Nine weeks later, we found ourselves in a helicopter hovering over the Port of Skagway, the massive, 145,000-ton Discovery Princess cruise ship we had just disembarked shrinking in the distance.

A cruise to Alaska is one of the best ways to visit many parts of the 49th state, including the Inside Passage and the southeastern port towns of Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway. You can also see ...