Ports
Whittier, Alaska: The Tunnel, the Tower, and the Cruise Port
The cruise gateway to Anchorage shares its only road with a railroad, fits most of its 200 residents into one Cold-War-era apartment building, and just opened a new dual-berth terminal in 2024.
Whittier is the most unusual port on an Alaska cruise. It's the gateway to Anchorage, but it's connected to the rest of the road system by a single tunnel that cars share with the Alaska Railroad. About half its 200 residents live inside one 14-story Cold-War-era apartment building. And in September 2024, the City of Whittier and Norwegian/Alaska partners opened a brand-new dual-berth cruise terminal that doubled the port's capacity. Princess and Holland America are the primary callers; everyone else uses Vancouver, Seattle, or Skagway.
Quick facts
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Head of Passage Canal, Prince William Sound |
| Distance from Anchorage | ~60 miles by road, ~75 minutes including the tunnel transit |
| Population (year-round) | ~200 |
| Cruise season | Late April – mid-September |
| Berth count (2026) | 2 (since the new terminal opened Sep 2024) |
| Primary cruise lines | Princess, Holland America |
| Tunnel | Anton Anderson Memorial — 2.5 mi, shared road + rail |
The tunnel
The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel is the only road into Whittier. It is the second-longest highway tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles, and the longest combined-road-rail tunnel on the continent. Cars and the Alaska Railroad share a single bore. A scheduling system has run since the tunnel opened to road traffic in 2000:
- Westbound (toward Whittier): vehicles on the half hour
- Eastbound (away from Whittier): vehicles on the hour
- Trains: in between, at varying times
- Closed overnight (currently 22:30–05:30, with seasonal variation)
If you're disembarking a cruise at Whittier and driving back to Anchorage, you must hit the tunnel during the eastbound window or wait — and the tunnel can occasionally close for maintenance or weather, which has on rare occasions stranded passengers between cruise and flight.
Begich Towers
The 14-story building dominating the Whittier waterfront is Begich Towers, originally built by the U.S. Army as the Hodge Building in 1957 for personnel at the (now-decommissioned) port facility. Today it's a residential condominium that houses about half of Whittier's permanent population. Inside Begich Towers you'll find apartments, a post office, the city hall, a Tsalteshi-style mini-mart, a Korean restaurant, a small B&B, and a school (the school children walk to and from class through interior corridors and a tunnel rather than going outside in winter, which makes Whittier the closest thing the United States has to a vertical company town).
For cruise passengers it's a curiosity, not a destination. You can walk past it from the cruise terminal in 5 minutes; you can't go upstairs without an invitation.
Why cruises end in Whittier (or start there)
Whittier is the fastest connection between a cruise ship and the Alaska interior. From Whittier:
- A motor coach reaches downtown Anchorage in about 75 minutes.
- The Alaska Railroad's "Coastal Classic" reaches Anchorage in 4 hours, with the more scenic alternative routing through Spencer Glacier and Bartlett Glacier.
- From Anchorage, you can connect to the cruise lines' Denali-area land-tour lodges (5–6 hours by motor coach or rail).
This is why Princess and Holland America anchor most of their Inside-Passage-and-land-tour packages on Whittier. A passenger doing a "Glacier Discovery" 7-day cruise plus a 4-day Denali extension typically embarks or disembarks at Whittier — not Seward (the alternative gulf port, which is geographically further and serves Holland America's land tours via the Seward Highway and Alaska Railroad's "Coastal Classic" too).
Why the terminal expansion matters
Before September 2024, Whittier had a single large-ship berth. On peak days, two-ship calls had to be staggered or one ship had to anchor and tender — neither of which scales for premium-line operations. The new dual-berth facility added a second deepwater berth, expanded shore-power infrastructure (a sustainability win — ships idling on shore power instead of running diesel generators in port emit far less local air pollution), and modernized passenger-flow buildings.
For 2026, Whittier expects to handle around 130 large-ship cruise calls, up roughly 30% from pre-expansion years. Princess and Holland America are the dominant operators, and the new terminal is the engineering reason they can both turn ships there on the same day.
What you do in port
Honestly, not much. Whittier is a turnaround port — most cruise passengers are either embarking or disembarking, not exploring. If you have a few hours before transferring to Anchorage, options are:
- Prince William Sound day-trip cruise to see Surprise Glacier and Blackstone Bay (the 26 Glaciers Cruise is the well-known operator)
- Alaska Railroad scenic ride to Spencer Glacier or Bartlett Glacier
- Walking around the harbor — the small-boat harbor is photogenic, the Anton Anderson tunnel approach is striking, and the food at the Inn at Whittier or the small spots downtown is fine
- Begich Towers walking tour (informal — there's no official tour, but you can wander the lobby and read the local-history signage)
For most cruise passengers Whittier is a transit point rather than a stop. The destination is Anchorage and beyond.
The Whittier port page on CruiseMigration shows the live ship-call schedule and which berth each ship is assigned.
Sources
- City of Whittier — Cruise Information
- Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel — Alaska DOT
- Whittier dual-berth cruise terminal — Travel Weekly
- Begich Towers — historical background, Smithsonian
- CruiseMigration port-call schedule (live data)
Frequently asked questions
- Where is Whittier, Alaska?
- Whittier is at the head of Passage Canal in Prince William Sound, about 60 miles southeast of Anchorage by road. It's the closest deep-water port to Anchorage and the standard cruise gateway for the Alaska interior.
- Why do most of Whittier's residents live in one building?
- Begich Towers — a 14-story Cold-War-era former military building — houses about half of Whittier's roughly 200 year-round residents. The building includes apartments, a post office, a school, a clinic, a church, and a small grocery, which means residents can spend an entire winter day inside without venturing into the snow.
- How do cars and trains share the same tunnel into Whittier?
- The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel is 2.5 miles long and is the only road connection between Whittier and the rest of Alaska's road system. It also carries the Alaska Railroad. Vehicles and trains share a single bore on a strict schedule — vehicles westbound (toward Whittier) on the half hour, eastbound on the hour, and trains in between. The tunnel closes overnight.
- When did the new Whittier cruise terminal open?
- September 2024. The new dual-berth terminal expanded the port's capacity to handle two large cruise ships simultaneously, with upgraded shore power and passenger flow infrastructure built in partnership with the City of Whittier and the Alaska Railroad.
- Which cruise lines call at Whittier in 2026?
- Princess Cruises and Holland America Line are the primary callers — both run weekly Inside-Passage-and-glacier sailings out of Whittier, paired with land-tour packages running north to Denali. Coral Princess opened the 2026 season here on April 28.