Into the Wild, Together

An Unforgettable Alaska Cruise Becomes a Breathtaking Escape—and a Bonding Journey—for a Mother and her Sons.

The last time I sailed to Alaska was over 20 years ago. It had been a college graduation gift from my mother: one week at sea through Princess Cruise Lines, departing from Vancouver, and one week through the wild interior, by train. When I was invited to sail aboard one of the line’s newer ships—the 3,660-passenger Discovery Princess, launched in 2022, which sails the Inside Passage between Seattle and Victoria, Canada—I jumped at the chance to return, this time with my own two kids. 

Ketchikan, Alaska was our first port, after one sea day. We arrived on a rainy day, which was no surprise; the island gets about 150 inches of rain a year. I had signed us—my two sons and me—up for a trip through the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States and the largest temperate rainforest in the world. 

We walked through towering red cedar and past unfurled ferns the size of small cars. When we reached the estuary, our guide, Christina, told us to wait. She had heard reports of a bear and her cubs. Then, suddenly, the bears appeared, down in the creek below, a mother with two cubs behind, in the water, searching for chum salmon. Out of nowhere, a bald eagle swooped down. “It doesn’t get much more Alaska than that,” Christina quipped. 

Back on the ship, my sons made a beeline for The Lodge, part of the kids’ club, where they met kids from all over the country, and competed in strategic games of Dodgeball and MarioKart. I treated myself to an afternoon at Enclave, the thermal suite within the ship’s spa, where guests can enjoy warm stone beds, a hydrotherapy pool, a hammam, saunas, and steam rooms. 

The next morning, we awoke to the magic of Alaska. Treated to the ship’s signature Balcony Breakfast at Sea—Champagne, crab quiche, bagels and lox—we watched impossibly blue icebergs float by as we sailed Endicott Arm toward Dawes Glacier, a tidewater glacier known for its calving. We were meant to head to the top of the Mendenhall Glacier upon arrival in Juneau that afternoon, but poor weather put our best-laid plans to waste. 

Instead, we were able to get onto a last-minute whale-watching tour on the Apex in Auke Bay through Alaska Luxury Tours. Not far out from shore, our captain spotted a group of humpbacks—four of them—swimming together, majestic tails flipping up as they dove to feed. And on the rocky shores of an island, we spotted the brown pelts and unmistakable barks of over 20 Steller sea lions, who lay out in the midday light. 

On the ship, we were fortunate enough to have the Premier Package, granting us access to all 12 dining venues, including the top tier of restaurants—and we ate through them all. Dining aboard includes the main dining rooms, named for the three major Alaskan destinations (Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau); the Irish pub O’Malley’s; the World Fresh Market buffet; the International Café; the Salty Dog Grill; Slice Pizza; and Swirls and Gelato Gelateria, the two ice cream destinations. Guests can also opt into select extras, including 360, an interactive dining experience for adults with a multi-course tasting menu, which I sampled one evening, or the Chef’s Table or Caymus Winemaker’s Dinner, for a bespoke experience. 

For specialty dining, the ship offers The Catch, a seafood restaurant, where I ordered an ice-cold seafood tower for one; The Crown Grill, the ship’s steakhouse, where, luckily, I did not have to choose between a porterhouse and a rib eye, as my dining companions did not finish their steaks; and Sabatini’s, the Italian restaurant where both the food and the views were abundant. Gigi’s, a stellar pizza place with Neapolitan-style pie (and a no-reservation policy) was a lunch destination on one sea day, Ocean Terrace, a sushi spot, on another. (The Princess Premier Package also includes alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, WiFi access, pre-paid crew gratuities, reserved theater seating, and a photo package for both digital and print images.) 

Arriving in Skagway, home to the Gold Rush, we got off the boat early, to beat the crowds, and walked through a still-deserted town, perusing art galleries. A line was just starting to form outside of Klondike Doughboy when we showed up, curious about what we had stumbled upon. It was fried dough, of course, but not the powdered sugar-dusted kind we were used to back east. Here, we watched them fry it to-order and coat the large discs in a cinnamon-granulated sugar mix. My boys ate the dough standing in the middle of the street, before we made our way to the bus for our final Alaskan excursion. 

We were heading to Musher’s Camp, to meet the dogs that are trained to pace and slog for races like the Iditarod. We climbed into the back of an ATV that had been configured to resemble a sled—it fit six—and that held a musher on the back. In front, our dogs, a whole pack of them, eager personalities gingerly paired together. Off we went, our Alaskan adventure nearing completion. 

When our ship pulled back into Seattle two days later, I asked my boys what they liked the most. It was a toss-up, they confessed, between the bear and her cubs and the bald eagles and the sled dogs and the icebergs. But then they told me that, no, it was me. They had loved eight whole days with me, despite the number of times that I had told them to be quiet, to get dressed, to stop messing around and go to bed, to sit up, to use a fork, to calm down. They had just wanted to be with me on a ship, floating anywhere, and I was able to give them that.