Raeofsunshinenz

18 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

The kitchen for the main restaurant and the burger one is shared - they back to each other... What I am not sure of is if you can sit in the main restaurant and get a burger for your child...?  Perhaps.

 

 

Yes I was waiting to see if we either do that, eat at different times, or send her off to eat on her own if she wants to go to the burger place!  I dunno... i guess we figure it out when we are there.  I'm sure it will work out.    Can you get a shake any time, or only if you choose that place to eat at and then have one with your meal?

(and yes hopefully no injuries or sickness...)

thank you.  that information is all so helpful.  And yes I knew it was 500, and chose Hurtigruten as happy with 1 landing a day and being on a ballot for paid activities.  I weighed up costs, package deals, and so on with this information and decided as weather means there are no guarantees with any company, then this was a good middle ground.  

I have no desire to eat at the burger place - i'm looking forward to some nice meals.  But our 15 year old is likely to be keen, so just checking how it works!  

I'm yet to find determine exactly what sea sick pills i can get here, but the one I often see mentioned on Antartica travel pages is not available here, so good to know what's on the ship.  we'll bring something ourselves too, but good to have options.  

I'm pretty excited about it all, and am definitely a go-with-the-flow type of person, but this trip is definitely a bit outside my normal travel comfort zone.  It's kind of more my dream than my husband and daughter, so kinda want to be able to reassure them of what i'm getting them into!  

thanks for the detailed review.  I really enjoyed reading it, as our trip is scheduled for almost exactly a year after yours - same ship.  We leave NZ on the 31st of Dec this year (and I think the boat sets off on the 2nd of Jan).  Nothing you have said surprises me, so I feel my thorough research has set me on the right track.  I even had a feeling that transfer was going to be pretty early... but good to know an estimated possible time!  We are staying at the Hilton Buenos Aires, which is the hotel Hurtigruten organised, but I see our info does mention a group bus transfer, so I guess they use more than 1 hotel. 

I have a few questions building up and so might bombard you with a few - i hope that's ok!  Sorry if I missed this info, but how many were on your cruise - the full 500, or a few less?  And I know you say they didn't do the polar plunge, but do you know if it's a jump into the water with Hurtigruten, or a run from shore?  The info I keep finding, seems to show a shore run.  I think if i do it, it would have to be a jump that I can't turn back from!  The burger place you mentioned - are they the one that do milk shakes also?  This doesn't cost extra right?  Were the hot tubs in use much, or do they close these down in rough weather.  And I've heard the ship can provide good sea sickness meds - do these cost?  thanks in advance! 

thank  you so much for that informative and helpful reply.  My ultimate dream would be to be on the Jan 10th (2024) sailing for the 10 night trip.  There's lots to work through before then, including having my husband more on board with the idea, but those in depth answers really help clarify some things. Really appreciated.  

thanks yes and that is what i gather would happen on a 200 person (or less) ship.  And I've already trawled through the options and picked out what ships I'd sail on if that were an option... but dreams are free.  And 3 people travelling to Antartica on one budget is sadly not free!  So looking at whether i'd be happy on a bigger ship.   

After researching Antartica expedition cruises thoroughly over the last year or so, I am starting to swing back towards doing a highlights trip on the Fridtjof Nansen.  As much as I'd love to do a 200 person ship, because I'd be travelling with my husband who would happily be more ship based and not be too fussed with amount of time on land, plus our daughter (who'll be about 15 by the time we go) which means we'll be budgeting for 3 people which can bump up costs... I think this ship would be a great compromise on what will suit everyone.  And with package deals inc flights from New Zealand, internal flights, hotels all sorted... it would give me a bit of piece of mind of everything being covered and fitting together.  

So a couple of things I wish to clarify to see if my research and trawling of message boards is correct:  Weather permitting, would we expect to have say 2 landing stops a day so with 1 group on land each time, 1 group cruising on boats... then we might get to go on either land or the boats most days once?  Or realistically (even if weather is amazing), should we expect to only to touch land once or twice over the 5 (ish) days we are not sailing the Drake?  I know on the smaller ships we'd be either cruising or on land twice a day if the weather permits, so just wondering how it compares.  

I gather they don't do a polar plunge as such?  Or is there a run-from-land 'plunge' usually organised?  I gather camping is a ballot, so very small chance of getting lucky?  30?? out of 500???

