dieselmama

Thanks everyone! Sent a message in to Princess detailing our needs Now lets see what we can come up with!

So most of the suggestions that I see on here only have the capability of a couple of plugs plus a couple of USBs. We are going to be traveling with a special needs young adult, and with his equipment (plus my own cpap) we will require the use of a minimum of 8 plugs (2 of which are larger due to having to charge his feeding pumps.. ugly monstrosity wall charger things!) plus 4 -5 USB's. How many wall plugs are there in a room to plug into, and any suggestions for those of us with larger than "typical" requirements? We ARE in an accessible stateroom, so maybe that will help a little... I hope! We just want to be sure we bring what we need so that overnight we can recharge everything so we can get out and play during the day and not be stuck indoors due to the lack of charging capability!

We are going to have concerns we will be addressing with Princess on our cruise tour, as 2 of our group of 3 are on bipap or cpap and we will be carrying an oxygen concentrator (likely not needed except at night, but as the equipment is expensive not something we want to risk breaking or getting lost). Plus we carry our son's food as he is tube fed, again not something we want to lose because we can't exactly replace it in Denali! Our TA is very familiar with special needs, so thankfully she is helping us to take care of these kinds of issues...

Oooh... that does look interesting! Seward would require a rental car for sure. I will add it to our think about it list. And it might be something we put off for if/when we come back on another adventure, driving ourselves next time so we can take our time exploring. Someday we had also thought about going to Kodiak... the dreams are large, the time, not quite as large, at least not yet!

The zoo has a shuttle during the summer that comes and picks up on a regular basis just 2 blocks from our hotel OR... a taxi. :)

We are looking into options for the Conservation center, one that looks appealing is one of the 907 tours https://www.907toursalaska.com so far from what I am reading on trip advisor their customers seem very happy.

If we DO decide on a different option where we need to a rent a car, we certainly can and will do so... we are exploring ALL options and will weigh out the pro's and cons of them all based on our shore excursions at the various ports as well as what we want to accomplish for our son and for ourselves. A balance for everyone in vacation planning is a must! :)

Are you going to have a car? Overall, the 26 glacier cruise with Philips, does NOT see a "lot" of wildlife. the route to include all those glaciers is actually fairly fast paced. (not sure what you are considering a lot?) "more" wildlife, could be seen- with mostly sea otters, if you get to Surprise glacier, with Major Marine. For the most wildlife, and trips loaded with varied wildlife, those are out of Seward, to Kenai Fjords. IF you are cruising in/out out of Seward- I certainly would suggest you include it.

 

I would also hope you have 2 nights at Denali? It would be worth the effort- for wildlife- to get into Denali both days. Hopefully, you have included with your cruise tour, the Tundra Wildness tour? I would also add the Tolklat Shuttle bus. This area is a wildlife jackpot- with a good pair of binoculars being necessary.

We do not have a car planned, if we NEED to we can, but are kind of hoping to avoid it if possible, mainly because most of our trips we do the driving and for this one we are wanting to be a little spoiled (if you read what I wrote above you will see why).

We have 2 nights at Princess Denali and 2 at Talkeetna. Then the 3 in Anchorage before we go south again. We DO have the TWT scheduled.. yeah! Still trying to figure out what to do in Talkeetna... our son was looking at ideas there and was thinking it might be fun to actually try the horse back riding and/or the UTV adventure (for him that is a big deal, he has never wanted to try horses EVER before... planning on practicing with some hippo therapy at home this spring to prepare).

I usually do try to be a little more frugal on our trips and adventures, this is the one trip where we decided to be a bit more extravagant and choose tours rather than do it all ourselves. If we someday come back we will likely do more of our own planning, we might even drive up from Idaho!

Thanks for your input!

Thank you! I had looked at the link they had for encounters and it looked like they only did that september through may, I will have to contact them and see if they are willing to do any of the other tours (specifically the $300 one with the director) in August. Cheaper than any of the excursions we are booking and it would be totally up my son's alley.

Do you have a web link?

Sorry, should have included that...

https://www.907toursalaska.com/summer_tours.html

Anyone have experience with the 907 tour in Anchorage? They seem to have good reviews from what I have found so far...

Can I ask: Why the cruisetour? You could rent a car and see all the same stuff on your own. If you pass a moose along the road, your bus on the cruisetour may (most likely won't) not able to stop. If you are in a rental car, you can stop and look all you like. Chances are your cruisetour has you on the Tundra Wilderness Tour at Denali, which is more expensive than the shuttles and only goes to mile 53. Past there is some prime wildlife viewing that you'll miss.

