Oceania Cruises is sending its Riviera to Alaska for the 2027 season, and the lineup mixes the classic ports with a few quieter stops the mega-ships can't reach. The 1,200-guest ship will run seven-, 10-, and 11-day sailings from Seattle and Vancouver between May and September, with scenic cruising past Hubbard Glacier and the Holkham Bay Glacier Fjords built into most routes.
Nine featured voyages are on the schedule. The season opens with the 11-day Worlds of Wonder from Vancouver to Seattle on May 13, followed by a run of Seattle roundtrips including Alaska Discoverer (May 24), Dramatic Alaska (June 3), and Trails of Ice & Fire (June 14). If you want something shorter, Visions of Alaska is a seven-day Seattle roundtrip with seven departures from late June through early August. The season bookends are the standouts: Alaskan Dreamscapes and Alaska Fjords & Forests (11 days each) book the full Inside Passage experience, while Glaciers, Geishas & Gyoza is a 27-day repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Tokyo in September, taking in Hubbard Glacier and Anchorage (Whittier) before crossing the Pacific.
Ports range from the familiar — Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Skagway — to smaller calls like Wrangell, Klawock, Haines, and Icy Strait Point, plus Victoria on most sailings.
The excursion menu leans local and a bit quirky. In Ketchikan you can tour Hump Island Oyster Company's floating farm (oysters and kelp, plus a 60-minute seafood cooking class capped at 18 guests) or board an actual king crab boat from Deadliest Catch and watch fishermen haul pots. In Juneau there's a helicopter flight to a dog-sled camp near Mendenhall Glacier, or a floatplane-and-packraft combo that crosses a glacial lake before hiking Norris Glacier. Skagway offers a costumed history walk ending at the Red Onion Saloon's Brothel Museum, and in Sitka you can hammer out your own metal fish sculpture with torches and grinders.
Oceania is also bundling land programs onto select sailings: a three-night Denali add-on with a dome-rail journey from Anchorage, a seven-night Rocky Mountaineer trip linking Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, and Vancouver, and a three-night Vancouver city program covering the Sea-to-Sky Highway and Granville Island.
Why it matters: Riviera is a smaller, more upscale ship than the floating theme parks that dominate Alaska, so this is a good pick for travellers who want glaciers and grizzly country without waterslides. It suits food-focused cruisers especially — Oceania's dining reputation pairs neatly with excursions like the oyster farm and crab tours — and the 27-day Japan sailing is a rare two-country option for anyone with serious time on their hands. Book early for the shoulder-season May and September departures, which tend to have the best prices and fewer crowds.