I gather food is covered, plus drinks during meals.  Are there snacks, and if we needed to eat, could we get something any time - or we'd need to take a decent amount of snacks just in case?  (and yes this is medically related - not just that we are hungry people!)

And in case anyone knows covid current rules - my worst fear is getting half way across the world and failing a covid test just as boarding...  so as much as I'd love to go Jan  2024 (i think i saw something about discounts for 15yrs and under so this would be our last chance), does anyone have a crystal ball on this???  but no seriously - what are current rules around testing, masks etc (realistically in practice, rather than just what i read on their site)

Any other thoughts appreciated too.  thanks in advance.  

We are doing an alaska cruise followed by the rocky mountaineer in about 6 weeks.  also a trip of a lifetime for us.  I'm not sure my answer will help as we chose HAL (which isn't on your list) - mostly because it was important we leave from and return to vancouver (as direct flights from nz, rocky mountaineer leaving from here too, and less open sea sailing.)  We ended up narrowing it down to the one option which worked in well with the mountaineer and school holiday dates, although it's not a package deal - we booked individually.  We do tracey arm and hubbard, and shore times seem to work with what we want to do.  

If i had to choose one of the above, I think i'd choose the one with skagway as the excursion we are most looking forward to is the grizzly bear ziplining there.  But you may have other criteria!  Good luck deciding - we personally found out of all the options, it kind of came down to one cruise due to timing and start/finishing port.  It probably wasn't our top pick of ship initially but hopefully it all works out for us! 

thanks everyone - lots of good things to think about.  In regards to some - we will hopefully have her medical ID bracelet sorted before we leave (we are from NZ so will go through the appropriate channels here).  We are told that it's not so much about restricting foods these days, but managing what she eats and figuring out insulin doses from there.  We have so much to learn as are still on daily phone calls from our diabetes team and they decide the doses....we have 6 weeks to figure it out ourselves!  

As we're there in peak season i hear the kids club is usually a bit fuller but we'll figure it out.  We're doing all shore tours etc together so we won't be leaving her in there for long periods on port days or anything.  We've booked a heli tour/dog sledding from skagway and we've been in touch with them to check out the no-bags policy properly.  And yes, there is no bags allowed, but as long as all her supplies fit in our pockets then we'll be fine!  

I'm thinking one key thing is that once she's had insulin then we need to make sure she eats her meal fairly quickly - we might have to figure this out with wait times with ordering.  But apart from that, we plan to let her eat what she likes (within reason) as long as she sticks to meal times rather than grazing all day.  

We are booked to do a 7 day cruise around alaska in july, but have recently learned our 10 year old has type 1 diabetes.  Obviously there is a whole lot we need to now consider with our travel (and the diabetes team are working with us to be able to still do the trip and manage things like time differences, food vs insulin etc) but I'm wondering if anyone had any advice in regards to our cruise.  Specifically are there any restrictions around the kids club?  Does anyone know what system is used to be able to contact parents asap if our daughter needs us in kids club?  I did a search on the boards and I read that a sharps container can be supplied... i think?  but we might take our own as we'll need it in the hotel prior and during the rest of our trip.  Is there anything else I may not have thought of?  Any advice?  And yes luckily our travel insurance was already in place when we found out and i've been in touch with them to check all ok from them in regards to being able to travel.  

9 hours ago, disneyochem said:

My girls were 10 and 12 on their first Alaskan Cruise, and  12 and 14 on the second one.  Some of the excursions they still talk about (almost 10 years later): dog sledding and PUPPIES(!!!), the Lumberjack Show, ziplining, and panning for gold.  We regularly visit National parks so they also loved the Junior Ranger program at Mendenhall and Skagway.  We also did a lot of hiking just to get some exercise off the ship.

 

what they didn’t enjoy and I regret paying for is the train ride—both of them fell asleep and missed all the great scenery!  

I'm so pleased to hear this seeing it is exactly what we've booked for our trip!  

Our family (a lot smaller only 2 adults and a 10 year old) are doing same stops in july.  We booked the ziplining in skagway (grizzly falls i think it's called) as it looks great for whole family and is one of the less strenuous ones from what i can see - in regards to lots of walking anyway.  

Also booked the helicopter tour up to glacier and dog sledding camp but of course that works out so much cheaper for a family of 3 than a family of 7... plus I think the helicopters only take 6 at a time?