So, back to your question: The zoo is in South Anchorage. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is about an hour drive from there. Keep your eyes peeled for Dall Sheep as you go.

More wildlife: The Musk Ox farm in Palmer. The reindeer farm in the Butte. The Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla usually has sled dogs. Of course, you'll miss all of that on the cruisetour. Another reason why I suggest doing this independently.

The 26 Glacier Cruise kinda zooms from glacier to glacier. The Major Marine cruises focuses on just a couple of glacier. Maybe even better is to look into Lazy Otter out of Whittier. Smaller boat. Of course, if you are looking for wildlife, maybe do a Kenai Fjords wildlife cruise out of Seward.

Thanks for asking... :) and forgive the long reply. It is kind of important, to me anyway so you might understand. The reason we are doing the cruise tour is honestly because we parents need a relaxing vacation! Our son is... complicated. He is our youngest, and during his nearly 20 years at this time he has had 54 surgeries, many life threatening, and most of those were in his first 10 years of life. He is a miracle many times over. His health issues have been, until VERY recently, very time consuming, and even more so when we travel. While we love him dearly and don't regret a single moment with him, we also don't ever get a break. Respite is not a possibility at this point in time, we don't have anyone who knows his care, or understands his issues the way we do. The best, most relaxing vacations we have ever had were the 2 DCL cruises we took in '07 and '08, where we were ... honestly, pampered a bit, and didnt have to drive anywhere, could choose the excursions we wanted from the cruise line, easy peasy and they made sure we were back at the ship on time. Might cost a little more that way, but not having to deal with the nitty gritty, for us, made those cruises SO much nicer in many ways than most of the other vacations we have taken over the years.

Fast forward to Alaska. We have hoped and dreamed of going to Alaska for much of our married life. Planned on it for our 25th.. didnt happen, because our son was in the middle of some serious medical crisis at the time. Now that he is more stable, still has serious diagnosis, we can and do manage his care ourselves without nursing assistance. This trip will, we hope, be fun AND relaxing for us all! We have lots of animal excursions planned at our various stops along the way, the zoo is one of his dreams as his make a wish trip at age 5 included a trip to the San Diego zoo and we have made a point of going to as many zoo's around the country as possible when we travel and collecting a t-shirt and a sew on patch from them (and maybe a Christmas ornament too?). I think we have hit at least 30 different zoo's so far. The time in Anchorage is the ONLY time we will be planning and escorting ourselves places, the rest will be either on the land portion or on the cruise itself... We always drive on our other vacations (including driving from Idaho to NY many years for his special needs camp) because we have a fair amount of medical "stuff" we have to take with us, including his entire nutrition. He eats NOTHING by mouth, is entirely tube fed, and until recently was also getting part of his nutrition via a permanently placed IV. He is on oxygen at night and sometimes during the day at higher elevations, is on a non-invasive ventilator at night, and uses an electric scooter at times to conserve his energy. And he is on the high functioning end of the autistic spectrum, with developmental delays.

Anyway... back to your suggestions. Thank you so much! I will go take a look and see what I can come up with. I think we can fit in the zoo (a HAVE to!) on the day we arrive in Anchorage from Talkeetna since the zoo doesnt close till 9 pm in the summer, which leaves me thursday and friday to plan what else we are going to do. He REALLY has his mind set on the Conservation Center, but maybe if I can come up with other ideas that will give him wildlife to see while we are in the Anchorage area those 2 full days before we set sail on Saturday he will be a happy camper. The description of the 26 glacier tour sounded like it had a lot of potential for animals when I went to their website, especially the bird rookery, but maybe they are exaggerating or I don't remember what they said as well as I thought I did. I like having options, and since we did book all of our preferred shore excursions for both legs of the cruise at least that part is done.

Again, thank you for your help, I truly appreciate it! And don't mind the long explanation for why we are doing the cruise tour... tired parent syndrome. we just got back from a week in Colorado..... including an ER trip for the man child. He is fine, but sure does like to cause havoc from time to time!

Hi! So excited to get down to the last bits of planning now that our excursions have been chosen for our adventure next August... except for our 2 1/2 days in Anchorage between the end of our cruise tour (cruising north and doing Denali for a few days, then Anchorage, then cruising back down!).

SO.... our special needs son is CRAZY about animals, and has a goal to go to as many zoo's and conservation centers as he can, and we try to oblige. Here is what we thought we MIGHT be able to do... tell me if I am nuts!

