Alaska cruise season is certainly in jeopardy for 2021. Several clients asked us about "Small Ship Cruising in Alaska". So I started to investigate. The experience of course is very different from a Regent cruise. Both have their pros and cons. Regent is definitely more luxurious in many ways, cabins particularly. The small ships can go places where the big ships cannot go and have more wildlife and more scenic areas to cruise.

After looking at the whole picture I got kind of excited about the thought of a small ship. These are "expedition" type trips that are not for everyone but we also have a lot of you that like the expedition trips with the zodiacs getting up close to the wildlife and nature. They are sailing as they are only 100 people and no restrictions due to their size and 7 day length of the cruise. They sail from Sitka to Juneau and you fly into Seattle and they provide free round trip air from Seattle to Alaska. So that makes it easier.

So I looked at my schedule and all the different ships on offer. I can squeeze in a hosted trip on August 8 - 15, 2021 on the 100 passenger National Geographic Venture through Lindblad. Newer ship launched in 2019. Not totally sure I want to do this yet but curious if (a) any of you have done this type of trip before in Alaska (b) if anyone would even be interested. Not sure of their covid restrictions yet if a vaccination is required but by August I feel most people will have been vaccinated. Will dig into that if I decide to move forward.

You can post or just email me with your thoughts, I will decide over the weekend whether to move forward or give up the idea.

I also found a company called Natural Habitat that specialize in small group tours. The Polar Bears trips are limited to 16 people, some trips are limited to 6 people. I saw a couple of trips on their website that looked pretty good. Special permit to go into Yellowstone in the winter and track wolves in a special vehicle.

Never have time to investigate options like this just always focused on the products we represent so I enjoyed the process of learning new things.

This sounds great! We would love to do small ship Alaska.

George and I have done this with the boys. It was a long time ago, definitely not Regent, but was excellent. We were on a very small ship, just 32 passengers and cruised mostly in glacier bay. We kayaked and hiked a lot. No real ports just nature. The food was pretty good—fresh salmon and halibut caught that day. I would definitely do if it could be in June. Can’t do August as it is too close to the Galapagos trip which I think will definitely go.

Oh, and we went with Lindblad to Costa Rica 22 years ago. It was amazing.

Yes it is close to the Galapagos that is why I said I could SQUEEZE it in.

Ngaire we would love a trip like this but this year doesn’t work for us, assuming of course that what we have already booked does actually go, but don’t discard the idea. I’m sure you have a significant number of clients who love such an adventurous trip. We would love to do this in 2022/2023.
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Helen