Someday Is Closer Than You Think —
How to Get 8 Days Out of Your 5-Day PTO
On your "someday when I have the time" travel list you'll find several destinations. But to go sooooo far and only have a few days is.....well.....depressing.
So you don't go. You settle for the long weekend in San Antonio. You drive to the Hill Country. It's only four hours in the car. It's fine. But it's not what you really want. It's...just... fine.
You know what else is three and a half hours from DFW?
Seattle. (It’s just a flight, not a drive.)
And sitting in Elliott Bay right now is a ship that will show you a glacier, a brown bear working a salmon run, and the Inside Passage at dawn — and have you back at your desk on Monday.
Alaska never had to be a two-week trip. That's a story someone told you. And it kept you home.
Not this year. You burn five days of PTO. That's it.
And, the best part….. your coworkers will never forgive you.
Let The Ship Do the Work
A 7-night round-trip out of Seattle solves the problem. You unpack once. The ship moves while you sleep. You wake up in Juneau. Then Skagway. Then Ketchikan. Every morning, a different piece of the last frontier is waiting outside your cabin door.
No rental car puzzle. No hotel check-ins. No figuring out how to get from one town to the next in a place where towns are separated by wilderness.
The ship handles all of it.
Eight cruise lines sail this itinerary from Seattle in 2026. They are not interchangeable — families, couples, and luxury travelers each have a ship built for the way they travel. I'll have a full breakdown on the site this week. The key is finding the one that handles it the way you want.
The Case For Seattle
Direct flights on American from DFW. No passport required — a driver's license and certified birth certificate get you on the ship. And on disembarkation morning, Port Valet picks your bags up directly from outside your cabin door, checks them to your flight, and you don't touch them again until baggage claim at home. You go to breakfast, then walk off the ship.
Most Alaska cruisers have no idea Port Valet exists. Now you do.
Vancouver is beautiful. It also requires a passport, a border crossing, and more logistics than five days of PTO deserves.
For this trip that maximizes your PTO, Seattle is the key.
Excursions in Alaska aren't optional. You didn't trek to the last frontier just to shop or stay on the ship. Whale watching in Juneau. A floatplane over the Misty Fjords in Ketchikan. And Skagway — budget $150–$180 per person for the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway alone. It's the single best shore excursion in Alaska. It earns every dollar.
Sticker Shock? We Can Handle That
Glaciers, whales, and bears all have one thing in common. They're outside.
Conventional wisdom says you have to have a balcony if you're going to Alaska. Conventional wisdom is, at the very least, incomplete.
Every ship sailing this route has expansive open decks designed for exactly this. Floor-to-ceiling windows in climate-controlled comfort. Observation lounges where you can watch the Inside Passage unfold with a cup of coffee in your hand and your coat still on the rack.
The balcony is a wonderful thing. But it is not the only way to see Alaska from a ship.
So if the budget is the question — book the inside. Because if the choice is between a balcony and a full day into the Yukon on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway — the railway wins. The mountains win. The waterfalls win.
And if the choice is between a inside and not going at all — that's not even a choice.
Alaska is still on your travel list. You know it is.
Five days of PTO is enough. Ships leave every day of the week during the season. The itinerary just works.
A brown bear fishing a salmon stream in Ketchikan doesn't care that you only have a week.
The glacier at Mendenhall isn't going to be more impressive when you finally have two weeks free.
The only thing that changes between now and someday is whether you decide to go.
Remember, your coworkers will never forgive you.
Ready to find the right ship? That's exactly the conversation I'm built for.
This week I’m in Los Cabos for a firsthand look at two properties getting a lot of attention right now. That report comes back with me. Or, follow me now on Facebook for real-time updates.
Billy Miller is the founder of Miller Travel Group. He believes true vacation planning requires real human relationships and actual local expertise—which is exactly why he is rarely found sitting at home. He writes about premium travel, cruise industry realities, and destination hidden gems from a deeply personal, experiential perspective.