Glacier Bay Alaska

885 Cruises availables At departure or passage at this port

American Cruise Lines (212 Cruises)

American Constellation

217 Passengers
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American Constitution

217 Passengers
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Holland America Line (320 Cruises)

Cruise HAL Holland America Line ms Eurodam ship

ms Eurodam

2104 Passengers
86273 tons
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Cruise HAL Holland America Line ms Koningsdam ship

ms Koningsdam

2650 Passengers
99836 tons
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Cruise HAL Holland America Line ms Nieuw Amsterdam ship

ms Nieuw Amsterdam

2106 Passengers
86273 tons
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ms Nieuw Statendam.

ms Nieuw Statendam

2666 Passengers
99902 tons
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Cruise HAL Holland America Line ms Westerdam ship

ms Westerdam

1968 Passengers
82862 tons
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Cruise HAL Holland America Line ms Zaandam ship

ms Zaandam

1432 Passengers
61396 tons
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Lindblad Expeditions (42 Cruises)

National Geographic Quest

National Geographic Quest

135 Passengers
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Norwegian Cruise Line (43 Cruises)

Princess Cruises (175 Cruises)

Cruise PCL Princess Coral ship

Coral Princess

2000 Passengers
91627 tons
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Cruise PCL Princess Crown Ship

Crown Princess

3080 Passengers
113561 tons
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Discovery Princess.

Discovery Princess

3660 Passengers
145 tons
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Cruise PCL Princess Island Ship

Island Princess

2200 Passengers
92822 tons
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Seabourn Cruise Line (61 Cruises)

Seabourn Encore.

Seabourn Encore

40350 tons
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Viking Ocean Cruises (32 Cruises)

Viking Orion.

Viking Orion

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250 years ago, everything the ship travels through today lay beneath a single glacier. When explorer George Vancouver charted Icy Strait in 1794, a wall of ice blocked the bay's entrance; less than a century later, naturalist John Muir observed that ice had retreated tens of kilometres. Glacier Bay is this landscape in motion: a national park of over 13,000 square kilometres, inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage, that ships traverse for an entire day without ever landing.

Park Rangers Aboard

The day begins with a singular meeting: off Bartlett Cove, a patrol boat approaches the moving ship and national park rangers board. They will accompany passengers until evening, narrating the journey, helping spot wildlife and answering questions from posts on the decks. Their presence transforms the passage into a genuine lesson in glaciology and ecology, included in the cruise, and their field anecdotes alone justify the early start.

Ascending the Bay

The ship then progresses roughly 100 kilometres toward the water's far end. The landscape reads like an inverted chronology: the further you advance, the younger the vegetation becomes, established forests giving way to pioneer shrubs, then bare rock freshly exposed. The Fairweather Mountains, topping over 4,500 metres, raise their snow-capped barrier above this world-in-formation, and on clear days their reflection doubles the setting.

Margerie, the Star of Glaciers

At the end of Tarr Arm, Margerie Glacier offers the day's great moment: a front roughly a kilometre and a half wide and 75 metres high, striped with blue and grey. The ship pivots to face the wall so each side enjoys the view, and the patient watching begins: listen for cracking, then watch an entire section fall and the spray that follows. Depending on conditions, the route also includes the entrance to Johns Hopkins Arm, whose glacier ranks among the region's rare ones still advancing—a detail park rangers never fail to highlight.

The Fauna of Renewal

This reinvented nature teems with life. Humpback whales in shallow waters, sea otters by the hundreds, seals on the ice, mountain goats on the ledges, grizzly bears walking beaches at low tide: announcements follow one after another with each sighting, and decks fill at each one. Tufted puffins and murrelets complete the picture for seabird enthusiasts, who keep their binoculars fixed from morning to evening.

The Huna Tlingit House

This territory remains ancestral land of the Huna Tlingit, who lived in the bay before the ice's eighteenth-century advance and who maintain their ties here. At Bartlett Cove has stood since 2016 the Xunaa Shuká Hít, the first tribal house built in the park, fruit of collaboration between the nation and park services. Commentary aboard regularly makes space for this human story, without which the landscape would remain incomplete.

Descending Back to Open Water

At the journey's end, the ship descends back toward Icy Strait in slanting light, and park rangers depart in their patrol boat with waves. What remains are the images: a wall collapsing in a roar of foam, a whale's breath in cold air, a land reborn before the very eyes of those who traverse it. Few days at sea give such a sense of witnessing the planet at work.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Glacier Bay is a full day of scenic cruising inside a national park: the ship sails up the bay and back down without ever docking. There is no pier, no shore excursion and no village to visit.
Because navigation inside the park is regulated. Off Bartlett Cove, a launch comes alongside and rangers board for the day: they narrate the landscape, give presentations and leave again in the evening.
Margerie Glacier, at the head of Tarr Inlet. Its face, roughly seventy metres high, stands directly before the ship, and this is where the vessel holds position longest to listen to the ice work.
A full day, generally eight to ten hours. The ship covers about a hundred kilometres to the head of the bay, holds position before the glaciers, then returns toward Icy Strait.
Humpback whales in the shallows, sea otters, seals hauled out on floating ice, puffins and bald eagles. With luck, brown bears and mountain goats on the slopes.
Because 250 years ago everything the ship crosses today lay beneath a single glacier. The ice retreated within a few generations: the forest you see is rebuilding itself before your eyes.
The people whose ancestral land this is: the Huna Tlingit lived in the bay before the advancing ice drove them out. Their presence and their account are now part of the park's interpretation.
In layers, with a waterproof windbreaker. It is markedly colder on deck than alongside a pier in Alaska: glacier wind pours down the bay and the day is spent outdoors.
May to September, the Alaska cruise season. June and July give the longest days; August and September bring more rain but superb light.
Yes, provided everyone accepts a full day on deck. The ranger presentations are built for all ages, and a glacier calving is a memory that stays.