Seattle or Vancouver for an Alaska cruise

Seattle and Vancouver are the two big starting points for Alaska cruises south of Alaska itself. What separates them is the shape of the trip, the lines on offer and the documents you need.

All the counts below are sailings Cruisebound was selling for the 2027 season, read from its catalog on 23 October 2026. They change as lines add and drop sailings.

Round trip or one way

This is the real difference.

From Seattle, almost every Alaska cruise is a round trip. Of 298 Alaska sailings in 2027, 291 came back to Seattle. The other 7 ended in Vancouver. None ended in Alaska.

From Vancouver, 225 of 369 Alaska sailings were round trips. The other 144 were one way, and most of those ended in Alaska: 48 at Seward, 36 at Whittier and 35 at Anchorage as Cruisebound lists them, and 11 at Juneau. The rest ended in Seattle, Los Angeles, Tokyo or Hong Kong.

A one-way cruise between Vancouver and Seward, Whittier or Anchorage lets you start or finish the trip in Alaska itself. From Seattle, that trip isn't on sale.

Why Seattle can't sell one way to Alaska

It's a U.S. law, the Passenger Vessel Services Act, which limits what foreign-flagged ships can do between U.S. ports. CBP's guidance says such ships "may embark passengers at a U.S. point for disembarkation at a foreign port and vice versa", which is what a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska is. But CBP's regulation says that on a voyage between U.S. ports by way of a nearby foreign port, a passenger who disembarks "at a coastwise port other than the port of embarkation" causes a violation. A Seattle cruise that ended in Seward would be exactly that, even with a stop in Victoria. So from Seattle you come back to Seattle, or finish outside the United States.

Which lines sail from each

On Cruisebound's catalog, which runs to October 2028:

	Lines
Both Seattle and Vancouver	Holland America, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian, Oceania, Silversea, Virgin Voyages
Seattle only	Carnival, MSC
Vancouver only	Disney, Seabourn, Explora Journeys, Viking, Regent Seven Seas, Windstar, Azamara

So if you want Carnival or MSC, it's Seattle. If you want Disney, Seabourn, Regent, Viking, Windstar, Explora or Azamara, it's Vancouver.

Trip length

From Seattle, the week-long round trip dominates: 278 of the 298 Alaska sailings in 2027 were seven nights. Vancouver's round trips were mostly seven nights too, but 64 of them were fourteen nights, a length Seattle offers only once that season. Most of Vancouver's one-way trips were seven nights.

Documents

From Seattle, a round trip is what U.S. Customs and Border Protection calls a closed loop, one that begins and ends at the same U.S. port. That lets U.S. citizens sail with a birth certificate and government photo ID instead of a passport. The documents guide covers the details and the cases where a passport is mandatory anyway.

From Vancouver, that exception doesn't apply, because the cruise doesn't start at a U.S. port. You also have to get into Canada first. If you fly in, citizens of countries that need an electronic travel authorization (eTA) need one and a valid passport to board the flight. U.S. citizens don't need an eTA, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada lists identity documents other than a passport only for U.S. citizens who "aren't travelling by air". In practice, plan on a passport for a Vancouver cruise.

Where they leave from

Seattle has two terminals, Pier 66 downtown and Pier 91 at the north end of the waterfront. The terminal guide covers both. In Vancouver, Canada Place, owned and run by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, describes itself as the "home port to the Vancouver-Alaska cruises".

The short version

• Choose Seattle for a round trip that starts and ends in the United States, for Carnival or MSC, or if you'd rather not cross a border to board.
• Choose Vancouver for a one-way trip to or from Seward, Whittier or Anchorage, for a fourteen-night round trip, or for Disney, Seabourn, Regent, Viking, Windstar, Explora or Azamara.