Settle aboard MS Roald Amundsen and meet your Expedition Team for an inspiring voyage overview. You’ll attend the mandatory safety drill, learn how landings work, and review Zodiac etiquette and wildlife guidelines to ensure low-impact exploration throughout Alaska’s sensitive coastal habitats.

In the onboard Science Center, learn expedition landing procedures and how to join citizen science initiatives. Handle reference samples, browse charts and field guides, and get practical tips for seabird and marine-mammal spotting during open-deck watches.

Explore the wild coves of Katmai National Park, boarding expedition Zodiacs when conditions allow. From the shoreline and ship’s decks, watch brown bears patrolling tidal flats, digging for clams, and fishing the shallows amid sedge meadows and mist-edged ridgelines—an encounter defined by stillness and patience.

Katmai’s volcanic landscape—shaped by eruptions and ash plains—supports dense salmon runs and one of the world’s highest protected bear populations. Naturalists outline bear behavior, tide timing, and safe viewing practices that make close observation possible while respecting wildlife.

Trace the volcanic chain where the North Pacific meets the Bering Sea, as you navigate the Aleutian Ring of Fire. Watch a serrated skyline of cones and calderas slide by, while kittiwakes wheel and cliff-nesting puffins streak low over misty ocean swells.

Expedition lecturers unpack the subduction forces that built this volcanic arc and explain how nutrient-rich upwellings fuel immense seabird and marine-mammal populations. Keep cameras ready for sudden blows on the horizon and shifting curtains of weather rolling off the islands.

Go ashore by Zodiac to land by Zodiac among the relics of the Unga ghost village, first settled in the 19th century and long since abandoned. Wander past weathered wooden homes and a windswept cemetery as lupine, wild grasses, and tundra wildflowers and tundra reclaim the shore.

Your guide shares stories of the Russian-American period, subsistence lifeways, and the boom-and-bust cycles that shaped Aleutian communities. The quiet creak of timbers and the roll of surf lend an eerie poignancy to this evocative site.

Circle Chagulak’s basalt ramparts on a Zodiac, dwarfed by towering sea cliffs streaked with guano. Tens of thousands of auklet and murre colonies churn overhead while black-legged kittiwakes cling to ledges, and the roaring surf sends bursts of spray into the spray-laced air.

Guides explain how cold currents and upwellings feed this remote rookery, and why uninhabited islands like Chagulak are critical to North Pacific seabird life cycles. Expect brisk winds, echoing gull calls, and dramatic photography opportunities at close range.

Admire the perfect cone of Mount Cleveland rising from Chuginadak Island in the Islands of Four Mountains. One of the Aleutians’ most active stratovolcanoes, Cleveland often reveals snow-striped slopes, fresh lava scars, or a faint steam plume twisting in the wind.

Expedition staff discuss monitoring networks, past eruptive phases, and how this isolated volcano shapes local weather and wildlife. With seabirds tracing the ridgelines and shifting light on the caldera, it’s a rare chance to photograph a living, breathing volcano from sea level.

Explore Unalaska’s layered history with visits to the Museum of the Aleutians, the onion-domed Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Ascension, and exhibits on Aleutian World War II history, including the 1942 Battle of Dutch Harbor.

Set against Mount Makushin’s profile, this working port reveals Unangan (Aleut) resilience, Russian colonial legacies, and America’s remote Pacific front. Guides connect cultural traditions with the modern fishing industry that now drives life in the Aleutians.

Visit a small Kodiak Island community to meet community hosts and hear stories of Sugpiaq (Alutiiq) culture—from subsistence gathering to skin-boat craft. Out on deck, scan kelp-fringed coves to search for humpbacks and sea otters set against the island’s lush ‘Emerald Isle’ scenery.

Guides share how the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge protects bears, salmon streams, and intact temperate rainforest. Expect a warm, first-person perspective on lifeways shaped by ocean seasons, tides, and the northern Gulf’s rich waters.

Explore Sitka’s compact center, stepping inside St. Michael’s Cathedral and tracing coastal paths through Sitka National Historical Park, where totem-lined rainforest trails reveal the artistry of Tlingit carvers. Interpretive stops highlight the meeting of Tlingit and Russian heritage.

Between harbor views and glimpses of Mount Edgecumbe, learn how trade, faith, and conflict shaped this former Russian capital. Your guide decodes crest figures, clan stories, and cultural renaissance in today’s Sitka community.

Visit Klawock Totem Park on Prince of Wales Island to view 21 restored poles that preserve clan crests and lineage histories. Meet culture bearers who discuss Tlingit carving traditions, painting techniques, and protocols that guide this living art in a Prince of Wales Island community.

In the carving shed or community hall, hear how master carvers mentor apprentices and how pole replication safeguards fragile originals. This encounter illuminates identity, place, and continuity across Southeast Alaska’s coastal villages.

Glide beneath the sheer walls of Misty Fjords National Monument, where thousand-foot waterfalls ribbon down granitic cliffs into mirror-calm inlets. Depending on conditions, explore by kayak or Zodiac exploration, tracing forested shorelines rich with birdlife and intertidal life.

Rangers and naturalists interpret Tongass National Forest’s glacially carved geology and wildlife—from mountain goats on ledges to harbor seals in protected bays. The hush of dripping moss and the slap of paddles define this serene, cathedral-like wilderness.

Stand at the rail to scan Queen Charlotte Sound and Hecate Strait for life on the move: humpback and fin whales rising in flurries of breath, orcas patrolling tide lines, and Pacific white-sided dolphins slipping through the swell.

Beyond the Inside Passage’s shelter, these open-ocean reaches are influenced by the vast Pacific, with Haida Gwaii lying to the west. Expedition staff outline feeding behavior, blow shapes, and identification tips to sharpen every sighting.

Join naturalists in the Science Center to join citizen science projects and sharpen seabird ID skills. Out on deck, look for Laysan and Black-footed Albatross arcing low over swells—and keep an eye out for the rarer Short-tailed Albatross—as you attend Expedition Team presentations on marine ecology.

Contribute real observations to research databases while learning how currents, wind, and weather concentrate life at sea. Binocular clinics and strategy briefings help you get the most from every watch.

Step behind the scenes of America’s busiest fishing port to step aboard a working fishing vessel. Sail local waters of the Bering Sea as crew demonstrate pots, nets, and sustainability practices, and see how the cod and pollock fisheries are managed by a hardy crew at work.

This is an optional excursion at additional cost, bookable on tour. Availability can vary with weather and operations; your Expedition Team will advise on timing, outfitting, and safety protocols.

Lift off from Kodiak on a floatplane flightseeing adventure to the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Land at remote salmon streams to observe Kodiak brown bears foraging along gravel bars under the guidance of experienced local pilots and naturalists.

This is an optional excursion at additional cost, bookable on tour and weather-dependent. Group size, routing, and landing sites vary with conditions and wildlife activity to maximize ethical viewing and safety.

Discover Alaska’s classic coastal scenery as you cruise the glacier-cut fjords of Prince William Sound. From the ship’s open decks, watch waterfalls cascading from sheer cliffs and scan for rafts of sea otters, porpoises, and the fluke of a distant humpback as it slips below the surface.

Framed by the Chugach Mountains, these protected waters host tide-scoured inlets, seabird rookeries, and drifting bergy bits. Naturalists are on hand to help spot wildlife and interpret the Sound’s glacial geology, rich marine food web, and changing seasonal light.