Alaska cruises from San Francisco: round trips with two sea days each way

Alaska cruises from San Francisco are round trips of 10 to 13 nights, and this schedule lists 45 of them, leaving between late April and early September. Most last 10 nights. You spend two days at sea each way, call at three or four Alaska ports and a glacier fjord, and stop at Prince Rupert in British Columbia before the run home.

You need no flight to Seattle or Vancouver, and in return you give four days of the trip to the open Pacific. On 3 November 2026 the lowest fare was $996 per person, for the cheapest cabin listed with taxes and port fees included. The table at the end of this guide lists every sailing with its ports and pier.

Which Alaska cruises leave from San Francisco?

Three ships sail them, from two lines. The Port of San Francisco calls the city the homeport for Princess and Carnival, and those are the only two lines with Alaska departures here.

Ship	Nights	Sailings	Leaves	Pier
Ruby Princess	10	26	1 May 2027 to 18 August 2028	Pier 27 in 2027
Carnival Luminosa	10	9	3 May 2027 to 23 August 2027	Pier 27 or Pier 35
Carnival Luminosa	11	1	6 September 2027	Pier 27
Carnival Legend	13	1	28 April 2028	Not published yet
Carnival Legend	10	8	15 May 2028 to 4 September 2028	Not published yet

Princess describes the Ruby Princess trip as a 10-day Inside Passage cruise round trip from San Francisco, and Carnival sells its own as a 10-Day Alaska Inside Passage and Glacier cruise. By the calendar you are away for 11 days, because the ship comes back on the morning of day 11. The longest trip is Carnival Legend's 13-night sailing of 28 April 2028, which Carnival's September 2026 release calls a Carnival Journeys cruise.

The port's own schedule, which runs to 31 December 2027, puts every Ruby Princess departure at Pier 27, the James R. Herman Cruise Terminal. Carnival Luminosa uses Pier 27 on most dates and Pier 35 on 31 May and 9 August 2027. The port says Pier 35 is a 6 to 8 minute walk north of Pier 27. Piers for 2028 are not published yet, and our terminal guide explains how to confirm yours.

How many days at sea is an Alaska cruise from San Francisco?

Four, on every Ruby Princess and Carnival Luminosa sailing listed here: two on the way north and two on the way back. The first Alaska stop comes on day 4. Carnival Legend's 2028 itineraries show one more day at sea on the 10-night trips and two more on the 13-night.

The reason is distance. NOAA's table of U.S. port distances gives these figures in nautical miles, and NOAA puts a nautical mile at about 1.15 ordinary miles.

From	To Ketchikan
San Francisco	1,156
Seattle	659
Victoria, British Columbia	608

By our arithmetic, a ship from San Francisco sails about 500 nautical miles further each way than one from Seattle. NOAA's table does not list Vancouver, so Victoria is the closest Canadian figure it gives.

If you would rather spend those days in Alaska, the shorter trips start further north. Princess's release for its 2027 season names Seattle, Vancouver, Whittier, San Francisco and Los Angeles as homeports, with weekly 7-day round trips from Seattle on Star Princess and Royal Princess and a season of 7-day trips from Vancouver on Emerald Princess. Carnival's 2027 release puts Carnival Spirit and Carnival Legend in Seattle. All of that needs a flight, and this site lists only the cruises that leave San Francisco.

The round trip from here makes most sense for people who live within reach of the Embarcadero, or who count a day at sea as part of the holiday. Princess's San Francisco page makes a point of the start, when you sail under the Golden Gate Bridge on the first afternoon.

What does an Alaska cruise from San Francisco look like day by day?

These patterns come from the itineraries on this schedule, and the order of ports changes between dates. Princess says port order and content may vary by sailing date.

