ALASKA BY SEA
I returned recently from my third ocean voyage along the southern coast of Alaska. My first voyage along the Alaskan Inside Passage was in 2019. I had booked that cruise while sailing through the Panama Canal with my very experienced cruising friend, Ruth. She had gotten an email from Cunard offering discounted prices for the Queen Elizabeth’s maiden voyage to Alaska. That ship was in Asia and would soon be crossing the Pacific to visit Alaska. “It’s a smokin’ deal on a beautiful ship,” she told me. “You should book it.” I was new to cruising and leery of being on a big ship, but Ruth had taken a world cruise (90 days) on the Queen Elizabeth and assured me that I would find it a very agreeable ship. So, I booked the cruise as a solo traveler. It would leave from Vancouver just four weeks after our Panama Canal cruise ended in Miami. And Ruth was right, it was a beautiful ship, and I had booked passage for a very reasonable p...