Cruising with twenty-somethings

[Rruchty]

My husband and I have cruised several times to Mexico and the Caribbean. We are planning to take his 26 and 24 year old sons and their wives on a cruise to Alaska, as they are not real "sun" people. I am afraid we will all get bored unless we spend lots of money on excursions in each port and am not sure what we will do while on the ship. Since we are footing the bill for the cruise, and they don't have alot of money to spend, I am a little (or a lot) skeptical that this is the right trip for us.

 

Can anyone put my mind at ease, or offer suggestions??

 

Thanks:confused:

[Budget Queen]

These couples are adults, don't they have any comment??? Are they stating they are going to be bored??

 

If your money is limited, give them the dollar amount of what you are "footing", then direct them to do their homework and decide what they wish to do with their time.

 

It is a mistake to think you all are going to be doing all the port touring together anyway. Split up according to interests. There is a lot of stuff to do in all price ranges.

 

Request visitor guides of each port, head to your library and take out Alaska travel books. Find out about the ports.

 

Putting your "mind at ease" isn't something I'm going to do or answer. The first thing you should have done, is, to discuss this cruise choice directly with them, and make sure they want to go?

[gwyns]

hi Rruchty,

like you we are treating all our twenty something children and partners to an Alaskan cruise - partly to get some family bonding time and also to give them a nice treat they could not afford themselves. Hopefully they will appreciate the thought and expense you have put it into! Have them research the ports and make their own low cost/no cost choices about how they spend their time. The only thing we are asking of ours is that they have dinner with us each night. We may treat them to one shore excursion but anything else they can save for themselves. Alchohol will also be on their dime, except maybe for some wine at dinner. Have fun!

[tetleytea]

Ketchikan has the best shopping and there's a walking tour you can do for free, Skagway you can rent a rental car to the Yukon for next to free, and Juneau taking the blue bus to Mendenhall glacier is pretty close to free. You can all watch for wildlife pretty much wherever you go. There's a photo shot at every turn. Noooooo issue with being bored. I know what it's like being cooped up on a ship in the Caribbean, poor entertainment, but this is not that.

 

A really cool thing we did in our 20's when we had more time than money: a scavenger hunt. The self-named "cruise shopping director" on the cruise ship sells these coupon books for like $10 or $20 with a bunch of free or $3/$5/$10 trinkets, plus there are nice Destination Alaska coupon books that will probably be available before you board. $2 T-shirts. Run around to all the shops, grab all the free stuff, and buy up all the cheap T-shirts and Ulu knives, etc.. Loads of fun. It's an Alaska scavenger hunt, plain and simple. And then you get to take all the souvenirs home with you. I say this as I drink gatorade out of my $1.50 Inside Passage mug.

 

And budget room in your luggage for all those souvenirs! We had the pleasure of scavenger-hunting down the Juneau Post Office. $30 shipping, and we ended up making it back home before our souvenirs did.