Crossing the Pacific from Japan to Alaska

This is part three of a three-part, seven-week trip traveling through New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Alaska.

• Part 1: Auckland and Brisbane
• Part 2: Cruising through Japan from Okinawa to Otaru
• Part 3: Crossing the Pacific from Japan to Alaska

Introduction

This journey completes a 29-day cruise that started back in Brisbane, Australia. In this segment, we sail from northern Japan, across the Pacific to Alaska, and then down to our final port in Seattle.

Crossing the Pacific

Throughout our crossing, we sailed around two-hundred kilometers south of the Aleutian islands. Below you can see the sea state in PredictWind, and the view out my cabin window, as we sailed east of the Kuril islands. Every once in a while a wave would splash all the way up to my window.

PredictWind can be a great companion to a cruise, telling you everything you might want to know about weather conditions at sea. The free version gives you two locations, but I’ll often pay for the pro-version for a month if I’m taking a longer cruise. This way, it’s easy to see the weather at my current location without reconfiguring the two free locations.

Alaska

Alaska was my 50th state, and perhaps 47th in the last four years. No fireworks or confetti, but I was treated to a pod of Dall’s porpoises playing in our wake as we pulled into Seward.

Seward

The cruise terminal in Seward is in an industrial area, but it only takes 10-15 minutes to walk out into town. While they have buses, it’s actually a fairly pleasant walk with a dedicated footpath or sidewalk the whole way. Those going to destinations deeper into town may want to take one of the circulating buses.

I didn’t have an excursion booked, and indeed, we were too early in the season for most excursions, so I decided to walk around town on my own. The first stop was at Two Lakes Park where I took the trail winding around the two lakes. It’s a lush green forest frequented by dog walkers.

From park, I walked through town to the Lowell Creek Waterfall, on the opposite end of town from the port. The falls are right where the creek meets Resurrection Bay. It’s a starkly beautiful area with lots of gulls.

From the falls, I walked back to the port along the shoreline, passing the Alaska Sea Life center, a seaside park and campground and the start of the Iditarod. The garlic pastry is from Supalucks Bakery. It was very tasty.

Juneau

In Juneau, I split the day between exploring town and an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier, essentially a bus ride to and from the glacier.

The park is beautiful. I first walked down to the beach to get a view of the glacier across the lake. Then I took a 2-mile trek for a close-up view of the waterfall. On the way back, a black bear made an appearance, foraging for berries on a small ridge 30-40 feet away.

Back in town, I tracked down Jellyfish Donuts to try their infamous Salmon Donut. It failed to distinguish itself as either especially tasty or especially repugnant, instead being merely ok and astronomically priced. The dumplings, however, were fantastic and a pretty reasonable deal for Alaska.

Ketchikan

In Ketchikan, I took a long circuitous route walking around town, through some neighborhoods to a city park called “City Park.” Inside the park are two attractions, the Deer Mountain Salmon Hatchery and the Totem Heritage Center. The hatchery had, unfortunately, appeared to have been closed to the public since Covid, but you could still see some of it from outside. The totem center had a small admission fee and was worth a 30-minute look around.

After visiting the park, I walked back to the main part of town via the Married Man walk. This used to be a dirt path along the creek, allowing one to sneak into the brothels without being seen going in the main entrance. Now it is an elevated boardwalk that leads to the Creek Street market, a series of shops sitting above the river.

For lunch, I stopped at the Alaska Crepe Company and decided to try their Wild Alaskan Salmon Crepe with the menu-recommended bacon. It was good but after tips and mystery fees, it came to close to $30 for a hand-held crepe. Sometimes I think places add an item to the menu with a billion percent markup specifically for the tourists, and I’m pretty sure this was that item. As I was finishing up, a fellow walking into the weed store next door recommended their pizza crepe and I think that would have been the smart choice.

On the crossing from Japan to Alaska, we had heavy fog and rarely if ever saw the sun. Then it rained each day in Alaska. But as we were leaving, the sun peaked out to say hello. The rest of the trip down to Seattle was full of sunshine and even a few distant whales (no pics).

Seattle

Asides from a few multi-leg redeyes, there weren’t any affordable flights home until the third day back in Seattle. Had I wanted to fly home in business on the day we arrived in port, it would have cost more than my business class flight all the way to Auckland. Since I had two expiring hotel certificates, I decided to stay a few days to catch the better flight. Unfortunately, I had been fighting a cold in Alaska and lost the battle as we came into Seattle, so I didn’t make any tourist stops.

I’ll list the point prices for the hotels, but for Hyatt and, unfortunately, an 85k certificate for the Marriott.

The Hyatt Regency was fine, and with Explorist status, checked me in at 11am without any fuss. I used an expiring category 1-4 certificate, but at 12k points, it is probably one of the better points values in Seattle.

The Residence Inn was nicer than the Regency, but cost approximately 50,000 points against a cash rate around $300 (0.6cpp). Since fair value for Marriott points is around 0.76cpp, this is terrible value. Unfortunately, I was using an expiring 85k night certificate essentially overpaying on that poor value down to a rate of 0.35cpp. Ugh. I was extremely conflicted about this.

So why did I use it?

• I’d tried to use the cert in Auckland and Brisbane (and other places before), and it just didn’t work out.
• The most expensive options in Seattle were only 60k and comparable deals.
• This was the only mid-tier or higher option without a hefty destination fee.
• It was the only option with free breakfast.
• And it was a block from my Regency.

Most importantly, I only had two months left before the certificate expired, with no travel planned.

Flight

Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a direct flight.

• 30k Alaskan Miles + $18.
• SEA to ORD to CMH in domestic first

Summary

Twenty-nine days is a looong time to be on a boat, but this trip allowed me to visit New Zealand, Japan and Alaska all for the first time (plus Australia again). Although there wasn’t much to see at sea, I do somewhat relish an ocean crossing skirting along Kuril and Aleutian islands. I also think a cruise is a great way to visit Japan for the first time and probably an ok way to visit Alaska. This cruise was a very reasonable way to do both. Knowing what I know now, I’m glad I did it, but I wouldn’t repeat the voyage.

Unless you just like living on cruise ships, there are probably better approaches that don’t involve spending an extra 21 days at sea. You’d get more Alaska out of a west coast cruise that left a little more in-season and visited more Alaskan ports. Similarly, Japan is a pretty easy country to visit and their trains make it easy to navigate.

29-day cruise

• $1,180 including taxes, fees and gratuity.

11 nights in hotels

• $400 for 2 nights in Auckland (rebated $400)
• 100k IHG points for 5 nights in Auckland (cost $500).
• 24k Hyatt points for 2 nights in Brisbane.
• Cat 1-4 Hyatt certificate in Seattle.
• 85k Marriott certificate in Seattle.

3 flights/itineraries.

• 65k American + $40 for Columbus to Auckland in business class.
• 15k Alaskan + $18 for Auckland to Brisbane in business class.
• 30k Alaskan + $18 for Seattle to Columbus in domestic first.

This has been part three of a three-part, seven-week trip traveling through New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Alaska. Check out the other parts belong.

• Part 1: Auckland and Brisbane
• Part 2: Cruising through Japan from Okinawa to Otaru
• Part 3: Crossing the Pacific from Japan to Alaska