If your Norwegian Alaska itinerary says Ketchikan (Ward Cove), one of the first questions you may have is how much of your port day you are really going to spend getting back and forth to downtown. We’ve now done Ward Cove twice—on Norwegian Bliss in 2025 and Norwegian Encore in August 2026—and our experience was…
Ketchikan was one of the shortest port days on our Norwegian Encore Alaska cruise, and that can create pressure to squeeze as much as possible into a few hours. Instead, one of our favorite parts of the morning was completely free. We spent 15 to 20 minutes watching salmon fight their way upstream near the…
Our Norwegian Encore stop in Ketchikan looked short before we ever got there. We were scheduled at Ward Cove from 7:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m., and because Norwegian ships dock outside downtown Ketchikan, we knew part of that already-short day would be spent getting back and forth. We had an advantage: this was not our…
These Freestyle Dailies were shared by a cruiser in a Facebook group after the Norwegian Encore Alaska sailing that departed Seattle on Sunday, July 5, 2026. Complete sailing materials like these help future cruisers see how the week was structured beyond the itinerary alone, including port instructions, dining hours, entertainment, onboard activities, venue schedules, and…
Updated July 2, 2026: We originally published this recap with Day 1, Day 2, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7 from the May 3, 2026 Norwegian Encore Alaska sailing. We later added a Day 3 Juneau example from a different Encore Alaska sailing so readers could see what that missing day may…