• Ruby Princess, 10 nights. Leaves at 3pm. Days 2 and 3 at sea, then four days in Alaska, usually three ports and a glacier day. Prince Rupert from 7am to 2pm on day 8, days 9 and 10 at sea, and back at 7am on day 11.
• Carnival Luminosa, 10 nights, 2027. Leaves at 4pm. Days 2 and 3 at sea, Juneau from 2pm to 11pm on day 4, Skagway on day 5, a glacier fjord on day 6, Ketchikan on day 7 and Prince Rupert from 8am to 4pm on day 8. Days 9 and 10 at sea, and back at 8am on day 11.
• Carnival Luminosa, 11 nights, 6 September 2027. Sitka, Skagway and Juneau on days 4 to 6, the glacier on day 7, Ketchikan on day 8 and Prince Rupert on day 9. Carnival's own itinerary page gives the same order.
• Carnival Legend, 10 nights, 2028. Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert in the same order as Luminosa's trip, with day 6 shown as a day at sea.
• Carnival Legend, 13 nights, 28 April 2028. Three days at sea on the way north, then Sitka, Icy Strait, Juneau and Skagway on days 5 to 8, Ketchikan on day 10, Prince Rupert on day 11 and two days at sea home.

The 2pm Juneau arrival on Carnival's 10-night trips is worth noticing. It gives you an afternoon and evening in port rather than a full day, so a long excursion there has to fit between 2pm and the 11pm departure.

Which ports do Alaska cruises from San Francisco visit?

Ketchikan is on nearly every sailing and Prince Rupert is on all of them. Juneau and Skagway are on most. Beyond that the two lines differ.

Carnival keeps to one pattern. Every 10-night trip calls at Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, and Carnival's 2028 release puts the Ketchikan stop at Ward Cove. The 11-night adds Sitka, and the 13-night adds Sitka and Icy Strait.

Princess changes the mix from one date to the next. Sitka appears on many Ruby Princess sailings, Haines takes the place of Skagway on some, Icy Strait is on 30 June 2027 and on 19 and 29 July 2028, and the sailing of 9 June 2028 swaps Ketchikan for Wrangell. Princess's San Francisco page still mentions Victoria, but every Alaska itinerary on this schedule uses Prince Rupert as its Canadian stop.

If one port matters to you, read the ports on each row of the table below, or see the Alaska destination page, which counts how often each port appears.

Do cruises to Alaska from San Francisco see a glacier?

Every Ruby Princess sailing has a glacier day. Most go to Endicott Arm, and a few go to Tracy Arm or to Glacier Bay National Park instead.

• Endicott Arm. Princess describes it as a remote fjord within the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness near Juneau, a 30-mile waterway with Dawes Glacier at the end. Ships cruise through it and do not dock. The visits listed here last four to five and a half hours, often early in the morning or in the evening.
• Tracy Arm. Ruby Princess goes there on 10 July and 8 September 2027. Princess says the fjord is over 30 miles long and ends at the twin Sawyer Glaciers, and that ice can stop large ships reaching them.
• Glacier Bay. On 11 May, 31 May and 20 July 2027, and on 30 May 2028. The National Park Service says cruise ships do not dock in the park, that rangers board to narrate the visit, and that ships typically spend 9 to 10 hours in the bay. These itineraries show about 9 hours, starting around 6am.

Princess also says weather and ice levels can affect how close ships get in Endicott Arm, so no glacier view is certain.

Carnival is less settled on the name. Its 10-day and 11-day itinerary pages call the glacier day "Cruise Tracy Arm Fjord", and its July 2025 release lists Tracy Arm Fjord for Carnival Luminosa. The 2027 itineraries on this schedule name Endicott Arm. Carnival's September 2026 release says the 2028 Carnival Legend trips include scenic cruising through Endicott Arm Fjord, although the 2028 itineraries listed here show that day only as a day at sea. The two fjords sit in the same wilderness, but if the glacier matters to you, ask Carnival which one your date includes.

Why do Alaska cruises from San Francisco stop in Prince Rupert?

Because of the Passenger Vessel Services Act. U.S. Customs and Border Protection summarizes the law, 46 U.S.C. 55103, this way: no vessel may carry passengers between U.S. ports, directly or by way of a foreign port, unless it is wholly owned by U.S. citizens and has a coastwise endorsement. The Alaska itineraries here are planned around that rule.

