lengths and departure cities each one gives.
| Line and trip type | Length | Departs from |
|---|---|---|
| Holland America cruises | 7 to 28 days | Seattle, Vancouver, Whittier, San Diego |
| Holland America cruisetours | 9 to 17 days | Seattle, Vancouver, Anchorage, Fairbanks |
| Princess cruises | Voyage of the Glaciers, 7 days or more | San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver (round-trip), Whittier (one-way) |
| Princess Cruisetours | 10 days or more | Varies by itinerary |
| Norwegian cruises | Seven-day round-trip from Seattle | Seward, Vancouver, Seattle |
Length is the first thing that moves the fare
Holland America sells Alaska trips that stretch from a single week to a month on the water, and the longer ones are a different kind of vacation. The new California-to-Alaska itinerary from San Diego, offered by Holland America for 2028, spends extra days at sea before the first glacier appears. A cruise that long carries a larger fare than a week that starts and ends in Seattle, simply because you are buying more days of cabin, meals and entertainment.
Norwegian’s round-trip sailing from Seattle covers Dawes Glacier, Juneau and Sitka in seven days. If your calendar allows only one week, these are the itineraries to compare line against line, since the time on board is the same and the differences come down to ports, ships and what each fare includes.
Where you board changes the whole bill
Round-trip cruises start and end in the same city, so the airfare question is a single one. Princess sails round-trip from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver. Holland America departs from Seattle, Vancouver, Whittier and San Diego, and Norwegian from Seward, Vancouver and Seattle.
One-way cruises, such as Princess sailings from the Whittier (Anchorage) port, let you finish near Anchorage and skip the sail back south. They usually mean a flight at one end that differs from the flight at the other, so total trip cost is worth adding up from your own home airport. A ship leaving a port you can reach by car often leaves a smaller travel budget than one that needs two plane tickets.
Cruisetours add land days to the fare
A cruisetour pairs the sailing with days on land, and its fare reflects both halves. Holland America’s cruisetours run from nine to seventeen days and always include a stay at its own Denali lodge plus a complimentary tour of Denali National Park. Princess Cruisetours run ten days or more and tie into its string of Wilderness Lodges.
Because the lodges, the transfers and the park tour are folded into one price, a cruisetour looks larger on paper than a plain cruise. Set it against what you would otherwise pay for lodging, a park outing and getting between towns on your own, and the comparison becomes a fairer one.
What is included in the fare?
The fare covers your cabin and the sailing itself, along with the ship’s own spaces and the passage past the glaciers and through the ports on the route. What each line adds on top of that differs, so the useful habit is to read what each one says it includes, not to assume.
The sailing and the glacier views
What you are really paying for is a route. Norwegian’s Alaska ships, Norwegian Bliss, Norwegian Encore and Norwegian Joy, call at Skagway, Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Sitka, Ketchikan, Prince Rupert, Victoria and Astoria, depending on the itinerary. The Seattle round-trip adds the Endicott Arm fjord and Dawes Glacier to Juneau and Sitka, so a single week threads a fjord, a capital and a Tlingit-rooted town.
Princess lists Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway among its stops, and the Star Princess is one of the ships it sends to Alaska. On deck, the Norwegian ships have the Waterfront, an outdoor promenade a quarter mile long, a feature that comes with the ship and not with an extra ticket.
Glacier promises and park access
Holland America backs the glaciers with a written promise. If an Alaska cruise does not include a glacier visit, the line gives a Future Cruise Credit worth 15% of the fare. That is a rare case where the brochure ties the price to something you actually see out the window.
Holland America cruises also offer privileged access to Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, with National Park Service Rangers and Wildlife Experts on board. For a traveler who likes to learn while watching the shoreline slide by, that talk-and-look program comes with the sailing itself.
Lodges and the Denali tour on a cruisetour
On a Holland America cruisetour, the land portion is part of the package. Every one includes one to three nights at the line’s privately owned Denali Lodge and a complimentary tour of Denali National Park, so the park outing is not a separate purchase.
Princess ties its cruisetours to Wilderness Lodges across the interior. Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge sits one mile from the park entrance, and Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge is two hours south of that entrance, with a view of the mountain forty miles away. Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge lies on the edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the United States, and Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge was named among the Top 12 Resorts in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest by Condé Nast Traveler readers.
What costs extra?
Anything beyond the cabin, the route and the ship’s own offerings tends to be billed on top, and on an Alaska cruise that list is mostly about what you do in port and how you get there. Treat these as habits of cruising in general, and read your own line’s inclusions to see where it draws the line.
Time in port
The ports are where an Alaska cruise opens up, and many of the activities there are sold separately from the fare. Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway each invite a day of walking the waterfront, looking in shops and eating something local, and plenty of travelers add a guided outing on top. Icy Strait Point, Sitka and Prince Rupert offer their own mix of cultural sites and nature outings.
A good way to plan is to pick one headline outing per port and let the others be free wandering. Ship-organized outings and independent ones are both common habits, and the sum of several port days is often what makes a final bill grow beyond the fare you first saw.
Getting to the ship and home again
The flight to your departure city sits outside the cruise fare. Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles are all round-trip hubs for Princess, and Holland America adds Whittier and San Diego. A one-way sailing ending in Whittier or Seward means your plane ticket home starts from Alaska instead.
Hotel nights before or after boarding follow the same habit. Arriving a day early in the departure city is a common way to avoid a missed sailing, and it is a cost that belongs in the budget alongside the fare.
On board and on land beyond the package
Cruise lines often sell drinks, specialty restaurants, spa visits and Wi-Fi as extras, and gratuities are commonly added to the account at the end. Which of these are bundled varies by line and by fare category, so the only reliable way to know is to read the details of the specific fare you book.
On cruisetours, nights in the interior beyond the included lodge stay, meals outside the lodge and any extra excursions near Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias or the Kenai are your own expense. The same applies to souvenirs, which in towns like Skagway and Ketchikan are the one purchase travelers cannot resist.
Good to know before you go
Princess has been voted Best Cruise Line in Alaska twenty-two times by Travel Weekly readers, and Holland America and Norwegian each pitch a different style of trip, so the right fare is the one that matches the trip you want. Compare line by line what is included, add the flight and the port-day outings, and the true cost of an Alaska cruise becomes much clearer than the number on the first page of a brochure.
Sources
- Princess Cruises, Alaska cruises (https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises), checked October 11, 2026
- Holland America Line, Alaska cruises (https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises), checked October 11, 2026
- Norwegian Cruise Line, Alaska cruises (https://www.ncl.com/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises), checked October 11, 2026
- Princess Cruises, Alaska cruise tips (https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises/alaska-cruise-tips), checked October 11, 2026
To plan your stay
- Alaska Cruise in May: Port Weather, Whales and Glaciers, and the Cruise Lines
- Which Side of the Ship for an Alaska Cruise: Glacier Bay, Inside Passage Routes and Balcony Choices
- Alaska Cruise Ports: Ketchikan, Skagway, Sitka, Icy Strait Point and Where Cruises Start
- Alaska Cruise in June: Weather, Ports, Wildlife and Glaciers