With children
An Alaska glacier cruise with kids: which boat, and which length
A glacier cruise is one of the better things you can do with children in Alaska and one of the easier ones to get wrong. The two failure modes are length and swell, and both are decided at the point of booking rather than on the day.
Quick answer
For children under about eight, book a four-hour Resurrection Bay cruise from $156: sheltered water, plenty to look at, and it ends before anyone runs out of patience. For older children who want to see a glacier, the six-hour Kenai Fjords cruise at $250 includes lunch and has a heated saloon. Prince William Sound from Whittier is the calmest of the trips that reach ice.
With children, at a glance
- Under 8
- Four hoursResurrection Bay, sheltered, $156
- 8 and over
- Six hoursKenai Fjords with lunch, $250
- Calmest that reaches ice
- Prince William Sound$245, sheltered throughout
- Heated saloon
- On every boatsomewhere to retreat to
- Toilets
- On every boatthe two flights are the exception
- Food included
- Five of twelve cruisesno shop on board on the rest
- Step-free access
- Six of twelveuseful for pushchairs as well
- The hard part
- The open-water hourpast the headland on the Seward trips
- Near-certain sightings
- Otters, sea lions, eagleswhich is what keeps children looking
- Cancellation
- Free to 24 huseful when a child wakes up unwell
The two things that go wrong
Length and swell, in that order
Four hours in the bay, or Whittier for sheltered water with ice. Six hours out of Seward is the risky one.
Length. A six-hour boat is a long time for a small child. The first hour is genuinely exciting — eagles, otters, the harbour, the mountains. The middle two hours are open water with not much happening, and that is where a five-year-old runs out. By the time the glacier appears, the child who was going to enjoy it most may be asleep or miserable.
Swell. The first hour of every Seward sailing is flat, inside the bay. Past Caines Head it is the Gulf of Alaska. Children are not more prone to seasickness than adults as a rule, but they are much worse at recognising it early and saying so, and there is nowhere to go once you are an hour out.
Both are solved the same way: for younger children, book four hours and stay in the bay. It has the sea lions, the otters, the eagles and the puffins, which is most of what a child came to see anyway, and it ends before either problem starts.
If a glacier is non-negotiable, the Prince William Sound cruise from Whittier is sheltered the whole way and still reaches ice. That is the best compromise on this page.
Practical
Seven things that make the day work
Small, dull and each one prevents a specific problem.
- Layers, and one more than you think
It is ten to fifteen degrees colder on deck than on the dock and colder again in front of the ice. A child who is cold will want to go inside, and inside is where nothing is seen.
- Waterproof outer layer, not just warm
Spray comes over the bow and it rains. Wet and cold is the combination that ends a day; either one alone is survivable.
- Eat before boarding if lunch is not included
Seven of the twelve cruises have no shop at all. A hungry child on hour four of six is a solvable problem you have to solve in advance.
- Seasickness medicine an hour before, not when asked for
Children do not report it early. If you are taking a six-hour Seward sailing, treat it as preventive rather than responsive.
- Binoculars they can use
A cheap compact pair that a child can hold changes the trip from watching adults point at things to finding things. This is the single best small purchase for this day.
- Ask the crew for the naturalist
Most of these boats carry one, and they are usually delighted to talk to a child who is interested. Several will let children help spot.
- Sit near the door, not at the window
You will go in and out repeatedly. A table near the deck door is worth more than a table with a view.
Six of the twelve cruises here list step-free access, which also makes them the easier ones with a pushchair.
What the boats are like→What children actually enjoy
Rarely the glacier, in our experience
Otters, sea lions and puffins. The glacier is an adult pleasure, mostly.
Adults book these trips for the ice. Children, almost without exception, come back talking about the animals.
Sea otters win, every time. They float on their backs, they hold hands, they are everywhere in Resurrection Bay, and they are visible without binoculars. Steller sea lions are second: enormous, loud, and piled on top of each other on a rock.
Puffins are a close third for anyone who has ever seen a picture of one, and they flush off the water directly in front of the bow, which is the best possible way to meet them.
The glacier itself is often too big to register as a thing. A wall of ice three hundred feet high a few hundred metres away does not read as enormous to a child with no sense of the scale; it reads as a white cliff. What does land is the sound — the cracking, and the floating pieces bumping the hull.
Which is an argument for the four-hour bay trip on its own terms: it is almost entirely made of the things children actually like.
Common questions
Cruising with children, answered
Is an Alaska glacier cruise good for kids?
Yes, with the right length. The four-hour Resurrection Bay cruise is the best option for younger children: sheltered water, otters and sea lions, and it ends before boredom or seasickness become issues.
What age is a six-hour cruise suitable for?
Roughly eight and up, in our reading of it. Younger than that and the two hours of open water in the middle are a long time with little happening.
Which cruise is calmest for children?
The four-hour Resurrection Bay trip, which never leaves sheltered water, or the Prince William Sound cruise from Whittier, which is sheltered throughout and still reaches glaciers.
Is there food on board?
On five of the twelve cruises. The rest have no shop, so bring what you need — a six-hour trip without food is a long one with a child.
Are there toilets?
On every boat here. The two scenic flights are the exception.
Can you take a pushchair?
Six of the cruises list step-free access, which makes them the practical ones. On the others expect steps and narrow doors; a carrier is easier than wheels.
Go deeper
More on cruising to a glacier in Alaska
What an Alaska glacier cruise costs
Fifteen departures priced per person and per hour, from $116 to $1,334.
Kenai FjordsThe Kenai Fjords glacier cruise
Aialik, Holgate and Northwestern — which boat reaches which face, and for how long.
VerdictThe best Alaska glacier cruise
Fifteen departures ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
WhalesWhale watching on an Alaska cruise
Humpbacks feed here rather than pass through — what that means for your odds.
SewardGlacier cruises from Seward
Every sailing out of the small boat harbour, and how to get there from Anchorage.
WhittierThe 26 Glacier Cruise
Prince William Sound, twenty-six named glaciers, and the tunnel you have to time.