Juneau - gold panning and salmon bake because our 10 year old really wants to do the gold panning and I'm keen on the salmon!  Ketchikan - starting to look at cheaper options so probably the lumberjack show and also i believe it's just nice to walk around there - i've read there's a rainbird trail about 20 mins from cruise dock.  I'll investigate that more closer to the time.  

Anyway i guess it depends on your interests... there's so much to pick from, but we figure we can't do everything... this time anyway!  

we will be in skagway with a 10 year old in July and we booked the grizzly bear ziplining which looks great for all ages, gets great reviews, but doesn't involve strenuous walking uphill as much as other zipline options i looked at.  We've also booked the helicopter tour to glacier and dog sled camp, but as it's so weather dependant, we'll try not to be disappointed if it doesn't go ahead.  

Re the salmon bake, we've booked the gold panning and salmon bake from juneau but our 10 year old is not at all keen on salmon.... but i've heard there's plenty of other things there... maybe i can entice her to try some reindeer sausage if that's an option...

Yes I think we've come to the conclusion that gold panning after tracey arm won't work.  So we've decided to do the salmon bake and gold panning tour ... and next time (here's hoping!) when it's maybe just hubby and I, then we can do different things.  That plus heli/dog sledding plus ziplining is all locked in.  

Love the suggestions just above - I haven't checked all the links yet, but I will later tonight.  I'm trying to soak up as much info as I can as we build up to the excitement of the trip 🙂  

thanks for everyone's help.  We've decided we won't have time for whale watching at this stage ... hoping to do a trip back home early next year that might give us a chance to whale spot!  I mean it would be lovely to do in alaska too...but it's trying to get a good mix of activities that give us a taste of a few things special to alaska ...    If our heli tour is cancelled though, one back up option is whale watching for sure.  It would be amazing.  

The gold panning option I saw was only 2pm and 4pm so I'll look further into that to see if there's something later. Or out of Vancouver but our time there is mostly accounted for now. It would be great if there was another option. 

We are on the niew Amsterdam and I thought we just get close enough to Tracy Arm to let people onto the smaller boat if they're doing the tour. I'm only assuming... I don't really know how it works and I have no comprehension what this area of Alaska is like.  I'm at work but might browse the itinerary tonight and see what I can figure out.

Our helicopter tour will be morning in skagway and we are ziplining all afternoon. That's locked in. So it's really just figuring Juneau out. We are docked 1pm till 10pm. 

Thanks for all your help. I might go back and see what other gold mining options there are. 

Oh and yes to see Tracey Arm properly, we need to do the add on tour. 

It's the salmon bake with the gold panning together... And it's the gold panning that our daughter really wants to do... And I've just presented both options and her eyes lit up at both but mostly doesn't want to miss gold panning. 

Decisions decisions! 

Thanks for your help. Yes I'm guessing we won't need much cash but I'll get more than we need and use the rest on our tab once we've said goodbye to the last port so that will take the pressure off trying to figure out exactly how much we need 😊 ... I don't really want to be going to get more out over there. I'd rather too much than too little. 

The Tracy Arm excursion looks amazing. I am worried re timing. Maybe we should do that instead of the salmon bake which is not paid for yet. A few things for us to think about over next day or so before finalising that part of our booking.

So our family of 3 (we have a 10 year old) have booked our first alaska cruise for this july (round trip from vancouver on HAL).  I've been pouring over the boards and finding out as much as I can, but it looks like we are doing the salmon bake/gold mining in Juneau, the heli tour with dog sledding in Skagway (fingers crossed for good weather!) and later on the grizzly bear ziplining.  Couple of questions - I'm finding it a bit hard to plan how much US cash to take for on shore - tipping, bites to eat etc.  If we take too much, can we chuck it on our ship tab towards the end (before the rest is charged to our CC)?  As we won't need it anymore once off the ship as are in Canada for the rest of our holiday.  And the Tracy Arm tour that's optional - if we take that, are we likely to get back in time to do the gold panning and salmon thing at 4pm.  (tour says approx 6 hours from 9.15am)  Or could we not really fit in both?  Do many kids do it?  And with stopping at glacier bay - will some stuff be a bit duplicated?  I love the idea of seeing the seals and ice floats and so on....  but just not sure if I can justify the extra money and time on that tour.  It sounds amazing though....