Viking Venus: 36-Night Far East & Alaska

Vancouver cruise port is the main gateway to Alaska, and nearly every Alaska cruise that runs the full Inside Passage route starts or ends here. The terminal is at Canada Place, a distinctive sail-shaped building right on the downtown waterfront.

Ketchikan cruise port is the first major stop on most Alaska Inside Passage itineraries coming up from Seattle or Vancouver. The town sits on Revillagigedo Island in Alaska's southernmost panhandle, wedged between the ocean and steep forested mountains.

Sitka sits on the outer coast of Baranof Island, facing the open Pacific rather than the protected Inside Passage. This gives it a different character from other Alaska cruise ports: more exposed, more wild, with ocean swells and offshore islands visible from town.

Glacier Bay is not a traditional cruise port. There is no dock, no town, and no getting off the ship for most passengers.

Hubbard Glacier is not a port where passengers go ashore. It is a scenic cruising destination in Yakutat Bay at the northern end of the Gulf of Alaska, where ships slow to a crawl and spend several hours in front of North America's largest tidewater glacier.

Seward is the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park and serves primarily as a turnaround port for one-way Alaska cruises between Anchorage/Whittier and the Inside Passage. The small town of about 2,800 residents sits at the head of Resurrection Bay on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, surrounded by mountains, glaciers, and the cold waters of the northern Gulf of Alaska.

Tokyo is one of the world's great cities, a metropolis of nearly 14 million people (37 million in the greater metro area) that layers cutting-edge technology, ancient temples, obsessive food culture, and distinctive neighborhood personalities into a dense, efficient urban landscape. The Tokyo cruise port is primarily at Harumi Passenger Ship Terminal or the newer Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in the waterfront area, both on Tokyo Bay with the city skyline in the background.

Tokyo is one of the world's great cities, a metropolis of nearly 14 million people (37 million in the greater metro area) that layers cutting-edge technology, ancient temples, obsessive food culture, and distinctive neighborhood personalities into a dense, efficient urban landscape. The Tokyo cruise port is primarily at Harumi Passenger Ship Terminal or the newer Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in the waterfront area, both on Tokyo Bay with the city skyline in the background.

Tokyo is one of the world's great cities, a metropolis of nearly 14 million people (37 million in the greater metro area) that layers cutting-edge technology, ancient temples, obsessive food culture, and distinctive neighborhood personalities into a dense, efficient urban landscape. The Tokyo cruise port is primarily at Harumi Passenger Ship Terminal or the newer Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in the waterfront area, both on Tokyo Bay with the city skyline in the background.

Kobe is a port city of about 1.5 million people on the southern coast of Honshu, wedged between the Rokko Mountains and Osaka Bay.