Alaska - Inside Passage Cruise Reviews

Beware of land sickness when embark the ship at the end and always review your bill

Cruise was great. Loved the Encore. Will not go back to Alaska via NCL. The new ports were an inconvenience especially when you have cruise lines that will stop right in town.

Top notch service. No Masks on the ship! No restrictions. Encore is the perfect design. Crew treated us like family. We'll be back soon.

Didn't like obstructive veiw,won't do again. The best part was Good spirits bar with Alan,Lou,John...they were great, entertaining, drinks awesome.

This is an awesome cruise/itinerary with good ports of call. Unfortunately, a delay due to a medical emergency at sea which involved an RCAF air-sea helicopter rescue of one of the passengers, the cruise line skipped the Skagway stop. Icy Strait point was nice and it appears that there is a lot of development going on there -- will be interesting to see how that progresses in the future. Juneau was a nice port of call -- try the Mount Roberts tramway and hike the trails overlooking the city. We did the NLC excursion which you take a small boat into Endicott Arm, get up close and personal with the Dawes glacier, and then rendezvous with the ship in the middle of Endicott Arm. Highly recommend this excursion. Highlight of the cruise for us. The Ketchikan stop however was a disorganized mess. My understanding is NCL built their own dock outside the city which is where Encore tied up. The dock is 8 miles from the city. OK, so shuttle buses were provided -- for $8 for a roundtrip. Seems a little cheap on NCL's part not to provide the shuttle gratis since we could have docked at the port in the city. But the worst part was the chaos in the terminal. there were insufficient shuttle buses to handle the influx and the wait to board the buses was 1-2 hours depending on when you left the ship. Given that the ship arrived over an hour late and you could spend up to 3 hours waiting for and riding on buses, this stop was a complete waste of time for us. We understand that standing in line is sometimes unavoidable, but this was ridiculous -- I'm on vacation, I don't want to waste my time in a queue for 2 hours. I suggest NCL figure out a more efficient process to move passengers from their new port to the city of Ketchikan or go back to docking in the city. And our ship was only 60% full -- this situation will only get worse when they return to full capacity sailings. VERY disappointed in NCL. We will be avoiding Ketchikan on any future NCL Alaska sailings until this situation is improved.

This is an awesome cruise/itinerary with good ports of call. Unfortunately, a delay due to a medical emergency at sea which involved an RCAF air-sea helicopter rescue of one of the passengers, the cruise line skipped the Skagway stop. Icy Strait point was nice and it appears that there is a lot of development going on there -- will be interesting to see how that progresses in the future. Juneau was a nice port of call -- try the Mount Roberts tramway and hike the trails overlooking the city. We did the NLC excursion which you take a small boat into Endicott Arm, get up close and personal with the Dawes glacier, and then rendezvous with the ship in the middle of Endicott Arm. Highly recommend this excursion. Highlight of the cruise for us. The Ketchikan stop however was a disorganized mess. My understanding is NCL built their own dock outside the city which is where Encore tied up. The dock is 8 miles from the city. OK, so shuttle buses were provided -- for $8 for a roundtrip. Seems a little cheap on NCL's part not to provide the shuttle gratis since we could have docked at the port in the city. But the worst part was the chaos in the terminal. there were insufficient shuttle buses to handle the influx and the wait to board the buses was 1-2 hours depending on when you left the ship. Given that the ship arrived over an hour late and you could spend up to 3 hours waiting for and riding on buses, this stop was a complete waste of time for us. We understand that standing in line is sometimes unavoidable, but this was ridiculous -- I'm on vacation, I don't want to waste my time in a queue for 2 hours. I suggest NCL figure out a more efficient process to move passengers from their new port to the city of Ketchikan or go back to docking in the city. And our ship was only 60% full -- this situation will only get worse when they return to full capacity sailings. VERY disappointed in NCL. We will be avoiding Ketchikan on any future NCL Alaska sailings until this situation is improved.

An amazing Alaskan experience. I learned a lot about the history of how people not only survive but thrive in such wilderness. A lot of mishaps and apathetic with pompous, arrogant and unprofessional guest services but the cabin crews were above and beyond expectation. For Alaskan ports, I wish I have more time, there was so much more I wish I could do (helicopter to top of glacier, for example). Will definitely come back.

Not impressed with the excursions. Icy Straits had nothing for the tourist. Unless you were into zip lines, really!!! And Ketchikan, had to wait for bus in a line for two hours and were charged $8.00 for the trip ($8.00 were refunded later in the day). Bus was not handicapped accessible. Terminal was really horrid. Ship was excellent, crew and staff were great. But the rest of the experience - horrid. This was not the Norwegian experience that would encourage me to book another trip with this line.

In general the experience was amazing. The crew made a great job maintaining the cleanliness of the ship and healthy measures. One of the best cruises I have ever taken.

All plans went well except ship leaving Seattle an hour or more late made arrival in Juneau late and our shore trip had to be rescheduled. We missed out on nice dinner on board (cold supper on shore trip was disappointing) and that night's show. Seeing whales on shore trip helped make up for it all.

An ok cruise. Food was good but not the entertainment, especially the annoying lound musci blast at the sun deck.

It was one experience we will never forget. Good to learn about Alaska and its history as I have a better appreciation for it now.

Loved this ship and the staff! Good crowd of people, mostly older and very friendly! Room was quiet and easy to navigate the ship.

This trip would be on everyones bucket list if they knew how incredible a week on the NCL Bliss would be, while cruising in Alaska. Well Done NCL

This was a beautiful ship with wonderful ports of call. Not a lot to do on the ship itself- bring a couple good books! Very relaxing. Alaska was a dream. Will definitely return to visit more there.

Would’ve been great if it was on another cruise line NCL is a joke

This cruise was everything it should be. The cruise director was informative and entertaining. The daily updates with the schedule were incredibly helpful. Relaxing, entertaining, fun: a trip to remember!

Absolutely gorgeous, beautiful cruise. Nature alone is the reason to take this cruise. The ship is just where you eat and rest. Holland did an overall great job, except for the rocky start with our room issues. We wish this didn't happen but could've been worse. Really did appreciate the overall itinerary and stops. Highly recommended!

Holland America is a great cruise line for older passengers and those who like smaller, less crowded ships with less wait times. Their service is mostly better than other cruise lines.

The overall cruise was wonderful. My only complaint was the excursions seemed to be a little pricey, and we only had one full day in a port. If I had to do it again I would pick a longer cruise to allow more time in each port, 7 days was great but 14 would be better!!