Combining a cruise with an inland travel excursion before returning

I think what you want is a "cruise tour," which is a one-way cruise plus a land tour. If you want to do the land tour on your own, then you just want a one-way cruise. I am not familiar with the small-ship operators, so I can't advise any further.

I have done two Alaskan cruises with Norwegian on very large ships. I know that they offer a pre cruise package.

Probably most of the cruise lines offer pre or post cruise packages.

Might want to talk to a Travel Agent who can help you plan.

And you might want to explore a land package or independent travel and then picking up a cruise ship somewhere in Alaska. I know there are some cruises that begin in Alaska.

Alaska is beautiful and wonderful.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I dont believe there are any one way cruises from Seattle to Alaska. That would be a violation of the PVSA act. At least by any of the main cruise lines. Any cruise originating in a US port needs to be closed loop, unless it ports in at least one distant foreign port. Canada is not considered a distant port. The only one way Alaska cruises I'm aware of are those embarking in Vancouver. Due to cabotage laws, the cruiseline with a closed loop cruise is unlikely to approve of a disembarkation part way through the sailing. It might be possible to do it on a one way cruise, with prior approval. The line needs advance notice in order to arrange for Customs and Immigration, and to alter the manifest. You would pay an extra fee for this, and would still need to pay for the full cruise. You would need to make your own way to am embarkation port to pick up a new cruise if you wanted more cruising.

The easiest way around all this is to book a cruise that starts and/or ends in an Alaska port, with a cruise/tour package as mentioned above. Or book cruise only and book your own land tours either before or after the cruise.

It's slightly different to how described in that any cruise out of Seattle has to call at a Canadian port- almost always Victoria. Usually that is a technical late evening stop, but NCL are doing 13 hour stops at Victoria this season. I know someone who did that on the NCL Joy a few weeks ago.
The only other obvious way to do this idea is to take the Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Bellingham, WA

CJean has explained it well. Princess Cruises, for example, depart Vancouver and end in Anchorage, a one way cruise with stops in 3 of the 4 usual locations (Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Skagway). You can add on a post-cruise tour (varying sizes, components, lengths), or, if originating in Anchoeage, a pre-cruise with various options. That would let you do what you want, in general. We did one in 2002 or 2003 flying to Vancouver, 7 days on the cruise ending in Anchorage, and a bus trip to visit to their lodge (near Talkeetna) with a terrific location for viewing Mt. Denali. From there a train to Denali N/P and a national park small bus tour into the park. Then train to Fairbanks and flight home (through Vancouver). Post-cruise involved four nights lodging, narrated tour with guide, most meals. There were options for helicopter rides, fishing, etc. I would go to the websites for the various cruise lines first and see what your options are. AAA travel services are great, if you are a member, but you can find most of what you want at the cruise line websites.

The two cruise lines you want to look at for something like this are Princess and Holland America. They have a variety of cruise tours that do exactly what you described.

It is possible to cruise one way to Alaska if you leave from Vancouver. Either fly into Vancouver, or fly into Bellingham or Seattle and take train or bus to Vancouver.

You can take the organized cruise tours or simply get off the ship, do your preferred independent travel and then fly home from Anchorage or Fairbanks.

I didn't know that, CJean. I have done two Alaska cruises, a one-way from Vancouver and a round-trip from Seattle. There is probably a level on which I don't consider Vancouver and Seattle to be two different places (because I live between them), but I suppose they are, huh? In any case, the OP wants a small ship, so Holland America (which was our family cruise line when my parents were living and we actually cruised) only has big ships, as to the others mentioned thus far.

CJean, what the Jones Act requires is ships going to US ports be US flagged ships, UNLESS they are also visiting foreign ports. Canada qualifies as foreign.

jderlikowski, depending on the length of your stay in port, Ketchikan and Juneau have 1/2-day ocean fishing trips, as I'm sure other ports do. If you were to leave the ship mid-cruise, you would have to make arrangements beforehand. You wouldn't be allowed back on, I believe. Some larger cruise lines have Land Tours pre- or post-cruise from Anchorage (Whittier). These, however, don't leave free time for fishing or taking your own trek.

Ketchikan has the Totem Heritage Center on native land and the Totem Bight State Historical Park.

I took a cruise from Quebec to Boston last year that had a stop on Portland, Maine. There were several announcements that you could not leave the cruise there and that there would be not only a fine but also IMPRISONMENT if you did !

For a small ship look at Azamara. You will need to do your own touring afterwards.

Everyone has great information. This is very helpful. I didn't know where to start or what to look for. Now I know what I am looking for

Thanks to all. .

We did a great Alaska cruise from Vancouver, BC to Seward, Alaska and picked up an Alaska tour that included Denali.

I HIGHLY recommend such a tour. I think we used Alaska Tours.

The tours out of Seattle that are round-trip and not as good as the one-way tours to Alaska.
Also, we did our cruise that included TWO wonderful glaciers, at Glacier Bay and the Hubbard Glacier.
Not every cruise line can go into Glacier Bay. Recommend picking one that goes there. I think NCL and Princess go there.

Our cruise was in early September and the Denali tour was after the cruise still in early September. The hotels near Denali closed down after we checked out.
Be sure that you don't go too late in the season to miss Denali.

We have done two small ship cruises with Alaskan Dream Cruises. About 50 people per ship. They truly go where the big ships can’t. And they visit sites more about history, culture and nature. There are other small ship lines such as National Geographic/Lindblad and UnCruise.

On our first trip we rented a car for several days and went to Denali, Seward, Talkeetna, all very easy to do on your own. We did a partial day fishing trip out of Ketchikan which was the final stop on our second cruise. All very easy to do on your own.

what the Jones Act requires is ships going to US ports be US flagged ships, UNLESS they are also visiting foreign ports. Canada qualifies as foreign.

Leonard, the Jones Act deals with cargo vessels, and is different than the PVSA, which pertains to passenger vessels. It states that (for all non US flagged ships) a closed loop cruise leaving from and returning to the same US port must stop at at least one foreign port. In an Alaska cruises, a stop in Canada fulfills that requirement. However, any one way cruise between 2 US ports requires that the ship stops in at least one DISTANT foreign port. In this case for an Alaska cruise, Canada does not qualify. They would need to visit Fanning Island or Kiribati, which would be totally impractical.