When I told my husband my mother was treating our whole slightly dysfunctional family to an Alaskan cruise, he said, “Now I know why people jump off of cruise ships.”

The vacation turned out much better than Bill feared. On our first cruise and first trip to the 49th state, founded just 49 years ago, we were awed by its wildness. Surrounded by dramatic mountains and vast bodies of water for most of the trip, I kept feeling very small.

I began the vacation as I usually do, packing late at night. Ironing segued into shoe polishing. It was at midnight I discovered the sole of one navy loafer had to be reattached to the top. When Bill couldn’t remember where he had put the super glue (after we had searched the house top to bottom for rain ponchos that were in our front closet in our old house, but who knows where now), I got out our trusty duct tape, balled a piece up and made the repair.

We had a rocky flight to Vancouver, Canada. Other than the fact we had brief layovers in Chicago and Seattle, Bill was forced to pay for his ticket twice (don’t ask!) and two suitcases were lost. (On our return flight, all three were missing.)

After sleeping in the clothes we wore all day and waking up with no toothbrushes, we put our two sons, Tony and Ben, and Tony’s wife, Laura, in a taxi to the ship and set out to buy underwear. I learned if you buy a really awful pair of turquoise-flowered grandma panties, your suitcase will be delivered to the hotel you’ve already checked out of at 2 p.m. before the 5 p.m. sailing. Whew!

On the open deck of the ninth level of Holland America’s Volendam, all 14 of us – my mom, her sister, four children, four grandchildren and four spouses – toasted the family as we headed toward Alaska’s Inside Passage, also known as the Panhandle, the traditional route for gold miners over a century ago.

With 660 workers taking care of 1,400 passengers, we felt very spoiled and never got a sense of herds of people.

While I was taking a cooking class with some family members, my husband and sons were at a wine tasting. While my sister was pushing me to the limit on weight machines in the workout area, Bill was walking around the third deck promenade. While Laura and I were watching “The Other Boleyn Girl,” most of the rest were laughing with a juggling comedian. When I got to see Barnaby (think George Carlin with balancing skills) on a double bill with a Carnegie Hall pianist on the last night, I saw what all the fuss was about.

On our first day at sea, I had a seaweed wrap treatment after touring the spa. Yes, I looked like Shrek, but when Tammie from Africa wrapped my green body in saran wrap and pushed a button to make the hard surface collapse into a warm cocoon while she massaged my feet and scalp, I was in heaven.

The food was spectacular once we figured out the cafeteria-style Lido is where people go for quantity and the Rotterdam dining room is where you go for tranquility and quality. Everyone was given toques to wear for the Master Chef’s Dinner on the final night. There was a choice of starters and entrees. I ate mushroom mousse with asparagus, a salad, lobster bisque and shrimp Provencal. With much fanfair, the waiters trooped out of the kitchen with a procession of sparklers and – but of course – baked Alaska as our holiday included the Fourth of July.

We experienced three wonderful days ashore. Six of us marveled at the 3,000-foot waterfalls of Misty Fjords National Monument, 40 miles east of Ketchikan, which we could access only by float plane. Our pilot told us Ketchikan is the world capital for heli-skiing (being dumped on the top of a mountain by a helicopter to ski, not something I would try).

My sister and I took a four-mile hike around Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, which is retreating 100 feet a year. Hard to believe it’s summer when there are chunks of ice floating in the lake.

Tony and Bill, 10 minutes ahead of us, had a close encounter with a brown bear! I reconnected with my Minnesota niece and nephew, taking them into town for Italian gelato. They collect pins and we found a whole shop with 300 original designs. Tanner chose an airplane and Maddie an octopus.

In Skagway, Bill, Ben and my sister canoed near a glacier while most of the rest of us took a bus, ferry and another bus to a boat that sputtered through an eagle preserve. With unheard-of 70-degree weather and no rain, we saw nests, but no birds or other wildlife. The animals were too hot to come out of the shade.

Gliding through Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, with narration provided by two park rangers who climbed aboard using a rope ladder, was a highlight. Wearing gloves, caps and layers of fleece in the 38-degree weather, we used binoculars to view whales and seals. Glacier Bay and three other connecting parks in Alaska and Canada have been designated a World Heritage Site, because of the otherworldly frosty atmosphere. Totalling 24 million acres, it’s the largest protected area on the globe. It sounded like thunder when parts of a massive 4,000-year-old iceberg “calved” into the water.