Lonerangefinder, there are cruises designed exactly for you -- small ship cruises. These ships range from about 150 passengers down to maybe only a dozen on a private yacht. Price-wise they range from the well known National Geographic/Lindblad expeditions down to any number of local cruise companies.
In 2013, after extensive research, my wife and I chose Alaska Dream Cruises. They are a very reputable Alaskan owned company with a passion to provide the best adventure cruise you can imagine.

http://www.alaskandreamcruises.com/

We spent 11 days having one of the very best times of our lives. If someone spotted a pod of whales feeding, the captain would stop the ship for a couple of hours while we photographed them. Every day included one or more shore excursions for hiking, kayaking, or other outdoor adventures. Often, while our 50 passenger ship was stopped to let us photograph, a large cruise ship would pass by with very few passengers even out on deck. They had no idea what they missed.

The Allen family is part native so they believe in emphasizing local culture and natural history. Each ship has at least one naturalist guide - ours shared an amazing amount of local information with us about history, geography and wildlife.

The small ships can go into remote ports that the big ships can't. For example, we stopped at native villages, remote bays for kayaking and four-wheeling and little towns such as the Norwegian fishing village of Petersburg.

A small ship cruise will cost more than a large ship, but ours had all the side trips such as the narrow-guage train ride above Skagway and a cable car ride at Juneau included in the base price. Only thing extra were alcohol drinks. (A martini made with 250 year-old iceberg ice is very nice at the end of a long day of photographing, btw.)

We did the 11 day cruise and enjoyed the extra time. Each day seemed like it couldn't be topped. But the next day held it's own adventures. As you can tell, I would highly recommend them.

As an extra bonus, our ship docked in the beautiful town of Haines. One of our very own Hedgehogs lives there - Tom Ganner. He's a retired teacher and a very good photographer who works part time guiding photo tours. I joined Tom for an afternoon of some of the most amazing bald eagle photography you can imagine.

Lonerangefinder, there are cruises designed exactly for you -- small ship cruises. These ships range from about 150 passengers down to maybe only a dozen on a private yacht. Price-wise they range from the well known National Geographic/Lindblad expeditions down to any number of local cruise companies.
In 2013, after extensive research, my wife and I chose Alaska Dream Cruises. They are a very reputable Alaskan owned company with a passion to provide the best adventure cruise you can imagine.

http://www.alaskandreamcruises.com/

We spent 11 days having one of the very best times of our lives. If someone spotted a pod of whales feeding, the captain would stop the ship for a couple of hours while we photographed them. Every day included one or more shore excursions for hiking, kayaking, or other outdoor adventures. Often, while our 50 passenger ship was stopped to let us photograph, a large cruise ship would pass by with very few passengers even out on deck. They had no idea what they missed.

The Allen family is part native so they believe in emphasizing local culture and natural history. Each ship has at least one naturalist guide - ours shared an amazing amount of local information with us about history, geography and wildlife.

The small ships can go into remote ports that the big ships can't. For example, we stopped at native villages, remote bays for kayaking and four-wheeling and little towns such as the Norwegian fishing village of Petersburg.

A small ship cruise will cost more than a large ship, but ours had all the side trips such as the narrow-guage train ride above Skagway and a cable car ride at Juneau included in the base price. Only thing extra were alcohol drinks. (A martini made with 250 year-old iceberg ice is very nice at the end of a long day of photographing, btw.)

We did the 11 day cruise and enjoyed the extra time. Each day seemed like it couldn't be topped. But the next day held it's own adventures. As you can tell, I would highly recommend them.

As an extra bonus, our ship docked in the beautiful town of Haines. One of our very own Hedgehogs lives there - Tom Ganner. He's a retired teacher and a very good photographer who works part time guiding photo tours. I joined Tom for an afternoon of some of the most amazing bald eagle photography you can imagine.

At the top of the page, click on "Cruises". Then you can click on each choice. It will bring up the detailed itinerary plus the prices are listed at the bottom. As I recall, you have to note which ship each cruise is using and then go back and click on "ships and deck plans" to pick which level of room you are interested in.

We were on the Baranof Dream. The cabins were comfortable but not large. But, other than sleeping, we were out and about all the time. One additional note: all the small ships we have been on have an open bridge policy. You can go visit the captain about any time. And we found conversations with other passengers great fun -- seems most on the cruise had similar interests.