Experiencing life from a spiritual perspective is a big adventure for me lately. I’ve gone on cruises before, but not since my awakening. I’m seeing life through new eyes and it’s kind of fun.
I had the privilege of cruising to Alaska this last week (August 2026). Our itinerary left from Seattle and we spent a day in Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay National Park, Ketchikan, and an evening in Victoria, Canada. I live in the Seattle area, so getting to the boat was a breeze. Despite growing up near Seattle, this was my first time in Alaska. We sailed on the Royal Princess from the Princess Cruise line. From what I gather, this is the best line to take to Alaska because of their access to Glacier Bay. Only 2 cruise ships are allowed to go there per day and Princess has many of those spots secured because they’ve been doing this for so long.
There’s a lot to dissect from this kind of vacation. I’ll do what I can to cover things, but I’m sure there will be parts of this I missed.
The very first thing I noticed when stepping onto the ship is how closed my third eye became. I’m sure this is partially protection and partially just overwhelm. I believe our cruise director quoted about 3,000 people sailing on the ship. That’s a TON of energy to have around, so walking around being spiritually open just wasn’t going to happen for my own well being. I believe that by shutting down your intuition, it becomes easier for cruise lines to tap into the part of your brain that spends money and consumes. There are plenty of opportunities to part ways with your money, whether it’s buying jewelry, drink packages, winning spa credits, or bidding on art work at auction. Part of this vacation experience is running your vices and dopamine on high for a whole week.
I started by going to a “win spa credits” session – they really do give away a lot there, but it’s also a sales pitch to tell you what they do at the spa. Prior to embarking, I had already booked myself a massage. I try to go to massages on a semi-regular basis as a way to take care of this human flesh suit. I ended up staying for nearly the whole spa giveaway session, but was overwhelmed by the volume of it all by the end, so I left. Loud volumes are one way to dull your own intuition. That’s part of why concerts can be so fun – they are so loud that you can’t help but feel the music in your bones and soul. These giveaway sessions continued for the whole cruise, all at similar volumes, but I did not attend any others.
I went to my massage appointment and it was FABULOUS. I cannot stress enough how great my massage therapist was. She did such a great job managing her own energy, that there was no point during the session where I picked up on her energy at all. The meditation part of the massage was me and my own thoughts the whole time. It’s so rare to find a massage therapist that is good at this because so many don’t understand the energy part of the work – and that’s not a knock on anybody, it’s just not the way massage is generally approached in the US. It’s a physical movement/work exchange, not a spiritual thing. Her actual massage work was fantastic too and I felt loads better afterwards.
Alaska is absolutely stunning. Getting off the boat and stepping on land felt like it should be this deeply spiritual experience. It was not for me. I think that’s largely to do with being so closed off energetically and how I approached being in the ports. Each of these cities exists largely for tourist season (it seems, although that’s not entirely true), so there might be a few activities in each place, but they are made for volume and shopping. I wandered through the town and spent money – it’s part of the energetic exchange for visiting. I did not slow down enough to connect with the land properly or to just breathe. I got caught up in the collective energy of the boat rather than my own self. Sometimes it feels like it’s part of the fun and sometimes it feels like I’m missing out on the energy that I’d really want to feel.
During the week, there were several chances to see sea otters, whales, eagles, moose, and bears. I heard from so many folks on the boat that they got to see all of these animals. I just kept missing them because I was so out of touch with the energy. I did manage to chat with a few whales early in the week, but only for them to say that they were far away from the boat, so I’d have to look for them later in the day.
Despite feeling so disconnected from spirit, they still managed to catch me when I needed it. This mosaic on the boat really caught my attention.
My dream space remained highly active, and surprisingly, I had very few invaders from the rooms around me. Usually hotels make my dream space super weird because of the people sleeping so closely. Spirit was able to give me messages and continue on with the usual communication, which I was grateful for. None of the communication was relevant to the cruise, but it is part of my typical ongoing spirit work. I do wonder if sailing in a big metal structure was also a physical barrier to spirit communication.
I had two magical animal experiences during the week and the first was this raven in the picture above. He was just huge and watched as we walked toward the whale fountain in Juneau. He didn’t have much to say, he was just curious. It’s almost as if he was the reminder that there are actually animals around. I also really love the whale statue. The fountain goes off every so often. It was about a mile and a half walk from the boat and we had the perfect weather for it.
Towards the end of the week, we had a second sea day where the boat didn’t stop anywhere. I was walking with my husband around the track after dinner and looking out for whales. I started singing out loud asking for a whale to show up because I was starting to get bummed out at this point for having not seen one. Not even 2 minutes later, a pod of orcas popped out of the ocean right where I was looking. They heard me and kept coming up long enough for me to validate that it was actually orcas and not harbor porpoise or another species. I laughed and started singing “thank you” to them. I was grateful to have a second magical animal experience. I’m almost certain it was a mama or two and their babies.
The one excursion we opted for (and booked early enough to get tickets to) was to take the train in Skagway. I highly recommend going if you get the chance. The whole journey is so picturesque and stunning. The entire ride, I just kept thinking how much Washington and this part of Alaska look alike, Alaska is just more wild and untouched. Washington is gorgeous also, but I’ve watched it be developed as I’ve grown up and it takes a bit of driving away from civilization to find similar views. The picture below is from the train in Skagway. The is one spot where a later train got the chance to see bears in the wild. I was surprised that I didn’t see any animals at all – not even a bird – while we were on the train.
Ketchikan is a lovely town and probably my favorite of the 3 Alaskan cities. The majority of the population in Ketchikan are locals and not the onslaught of tourists. It was also fun to watch the fish practically jumping onto the boat. Salmon is a way of life here in the PNW and it was even more evident in Alaska. It’s nice to be reminded how the native people live in harmony with the land and sea and that includes fishing for salmon. Had it not been raining, I would have loved to have gone for a hike here.
I did go to a Thai chi class on board. We watched a video for the class and I struggled with feeling the energy work part of it, but it was a great stretch and warm up for the day. They also offered yoga classes for an extra charge, but the timing never worked out well for me.
One unexpected uplifting energy was the food. There were so many fresh, whole food options. Much of their prepared food was made from scratch, so I ended up eating really well the whole week. I definitely went for a few more desserts than I probably should have, but many of the rotating desserts on this cruise were some variation of panna cotta or gelatin based sweets. It was fun to start, but gelatin is not my thing, so I didn’t over consume. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely possible to go wrong with the food. It was just so easy to pick things that would vibe well with my body.
As I expected, cruising this way isn’t the most spiritual way to experience a location. It’s absolutely possible for it to be that deeply intuitive experience, but it takes some intention and planning to have it be so. I would absolutely do this trip over again though. Cruising offer some nice benefits – not having to think much about food or itinerary. The hardest thing I had to do was exist. Next time, I’d opt to go on the whale watching tour and to go see the bears fishing from the boardwalk.
Alaska though. Alaska is way up there on the list of magical places to go.
Have you been to Alaska? Did you have any spiritual experiences there? Do you have any places you’d recommend going?
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