One of the two full days we thought we could do the 26 glacier cruise, it sounds like that has the potential to see lots of animals, and not overly exert his energy. The other full day we were thinking we could do the zoo first thing and then head down to the conservation center, since it is open later in the day than the zoo. Is it nuts to think we could fit both of those into one day? How long a drive is it, and are there tours that take you there (other than the portage cruise tour... that would take most of a day to do and we would have to skip the zoo, unless we could find a way to cram that into the half day when we arrive in Anchorage from Talkeetna).

Thoughts and suggestions would be great! And if you have any other ideas, that would also be welcome... this is a trip of a lifetime... celebrating his 21st birthday a little early, and our 35th anniversary a little late. :)

When we booked our August Alaska land tour (in February!) I asked our TA to book us on one of the longer tours in Denali. We wanted the 12 hour one... She told me that they were already sold out and on a wait list. Today she managed to get us into the Tundra tour today... but she had to call them up to do so. They book the longer tours up quickly and a LONG way out, according to her. Just an FYI.

We booked all of our excursions for our August trip today... except for Talkeetna. Some we barely made it... they are running out of space quickly.

As a first time Princess cruiser, I am just thankful we were able to get the excursions we wanted and that we didn't have to finish paying for the cruise before we could reserve them! I had enough saved up to cover the excursion costs, and will be fine saving up for final payment date. Since this is a trip of a lifetime (cruising up one week, one week on land, and cruising back one week, celebrating our 35th anniversary and our special needs son's 21st birthday when he wasn't even supposed to be born alive) we are just going to enjoy the trip! Looking forward to learning more about Princess, as our previous cruising was a long time ago on DCL. Cheers!

Norris, I am all caught up after a week away (had to take the man child to Denver so he could explore various zoo's and attend a reptile convention!). What a delight to return to such exquisite photos, especially the critters of Alaska... whets the appetite for our trip next August! We are busily planning a fishing excursion at one stop, but hope to get plenty of time to see various animals at other stops along the way. Thank you so much for sharing your insights, your photos, and especially your delightful descriptions and sense of humor! Blessings to you and yours, and I need to go check out some of your other trip reports!

It sounds like maybe the stairs would be his best bet... his ideal would be to get in 10 hours of training time during each week of our trip (3 weeks total, 1 week northbound, 1 week on land, and 1 week southbound). Since I can't give him any REAL idea on how much free time he will have until we sign up for excursions when they open up in the spring, I told him he can do as he pleases (kinda!) on our "at sea" days but not to count on a full 10 hours (since that really means more like 15-20 if you include stretching/showering/eating afterwards!).

Thanks for your input! Too bad the 100 mile race he was hoping to do is 3 weeks after the trip instead of right before!

We are cruising next August on the Coral and Star, and hubby will also be in training for some races (he is a long distance runner) so was asking me if I could find out what hours he would be able to go run on the treadmills. He runs up and down hills, so ideally he would prefer to use the treadmills rather than run on the deck... so he is practicing, a little, the kinds of runs he really would be doing (crazy many did a 48 hour run earlier this year, ran 105 miles!)

SO.... does anyone have an idea what kinds of hours he would be able to access the the treadmills? He is planning ahead so he knows if it is even practical to sign up for certain runs next fall or not? He is a planner!!!!!

Thanks!

Lovely to hear there will be animal photos coming up! That is what our son is most looking forward to (I am a scenery girl myself... but love the animals too). He keeps worrying that his camera wont be enough, he has a mirrorless olympus (with an additional zoom, not a HUGE zoom though) because it is light weight like he is (only 90 pounds dripping wet) so we are investing in some private lessons over the next few months with a photographer to teach him how to use his camera to its best ability. Thinking maybe dad could rent a larger zoom for HIS camera for the closer up photos though...

What a marvelous review! I am enjoying the adventure as I read along with the rest, and you have increased the anticipation for our trip next August as we go a little nuts! We are taking the Coral north from Vancouver, a week in Denali/Anchorage and then the Star south back to Vancouver. After all, a week is never really enough time for Alaska, right? And since we have waited this long (celebrating a combination of our 35th anniversary and our special needs son's 21st birthday) we may as well do it up right! Loving your photos and video's, I will have to show them to my son, as he is my photographer wanna be. We live in Idaho, and photographing wildlife IN the wild instead of zoo's is one of his dreams. What better place than Alaska. Thank you for sharing such an in depth view!

