Ketchikan
Skagway
Either Sitka (never been) or Icy Strait Point
Inside Passage - I thought they all did this. It’s not a port, just a route on a sea day.
Juneau is a maybe for me. But that’s where we’ve done a flightseeing tour over a glacier (no landing) on a seaplane. There are popular excursions to the Mendenhall Glacier.
It looks like some itins do the inside passage and some seem to go around for at least part of it? IDK I’m just starting this process 
True. Especially for those on a 7N roundtrip. Cruises that start in Seattle have to make a stop somewhere in Canada, either in Vancouver or Victoria.
I admit, we sailed out of Vancouver on a 7N one-way to Seward. We did not have to go on the ocean side of those islands.
I did not think Icy Strait Point had much to offer at the port, but that’s where we did an excellent whale watching excursion that was a highlight of our trip. You might find whale watching excursions offered at other ports, and skip Sitka or Icy Strait Point.
If you haven’t already got these books, I highly recommend Anne Vipond’s “Alaska By Cruise Ship” and Joe Upton’s “The Alaska Cruise Handbook.” I brought these to AZ this winter because we are booked on B2B Alaska cruises next September out of Vancouver. We are doing 7N northbound and 7N southbound, on RCL. I need to brush up on doing an Alaska cruise.
These were the three ports that we had on our Alaskan cruise.
Juneau: We had a great whale watching excursion here.
Skagway: We took a bus into the Yukon and then took the scenic railway back to Skagway. We really liked this. So much beautiful scenery from the train!
Ketchikan: We did a rainforest walk which I enjoyed. Ketchikan has an old-timey village that was quite fun to walk through. We went to a saloon for lunch. I think you could skip an excursion here and just explore the town.
Thanks! That’s exactly what I need!
I’m always happy to share good resources. One thing I really like is that each book has a separate large, two-sided folding map that shows great details such as typical ship routes.
My understanding is that this is dependent on ship size.
I want to make sure I answer what you are asking, but I don’t think I would skip any ports on an Alaska cruise. Or are you asking to try and determine which itinerary to use?
I assume you are set on DCL and that is why Glacier Bay isn’t on your list?
This is a resource I have used. I love her podcast.
Good to know!
The question is
this 
I’m not set on DCL - but I don’t know about Glacier Bay. If you think that’s key I can look for itins that include it I’d love to do DCL but they don’t have a schedule out that far 
(may/june/july 2027)
I take this back, but not any of the ones you listed. We are specifically doing one-way from Canada so we don’t have to stop in a “throw away” foreign port. If you go out of Seattle you will probably need to stop in Vancouver or Victoria to have a Canadian stop.
Glacier Bay was a “must do” for us but there are some similar glaciers that other lines go to. If you want to do Glacier Bay you have to go on Princess, Norwegian or Holland America. (Or the very small specialty lines.) Royal and Disney don’t have the right permits.
I just found an interesting site that discussed the various glaciers, with pros and cons for each. It even has a Glacier Bay vs Hubbard Glacier section. I’ve only been to Hubbard Glacier, because we were on RCL. This article discusses these two plus some others that various cruise lines go to: Tracy Arm and Twin Sawyer Glaciers, College Fjord, and Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier.
Red Dog Saloon?? I feel like that’s where we ate and got the halibut cheeks.
Agree. We got off the ship at every port. Many ports had enough to do by walking around or just exploring on our own. We were able to book our own whale watching excursion after we got off the ship. We went for our honeymoon in 2001 so I don’t remember exactly what we did where, but at one port we took a Skyliner up a mountain, hiked around and took it back down. The views were amazing. At our very first port, we took the public bus to the local WalMart and bought a video camera as we wanted to document everything (again, this was 2001).
That sounds right?!? It was a big building right in the centre of town. Impossible to miss. The food was pretty good and there was music.