It was over a bowl of caviar-topped lobster spaghetti that my raison d'être for climbing aboard Ritz-Carlton's newest superyacht, Luminara, became bluntly obvious to my fellow guests. Tucking into dinner at the ship’s tasteful top-deck restaurant Mistral, I spied the low, bushy spray of an orca through the starboard windows.
Seconds later, I was out on the restaurant's wraparound balcony, peering 10 decks down into the ink-dark Alaskan waters, just in time to catch a photogenic back arch and tail lift from the water before it disappeared into the froth. This is what I'd recently learned was called a fluke dive (how whimsical!). Though the pasta was divine – all the seafood in these parts is – I'm here on the inaugural Alaska sailing not just for opulent dinners or the other ultra-luxe trappings of this Ritz-Carlton floating-five-star hotel, but for the wildlife. Especially the whales.
We're living in the heyday of luxury small-ship cruising, a time when hotel-boat hybrids are popping up everywhere. And while I'm not a cruise person, America’s 49th state of Alaska – officially nicknamed The Last Frontier – is one of those destinations that lends itself especially well to being explored by water.
If you want to experience the coasts of Alaska, the 226-suite Luminara – the third and newest ship in the Ritz fleet with a sufficient amount of flash, pedigree, and convenience – is a natural first choice. There are several new Alaska itineraries to choose from. They start at seven nights (a round-trip from Vancouver, cruising the famed Inside Passage, is what I did) and extend to the brow-raising 18-night crossing. This one begins in Vancouver before tracing the southeastern coast of Alaska to the volcanic Aleutian Islands, then traversing the Pacific, and ending in Asia. The ship will spend its fall and winter season in Asia before making the journey in reverse for the 2027 spring and summer Alaska season (April through October).
My self-appointed whale-watching mission begins almost immediately upon boarding. I settle into my generous suite – all squishy carpets, marble-topped surfaces, and fresh florals – then settle onto the terry-clothed lounge chair on my private terrace (every suite has one). Wrapped in a woolly blanket, made specially by Frette for the ship, I watch and wait as we leave fog-cloaked Vancouver behind and head toward the quintessential Alaskan port of Ketchikan, a silvery wake gathering behind us like a silk train.
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"Whales are like pigeons around here," one of the onboard naturalists told me earlier that day during a lecture, but the aquatic mammals are proving harder to spot than expected. I ask why they don't make announcements when whales appear, just as they do on other ships, and I'm told, "It's just not very Ritz." There is chatter, however, to potentially add an alert to the onboard yacht.
Still, I am nothing if not persistent, and by the end of the voyage, my whale count is well into the double digits. There's none of the cinematic breaching, with the fireworks-like eruptions of surf like those featured on the looped promo video playing in several of the restaurants and bars, but I'm delighted nonetheless. Other guests aren't so lucky.
It helps that I built my excursion itinerary around taking in as much of the natural world as possible. Bookended with one full sailing day on each side, my trip includes stops at four ports for a selection of private and group excursions. Fair warning: Book your excursions as early as possible because the most popular ones fill up quickly. Many of the guests onboard missed out on the black and brown bear-viewing excursion at Anan Wildlife Observatory in Wrangell, a port town surrounded by Tongass National Forest.
The farther we get from Vancouver, the fewer big ships we see, and the excursions range from spectacular – a private flight through Misty Fjords National Monument that lands on a glacial lake inaccessible by anything other than floatplane – to the more relaxed, like driving a cherry-red Jeep along bumpy backcountry logging roads outside the little-visited town of Klawock, or seeing mysterious ancient petroglyphs on a quiet beach in Wrangell. Choose wisely and, more importantly, choose early.
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My closest whale encounter happens on a group excursion in Sitka aboard an aluminum catamaran in the deep-water fjord of Silver Bay. Sailing back from a homestead (a bare-bones cabin) with my stomach full of s'mores toasted over a campfire while listening to folk stories, I catch sight of a humpback's tail practically waving goodbye just a few feet from the boat. Bald eagles are also commonly spotted in Sitka.
Of course, not everyone on this yacht has the same nature-first priorities. On that excursion, I met a British family – most guests are American – who booked just the one outing. "We just want to enjoy the yacht," says the patriarch, who works in finance in London. And why wouldn't he? There's certainly enough to enjoy. Days onboard are spent dabbling in Indigenous formline art with a Tlingit (Indigenous Native people) artist; shopping in the Rodeo Drive-worthy boutiques (with Canadian Goose goods added specially for these itineraries); or listening to onboard lectures – often with a gingery cocktail or a glass coupe piled with gelato in hand.
Then there are adrenaline-spiking pursuits: A padel court dominates the bow and shiver-inducing polar plunges can be taken from the swim platform. Less popular on the Alaska sailings are the two heated swimming pools, but the hot tubs are a hit, as is an airy gym, cycling and movement studios, and an XL spa with 10 studio-apartment-sized treatment rooms, each named after a different shade of blue. And let's not forget the food: You won't go hungry with James Beard Award winner Michael Mina's Beach House; vibey pan-Asian Haesu Bit serving omakase, sashimi, and dessert caviar; or the tasting-menu at Seta Su Luminara with chef Fabio Trabocchi of Fiola DC at the helm.
However, for me, the best place on the ship is my balcony, eyes trained on the sea, dreaming of what's beyond the horizon and hidden in the icy depths below. The dining makes the best of the bounty of the sea with king crab nigiri, lobster-and-egg breakfast croissants topped with cured salmon roe, and Dungeness crab cakes. The suite was a design dream, with a black marble tub, Diptyque Philosykos toiletries, and two walk-in closets. And the spa all but guarantees a full shoulder-slackening nervous system reset. But on the flight home, it's the whales plunging into Alaska's silky black water that I can't stop thinking about.
