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Parents, adult son, seven days, mega ship, mucho scenery: an Alaska cruise is transporting no matter what your age.

The first thing you notice about the ship is its scale. Imagine the biggest building you've ever seen lying on its side in the water; it's shapely and it's floating. Now imagine a destination that's way bigger, bigger than Texas even... Alaska is a wilderness so vast and super sized that you are humbled by your place in it. This is where the wild things are -- whales, sea lions, dolphins, eagles, moose, salmon, bears, rainforests – and life here is lived one day at a time.

Wikipedia notes, "Alaska has the largest area, the highest mountain and greatest difference in elevation, the most extensive wilderness, and the most lakes, shoreline, and wetlands of any state, yet has the lowest population density."

Now add Holland America Line's (877/932-4259) seven-day, 2,433-mile cruise up the Pacific Northwest coast as another Alaska superlative. Everything is first-rate, from the accommodations and service to the meals, ship-board activities and shore excursions. If the beauty, depth and grandeur of communing with Mother Nature on her turf doesn't float your boat, then this ship will.

This is a journal of our week-long family cruise with ports of call at Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria, British Columbia.

Day 1 & 2: Departing Seattle, Meeting the Ship

It's a warm and sunny Sunday, early September, at Seattle's giant port complex. Our family unit of three (parents and adult son), plus close to 2,000 other voyagers, are boarding Holland America Line's m.s. Noordam, the newest (maiden voyage 2006) of the ships in the HAL fleet, for a week-long cruise up the Inside Passage, in S.E. Alaska.

The first announcement we hear after boarding is that lunch is being served on the Lido Deck and that we should all rendezvous there. So that's what we do.

The Lido, Deck # 9, is where the swimming pool, spa and gym are, as well as the central self-service dining area. This is the first (and last) stop onboard. After a tasty welcome lunch we head off to our respective cabins to check out our digs. Our son's is an outside cabin towards the bow on the 5th level, with an exterior "verandah" big enough to accommodate two people sitting and soaking in the sunsets (you can't imagine them, so don't even try, you'll only hurt yourself.)

Our Verandah cabin is similar, the size of a small, comfortable, hotel room, with the usual amenities -- queen-size bed, satellite TV with DVD player, phone, workdesk, hairdryer, minibar; tiny cosmetics and cotton bathrobes add luxury to a handsome bathroom. Family cabins are somewhat larger with a king bed and single sofabed, and connecting double cabins are available as well.

Outside each cabin is a mailbox, where you receive daily updates about ports-of-call, onboard activities and forums, a digest version of the New York Times (with daily crossword) and the weather report. We had been told that autumn weather tends to be wet, with foggy mornings followed by soggy afternoons with pockets of rain. In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that we had seven (count ‘em) consecutive days of sunshine and gorgeous weather. Chances are you'll have to wait another century for similar conditions to re-occur.

When we retire for the night, we discover that we're not alone -- an origami towel monkey is hanging out in the room. Each night another one of his friends comes to visit. This shipboard art is a feature on many cruise ships, we learn, and the cabin attendants of HAL are especially skilled in creating these towel sculptures.

In the morning, we are cruising northwest at about 22 knots (app. 25 mph) and those of us with starboard accommodations are gazing out at the mountains and forests that are blocking our view of Europe. On the port side there's nothing but the ocean, stretching all the way to Japan. Surrounding you at all times is the bracing, clean fresh air, lots of it.

We decide to stroll around the ship and get our bearings. The first thing we discover is that an Alaska cruise attracts families (in autumn, mostly adult children) and couples, with very few singles. The second thing we discover is the Terrace Grill, a small hole-in-the-wall serving station on the Lido deck where juicy hamburgers, hot dogs and tacos (with fries and fixins' galore) are available throughout the afternoon.