Alaska Cruise/Tour in September

Hello. I don’t know which ports you’ll be visiting, but the temperature in the most popular Alaska ports averages between mid 40’s to low 60’s with some rain in September. If you layer, have a raincoat, and comfy waterproof boots, you will be fine. Although September has less daylight hours than June through August, you’ll have less crowds and a possibility of seeing the aurora borealis.
If the land portion of your trip takes you to Denali, I highly recommend taking a bus tour through the park. Seeing the wildlife (bears, wolves, etc.) was amazing.
We weren’t on Holland America, but on Celebrity we did not dress up for dinner. I think we wore casual pants, jeans, sweaters. Alaska is rugged, casual and breathtakingly gorgeous. Our friends loved it so much, they came home, bought property on the Kenai Peninsula and now live there full time!

Have a wonderful time!
Kim

Expect a little bit of everything, sometimes even all in the same day! 64 degrees is the average temperature in the summer. After 24 years of living there, I have seen it snow in late May (yes, true) and late September. Agree with previous poster about the layers. Feel free to DM me any more questions. I have done almost everything in Alaska.

Regarding dress: cruises to Alaska are usually pretty casual. As a rule, shorts are looked down upon at dinner in the main dining room. There will be 1-2 formal nights. People can easily get away with smart casual if they prefer, but others enjoy dressing up. I usually just wear a dressy top with slacks. If being casual is your thing on formal nights, simply eat in the buffet that evening. It is an easy work around.

Layers is the way to go in Alaska at any time of year. Base layer ( normal shirt), warmth layer (sweater, fleece, or puffy vest), waterproof layer (raincoat). I’ve seen people try to skip the raincoat and use cheap plastic ponchos instead. This never works. I’d have a warm hat and gloves for Glacier Bay as you will probably be outside much of the time. The ship will also have blankets available out on the decks.

Look carefully at the excursions offered by the cruise line. Frequently there are less expensive options available. However, if you have your heart set on a particular one, go ahead and sign up for it now.

My first cruise to Alaska was in October and the weather was fine. Most places will have plenty of stores or activities open. You may miss a t shirt store or jewelry store or two, but there will still be more than enough available.

Check your date(s) for Denali NP and verify the seasonal closing dates. Two years ago we sailed this route with Holland America, around the same time frame you are planning. We booked the Denali extension as part of the cruise package. Our Denali dates were at the end of the season. Some restaurants and shops were closed. (This was a BIG problem for dinner and breakfast.) The bus into/through the park was no longer running. No sled dogs. Even the National Park gift shop and cafeteria/restaurant were closed! After returning I contacted the cruise company to share my disappointment; that didn't accomplish anything. So I now encourage others to do their research in advance so that you don't come home disappointed in this portion of the trip.

For the cruise portion it was easy to explore each port on our own. The only excursion we did through Holland America was a Skagway train trip. We used public transportation to visit Mendenhall Glacier-and ended up with a much longer walk than anticipated! Fortunately a private shuttle bus had open seats for the return and the kind driver gave us a price break :). It was definitely worth the effort to go get there!

Dining can be as casual or dressy as you wish. We were traveling with a group; the women usually wore slacks or leggings with a nice top and the men slacks with a polo or other casual shirt. The only night we "dressed up" was for a birthday dinner-women in dresses/skirts, men with collared shirt and sport coat or sweater. No formal wear for us, but we did see some people in suits or gowns. I don't recall if there was a dress code for the dining room, but there are certainly plenty of casual dining options.

The weather was a mix-some sun, some rain, some wind. I tend to get chilled easily so made sure I had my wool base layer and warm coat/gloves/hat available for walking on deck (especially on sea days)-as well as fleece-lined Eddie Bauer pants. You might be fine with jeans and a sweater or sweatshirt. Daytime attire is definitely casual.

The scenery along this cruise route is breathtakingly beautiful!

I have some experience with Alaska, having worked there 2 months a year for 5-6 years (between Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Valdez.)
I've also done the cruise, and enjoyed it. But It can snow in September, and lots of places will have started to close for the season. You will have rain, maybe 50% of the time. And fog on the inland passage.

Be advised that the road to Denali is closed. And it will be, for at least another year. You can get to mile 43, but you can't see the mountain from there.

"""Be advised that the road to Denali is closed."""
NO. The road is only closed after Mile 43 because of a mountain slide years ago. We visited the park a few times since then and I can confirm, even this first 43 mile are worth the trip.
https://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm
We always where there in September, selfdriving, and we had really all kind of weather. From summertime temperatures, to rain and storm and even snow.
The infrastructures of the park normally closes down the second weekend after Labor Day, so about middle of September.

We did our NCL cruise from Vancouver to Seward that visited the Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay (glad your cruise does this!!).
Also, we did our cruise in late August and early September, then a land tour to Denali. Our land tour didn't go that far into September.

Not sure, when the hotels near Denali shut down, but ours did before the middle of September. The season was over.
I don't recommend pushing it that late.

Thank you for your responses.

First, the cruise is already booked and it is what it is. I did not choose it, but we will make the best of it and prepare accordingly for weather. I’m assuming that Denali NP will still be open or why would that still be on the schedule? We will be staying at the Holland America Denali Lodge and the indication on their description is that there is food available there.

Den, thank you for the warning about some the restaurants being closed at Denali. I will suggest to our friends that we buy some non perishable food supplies before we leave Anchorage to have with us at Denali, just in case we run into that situation. I appreciate your comments about exploring ports on our own and how people dressed onboard. Thanks for specifically mentioning the Eddie Bauer fleece lined pants. I have a pair and don’t have much occasion to wear them where I live. I’ll make sure to pack them.

I hope this cruise and land tour is everything we hope it will be, but I’m prepared to deal with whatever happens. I would have suggested to our friends that we should wait until next year, but the husband is in poor health and by then it might not be possible for him. They really wanted us to go with them. They are amongst our closest friends and because they live in Portland we don’t see them more than 2-3 times a year. We couldn’t say no.