Larry Hamblin Takes Eighteen Indigenous Elders on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Alaska Cruise Aboard Celebrity Solstice

There is a particular kind of joy that comes from watching someone experience something for the very first time. For Larry Hamblin, a seasoned travel advisor with decades of cruising experience, that joy arrived in full force on May 24, 2026, when he led a group of eighteen Stó:lō Indigenous Elders aboard the Celebrity Solstice for a seven-day return cruise from Vancouver to Alaska. For most of them, it was their first cruise ever. For Hamblin, it was his seventh voyage to the Great Land, and yet, the wonder in his guests' eyes made it feel entirely new.

A Milestone Voyage for Eighteen Elders

The group booking was months in the making, and when the day finally came to set sail, the energy aboard the ship was electric. Hamblin recalls the scene with unmistakable warmth, describing how his guests took to the Celebrity Solstice with unbridled enthusiasm. "All of these Elders were on their first and only cruise to Alaska," he says. "Most of them were so excited, they just bounced around the cruise ship, looking at every nook and cranny they could find." Watching the group discover the ship's dining rooms, theaters, and lounges, Hamblin found himself rediscovering the vessel through their eyes, a reminder of why first-hand experience is so central to his work as a travel advisor.

Coordinating a group of eighteen first-time cruisers brings its own gentle challenges. Hamblin notes that one of his primary tasks was simply encouraging everyone to take full advantage of everything the ship had to offer. Getting guests comfortable with the variety of onboard dining venues and entertainment spaces, from the main dining room to the theater, was part of the job, and one he embraced with characteristic ease. It is the kind of insider guidance that no brochure can replicate.

Alaska: A Frontier That Never Gets Old

For a travel professional who has made the voyage to Alaska seven times, one might expect the destination to have lost some of its luster. Hamblin disagrees entirely. "Nobody should skip an exciting cruise to Alaska," he says with conviction. "It's one of the last frontiers, and every time you go there, you will always find something different to see and do." That philosophy, rooted in genuine passion rather than sales pitch, is precisely what makes his recommendations so compelling to clients.

The ports of call along Alaska's Inside Passage each carry their own identity, from the rain-soaked charm of Ketchikan to the glacier-carved grandeur of Juneau and Skagway. Hamblin knows them all well, and that depth of knowledge allows him to tailor recommendations with precision. He is not simply pointing clients toward a destination. He is curating an experience built on years of personal observation.

The Insider Tip That Sank, and Survived

Every seasoned traveler has a story that stops a room. Hamblin's involves a crab fishing vessel in Juneau with a remarkable history. Among his favorite excursion recommendations is the Bering Sea Crab trip, where guests board a ship that once worked the notoriously treacherous Bering Sea. The vessel, he explains, sank not once but twice over the course of its life. On the second sinking, the crew abandoned ship when the crab catch was only half full and the boat would not right itself. The story does not end there. Two days later, the Coast Guard contacted the captain to report that his ship had resurfaced and was afloat. The captain gathered some of his crew, returned to the vessel via another ship, and brought her back in. It is the kind of tale that turns an excursion into a legend, and Hamblin delivers it with the ease of someone who knows exactly how to make a destination come alive for his audience.

A Career Built on the Water

The Alaska voyage is just one chapter in a much longer story. Hamblin has completed thirty-seven cruises alongside his wife, and that accumulated experience forms the backbone of his advisory practice. "Having personally been on thirty-seven cruises, I encourage each and every one to go on a cruise," he says. "It's an experience that you should enjoy wherever you go." His portfolio spans far beyond the Alaskan coastline. A recent twenty-two-day Panama Canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver left a lasting impression, with Hamblin describing the canal itself as "a wonder of the world," a designation he offers not as a travel cliché but as a personal assessment from someone who has stood on deck and watched history move beneath the hull.

That breadth of experience shapes how Hamblin speaks to clients. He is not selling destinations in the abstract. He is sharing places he has stood, food he has eaten, excursions he has taken, and moments he has witnessed. The authenticity of that approach is difficult to manufacture and impossible to fake.

What Comes Next

Hamblin is not slowing down. By the end of August, he will be back in Alaska, this time leading another group of eighteen guests on an eleven-day land and sea adventure. The itinerary reads like a dream sequence for any wilderness enthusiast. Seven days at sea from Vancouver to Whittier, Alaska, are followed by a train journey through the landscape to Denali, two nights surrounded by the raw beauty of America's largest national park, a coach transfer to the shadow of Mount McKinley, and a final night before returning to Anchorage. The journey culminates in a Phillips Cruises glacier experience aboard a vessel carrying around one hundred guests directly into the heart of glacier country, where the ice meets the sea in one of the most visually staggering environments on earth.

"It's going to be our eighth cruise to Alaska," Hamblin says, "and it's going to be another fantastic trip." Coming from a man who has seen these waters seven times before and still speaks about them with the enthusiasm of a first-time traveler, that is perhaps the most persuasive endorsement Alaska could ever ask for.