Can you take an Alaskan cruise in December?

Question

I always heard you could only cruise from like May-Oct. is this true?

Answer 1

Yeah, it's true.  In the winter, the ocean gets really rough and it makes it hard for pleasure cruising.

Answer 2

Cruising to Alaska in Winter would not be a wise decision. The weather can be horrific. The Gulf of Alaska can have waves towering over 60 feet. The ocean will freeze because of the cold, and yes it is dark a majority of the day. But... If you absolutely have to... check into crewing on a crab boat or traveling on a freighter North.

Answer 3

The major cruise lines only will run during the warmer months.

December in Alaska is not only brutally cold, but dark almost the entire month. The cruise lines would not get much demand during that time.

Im sure you could arrange private charters, probably at a higher cost though.

Answer 4

Why would you want to cruise when its dark 22 hours a day.??

Cruise lines run cruises May to Sept.

Answer 5

no the big ones dont cruise duriong the winter because it is cold and i belive it is dark most of the time maybe like 20 hours during the day and only 4 hours of sunlight and most of the places might freeze over

Answer 6

The Alaska cruise season is in fact from mid-May to Mid-October.

Your only option is to look into the Alaska Marine Highway System, although they're not cruises per-se but ferries with overnight accomodations.

With the end of the cruise season is also the end of tourist season.  As a result many stores and other activities that you might be interested in doing while visiting Alaska will probably be closed as well.