Alaska Won't Wait

People ask me all the time what destination I'd put on a first-timer's bucket list.

My answer surprises them. Alaska.

Not Italy. Not Paris. Not the Caribbean — which I love and book constantly. Alaska.

Here's the thing. Alaska is one of the few places in the world where the scale of what you're looking at is genuinely hard to process in real time. Glaciers the size of cities. Humpback whales 50 feet off the side of the ship. Grizzlies on the riverbank. You can't manufacture that somewhere else.

But there's something else I tell people — something the brochures won't.

Alaska is changing. Not slowly. Fast enough that the guides on the water are talking about it on every trip. Fast enough that what you can see this season is meaningfully different from what was there ten years ago, and from what will be there ten years from now.

That's a travel fact. And it's the most honest reason I can give you for why Alaska belongs on your calendar now, not someday.

Mendenhall is the glacier most Alaska cruise passengers visit. It sits 12 miles from downtown Juneau. You can take a local bus there for $16 round-trip. It is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world.

It is also retreating visibly, measurably, year over year.

The lake at the face of Mendenhall — Mendenhall Lake — did not exist the way it does today. The glacier created it by pulling back. Visitors who came 20 years ago walked on ice that is now open water. The guides on Alaska cruises make a point of telling passengers this. Not as a lecture. As context. As the reason to stop and actually look.

The face of the glacier calves into the lake now. Icebergs float where ice once stood solid. The hike to Nugget Falls — the waterfall at the glacier edge — gets you close enough to hear it.

That experience exists right now.

On a recent trip, a guide stopped the group at the viewing platform and pointed to a line of trees on the far ridge.

"That's where the ice was when I started doing this," he said. "That was eleven years ago."

Nobody said anything for a moment. That's the moment that stays with you.

On Aug. 10, 2025, a massive landslide above the South Sawyer Glacier sent an estimated 100 million cubic meters of debris into Tracy Arm Fjord. The collapse triggered a localized tsunami. Waves surged more than a quarter mile up the opposite mountain wall. No ships were in the fjord at the time. No injuries were reported.

The fjord has been closed to cruise ship navigation since.

For the 2026 season, every major cruise line — Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Holland America, MSC, Virgin Voyages — has rerouted Alaska itineraries away from Tracy Arm. Ships are substituting Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier instead. Whether Tracy Arm reopens to cruise ships in 2027 is an open question. Alaska's state seismologist put it plainly: the earth is getting used to its new arrangement.

Here's what that means if you're booked — or thinking about it.

Endicott Arm is not a consolation prize. It is a wider fjord, equally dramatic, with Dawes Glacier at its head. Seals on ice floes. Waterfalls off sheer walls. The difference is largely that Tracy Arm had a longer reputation. The actual scenery is comparable. Adjust your expectation — then go anyway. It will still be one of the best days of the trip.

Tracy Arm and Mendenhall are not isolated events.

Southeast Alaska is a temperate rainforest built on a landscape that is actively shifting — glaciers retreating, slopes destabilizing as ice that held them for centuries disappears. The scientists monitoring this region are clear: landslide and tsunami risk is widespread in the fjord network.

None of this means Alaska is unsafe. Millions of people cruise the Inside Passage every year without incident. The cruise lines are monitoring conditions and making responsible calls — the Tracy Arm rerouting demonstrates that.

What it means is that the Alaska of 2026 is not the Alaska of 2010. And it is not the Alaska of 2035.

The Mendenhall your guides remember from a decade ago is not the one standing today. The Tracy Arm that was a marquee attraction last season is closed this one.

I am not in the business of selling urgency. I am in the business of telling clients what I actually think.

What I think is this: if Alaska has been on your list, stop putting it off.

The Alaska you can see today is the best version of Alaska still available. Go see it.

The trip is here. The guides are here. The glaciers are still there.

This is the first installment from The Alaska Guide — a full resource covering wildlife, pricing, and five ways to do Alaska right. The complete guide is available at millertravelgroup.com.

Ready to start planning? Reach out at [email protected] or 817-386-7086.

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Billy Miller is the founder of Miller Travel Group, an independent travel agency specializing in premium cruises and travel experiences. He first visited Alaska in 2018 and has returned almost every year since.