Misty fjords, tidewater glaciers and isolated port cities; sailing the Inside Passage is a journey of monumental proportions.

I am camped on the bow of MS Koningsdam anticipating the thunderous crack of a tidewater glacier calving as we cut a path through the icy-cold waters of Glacier Bay National Park. Two park rangers boarded our Holland America Alaska cruise in the early hours of the morning, and now commandeer the ship’s speakers. “The brilliant blue of the ice will shine bright in this fog," one of them announces as we journey closer to Margerie Glacier. I’m five days into a seven-day roundtrip cruise of Alaska’s Inside Passage from Vancouver, and this is the headline attraction.

It’s one of only two ways to explore the protected waters of this roadless national park (the other is by air). You’ll need to be on one of the two cruise ships allowed to enter here each day over the summer months for the best views of the park’s nine tidewater glaciers.

I spy a sea otter break the surface briefly and tufts of fog hover just above the water like floating fairy floss as we take the last bend. Margerie doesn’t disappoint. She stretches more than 33 kilometres from Mt Fairweather to meet the ocean a short distance in front of us. Margerie towers 70 metres above sea level and is 1500 metres wide. Her vibrant blue ice wall formed during a process called calving, which sees icebergs crack off and plummet into the sea to become floating sunloungers for weary harbor seals.

It’s a sight I’ve seen countless times on nature documentaries and in magazines, but never in person. Yet, it begs the question: for how long? Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the Earth and 95 per cent of the state’s 100,000 glaciers are thinning, stagnating or retreating at an alarming rate. Even something this grand could disappear if we can’t correct its course in time.

A storied history

The Inside Passage is sandwiched between a string of islands and North America’s west coast, stretching 1600 kilometres from Vancouver to Alaska. Holland America Line (HAL), which sailed into its 150th year in 2023, has been cruising this wonderland of glaciers, misty fjords, isolated port cities and forest-covered islands for more than 75 years. MS Koningsdam launched the cruise line’s fleet of Pinnacle-class ships in 2016 with a refurbishment to follow in 2018. The mid-sized ship has 12 decks and maxes out at 2650 guests, which makes it feel less crowded.

There is a classical music theme that runs throughout the ship’s design; decks are named after famous composers (I’m staying on Gershwin) and art featuring musical instruments adorns the walls.

Fluid lines, wooden curves and the flow of public spaces work together to create an understated elegance that nods to HAL’s 19th-century origin story as a transatlantic passenger line.

I retreat to the balcony of the verandah stateroom I’m sharing with my husband most mornings and late evenings; I can’t help but sit transfixed by my surroundings, desperately hoping to spot a whale pass me by.

Facing the future in Juneau

We sail for nearly 48 hours from embarkation in Vancouver until we reach Alaska’s capital city, Juneau, with a population of about 32,000. A row of brightly coloured buildings lines the boardwalk of downtown Juneau as if to greet us as we pull into port.

Lyn is a Tampa Bay local who has spent nine summers in Juneau ferrying travellers to the Tongass National Forest to see one of the 38 glaciers that make up the Juneau Ice Field. She welcomes us onboard the tour bus ahead of a 20-minute drive to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

Here, we have two hours to explore the self-guided scenic trails that meander through the forest to the glacier. I’m too early to spot the black bears that arrive to feast on the spawning sockeye and coho salmon in Steep Creek each year, but I remain hopeful.

I take the Nugget Falls trail, a 3.4-kilometre roundtrip that offers the closest views. If I had my time over, I would have splurged on the helicopter excursion that landed on top of the glacier. It’s not that it isn’t impressive on foot; it is. But Mendenhall feels further away than I had imagined. I see its receding icy expanse as I stand beside the roaring glacier-fed waterfall at the trail’s end; the juxtaposition drawing an uneasy line to its future.

Mendenhall Glacier once loomed large outside the visitor centre. In fact, it was possible to walk from the rocks onto the ice where the lake now flows in its place. If Mendenhall continues its backwards march, it’s predicted the centre will lose sight of the famous landmark by 2050.

Downtown delights

Back in downtown Juneau, I find myself at Tracy’s Crab Shack. I’m oblivious to its fame at first and worry I’m about to fall into a tourist trap. Fresh Alaskan king crabs are being dropped into steaming hot buckets of water out front as my husband and I queue to enter. We split a Crab Shack combo of red king crab, crab bisque, crab cakes and warm garlic rolls dipped in butter. I’m not exaggerating when I say it is the best crab I’ve eaten in my life.

Now full, satisfied and back onboard, we watch Juneau slip away in the fading light from our balcony as MS Koningsdam sails through the night to Skagway, the Gold Rush town planted in the northernmost point of the Inside Passage. I Google in search of a more positive outcome for the Tongass National Forest and its grand glacier and stumble upon the ‘roadless rule’ that prohibits the building of roads and logging in 23.4 million hectares of remaining undeveloped national forest lands across the US. The law came into effect in 2001, but protections for the Tongass – and its ancient trees that hold 44 per cent of the carbon in all the country’s national forests – were temporarily removed in 2020 before being reinstated in 2021. A glimmer of hope.

A monumental meeting

I’ve been pacing the bow of the ship trying to get a better view when I hear the ship is turning 180 degrees and will remain in front of Margerie Glacier for the next 30 minutes. We order two steaming cups of Glacier Bay Coffee, a potent concoction of Baileys Irish Cream and Malibu Coconut Rum, and head back to our stateroom.

Seated on the balcony, wrapped in blankets, cupping our spiked coffee, we now have Margerie all to ourselves. It’s quite the contrast to the growing crowd on the bow. But something this monumental demands to be shared; we FaceTime our parents in an attempt to give them a small taste of what we are feeling before it’s time to make our final stop in Ketchikan and return to Vancouver.

This is what travel does. It moves a place off a page or a bucket list and gets it under your skin. The reality is that all travel impacts the planet in some way, but it also turns us into fierce protectors. I’ve not figured out yet what it looks like to find the balance between the two, but I’m working on it.

Conscious traveller

As the first and only cruise line to achieve certified sustainable status by the Responsible Fisheries Management, Holland America Line is committed to serving only certified sustainable Alaskan seafood onboard its sailings in Alaska as well as supporting the local communities responsible for the catch.

A Traveller’s checklist

Holland America Line’s seven-day Alaskan Inside Passage Cruise is a roundtrip from Vancouver onboard MS Koningsdam with stops in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan and a scenic cruising day in Glacier Bay National Park.