knorrisb07

we took 10x42 ZRS binoculars for the last several trips for Alaska cruise. They work well for both low light and rainy conditions.

No musical instruments? Ok, I will leave my Piano at home then..:D

not rushed at all. They have programs tailored for both early dinning and late dinning. So your schedule always works fine

We are booked on a 13 day cruisetour the of May 2015 and just wondering if binoculars are a must? If so do you have any recommendations. Something reasonable in price.

Both my wife and I enjoy birding. So we have some binoculars to take along during the last several Alaska trips. In my opinion' date=' although it is not a must (many people are perfectly happy by just enjoy the shopping at the ports:)), it will greatly enhanced your experiene if you are into nature and wildlife. We use Swarovski EL and a Zen-Ray PRIME binoculars. They are one of the best for what we use for birding. But if you just use occasionally for the trip, it is probably not worthy spending so much money on those expensive binoculars. We did get some couple of inexpensive pairs for our parents to use when they came with us a few years ago. One of them is Leupold Pinnacle and the other one is Zen-Ray VISTA. I am impressed how well they are built, considering they are less than 1/10 of my Swaro binos. I think Zen-Ray had a $15 coupon on their binoculars (the code was SAVE15, not sure if it still works).

Another to consider is to get binoculars that is waterproof. The lens needs to be fully multi-coated so it is bright enough even during the early morning or late evening hours.

when we went in September, there was still iceberg floating in the lake in front of the glacier

we enjoyed it too during our port of call at Skagway.

thanks for sharing

I got my in-laws two pairs of 8x32 ZRS before their Alaska cruise in May. They love them. It is feather weight at 16oz. It is almost as bright as my other larger binoculars. I agreed with other posters. You need to make sure they are waterproof and fogproof

we saw about 50 whales from the ship. Make sure you have your binoculars ready while out on the deck or doing something else. They can show up any time.

I found this write-up very useful.

My personal experience is not to push your eye socket into the binoculars eyecups. It will cause blackout. I often rested my eyebrow on the upper rim of the eyecup and leave some space between the lower rim of the eyecup and my face to allow air to flow through. Works out for me.

For Alaska cruise, binoculars can come really handy while doing whale watching from the cruiseship or during the inland excursion. We have been on multiple Alaska cruises in the last few years. We learnt our lessons and also enjoyed the scenary very much.

Don't take binoculars smaller than 30mm or larger than 50mm. They are either too small to bring enough light or too big to carry around. Mid-size 32mm to fullsize 42mm is what you need to bring. Also, I prefer roof prism binoculars (with straight line) over Porro binoculars (zigzag shaped) as they typically have better waterproofing capabilities. For magnification power, I prefer either 8x or 10x. Definitely do not get those higher power binoculars, which are also cheaply made. Also I found the zoom binoculars are mostly useless.

We currently use a pair of Swarovision 8.5x42. But it is a very expensive binoculars. Unless you plan to use it every weekend for birding, it's not worthy it. We also have a pair of Zen-Ray Summit 10x42 and a pair of Redfield Rebel 8x42. Both are excellent binoculars for the money. The summit will probably do 95% of what my Swaro binos does. But I cannot live without getting the other 5%.

Another thing to consider is to make sure the binoculars are truly waterproof, which can be immersed in the water. If it says weather proof, it is not waterproof, moisture or water will find its way into the binoculars and cause internal fogging. That will completely destroy the binoculars.

Lastly, read carefully on the coating description. The quality of the anti-reflection coating will make a huge difference between two apparently similar binoculars. The binoculars need to be fully multi-coated. It means every glass surface has multiple layer AR coating. Some high end binoculars like Swarovision also uses dielectric mirror coating to improve the brightness. Since most of the animals come out in the morning and evening, a good pair of binoculars that can bring in more light is essential.

Happy cruising.

We have been to Alaska several times. One thing that is guaranteed in Alaska is rain. We watched whales from the cruise ship using our binoculars. The waterproofing is a must. Once water gets into the binoculars, they will form internal fogging inside the binoculars. This will make the binoculars useless. We use 8x42 waterproof binoculars.

very nice review. cannot wait to get back to Alaska again.

Anyone have comments on the binoculars above? Thanks!

I had SUMMIT binoculars for several years. Prior to that, I bought Bushnell Elite for $560. In my opinion, it is better than the Elite, which I ended up selling it after the bushnell started fogging up.

A good SLR camera with both wide angle and telephoto zoom lenses

A pair of waterproof binoculars

rain gears

gloves

I'm not going to Alaska, but wanted some for some upcoming cruises.

 

I went to Brookstone's in the mall today and caught a sale on their brand.

Lightweight 10x25

 

Will these be okay for scanning the shoreline and looking at wildlife close to the ship?

10x25 is usable. But unless you spend up to $600 on those compact binoculars, most of them have dim and unstable image.

If on a budget, I would rather stick with an inexpensive 8x42/10x42 fullsize waterproof binoculars

Thanks for the advice. I got a pair of ZRS HD and a pair of VISTA so we both can carry a pair during our cruise.

who gets to use ZRS HD?:D;)

I have been thinking about getting the 2010 VISTA. Is ZRS HD significantly better than VISTA to justify the extra $70? Thanks.

I bought VISTA so my kids can use them during our trip. It's more than enough for them. I am very picky on binoculars that I don't mind spending $600 on a pair of Bushnell Elite binoculars. To my eyes, the ZRS HD is still a better binoculars, which is worthy that extra cost. But that's very subjective.

I currently have Bushnell Elite2, ZRS HD, and ZEN ED. They are all 8x. The ZRS HD is optically superior to much more expensive Elite. It's noticeably brighter than Elite. I have hard time to figure out the difference between ZRS and ZEN. If I were you, I would get both and see which one works better since everyone sees things differently.

Ok, i found this thread very interesting....my friend and I are planning our cruise to Alaska for May 2012....binoculars are something i know absolutely NOTHING about! :o I owned a small pair a few years ago, but could never really figure out how to use them, lol....

well, if watching marine and wild animals are your priority for Alaska cruise(which is ours), a pair of binoculars will be very useful. A lot of cruisers (guess most of them are not on the CC) will never venture beyond the gift shops that are dotted near the dock.

There is too much motion on a ship to use a spotting scope and really enjoy the scenery. My advice with binoculars for a cruise is stick with something in the 7X or 8X range, this is the marine standard and takes the motion of the ship out of the equation.

very good advice. staying with 8x is much preferred for ship and 10x for inland

I got their 8x43 ZEN ED binoculars for slightly over $350. I am very impressed by how good the optics is. It seems many people like their new VISTA for about $130. Although I haven't tried those yet, I think the VISTA should be very good judging from the quality of other binoculars they build.

definitely a great suggestion. You don't want to re-do everything many times over because of bad note-keeping.

which cruiseline offers trips to Galapagos? I saw one episode on Discovery Channel and got really intrigued by this island. Thanks