Keeping in sight of land during Alaska cruise

[wbl2745]

I've been wanting to take a Disney cruise for some time, but my wife is really freaked out by being in the middle of the ocean, out of sight of land. Could anyone who has taken the Alaska cruises tell me if you're ever so far out to sea during this cruise that you can't see land?

 

[Cruising Engineer]

The cruise sails between the coastline and outlying islands.

 

[Dug720]

Even when in the inside passage there are times you cannot see land. Sorry.

 

[lklgoodman]

You can see land most of the time, but as Dug said, not always. If you decide to go on an Alaskan cruise, could your wife just stay in the inside areas of the ship during the times that you can't see land? There's always so much going on in the lounges so maybe she'd be too busy to notice? I take it you haven't taken a Disney cruise before. Some things that she could do to keep her busy are character meets, bingo, cooking demos, movies, trivia, towel folding, character drawing classes, plus more. Also they have a naturalist who gives speeches during the Alaskan cruises which is really interesting, done in the theater. All these are done inside the ship, so she hopefully wouldn't notice the lack of land, unless she went looking out a window.

 

[MomOTwins]

You should do a river cruise--Adventures by Disney does some. Then you'll always be able to see land.

 

[Geomom]

If you take the standard 7 nt Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver with Dawes Glacier, Skagway, Juneau, and then Ketchikan--you'll have the better chance of being in view of land most of the time (albeit really far away at times), on at least 1 side of the ship. Night 2 and probably the morning of day 7 are really the only times you may not be able to see land--there is a big 'gap' between Vancouver Island and Graham Island. Of course...there may be times where it's very foggy and you won't see much of anything. (If you do a cruise with Icy Point Strait or Hubbard Glacier, you'll have more 'open ocean'.) You are 'near' land between all the Alaskan ports though, so it's really just parts of a couple days. For a Disney cruise, an Alaskan cruise is probably the best you'll be able to do as far as being 'near' land.

Views of the water/land for our August 2016 DCL Alaskan cruise:
10AM Day 2


9PM on Day 2, a little land over to the far right


9AM Day 7 Fog


1PM Day 7

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Most days you can. One day we were fogged in and saw nothing. One day, no land in sight...

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I've been wanting to take a Disney cruise for some time, but my wife is really freaked out by being in the middle of the ocean, out of sight of land. Could anyone who has taken the Alaska cruises tell me if you're ever so far out to sea during this cruise that you can't see land?

For most of the Alaska cruise, you can easily see land in the distance on at least one side of the ship. It is a great cruise for those squeamish about being too far from land.

 

[GPaLarry]

While we were waiting on our verandah for the Wonder to shove off from Juneau a hummingbird came up over the rail, looked at us for a second and took off...probably looking for the drink of the day. It could have been Tinkerbell, who knows? There are many magical moments on this cruise. Perhaps your wife could watch "Moana" and find that the ocean can be your friend...with some awesome sunsets. Good luck!

 

[fredandkell]

Yes Alaska is a great cruise to see land most of the time. I would also recommend doing a Hawaiian cruise on Norwegian if your goal is to see land most of the time. The above mentioned ABD river cruises are a great idea as well.

 

[wbl2745]

Thank you so much to everyone who responded. This will help!

 

[jdb in AZ]

You should do a river cruise--Adventures by Disney does some. Then you'll always be able to see land.

I was going to suggest a river cruise as well. Viking's idea of a "muster drill" is to tell the passengers to swim to shore. We highly recommend AMA Waterways. Since Disney doesn't own their own river boat (yet) they charter a river boat from AMA, and it's cheaper to just book with AMA direct so you won't have to pay the Mouse's salary.