Cruising to Alaska familiarizes the cruiser with an area of water called the Inside Passage. Instead of being out on the ocean proper, you sail amidst islands and up and down Fjords. The water is calmer than the ocean, and the scenery is devastatingly beautiful. The islands, of which there are many, are pretty and green, and passage is very deep, in some places more than 1000 feet deep. This area was carved out by massive sheets of ice (glaciers) that covered this area up to 1 mile thick during the last major ice age. It is just a beautiful place on the Planet Earth.