AdventureSmith Launches Incentives for Families, Announces New 2020 Alaska Cruises
AdventureSmith Explorations serves up Alaska’s most diverse range of small ship cruise itineraries. On board for 2020 will be cruise specials specifically for families as well as new and enhanced opportunities for off-ship wildlife immersions for all ages.
Booking Incentives for Families
When it comes to family vacations, Alaska is a spectacular and easy to reach destination. Small ship cruises provide families intimate access to Alaska’s wildlife, history and culture – with all the convenience that comes with shipboard life and without disconcerting crowds.
Clients who book Alaska’s Glacier Country and Alaska Fjords & Glaciers cruises aboard the 90-guest S.S. Legacy by Dec. 13, 2019, will receive an early booking discount of $600 per person, plus an extra $500 off per child ages 8-13.
Alaska’s Glacier Country is an eight-day adventure round trip from Juneau that flows around Admiralty Island. Alaska Fjords & Glaciers is also an eight-day cruise, this time exploring between Juneau and Ketchikan. Every day offers opportunities for adventure: hiking, kayaking, skiff rides, standup paddle boarding and snorkeling, all ways to explore Alaska’s backcountry nature and wildlife up close.
Exploring Alaska’s Coastal Wilderness aboard National Geographic Venture and National Geographic Quest, each accommodating only 100 passengers, can be likened to stepping into the pages of National Geographic for eight days. Naturalists and expedition leaders from National Geographic Society offer an unparalleled educational and intellectual Alaska program. Guests kayak, ride skiffs and walk along the shore to witness Alaska in the wild.
Special programming for kids includes photo workshops, journaling, scavenger hunts, Zodiac-driving lessons, nature and science programming and child-friendly menu options. Families can anticipate savings of up to 50 percent for kids under the age of 22 when traveling with two full-fare passengers on select departures.
Northern Passages and Glacier Bay cruises aboard 76-passenger Wilderness Discoverer and 74-passenger Wilderness Explorer come with early booking discounts of $500 per person, plus an extra $500 per child ages 8-13 if booked by Dec 13, 2019. This eight-day itinerary travels between Juneau and Sitka, with ample opportunities to explore remote shorelines.
New-for-2020 Alaska Itineraries
AdventureSmith, the international leader in small expedition ship cruising, cut its teeth in 2003 in Alaska. The company founder was a naturalist guide and cruise program manager in the state over a decade before that. Today the company is the turn-to specialist on all things Alaska. Clients who book a 2020 Alaska small ship cruise before the calendar turns can be rewarded with savings up to $1,000, group special offers, waived solo premiums, child discounts, complimentary airfare and more, while supplies last.
Two six-day itineraries, originally designed for those who can spend only limited time on a cruise in Alaska, can now be combined back to back to satisfy those who want to double the adventure.
If booked separately, each trip is an efficient way to experience Alaska’s Inside Passage. Experienced together, the two itineraries create a thorough experience from north to south, with top naturalists and guides aboard. The itineraries are Wild Alaska Escape Sitka to Juneau aboard either 62-guest National Geographic Sea Lion or National Geographic Sea Bird, and Wild Alaska Escape: Juneau to Ketchikan aboard 62-guest National Geographic Sea Lion.
Two itineraries have a particular focus in 2020 on whales. Glacier Bay National Park Adventure Cruise runs eight days aboard the 60-guest Wilderness Adventurer and takes travelers to prime whale watching areas, spending two days in Glacier Bay National Park and a day focused on Chatham Strait, an area famous for humpback whales which bubble-net feed on the large herring population. Frederick Sound is Southeast Alaska’s other popular humpback whale-watching site, and in 2020 Inside Passage Sojourn expands to a 10-day trip aboard 76-guest Chichagof Dream, with its extra day spent seeking out the large whales in Frederick Sound.
The new Great Bear Rainforest Cruise: The Land of The Spirit Bear is an eight-day cruise through Canada and Alaska that AdventureSmith Explorations ranks at the top of its 2020 portfolio. The Spirit Bear, also known as a Kermode bear, is a variant of the North American black bear and can only be found in the pristine wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest. This round-trip Ketchikan itinerary aboard the 100-guest National Geographic Venture offers enriching cultural interpretations with opportunities to spot the region’s abundant wildlife, including mountain goats, cougars, grizzly bears, coastal grey wolves, killer whales, sea lions, sea otters and more.
The company’s ever-popular Glacier Bay & Island Adventure, a top-selling Alaska small ship cruise in 2019, gets an itinerary refresh in 2020, uniquely adding stops in Wrangell and Pelican, plus a transit of the Lisianski Inlet. In Wrangell guests visit the intriguing State Historic Park, Petroglyph Beach, which contains the highest concentration of petroglyphs in Southeast Alaska. This is also the only itinerary to visit the fishing town of Pelican, home to dense populations of coastal brown bears. Guests are at home for eight days on either 40-guest Alaskan Dream or 49-guest Baranof Dream.
Visitors to Alaska can cross the Arctic Circle or experience the Aleutian Islands with two 13-day options or a full 22-day cruise on Across the Bering Sea.The cruises all operate round trip from Alaska with at least one stop in Russia. Experience Siberia from the comforts of 102-guest National Geographic Orion.