Thank you for bringing this up. While we aren't going to be doing that on our trip NEXT year, we are certainly hoping to at some point in the future. We have a great CSW that works with our adult autistic son but hadn't quite figured out the best way to deal with the stateroom situation (we could go with 2 2-person staterooms, one handicapped accessible though, one for DH and son and one for the CSW and I, thus avoiding the single occupancy hit.... she is a dear friend as well as worker for my son and I don't think would have any issues with that). We have a budget through health and welfare for him and she would be paid for her time spent with him through that budget, so if we covered the price of the cruise and excursions and she covered her own expenses that seems reasonable. AND it would allow us to have some free time on our own as well... after so many years that might be kind of nice ;)

Special needs at sea is a rental company (you need to supply them with a prescription) and they will deliver the concentrator to your stateroom. It still would not cover you for your flight if you need it when you fly (I would still recommend checking with your physician on that... airlines generally only pressurize their cabins to the equivalent of 8,000-10,000 feet, kind of like being in the highest mountains of Colorado.... I know my son who does well at 2800 feet during the day DEFINITELY requires O2 any higher than 4500 ft).

http://www.specialneedsatsea.com

I have just been put on oxygen at night only. Found this thread and wonder if anyone can help this complete novice with ways to deal with this issue. Are oxygen concentrators available for rent on ships or would it be better to purchase a smaller more portable device than the monster that sits in my bedroom. Also what about power source since in my experience there are very few outlets on the ships and they seem to frown on extension chords.

 

Don't want to give up cruising, so any advice/suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Thanks

You should be able to get a loaner (or rental) portable oxygen concentrator from the company that supplies your concentrator at home that you can take on the cruise. The company that provides my son's large monster concentrator just loans us a portable travel concentrator (his night time rate is 1-2 liters continuous because he is on bipap as well) along with several batteries for the machine, just in case of power failure or if we need it during the day when it isnt plugged in. It is about the size of a lunch size igloo cooler... and comes with its own wheels for portability. We typically talk to our Durable Medical Equipment (DME) provider a few months ahead of time, just so that they have his name on their travel sheet for the loaner for the correct machine. Some machines do not do continuous, others have limits as to how high they go continuous. You can usually use these on the airplanes as well, something else you will need to tell your supplier, since you MAY need to use it in flight as well on the way to the cruise ship (talk to your physician to see if he/she thinks that is a possibility since you are needing to use O2 at night).

As for a power source, We have been told to tell the special needs people at the cruise line about our special needs since we too will require extra outlets. (oxygen, bipap, feeding pumps, scooter charging, etc). We plan on picking up a couple of extra outlets of the "safe" kind, non-surge protected. (last time we cruised this wasn't an issue).

Happy Cruising!

On our first cruises back in 2007-2008 we DID take the tanks/bottles of gas O2 for our son. It was a PAIN, although medical kept them for us so we didnt have to have them in our stateroom. We packed them in large containers and had them labeled specially... but like I said, that was many years ago, before such nice portable solutions were available. We hauled them with us from Idaho in our car (big beast of a van!) so we didnt deal with any rentals at the port city.

great information! I am in process of looking for appropriate sized luggage for packing our supplies that it is isnt horrible to organize and pack. I think I may need to get some new suitcases, most of what we have is one HUGE suitcase and 3 carry on size plus a few duffle types. We normally travel by car so we carry our bags ourselves in and out of hotels... I am thinking a heavy duty wheeled box with a lid I can lock on might be worthwhile if I can find one for some of the supplies that get loaded on and off the bus/ship? (especially for the feeding cartons).

We are cruising from Vancouver TO Whittier/then land tour, a few extra days in Anchorage then cruising back from Whittier to Vancouver. I think to do it right we need to bring the first 2 weeks with us on the first cruise up, and ship the 3rd week to our hotel in Anchorage before we leave so we know it got there.

Thanks for the information!

While we havnt yet cruised with the portable concentrator, we have driven on various other trips with it for my son. He is on continuous rather than "puff", so we need to take several batteries with us when we travel so as to make sure he has enough coverage when the batteries die. For us it has worked tremendously well, we just have to remember to get up during the night to change out the batteries as they recharge during the night (he needs continuous because he also uses it with his bipap machine). Our home oxygen company provides us with the Simply Go by respironics at no extra charge for travel. It comes with a little cart for wheeling it around, or a back pack so it can be carried on its own. Not too heavy, though my husband does carry it for our son because he is only 88-90 pounds and is already hauling his tube feeds on his back if the O2 is needed during the day (higher elevations or when not feeling well). Hope that helps a little?

Similar question... we aren't traveling until August of 2017, but will have our car and need to park it for 3 weeks while we cruise/land tour/return cruise. Do any of the hotels have a parking package available for such a long time, or would we better off just parking at the terminal by the ships? (we will have a LOT of luggage due to our son's medical needs, plus his scooter, so would likely have my husband drop off my son and I with our gear and then go park wherever we ended up).