The Call of the Wild: Summer on the Alaskan Coast - 2022

You’ll board an Anchorage-bound flight today to begin your Alaskan expedition cruise! If you purchased your airfare from Vantage, a representative will meet you at the airport and assist with your transfer to the hotel. After check-in, enjoy an afternoon at leisure. If you’ve joined our Denali optional pre-trip extension, you’ll likewise join the base program today.

After breakfast, you’ll transfer by land on a scenic motorcoach ride from Anchorage to Seward. This scenic fishing town sits at the edge of Resurrection Bay, beneath otherworldly panoramas of the surrounding mountains, forest, ocean, and endless skies. Speaking of skies — while in Alaska, you’ll experience sunsets that sometimes stretch as late as 11 p.m.! Depending on your location, however, daylight hours may be shorter or longer.

Along the way to Seward, you’ll make a couple of stops — at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and the Alaska SeaLife Center. Get an early glimpse at some of the wildlife you may encounter on this voyage!

Your luxurious expedition vessel, the m/s Roald Amundsen, will be waiting for embarkation at the harbor in Seward. Toast the adventure to come at the Captain’s Cocktail Reception this evening, followed by your first dinner on ship.

Included Features:

• Visit the fishing town of Seward
• Visit the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and the Alaska SeaLife Center

Experience a true expedition day and rare treat when explore the lesser-visited College Fjord, a natural wonderland, home to an impressive array of glaciers. Here, the ice and forests meet, and forge the world’s largest collection of tidewater glaciers, five valley glaciers, and other smaller glaciers — all named after prestigious East Coast colleges, including Vassar, Smith, Harvard, and Yale. If weather complies, we'll get into Zodiac boats to scout around. Have your camera at the ready — you’ll get awesome shots of glacier fronts, ice calving into the sea, and sea lions and whales may make a cameo, too!

Included Feature:

• Half-day tour of College Fjord

Icy Bay lives up to its name. Located in Prince William Sound, the spectacular scenery here was formed during the past 100 years with the retreat of three prominent glaciers, which still feed ice into the bay. Depending on weather conditions, our aim will be an exploration of 8-mile-wide Guyot Glacier.

Included Feature:

• Visit Icy Bay and explore Guyot Glacier (depending on weather)

After breakfast, we head ashore on Zodiacs to explore with local guides. Nestled against the Chilkat mountain range, the wilderness of William Henry Bay features old growth forest, and is home to brown and black bears, wolves, moose, and Sitka black-tailed deer. In the evening, the ship passes through Point Adolphus, a renowned whale-watching area.

Included Feature:

• Explore the nature of William Henry Bay

Located on the edge of North America’s longest and deepest fjord is Haines, which bills itself as the state’s adventure capital. The town was home to the Tlingit people for centuries, before Europeans arrived in the late 1800s, followed by gold rush settlers.

Included Feature:

• Visit the town of Haines

Cultural Discovery:

• Explore the town’s community of local artists and learn about its history

This morning, awaken to some of the most spectacular scenery around — the Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm fjords. On a full-day exploration of these fjords, we’ll discover lush greenery and steep valleys, as well as intricately shaped icebergs bobbing in the water, calved from the radiant blue glaciers at the end of the fjords. We may also encounter mountain goats and harbor seals!

Included Feature:

• Visit Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm fjords

Tlingit, Russian, and American settlers have all made a lasting impact on the town of Sitka, nestled on the western side of Baranof Island. With its snowcapped mountains, small islands, and even a visible volcano, Sitka oozes adventure — but its culture is just as alluring.

Included Feature:

• Full-day tour of Sitka

Cultural Discovery:

• Learn about the Russian and Native American history of Sitka

Nicknamed “Little Norway,” the rarely-visited Petersburg was founded more than a century ago by Norwegian fishermen. The city’s name can be traced to Peter Buschmann, a Norwegian immigrant who arrived in the late 1890s and within 10 years had built a cannery, sawmill, and a dock, luring more people of Scandinavian origin to this area. Today, Buschmann’s cannery still operates and Petersburg remains one of Alaska’s most thriving fishing villages.

Included Feature:

• Visit the town of Petersburg, known as “Little Norway”

Cultural Discovery:

• Experience Norwegian culture and heritage around the town

One of the oldest island towns in Alaska, Wrangell has been governed by four different nations — Tlingit, Russia, Britain, and the United States — and these shifts in culture and power, coupled with a collapsed lumber industry, have given the town its rough-and-tumble outback soul. But peel back Wrangell’s layers and you’ll find that it’s a nature lover’s paradise with its proximity to the Anan Bear and Wildlife Observatory and the Stikine River Delta. Birdwatchers shouldn’t miss a visit to the Stikine, which is comprised of 11,000 hectares of freshwater and tidal wetlands, and is home to lesser snow geese, trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, and other important waterfowl.

Included Feature:

• Visit Wrangell, one of the oldest towns in Alaska

This ancient landscape was once covered with ice, but as that ice broke and disbanded, it carved the long, deep fjords that now comprise Misty Fjords National Monument. Weather permitting, we'll spend a full day on expedition boats exploring the coastline's thick evergreen rainforests, granite cliffs and cascading waterfalls, mountain rivers, and coastal wetlands, with milky fog often filling the bays and coves. This quiet and tranquil outpost will speak to your soul — and show you why so many people are proud to call this state home.

Included Feature:

• Full-day exploration of Misty Fjords National Monument

Today we’ll sail toward Vancouver, passing through the narrow weaving channels and straits of Canada’s Inside Passage. Be on the lookout for the dolphins, porpoises, orcas, and whales that frequent these protected inland waters. Regroup in the Amundsen’s Science Center for lectures by the Expedition Team, or spend some time on deck, enjoying the scenery, or relaxing alongside your fellow travelers.

Included Feature:

• Search for marine wildlife while sailing Canada’s Inside Passage

Cultural Discovery:

• Onboard lectures by the Expedition Team

Today we arrive in Alert Bay, a scenic village at the northern tip of Vancouver Island where the indigenous Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations community is based. Take a look at the elaborate totem poles, paintings, carvings and ceremonial masks in the local museum. After, we’ll search for wildlife in the nearby islands.

Included Feature:

• Visit Alert Bay and explore wildlife in neighboring islands

Our Alaskan expedition comes to a close in cosmopolitan Vancouver, a city of waterfront parks, international cuisine, galleries, museums, colorful neighborhoods, and resplendent nature all around. Disembark the m/s Roald Amundsen and transfer to the hotel.

Included Feature:

• Panoramic tour of Vancouver

Today you’ll transfer to the airport and board your return flight home.