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My husband and I have cruised round trip, north, and southbound. Definately, the north or south bound are what we prefer. Try getting airfare on Expedia. It saved us $700 p/p on airfare this past May. We did the southbound from Whittier. But as others stated, Alaska is awsome any way you decide. If you do the roundtrip, it will give you an excuse to go back. That's worked 4 times for us!!