The full route, Seattle to Miami

Forty days aboard Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, sailing south out of Seattle on September 17, 2026, up into Alaska first, then down the West Coast, along the coast of Mexico, through the Panama Canal, across the Caribbean, and in to Miami on October 27. Eighteen stops in all, laid out below in order with dates and a note on what each one means to us.

days at sea and in port

ports and calls

regions: Alaska, California, Mexico, Panama, Caribbean

The manifest, every stop, in order

Day	Port	Date	Highlight
1	Seattle, WA	Sept 17	Departure day, bags on the pier, the kids counting down.
4	Ketchikan, AK	Sept 20	First landfall in Alaska, rain gear tested immediately.
5	Juneau, AK	Sept 21	Glaciers within sight of downtown.
6	Endicott Arm, AK	Sept 22	A scenic cruising day through a fjord, no docking.
7	Victoria, BC	Sept 23	A quieter, shorter call before heading back south.
8	Seattle, WA	Sept 24	Back where we started, then straight on south.
11	Los Angeles, CA	Sept 27	A full day in port, our last US stop for weeks.
14	Cabo San Lucas, MX	Sept 30	First tender port, first taste of proper heat.
17	Puerto Quetzal, GT	Oct 3	Guatemala, and the closest we get to Central America inland.
21	Panama Canal Transit	Oct 7	A full day of locks, up on deck from sunrise.
25	Curaçao	Oct 11	Pastel waterfront, our first Dutch Caribbean stop.
26	Aruba	Oct 12	Beaches and steady trade winds.
30	San Juan, PR	Oct 16	Old San Juan on foot, cobblestones and forts.
31	Tortola, BVI	Oct 17	Calm water, quiet hills.
33	St. Maarten	Oct 19	Split island, two flags, one afternoon.
35	Antigua	Oct 21	English Harbour and a lot of blue.
36	St. Lucia	Oct 22	The Pitons on the horizon most of the day.
37	Barbados	Oct 23	Last island call before the run to Miami.

Day 40, October 27, we dock in Miami and the trip ends. Days not listed above are sea days, reading, deck walks, and journal-catching-up.

Seattle Ketchikan Juneau Victoria LA Cabo Puerto Quetzal Panama Curaçao Aruba San Juan Tortola St. Maarten Antigua St. Lucia Barbados Miami

Three legs worth seeing

A tidewater glacier calving into a grey-green fjord under overcast Alaska skies, small cruise ship dwarfed at the edge of the frame — Endicott Arm, cruising day six, ice and silence.

A ship rising inside a concrete Panama Canal lock chamber, mule locomotives on rails alongside, tropical hills in the background under bright midday sun — The Panama Canal, day twenty-one, locks from sunrise to sunset.

Pastel-painted waterfront buildings along a turquoise harbor in Curaçao, small wooden boats moored, laundry lines strung between balconies — Curaçao, day twenty-five, the first stop after the canal.

Two dramatic green volcanic peaks, the Pitons, rising straight out of the Caribbean Sea, seen from a ship's railing at golden hour — St. Lucia, day thirty-six, the Pitons from the deck.

"Somewhere between the glaciers and the canal, the trip stopped feeling like a vacation and started feeling like a long, slow way of paying attention. That's the part we wanted to write down."

from the ship's journal, day twenty-three

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