CBP's own examples make the point. A passenger who boards in San Francisco and leaves the ship in Seattle is a violation. So is a ship from Los Angeles that lets passengers go ashore in Hawaii and brings them back to Los Angeles, even though they end where they began.

The regulation, 19 CFR 4.80a, explains what the foreign stop changes. On a voyage only to U.S. ports, going ashore at one of them is a violation. Add a nearby foreign port, which the rule defines as any foreign port in North America, Central America, Bermuda or the West Indies, and the violation becomes leaving the ship at a U.S. port other than the one where you boarded. Prince Rupert, in British Columbia, is that foreign port on every Alaska trip here.

For you, it means the cruise has to end in San Francisco. You cannot leave the ship in Juneau and fly home, and by the same rule you cannot join it in Ketchikan. CBP's 2019 guide gives the penalty, issued to the vessel's owner or operator, as $798 for each passenger.

When do Alaska cruises leave San Francisco?

From late April to early September. Ruby Princess sails from May to early September in 2027 and from late April to mid-August in 2028. Carnival Luminosa runs from May to early September 2027, and Carnival Legend from late April to early September 2028. No Alaska trip on this schedule leaves between October and March.

Carnival fills the gaps with short trips. Carnival Luminosa leaves for Alaska on a Monday and comes back on a Thursday morning, and on several of those Thursdays it leaves again that afternoon for 4 nights to Ensenada. Ruby Princess sails week-long Pacific Northwest trips at the edges of its Alaska season. Our short cruises guide covers both.

The National Park Service says April, May and June are usually the driest months at Glacier Bay, and that September and October tend to be the wettest. It gives summer highs of 50 to 60 degrees F. So a May or June sailing has the better odds on rain, and the last sailings in early September run into the wetter weeks. Our season guide shows what else leaves in those months.

How much is an Alaska cruise from San Francisco?

On 3 November 2026 the lowest Alaska fare was $996 per person. These are the lowest fares that day for the cheapest cabin listed, with taxes and port fees included, and they change often.

Ship and length	Lowest fare	Lowest per night
Ruby Princess, 10 nights	$1,049	$105
Carnival Luminosa, 10 nights	$996	$100
Carnival Luminosa, 11 nights	$1,182	$107
Carnival Legend, 10 nights	$1,112	$111
Carnival Legend, 13 nights	$1,473	$113

The spread on a single ship is wide. Ruby Princess's 10-night fares ran $1,049 to $1,600 that day, so the date you pick matters as much as the line.

The fare leaves out gratuities. When we checked on 3 November 2026, Carnival's recommended rate was $17 a day per guest in a standard cabin and $19 in a suite, which for two people on 10 nights comes to $340 in a standard cabin by our arithmetic. Because you come back to the same pier, driving is an option, but the port says it provides no parking at the cruise terminals. Our parking guide covers the lots nearby, and the cheap and last-minute guide compares fares across the schedule.

What documents do you need for an Alaska cruise from San Francisco?

These trips start and end at the same U.S. port, which CBP calls a closed-loop cruise. On one, U.S. citizens may present a government-issued photo ID with proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate. CBP also says you may still be asked for a passport by the countries the ship visits, which here means Canada at Prince Rupert, and it tells you to check with your cruise line.

A passport also matters if you ever have to fly home from Canada. CBP says U.S. citizens need a passport to enter the United States by air from Canada, and that passport cards are not accepted for international air travel. Our documents guide has the rest.

Is there a one-way Alaska cruise from San Francisco?

Not one that ends in Alaska. The nearest thing is Carnival Luminosa's 15-night Alaska and Japan transpacific cruise of 2 October 2027. It calls at Ketchikan on day 4 and Icy Strait Point on day 5, crosses the Pacific with eight days at sea, stops at Otaru and Aomori, and ends in Tokyo, so the flight home is from Japan.

That trip sits with the long voyages to Asia and Australia rather than in the Alaska table, and on 3 November 2026 it started at $1,541 per person.